Zobel said:
Quote:
Jews are still Gods chosen people, we gentiles were just grafted into the branch. I think it is safe to say that those who were saved prior to Christ were overwhelmingly Jewish. Meaning, up until they denied the divinity of Christ, their theology was our own.
Jews are not God's chosen people. The people of God is Israel. God didn't choose Jews out of all the peoples of the world, He created a new nation to be an example to all people and ultimately to be the salvation of all people.
The Jews were one tribe out of that nation - Judah. The Torah or Law wasn't given to the Jews, it was given to Israel. The covenants weren't given to the Jews, they were given to Abraham and Israel. The son can't be greater than the father.
To use your (St Paul's) metaphor, Judah is just one branch on the root, which is Israel. Branches were broken off - all the other tribes. Branches were grafted in. St Paul clearly says in fact that faithless Judeans (ie Jews) are already broken off and in need of being grafted back - "And even if they [my fellow Jews] do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again".
There was no monolithic Judaism of the first century. And not only is modern Rabbinic Judaism not Christianity minus Christ (what that exactly would even be I'm not entirely sure) it is materially different than what the various Judaisms of the first century looked like.
So no, their theology is not our own. Those who were faithful to God before Christ's Incarnation were faithful to Christ, and were therefore part of Israel - the faithful people of God. What you're describing is like talking about dry water.
Further to this excellent post:
Of the approximately 300 Old Testament quotes in the New Testament, approximately two-thirds of them came from the Septuagint the Greek translation of the Old Testament which included the deuterocanonical books that were later removed. It was natural for the authors of the New Testament to lift quotes from the Septuagint while writing in Greek to the Church. And most importantly: the Greek New Testament is the inspired word of God, and the Holy Spirit chose to have the sacred authors repeatedly cite the Septuagint.
Here are a few of the approximately 200 Septuagint (LXX) quotes:
The Gospels
Jesus Himself
1. Mark 7:68 / Isaiah 29:13 Jesus quotes Isaiah 29:13 from the Septuagint: "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men."
2. Luke 4:18 / Isaiah 61:1 Jesus reads from the scroll in Nazareth and includes the phrase "recovering of sight to the blind" a phrase found in the Septuagint but not in the Hebrew, which instead reads "the opening of prison to them that are bound."
3. Luke 4:18 / Isaiah 58:6 Also in the Nazareth reading, Jesus includes "to set at liberty those that are oppressed (or bruised)" a phrase found in the LXX, while the Hebrew reads "to let the oppressed go free."
4. John 6:31 / Psalm 78:24 Jesus says, "He gave them 'bread' out of heaven to eat" following the LXX, while the Hebrew reads "food" or "grain" from heaven.
5. John 12:40 / Isaiah 6:10 John 12:40 reflects Isaiah 6:10 in the LXX form: "lest they should see with eyes…turn for me to heal them."
6. John 10:22 / 1 & 2 Maccabees In John 10:22, Christ the Lord mentioned the Feast of Dedication this feast was not mentioned in the protocanon while it was proved in the Book of Maccabees (a deuterocanonical book in the LXX) that Judas Maccabeus was the first to initiate this feast when he purified the temple.
Matthew The Evangelist
7. Matthew 1:23 / Isaiah 7:14 Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14 from the LXX: "behold, a 'virgin' shall conceive." The Hebrew reads "a 'young woman' shall conceive." This is enormously significant the LXX rendering of parthenos (virgin) is the very text that supports the doctrine of the Virgin Birth as Matthew presents it.
8. Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; John 1:23 / Isaiah 40:3 The evangelists quote Isaiah 40:3 from the LXX: "make 'His paths straight'" whereas the Hebrew reads "make 'level in the desert a highway.'"
9. Matthew 9:13; 12:7 / Hosea 6:6 Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6 as "I desire 'mercy' and not sacrifice" the LXX wording. The Hebrew reads "I desire 'goodness' and not sacrifice."
10. Matthew 12:21 / Isaiah 42:4 Matthew quotes Isaiah 42:4 from the LXX: "in His name will the Gentiles hope (or trust)." The Hebrew reads "the isles shall wait for his law."
11. Matthew 6:7 / Sirach 7:14 Matthew 6:7 reflects Sirach 7:14 from the LXX about prattling on in the assembly like the Gentiles do. Sirach is a deuterocanonical book, found only in the Septuagint.
Luke The Evangelist & Acts
12.
Luke 3:56 / Isaiah 40:45 Luke 3:56 quotes Isaiah 40:45 with the phrases "crooked be made straight, rough ways smooth, shall see salvation" phrases found in the LXX, while the Hebrew omits them.
13. Luke 6:31 / Tobit 4:15 Luke 6:31, which contains the Golden Rule, is absent from the Hebrew texts but is found in Tobit 4:15, a deuterocanonical book in the LXX.
14. Luke 14:13 / Tobit 4:7 Luke 14:13 "But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you" echoes the LXX text of Tobit 4:7.
15. Acts (Peter's and Paul's Speeches) The text used by Luke in his many quotations from the Old Testament throughout the speeches by Peter and Paul in Acts is basically the text of the LXX.
John The Apostle
16. John 12:38 / Isaiah 53:1 John 12:38 quotes Isaiah 53:1 from the LXX: "who has believed our 'report?'" The Hebrew reads "who has believed our 'message?'"
The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit
17. Isaiah 11:2 Isaiah 11:2 describes the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, but the seventh gift "piety" is only found in the Septuagint. The Hebrew text lists only six. The Church's tradition of seven gifts is rooted in the LXX rendering.
Protestant authors Archer and Chirichigno list 340 places where the New Testament cites the Septuagint but only 33 places where it cites from the Masoretic Text rather than the Septuagint.
The Septuagint is the oldest translation of the Old Testament in existence, was widely used by the apostles and all Jews at the time of Christ, and included the so-called "apocryphal" or "deuterocanonical" books.
