Old Testament and the CENI Hermeneutic

Making use of the other 2/3 of the Bible

One of the difficulties in applying the Bible to the issues of day-to-day life is that the New Testament doesn’t always have something to say on the matter.

Due to the genres it contains, there is not much room for the kind of stories which show us how to apply the principles we learn from God’s commandments.

However, the Old Testament (OT) and its heavy use of narrative has a lot to offer on this front. We read of real people, leading real lives, making decisions both good and bad.

We also see what God blessed and punished. We see His character come through in what He commanded and expected of His people. Even in the Mosaic Law we can learn all kinds of things about Who God is and what matters to Him.

The problem is, these things are difficult to square with the command-example-necessary inference hermeneutic we employ in the churches of Christ.

OT commands aren’t expressly binding. OT examples are informative but also can’t always be directly bound. And, OT necessary inferences can be even more difficult to parse out than their New Testament counterparts.

You’ll often hear it said that an OT concept can’t be applied unless it was specifically reiterated in some form in the New Testament. Occasionally a Proverb will be made an exception, but generally speaking, much of the OT is considered a dead letter. The most we can do with it is spiritualize it and allegorize it.

For example, of the 10 Commandments you can find all of them brought forward except “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy,” so we interpret that one as unnecessary. Stories like David and Goliath are only allowed to be applied as spiritual allegory. The messages from the prophets are helpful, but undergo cultural translation.

In some ways it’s a useful approach, as we can nearly all agree numerous Mosaic statutes weren’t meant to be brought into the church.

However, a strict adherence to this principle makes us miss out on a lot of the usefulness of the OT.

When Paul said the Scriptures were profitable for teaching, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting, he was directly talking about the OT. Timothy was to set his people on the right path by use of Genesis-Malachi. Though we are blessed to have the New Testament and will continue to rely on it heavily, we should be able to do the same teaching from the OT that Timothy was expected to do.

If you’ve read here for any length of time, you’ve seen ways I’ve leaned on the OT to argue from principles therein, such as with the command to be fruitful and multiply. But thanks to our hermeneutical principles, I’ve had people tell me that that particular command has no relevance to us since it was not reiterated in the New Testament. That it was a factor in both creation and the new beginning under Noah is irrelevant, from that standpoint.

This is the kind of issue created by failing to fully factor the OT into our hermeneutic. Just shrugging our shoulders at OT texts and saying “meh, doesn’t apply anymore” fails to figure out just why a command or example was given and what we can learn from it.

To get specific, let’s consider another example: can a Christian marry a non-Christian?

This discussion typically focuses on 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, which introduces the idea of being “unequally yoked” (KJV) with unbelievers. In some senses it seems pretty clearly to be talking about close relationships, including marriage. However, contextually Paul is not discussing marriage. So, there has long been debate as to how exactly to apply this section.

But, as part of his teaching, Paul draws on OT conceptions of Israel’s mandate to be holy and distinct from the people groups around them (6:6-18). One of the most important ways they were to do that was by abstaining from intermarriage with the pagan peoples around them (Deuteronomy 7:1-4, Joshua 23:11-13).

Additionally, Abraham sent his servant on a long journey specifically to ensure Isaac’s bride would come from their own people and not from the people around them (Genesis 24:1-4). Isaac’s son Esau ashamed his parents by ignoring this principle (Genesis 26:34-35, 28:6-9). It’s clear the family of Abraham knew the importance of keeping their lineage in the Lord through God-honoring marriages.

On the flip side, we see just how much wickedness was introduced by men like Solomon and Ahab, whose wives served foreign gods. Israel suffered greatly due to their poor choices.

Putting all of this together, the principle we can take away is this: God places critical importance on choosing a spouse who is united with you in dedication to Him. Doing otherwise is highly dangerous to your own faith and to that of your children, grandchildren, and so forth.

Can we bind this principle and say someone is sinning if they violate it? Maybe, maybe not. Can we teach the principle as true and important? Not only can we; we should.

And that’s the real issue in this—we get so hung up on whether our hermeneutic allows us to bind the OT that we shield ourselves from accepting its blatantly obvious truths. This is but one of countless examples which can be mined from the Bible’s first 2/3.

Our goal as Christians in all things should be to “strive to learn what is pleasing to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:10) and the OT is the best resource we have for building that discernment in the practical matters. Yes, we will typically have to do a bit more digging to find the principles underneath the commands, but that doesn’t mean we should abandon the project.

If a principle was displeasing to Him then, chances are it’s displeasing to Him now, and vice versa. Become a diligent student of the Old Testament if you want to know your God better.

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Other content:

It’s women’s roles week on Think Deeper Podcast. You’ll want to catch this one especially. Listen here

And, I went on Marco Arroyo’s “In Between Sundays” show where we talked about Christian cultural engagement and broke down some clips of actors talking about bringing their faith into their work. He’s doing great work—go subscribe!