The Old Testament problem haunts every pastor’s sermon prep and every Bible study leader’s lesson plan. Most Christians know they should engage these ancient texts, but between unfamiliar customs, seemingly outdated laws, and cultural distance spanning millennia, the Pentateuch feels more like an archaeological artifact than living Scripture. Dr. Geoff Harper, Old Testament scholar and author of Teaching Leviticus, joins The Dig In Podcast from Sydney, Australia to dismantle this disconnect and reveal why biblical intertextuality and careful study of texts like Leviticus remain essential for understanding Jesus, the New Covenant, and our faith today.
The Crisis of Biblical Literacy in a Post-Christian World
Dr. Harper’s opening story sets the stage for why Old Testament studies matter now more than ever. One of his seminary students in Australia attempted to lead a non-Christian couple through the Gospels, only to discover their questions revealed profound confusion. Without the foundational framework of Genesis, concepts like God, sin, and redemption made no sense whatsoever.
“The penny was beginning to drop,” Harper explains, describing what happened when they went back to Genesis 1. “The value of the Old Testament is not just there with information or history, but it’s actually shaping our whole view of the world. It’s communicating a worldview, giving us a framework of understanding within which the truths of the gospel now make sense.”
This experience mirrors challenges facing pastors across Western post-Christian contexts. Whether in Sydney or suburban America, biblical literacy can no longer be assumed. The Old Testament provides the essential theological grammar without which the New Testament narrative becomes incomprehensible.
Australia’s Spiritual Landscape: A Preview of Coming Trends?
Harper offers fascinating insights into Australia’s unique spiritual climate. Unlike previous generations who deliberately rejected Christianity with “an axe to grind,” today’s Australians approach biblical truth with fresh curiosity precisely because it’s new to them.
“When Jesus died, but then came back to life again, there was this audible gasp around the room,” Harper recounts from a children’s program. The resurrection story carried power because these children encountered it without preconceptions or baggage.
This pattern suggests that apologetics and biblical teaching may need recalibration. Rather than arguing against hostile skepticism, today’s context often requires patient introduction to foundational concepts. The Old Testament becomes crucial scaffolding for this educational task.
Awakening Fascination: Teaching the Old Testament as Living Word
How do you make ancient Near Eastern texts relevant to 21st-century believers? Harper’s approach centers on awakening fascination rather than merely transmitting information.
“My high-end goal is to awaken a fascination with the Old Testament,” he explains. “It’s intriguing. It’s fascinating. There’s so much to explore.”
The Transformative Power of Detail
Harper emphasizes that surface-level familiarity often masks the richness waiting in careful study. Students know the Exodus story or Abraham’s faith, but deeper engagement reveals complexity that makes Scripture breathe.
Abraham, for instance, wasn’t born as a man of faith but became one through divine transformation. “There’s far more flaws here. There’s far more idiosyncrasies, there’s far more doubts, there’s far more just wrongheaded actions all the time,” Harper notes. This messy reality offers hope: “God can do that with Abraham. God presumably is still in the same business of changing men and women, making them into people who they weren’t.”
The patriarchs mirror our own spiritual journeys, complete with:
- Moments of bold faith and shameful compromise
- Divine promises believed and doubted
- Obedience mixed with self-preservation
- Transformation happening across decades, not days
Intertextuality: The Bible’s Hidden Web of Connections
Biblical intertextuality represents one of Harper’s key research areas and offers profound insights for serious Bible students. Simply put, intertextuality examines how later biblical authors use and reference earlier texts.
“It’s the use of one text by another author as they write,” Harper explains. “It might be language, like a quotation, might be something more subtle than that, like an allusion that a later writer is making to a previous work.”
Why Intertextuality Matters for Preachers
Modern entertainment constantly employs intertextual references. Netflix series allude to historical speeches, movies reference cultural moments, novels echo earlier literature. These connections enrich meaning and heighten tension.
Biblical authors employed identical techniques. The New Testament’s use of the Old Testament becomes obvious in books like Matthew, where the author explicitly notes prophetic fulfillment. But many references operate more subtly, assuming readers have “saturated themselves in reading and thinking and meditating on the Old Testament scriptures.”
This assumption creates challenges for contemporary readers who lack that scriptural saturation. Missing these connections means missing layers of meaning woven throughout the text.
The Leprosy Healing: A Case Study in Intertextual Reading
Harper unpacks Mark 1 as a masterclass in intertextual interpretation. The healing of the leper seems straightforward until read against Leviticus 13-14.
