That dam is the page in your Bible that says, “The New Testament.” But it’s more than a page; it’s really a mind-set that this page represents. It’s the wrongheaded assumption that a radical separation exists between the Old Testament and the New Testament. This way of thinking dams up the waters of the first part of the Bible from the last part of the Bible. In reality, yes, the biblical stream flows deeply and freely from Malachi to Matthew, but too many Christians don’t see it that way. They see two, very distinct, often even opposing, bodies of water.

I’m certainly not the first person who wanted to abbreviate the Bible. In the early church, a heretic named Marcion gutted the entire Old Testament as well as any verse in the New Testament that had a whiff of the old covenant about it. And one of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, took a pen knife to his copy of the New Testament. He literally cut out every word that contradicted his rationalized, deist sensitivities. Others would like to rip out the bloody pages in Joshua where God’s people slaughtered the pagan inhabitants of the holy land; or the psalm that describes how blessed the man is who smashes the heads of his enemy’s children into rocks; or the many, many verses that contradict modern notions of marriage, sexuality, and other ethical issues. Whether for theological, philosophical, or moral reasons, there’s plenty of people who’d like to make their copy of the Scriptures a page or two shorter. And I’m one of them.

Before you start gathering firewood to burn me at the stake, however, let me hasten to add that the part of the Bible to which I object should never have been there in the first place. It was a later accretion, added for pious, albeit misguided, reasons. If I could, I’d take every Bible in hand, grab this page between my thumb and forefinger and rip it out. It’s that single sheet of paper that lurks between the last chapter in Malachi and the first chapter in Matthew. It’s the page that’s blank except for three words, “The New Testament.” Let me explain why.

The biblical story, from the opening words of creation to the closing Amen of Revelation, is a united whole. Picture it as a flowing river. Its waters begin as a mere trickle in the opening chapters of the Bible as we hear of creation, the Fall, and God’s promise to send the serpent-crushing Redeemer. As you wade through the narratives about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you’ll notice the biblical waters have become knee-deep. Go farther downstream, into the story of Israel’s exodus, wilderness wanderings, and entrance into the holy land, and you’ll soon be waist-deep in the scriptural stream. As you travel still more, through the psalms and prophets and wisdom literature, the holy waters will rise farther up your chest until you’re neck-deep in this sacred river. By and by, you’ll arrive at the closing chapter of the last prophet before Christ, and what will you find there? Sadly, you’ll run face-first into a dam.

That dam is the page in your Bible that says, “The New Testament.” But it’s more than a page; it’s really a mind-set that this page represents. It’s the wrongheaded assumption that a radical separation exists between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

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