“For only in Christ is there removed not the reading of the Old Testament, which keeps hidden the strength of grace, but the veil by which it is hidden.”

-St. Augustine

On the road to Damascus Saul finds a new center for all of life. This crucified and risen Jesus is not just another part of creation. He’s the very heart of all creation. The life of Jesus flows in and through all things that exist. He is all and in all (Col. 3:11).

This new center forces Saul to reorient everything he knows around it. And this includes the Scriptures.

Think of Saul’s resume. He is trained as a pharisaical scholar in the Scriptures under the Rabbi Gamaliel. Paul knew the Law and the Prophets by heart; he knew them better than any of us could ever hope to.

And yet… Did Saul’s knowledge of Scripture lead him to Jesus? No. In fact, his deep knowledge of Scripture led him to persecute Jesus.

On the road to Damascus Paul does not leave the Scriptures behind, but he does drastically change the way he reads them. And his primary way of speaking about this is as an “apocalypse” or revelation. “Apocalypse” literally means “to unveil.”

He’s reading the same texts he’s always read, but they are now unveiled—and unveiled by the crucified and risen Jesus of Nazareth. Because he is the heart of the Scriptures, when they are unveiled, it is the face of Jesus that Paul sees. As Jesus tells the religious leaders in John 5:39 “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, but they testify concerning me.”

And as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3 the Scriptures are veiled until we turn to face the Lord Jesus. In other words, the Scriptures are cryptic in some way. They are not immediately accessible. They must be unveiled. As Paul might have put it: “The Scriptures weren’t talking about what I thought they were talking about.”

We have to let that sink in. We’ve too often been taught that the Scriptures function like an encyclopedia of free floating factoids. Look up a verse, read it, apply it, and away we go. But these texts led Paul to persecute Jesus. We can’t forget that. The Scriptures must be unveiled by the cross of Christ. He is their true meaning even when he seems not to be.

Irenaeus, in the second century, compares the scriptures to a field with a treasure buried in it:

If anyone, therefore, reads the Scriptures this way, he will find in them the Word concerning Christ, and a foreshadowing of the new calling. For Christ is the “treasure which was hidden in the field” [Matt 13:44], that is, in this world – for “the field is the world” [Matt 13:38] – [a treasure] hidden in the Scriptures, for he was indicated by means of types and parables, which could not be understood by men prior to the consummation of those things which had been predicted, that is, the advent of the Lord. And therefore it was said to Daniel the prophet, “Shut up the words, and seal the book, until the time of the consummation, until many learn and knowledge abounds…[Dan 12:4, 7]. And Jeremiah also says, “In the last days they shall understand these things” [Jer 23:20]. For every prophecy, before its fulfilment, is nothing but an enigma and ambiguity to men; but when the time has arrived, and the prediction has come to pass, then it has an exact exposition. And for this reason, when at this present time the Law is read by the Jews, it is like a myth, for they do not possess the explanation of all things which pertain to the human advent of the Son of God; but when it is read by Christians, it is a treasure, hid in a field, but brought to light by the cross of Christ, and explained, both enriching the understanding of men, and showing forth the wisdom of God.

Christ and Him crucified is the treasure hidden in the field of the Scriptures. It takes digging. This was the apocalypse Paul encountered: the buried treasure had actually come to find him. And so he confessed, “Christ is in God!” But not before he writes, “And we are in Christ.”

If we are truly united to Christ as his body, then when we find Christ in Scripture, we also find ourselves right there along with him. Because Christ is not Christ without his body.

As Hans Boersma writes, “If Christ is the subject matter [of all Scripture] and you are in him, then you are there, along with the treasure itself…Stick to the text, look for Christ—don’t stop digging, for the treasure is there. You’ll discover you’re one of its gems.”

Diagram: This diagram is from Fr. John Behr on the relationship between the Old and New Testament. The cross has always been the center—the true meaning—of the Old Testament. The New Testament does not “add” anything “new” to the Law and the Prophets. Rather it provides a clarifying “image.” It focuses our attention on the cross.

Maximus the Confessor (6th century) explains the relationship between the Old and New Testament by using the language of Hebrews 10:1: “For ‘shadow’ refers to the things of the Old Testament, ‘image’ to things of the New Testament, and ‘truth/reality’ to the future state.”

I was following arguments made by Fr. John Behr throughout this class. You can listen to one of his lectures here:

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