2 Reasons You Should Pay Attention to the Use of the OT in the NT
Pop Quiz
Name that Bible verse:
- “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.”
- “He catches the wise in their craftiness.”
- “You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan.”
Scratching your head? That is understandable. These would not make anyone’s Top 10 Bible Verses list. If you had to choose, you would probably wager that they are from the Old Testament (OT). And you would be correct: Exodus 13:2, Job 5:13, and Amos 5:25–27, respectively.
But they also appear in the New Testament (NT). While these verses are somewhat unfamiliar to us, they were not unfamiliar to the NT authors. The first is quoted in Luke 2:23, the second in 1 Corinthians 3:19, and the third in Acts 7:43. What made these verses stand out to the writers? What are they trying to achieve by quoting them? What are we to do with these quotations?
Old Made New
Greg Lanier
In Old Made New, Greg Lanier explains how New Testament authors used the Old Testament to communicate the gospel and present the person and work of Jesus. Writing for a broad range of readers, Lanier distills thorough research into descriptive examples and a simple 3-step study method.
Why Does This Topic Matter?
The topic of the use of the OT in the NT matters for two main reasons.
1. The OT was written for us. In recent decades, the OT seems to have fallen on hard times. Many churches and theologians argue that the Scriptures of the “old covenant” are practically irrelevant to “new covenant” Christians. That was then, this is now! Others suggest that we should distance ourselves from the OT because its many hard passages offend people and keep the church from growing. But such ideas are actually nothing new. Skepticism toward the OT goes back to the earliest decades of the church and has simply changed shape over time.1
One odd thing about all this is that the NT itself tells us not to ignore or downplay the OT. Paul writes, “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction” (Rom. 15:4). And again, “These things happened to [Israel] as an example, but they were written down for our instruction” (1 Cor. 10:11). And once more, “All Scripture”—referring mainly to the OT—“is breathed out by God and profitable . . . that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16–17). Paul is clear, and other NT authors could be added, that the OT is not outdated. It was given by God to Israel, but it is also for us today. The NT gives a hearty yes to what the OT promised (2 Cor. 1:20). If that is true, then the OT is essential to understanding God’s purposes today.
2. The NT authors use the OT a staggering number of times. The other odd thing about modern aversion to the OT is that it is difficult to make your way through most NT books without stumbling into the OT at nearly every turn.
The first words of the NT—“The book of the genealogy” (Matt. 1:1)— are clear references to the genealogies of Genesis and 1–2 Chronicles. The last words of Jesus in the NT are allusions to Isaiah (Rev. 22:16). The NT is quite literally bookended by the OT.
Each of the other Gospels leads off with loud references to the OT: Mark quotes Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3 (Mark 1:2–3); Luke peppers his first two chapters with numerous images from the OT; and John’s “in the beginning” (Gen. 1:1) points back to Genesis 1:1. Jesus regularly engages Scripture, perhaps most vividly in wielding three citations of Deuteronomy against Satan in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1–11; Luke 4:1–12). And some of the most important arguments in the NT—such as the middle part of Galatians, the bulk of Romans from 1:17 to 15:21, and the covenant discussions in Hebrews—are built on an OT foundation.
Indeed, there are roughly three hundred to four hundred (or more) quotations and allusions to the OT in the NT, depending on how you count.2 Roughly thirty OT books are quoted at least once, and the mostcited passages are the Ten Commandments, Leviticus 19, a handful of key psalms (especially Pss. 2; 22; 110; 118), important chapters of Isaiah (Isa. 6; 40; 52–53), and Daniel 7. Though some NT writings do not directly quote the OT, such as 1–3 John, it is safe to say that without the OT, it would be hard to make full sense of much of the NT. The OT provides the colors the NT authors use to paint.
One of the last things Jesus did before his ascension was to open the minds of the apostles “to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45). Following his cue, the NT authors tell us that the OT matters, and they also show us by their own frequent engagement with it. For these two reasons, this topic is essential for today’s Christian.
Notes:
- Daniel Gard, “The Church’s Scripture and Functional Marcionism,” Concordia Theological Quarterly 74 (2010): 209–24.
- Gleason Archer and Gregory Chirichigno list 312 in Old Testament Quotations in the New Testament (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1983). The tabulation in Appendix 1 at the end of this book exceeds four hundred.
This article is adapted from Old Made New: A Guide to the New Testament Use of the Old Testament by Greg Lanier.
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