What is the significance of Jesus' genealogy in the Gospel of
Matthew? Why do we put and ox and ass at our creches? Why did
angels appear to the shepherds? In "No Trace of Christmas?"
Christoph Dohmen explains why the answers to these and other
questions regarding our understanding of Christmas are to be found
not in the New but in the Old Testament.
For the most part Christians regard the Old (or First) Testament
as pre-history, a preparation for, or a promise of the New
Testament and its proclamation of Christ. This is especially true
during Advent, when the Christian liturgy directs our attention to
the promise and its fulfillment. Yet Advent's status as the
beginning of the Church year - as a turning point - calls us to
look back in order to move forward. We read intensively from Old
Testament prophecy texts with a special view toward their future
meaning. Hence, Advent is the time of the year when Christians are
reminded that they have one sacred Scripture in "two" parts, one
Bible composed of the Old and New Testaments.
Since it was with the aid of the Old Testament that the early
Church interpreted the event at Bethlehem, many of the images and
biblical texts associated with Christmas can only be understood by
following their Old Testament roots. Like the Magi who followed the
star, we can, with Dohmen's help, follow in the liturgy of Advent
and Christmas the traces that lead us into the Old Testament.
Following those traces, we can arrive at a Christmas that appears
to us in a new light, that of the Old Testament.
Chapters are In Search of Traces," "It al Began Before
Christmas," "Addressed and Claimed," "A Gift from Heaven," "When
Shepherds Become Prophets, "You Shall Make No Crib for Yourself "
"Joseph, What Are You Dreaming?" "A New Age Is Beginning," "In
Order That Might Be Fulfilled . . .," "In Our Midst," "Yad Vashem,"
"You, Bethlehem . . .," and "Following the Trace."
"Christoph Dohmen is professor of Old Testament Exegesis at the
University of Osnabruck.""
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