Why is the Old Testament (the Hebrew Scriptures) more complex than the New Testament (the Greek Scriptures)? They seem to be written by different authors.
As we study the Bible, we need to keep in mind of at least three facts: 1) the Bible contains various genres (e.
g.
, prose, poetry, history, parable), 2) God used forty or so men from different time periods to write the Bible, and 3) the Old Testament and New Testament serve different purposes.
I have extensively and intensively studied parts of the Hebrew Scriptures; I've written exposition on entire books.
From my self-study, I cannot help but conclude that the Bible has only one Author: God.
Despite it having dozens of different writers, the Bible presents God's message from start to end with flawless harmony and consistency, with no contradiction concerning God's precepts and principles.
Above all, only the same God can be the Author of both the Old Testament and the New Testament because there is only one true God: Yahweh.
Yahweh God used different men from various backgrounds and time periods as His writers.
They acted as His secretaries, while writing in their own unique voice.
They presented God's Word in their own style.
Naturally, we will see different styles between books; but the harmony of the Bible shows there is one ultimate and authoritative Voice behind the writings.
Another factor that adds to the Bible books' different styles and levels of complexity is its multiple genres.
Different genres produce different styles and tone of voice and "feel.
" Even different genres that are written by the same author can produce different feel and make it appear that they are written by different authors.
Personally, I've read different series by the same author, and I was often surprised that they are written by the same person.
I write various genres myself: both fiction and nonfiction, prose and poetry, from the light-hearted short stories to the serious no-nonsense articles that advocate parental rights to complex and intensive Bible commentaries.
If you read a hodgepodge of my writings, you may believe that they are by different writers.
Some books of the Old Testament are more complex than the New Testament because the OT is the foundation of the NT.
The NT completes or fulfills what is written in the OT.
It's in the OT where we receive the bulk of God's principles and precepts and over a millennium of history.
For example, the Torah (Genesis to Deuteronomy) provides the foundation for the entire Bible and God's standard of morality.
The entire Bible is based on the Torah.
Then in the historical section of the OT (from Joshua to Esther), a millennium of ancient Israelite history is condensed into relatively short pages.
Hence, these books are intense and need concentration to understand; we cannot expect it to be otherwise.
The NT, on the other hand, covers little history other than the life and short ministry of Christ and the acts of his earliest apostles.
It offers not many new principles and precepts, as the NT writers did not have to repeat everything that was already written in the OT.
The NT is like the conclusion to a mystery novel.
It lets us know the "who" that was spoken previously (Jesus Christ).
In a mystery novel, we get all the clues in the beginning and the middle in twists and turns; it's only in the end will we learn "who" did it in a more straightforward, less complex manner.
So the bulk of the action took place prior to the conclusion.
Likewise, much takes place in the OT, whereas the NT concludes the story.
So the OT is naturally more complex than the NT.