23. What is the unity that exists between the Old and the New Testaments?

23. What is the unity that exists between the Old and the New Testaments?

(Comp 23) Scripture is one insofar as the Word of God is one. God’s plan of salvation is one, and the divine inspiration of both Testaments is one. The Old Testament prepares for the New and the New Testament fulfills the Old; the two shed light on each other.

“In Brief”

(CCC 140) The unity of the two Testaments proceeds from the unity of God's plan and his Revelation. The Old Testament prepares for the New and the New Testament fulfils the Old; the two shed light on each other; both are true Word of God.

To deepen and explain

(CCC 128) The Church, as early as apostolic times (Cf. 1 Cor 10:6, 11; Heb 10:1; l Pt 3:21), and then constantly in her Tradition, has illuminated the unity of the divine plan in the two Testaments through typology, which discerns in God's works of the Old Covenant prefigurations of what he accomplished in the fullness of time in the person of his incarnate Son. (CCC 130) Typology indicates the dynamic movement toward the fulfilment of the divine plan when "God [will] be everything to everyone" (1 Cor 15:28). Nor do the calling of the patriarchs and the exodus from Egypt, for example, lose their own value in God's plan, from the mere fact that they were intermediate stages.

On reflection

(CCC 129) Christians therefore read the Old Testament in the light of Christ crucified and risen. Such typological reading discloses the inexhaustible content of the Old Testament; but it must not make us forget that the Old Testament retains its own intrinsic value as Revelation reaffirmed by our Lord himself (Cf. Mk 12:29-31). Besides, the New Testament has to be read in the light of the Old. Early Christian catechesis made constant use of the Old Testament (Cf. 1 Cor 5:6-8; 10:1-11). As an old saying put it, the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New (Cf. St. Augustine, Quaest. in Hept. 2, 73: PL 34, 623; cf. DV 16).

(Next question: What role does Sacred Scripture play in the life of the Church?)