The diseased man approaches Jesus asking to be made clean rather than healed. This seemingly minor detail unlocks everything:
Leviticus spends two chapters diagnosing the disease and prescribing purification rituals once healed, but “says nothing about how you actually heal a person,” Harper notes. The gap implies only God can heal.
“Here in Mark’s portrayal of Jesus, Jesus comes and does the thing that nobody in Israel could do,” he explains. Jesus doesn’t just heal skin disease but overcomes impurity itself, making people fit to stand before a holy God.
This five-verse episode becomes “saturated with all of this stuff from the Old Testament that just makes that picture in the gospel so rich and so deep.”
For pastors, this demonstrates why sermon preparation must include careful attention to Old Testament background. Surface reading misses theological depth that transforms good illustrations into profound revelation.
The $64,000 Question: What’s Still Binding?
Every Bible teacher faces the thorny question: which Old Testament laws apply today? Should Christians avoid mixed fabrics? What about dietary restrictions? Obviously murder remains wrong, but where do we draw lines?
Harper calls this “probably the most difficult question in theology, but also one of the most important.”
Why Simple Category Systems Fail
Popular approaches divide Mosaic Law into moral, ceremonial, and civil categories. Moral laws remain binding, ceremonial laws fulfilled in Christ, civil laws culturally bound. Problem solved.
“It’d be great if that worked. It just doesn’t work,” Harper warns. The fundamental flaw: “Who gets to choose which law falls into which category?” Often people assign laws to convenient categories that justify ignoring them.
Both Old and New Testaments treat law as cohesive. The Pentateuch weaves laws with stories, songs, and genealogies as a unified package of divine instruction.
A Better Starting Point: God-Breathed and Useful
Harper suggests starting where Paul does in 2 Timothy: all Scripture is God-breathed and useful. When Paul wrote those words, he meant the Old Testament scriptures since the New Testament didn’t yet exist.
“Let’s look for the use and the value and God’s eternal living word rather than looking for bits of it we can ditch,” Harper advises.
This reframe changes the interpretive task from elimination to discernment. Instead of asking what we can ignore, we ask what God intends to communicate.
The Holy Kiss Principle
Harper notes that New Testament commands face identical interpretive challenges. Paul repeatedly commands churches to “greet one another with a holy kiss.”
“I’m still waiting for my first holy kiss,” Harper quips. “I’ve visited lots of churches and lots of different countries all around the world. I’m still waiting for that.”
Why do churches universally ignore this apostolic imperative? Because it’s “not as simple as that. There’s contextual factors and historical factors and there’s cultural things going on.”
If Christians apply contextual reasoning to New Testament imperatives, consistency demands similar approaches to Old Testament law.
Ancient Law Codes: Archaeological Keys to Understanding
Ancient Near Eastern archaeology provides crucial context for understanding biblical law. Discovery of texts like the Code of Hammurabi reveals how ancient law codes functioned.
“Primarily what they’re doing is to paint a picture of the lawgiver,” Harper explains. Hammurabi’s laws demonstrated his wisdom, justice, and graciousness, not merely regulated Babylonian society.
Old Testament law operates similarly at a high level: “Look at the portrait of Israel’s God. Look how wise and just and caring and loving he is and how he expects his people to follow suit.”
Two Interpretive Questions to Ask Any Law
Harper offers practical tools for wrestling with difficult passages:
Question 1: How does this help us understand who God is?
Every law reveals something about God’s character, priorities, and relationship with his people.
Question 2: How does this express loving God or loving neighbor?
Jesus identified these as the greatest commandments. Using them as interpretive lenses helps discern ongoing application.
“If I can grapple with those things and work out those, then I can sense something of what God was saying to his people,” Harper says. From there, believers can discern how those principles land in contemporary contexts.
Day of Atonement: The Ultimate Intertextual Connection
Harper’s recent preaching through Leviticus culminated in Chapter 16 and the Day of Atonement. This annual ritual provided national cleansing and reset for Israel, yet remained inherently limited.
“It cannot ultimately transform people,” Harper notes. “The reason why the sacrifices need to keep on being offered, as Hebrews says, is because the people kept sinning.”
