One of the most dramatic episodes in the entirety of the Hebrew scriptures is the crossing of the Red Sea. Shortly after the first Passover, the first Pascha, the people of nascent Israel escaped the wrath of Pharaoh and his armies through the separated waters of the sea. After the Israelites had passed through on the dry ground, the waters closed to cover and destroy the Egyptian charioteers. This scene has been dramatized in films both live-action and animated. It has been depicted in a variety of ways artistically beyond its traditional iconography. The song of victory sung by the Israelites, recorded in Exodus 15, is the first Ode of the Canon, traditionally sung in the context of matins and…
In understanding the portrait of the Messiah presented in the Hebrew Scriptures as understood in the first century, the time of the apostles, Psalm 110/109 looms large. This Psalm is, in fact, the most cited Old Testament text in the New Testament. It encapsulates themes and images found predominately in the Torah and developed within the prophets to give a picture of the Christ, the Anointed One, who will come into the world and what it is which he will accomplish. The core thesis of Christianity, and of all of the New Testament documents, is that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Holy One of God. It, therefore, makes perfect sense that applying the imagery of this Psalm to…
Even a passing familiarity with a Christian reading of the Old Testament reveals a series of prophetic elements that, from that Christian reading, point to fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ. These prophetic elements, however, often seem disparate and scattered. There are prophecies of the defeat of death, the downfall of the devil, the restoration of the nations, the overcoming of sin, a prophet like Moses, God’s arising to judge the earth, and countless others of more or less detail. By the time period reflected by the Gospels and other New Testament writings, however, all of these promises seem to have coalesced around the person of the coming Messiah or Christ. Christ’s identity as the Messiah is the explicit…
