Between the testaments · end of the Old Testament track, start of the New
Between the testaments
Bridge: from Sinai to Galilee
The New Testament quotes the Hebrew Bible on almost every page. Several of the verses this site studies are in fact quotations or echoes of older texts. This page sets nine of those pairs side by side (Old Testament first, on the left on wider screens), with the Eastern reading of each thread.
How to read the pairs
- Two traditions, one text. The Hebrew Bible is the complete scripture of Judaism; it is not only a “background” to the New Testament. A pair here shows how a New Testament writer read an older verse, not what that verse “really” meant.
- KJV for both sides, so the wording can be compared directly. Every quotation links to Bible Gateway for the other translations.
- The Eastern comparison for each thread is on the linked Old and New Testament pages.
1. “I AM”
Old Testament · Exodus 3:13-14 · OT page
“And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”— Exodus 3:13-14, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
John has Jesus take up the divine “I am” (Greek egō eimi, which the Greek Septuagint uses in Exod 3:14). Christian tradition reads this as a claim to divinity; Jewish readers do not accept that reading of Exodus. Ramana heard in “I AM” the name of the Self in everyone. Three readings, one phrase.
2. The Shema and the first commandment
Old Testament · Deuteronomy 6:5 · OT page
“And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”— Deuteronomy 6:5, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
New Testament · Mark 12:29-30 · NT page
“And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.”— Mark 12:29-30, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
Asked for the first commandment, Jesus quotes the Shema itself (Deut 6:4–5). The oneness of God and total love belong together in both testaments, as knowledge and devotion do in the Gita.
3. Love your neighbour
4. “Ye are gods”
Accused of making himself God, Jesus answers with Psalm 82. The argument moves “from the lesser to the greater”: if scripture calls the judges “gods”, why is it blasphemy to say “I am the Son of God”?
5. The word is near you
Old Testament · Deuteronomy 30:11-14 · OT page
“For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.”— Deuteronomy 30:11-14, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
6. The law written on the heart
Old Testament · Jeremiah 31:33 · OT page
“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”— Jeremiah 31:33, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
New Testament · Hebrews 8:10 · NT page
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:”— Hebrews 8:10, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
Hebrews quotes Jeremiah in full as the promise of a “new covenant”. On how Jews and Christians read that promise differently, see the scholarly note on OT Step 2.
7. The ladder
8. The shining face
Old Testament · Exodus 34:29-30 · OT page
“And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.”— Exodus 34:29-30, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
Paul contrasts Moses, who veiled his face, with believers who “with open face” are changed “from glory to glory”. In yogic terms, the radiance becomes a gradual transformation, not a single event.
9. Elijah returns
“And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”— Luke 1:17, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
Malachi ends the Christian Old Testament with the promise of Elijah, and the Gospels answer it twice: John the Baptist comes “in the spirit and power of Elias”, and Elijah appears at the Transfiguration. Yogananda read this as rebirth (OT Step 4b); the Gospels and Jewish tradition do not.
Stillness across both testaments
Psalm 46:10
| KJVpublic domain | “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” | source |
|---|---|---|
| Young's Literalpublic domain | “Desist, and know that I [am] God, I am exalted among nations, I am exalted in the earth.” | source |
“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”— Matthew 6:6, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
“Later Sri Bhagavan said the whole Vedanta is contained in the two Biblical statements: “I am that I AM” and “Be still and know that I am God.””— Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talk 338 · source
“Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Gauranga, All are drunk with the Wine of Thy love.”— Song sung in Sri Ramakrishna’s presence, Gospel, ch. 32 · source
This is the thread that ties the site together: the psalm’s “be still” and Jesus’ shut door describe the same inward turn, and the Indian teachers in these pages, from Ramakrishna to Ramana, recognised Moses and Jesus alike as people who had made it. Each tradition keeps its own name for what is found there.
Eastern perspective · Vedanta · Upanishads · Gita
Two threads across both testaments: unity and light
Two themes from the Upanishads and the Gita run through both tracks. Each page now has an Eastern-perspective box and a short “light thread”.
Unity
Old Testament: the Shema and “I AM” (OT Step 3). New Testament: “I and my Father are one” and “that they all may be one” (NT Step 3). The Upanishads’ “great sayings” and the three Vedanta schools are mapped against both.
“For truly, everything here is Brahma; this self (ātman) is Brahma.”— Mandukya Upanishad 2, tr. R. E. Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads (1921) · source
Light
“From the unreal lead me to the real! From darkness lead me to light! From death lead me to immortality!”— Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28, tr. R. E. Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads (1921) · source
“In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”— John 1:4-9, KJV · source
The bridge from the Hebrew Bible to the New Testament is often drawn with prophecy. Read with the Upanishads alongside, it can also be drawn with light: “Let light be” (Gen 1:3), “the LORD is my light” (Ps 27:1), the light “that lighteth every man” (John 1:9), and the city with no sun (Rev 21:23). The Upanishads describe that light as the Self; the Bible as the Creator who shines into the heart.
Where the traditions differ
Judaism, Christianity and Vedanta do not agree on whether the light is God, the soul, or both. The pairings on this site show shared images and ways of practice, not shared doctrine.