The Book of Hebrews (chapters 9-10) draws extensively on Day of Atonement imagery to explain Jesus’ high priestly work:
- Earthly tabernacle vs. heavenly tabernacle: Jesus entered God’s true dwelling, not a shadow
- Animal blood vs. Christ’s blood: A better sacrifice accomplishing permanent transformation
- Annual repetition vs. once-for-all: Jesus’ sacrifice needs no renewal
- Limited access vs. universal invitation: All believers now enter the Most Holy Place
“Every time I preach that passage, I preach it lots of times, different places. As you look around the room, you see tears,” Harper shares. The connection between Leviticus 16 and Christ’s work moves people because it reveals the full scope of what God accomplished “to overcome the full extent of our problem.”
Practical Preaching Application
For pastors considering Old Testament sermon series, Harper’s approach offers a model:
- Saturate yourself in the original context before jumping to New Testament connections
- Let the text do hard work revealing human need and divine response
- Trust the emotional power of seeing God’s patient, persistent redemptive plan
- Make New Testament connections explicit without being heavy-handed
- Show your congregation how seemingly obscure passages illuminate Christ
Theological Grammar: Why Vocabulary Matters
The Old Testament provides essential theological vocabulary that the New Testament assumes and expands.
“The Old Testament gives us the theological grammar of all those things… covenant, law, sacrifice, atonement, forgiveness. It’s all there in the Old Testament,” Harper explains. “The New Testament just picks up on that vocabulary and uses it to explain who Jesus is and then the implications of that for God’s people.”
The Wilderness Generation: A Cautionary Template
Numbers records Israel’s wilderness rebellion after the Exodus. Despite experiencing miraculous deliverance, they grumbled, pursued idols, and engaged in immorality. God’s judgment meant that entire generation died before entering the Promised Land.
This story appears repeatedly in the New Testament as a template for understanding Christian life. Paul addresses Gentile believers in 1 Corinthians 10 and references “the things that happened to our forefathers,” including them in Israel’s story.
He presents wilderness sins as “examples that God has given us to turn us away from evil.” The Old Testament narrative becomes a conceptual framework for understanding Christian calling.
Raised Standards, Not Lowered Expectations
Contrary to popular assumption, the New Covenant doesn’t lower behavioral expectations but raises them.
“The whole movement across the scriptures is actually just increasing the expectation for obedience,” Harper argues. New Covenant believers filled with the Holy Spirit face higher standards, not lower ones.
Think about the progression: God’s presence dwelt in the tabernacle, separated from the people. Now, through the Holy Spirit, God’s presence dwells within believers themselves.
“Whatever about having the presence of God living in the tent over there, it’s an entirely different dynamic to say the presence of that Holy God now lives in us as people by his spirit. You’ve just raised the stakes considerably,” Harper explains.
Viewing obedience as optional for all but “really dedicated” Christians contradicts Scripture’s trajectory. Ezekiel 36 promises the Spirit will move God’s people toward obedience, fulfilling what the Law always called for but couldn’t accomplish.
Getting Started: Practical Advice for Deeper Engagement
When asked where believers should begin engaging the Old Testament more deeply, Harper’s advice proves refreshingly simple: “Just begin reading it.”
The Familiarity Factor
“One of the reasons that I find people struggle with the Old Testament is just because it’s unfamiliar,” Harper observes. People wrestle with Romans but persist because they’re “convinced it’s important.” They re-read it, listen to podcasts, attend Bible studies, and discuss predestination late into the night.
Apply that same persistence to the Old Testament:
- Read and re-read books multiple times
- Listen to sermons on Old Testament texts
- Find good commentaries written for non-specialists
- Engage in Bible studies focused on these books
- Discuss with friends what you’re discovering
The Community Advantage
“It’s always much better than just kind of individually struggling with the text,” Harper notes. Group study offers multiple benefits:
- Someone else sees connections you miss
- Different perspectives enrich interpretation
- Questions feel safer to voice aloud
- Shared discovery creates memorable moments
- Accountability keeps you engaged
“The rewards are worth it for all the reasons we’ve been talking about and more,” Harper promises. “It’s just such tangible benefit from really deeply engaging with the text of the Old Testament.”
Wrestling with Hard Passages: Embracing the Struggle
Harper encourages believers to lean into difficult passages rather than avoiding them.
“Sometimes we’re afraid of hard questions and afraid of doubt,” he acknowledges. “And so if we have either of those, we try and hide it, pretend it’s not there.”
Practical Tools for Processing Difficulty
Keep a journal, list, or spreadsheet tracking questions and concerns as you read. When something strikes you as awkward or difficult, write it down.
These become “good things to talk about. They’re good things to go and research or read up on and to talk to other believers about.”
Develop communities open to these conversations. Church cultures that permit honest wrestling with hard texts serve everyone better than environments demanding unquestioned acceptance.
“We all do, I’ve been teaching Old Testament for many, many years. I’ve written lots of stuff on that. I still have questions,” Harper admits. “But you got to keep coming back to them and not just kind of pretend that they’re not there or sweep them under the carpet.”
Questions Worth Wrestling With
- Why did God command genocide in Canaan?
- How do we understand gender roles in ancient Israel?
- What about slavery regulations in Torah?
- Why such harsh punishments for seemingly minor offenses?
- How do imprecatory Psalms fit with Jesus’ teachings?
Rather than providing pat answers, Harper models intellectual honesty. These remain difficult questions deserving careful study, not dismissal.
God’s Presence in Every Season: The Ultimate Takeaway
When asked for the one truth he hopes every Christian would take from Old Testament studies, Harper points to God’s unwavering presence.
“God is there and present in every season of life,” he emphasizes. Between his work on Leviticus and research on lament, this theme continually emerges.
The Psalms demonstrate this powerfully, but so do the narratives. “Even in the midst of judgment or even in the midst of slavery, as much as in the midst of deliverance and kind of rescue from those things, God is present and active and working.”
Practical Theology for Real Life
This isn’t abstract doctrine but practical foundation for navigating “all different kinds of things, some expected, some completely unexpected. Some that fill us with joy, some that fill us with tears.”
Jesus’ final words in Matthew’s Gospel echo this Old Testament truth: “Surely I’m with you all the days between this day and the end of the age.”
“That’s enough,” Harper reflects. “That’s enough to know that Jesus walks with us on this path, on the good days, on the bad days, and everything in between.”
The Old Testament stands as “living testimony to that reality as it played out in the lives of Israel across the centuries.” Their stories of God’s faithful presence become our stories too.
Warning Signs: When Old Testament Study Goes Wrong
While Harper advocates deep Old Testament engagement, certain pitfalls deserve attention:
1. Using cultural categories to dismiss uncomfortable truths Labeling difficult passages “just cultural” without serious wrestling short-circuits growth.
2. Creating artificial law categories to avoid application The moral/ceremonial/civil division often serves convenience rather than faithful interpretation.
3. Reading Old Testament apart from Christ The Old Testament points toward and finds fulfillment in Jesus. Reading it without this lens misses the point.
4. Expecting simple answers to complex questions Scripture rewards patience and study. Quick answers often prove shallow.
5. Individual study replacing community engagement Lone-ranger Bible study misses accountability, diverse perspectives, and shared discovery.
Resources for Going Deeper
Dr. Harper’s expertise is accessible through several resources:
Books by Dr. Geoff Harper
Teaching Leviticus (Christian Focus Publishers) Written specifically for pastors and Bible study leaders who want to engage Leviticus but don’t know where to start. Harper provides accessible guidance through one of Scripture’s most challenging books. Available here
Biblical Impurity Across the Canon (IVP, releasing soon) Traces the theme of impurity from Genesis through Revelation, showing how this often-dismissed concept shapes both Old and New Testament faith and practice.
Don’t Miss This Conversation
Watch the full discussion where Dr. Harper unpacks intertextuality, wrestles with hard questions about Old Testament law, and explains why Leviticus moved his congregation to tears. Subscribe to The Dig In Podcast YouTube channel for more conversations with leading biblical scholars at https://www.youtube.com/@thejohnnyova
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Final Thoughts: The Old Testament Reset We Need
Dr. Geoff Harper’s work challenges comfortable Christianity that treats the Old Testament as optional background material rather than essential foundation. His scholarship demonstrates that Leviticus, Numbers, and the rest of the Hebrew Bible aren’t dusty artifacts but living words that illuminate Christ, deepen faith, and transform lives.
The path forward requires rejecting simplistic category systems, embracing honest questions, and committing to sustained engagement with texts that initially feel foreign. The reward? A richer understanding of Scripture, deeper appreciation for Christ’s work, and firmer foundation for navigating every season of life.
God’s presence saturates every page of the Old Testament, from Genesis through Malachi. Those stories of covenant faithfulness, patient transformation, and persistent love aren’t just Israel’s history but templates for understanding our own relationship with the God who never changes.
For pastors preparing sermons, Bible study leaders planning curricula, and Christians seeking genuine biblical literacy, Harper’s message lands with urgency: the Old Testament isn’t a problem to solve but a treasure to discover. The question isn’t whether it’s relevant but whether we’re willing to do the work of engagement.
