Two-Minute Tutorial on the Old Testament in the New

This should probably be called a ten-minute tutorial on the Old Testament in the New. Here you will find information on these three topics. (Read the columns down and not across.)

How the Old Testament Appears in the New

There is no "industry-wide" classification system for occurrences of the Old Testament in the New. Here are some notes on words you might see. While different authors use these words differently, some generalizations will hold. For instance, the words are listed here in order from most obvious use of a particular Old Testament text to least obvious use of a particular text.

Citation

A citation of the Old Testament in the New is generally a direct quotation of an Old Testament text with some kind of citation formula preceding it. Paul often introduces citations with "Scripture says…." Matthew uses formulas like, "This happened to fulfill…" or, "It is written…" in order to introduce citations. Citations do not always have introductory formulas. Jesus says, "Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.'" It is clear that he is citing Hosea, but he does not introduce it in a standard way.

Allusion

Sometimes one person's allusion is another person's echo (and so on). Generally an allusion does not include as much verbatim agreement as a citation, and it is not introduced with any kind of citation formula. The connection between Old Testament and New Testament is "allusive," but it is there.

LXX is an abbreviation for the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures made before the birth of Christ. When they quote the Old Testament, New Testament authors appear to be reading and citing the LXX rather than making their own translation from a Hebrew text.

Look at Is. 64:1 (= LXX Is. 63:19) and Mt. 3:16. The verb for what happens to the heavens is the same in both texts. Is this coincidence? Is Matthew alluding to Isaiah on purpose? We can't read Matthew's mind on this. Whether the connection was in Matthew's mind or not as he wrote, later readers have noticed the similarities of the two texts and used one to shed light on the other.

Echo

"Echo" is usually used when the relationship between texts is more tenuous than it is when we are talking about an allusion. Just a few words are shared by both texts. The connection may be faint, but there does seem to be a connection between texts.

In the LXX, for example, Genesis 5:1 contains the same phrase with which Matthew begins his Gospel, "the book of the generations" or "the record of the generations" (biblos geneseōs). I have not found this connection (between Mt. 1:1 and Gen 5:1) explicitly made by any English translation. The echo is silenced completely in the NRSV. Readers of that translation do not have any markers of shared vocabulary to tell them that the Greek of the two texts is identical.

Reminiscence

In a reminiscence, there may not be any shared vocabulary between two texts, but at least some readers hear something in a New Testament text that reminds them of something from the Old Testament.

Mt. 3:4, with its description of John the Baptist wearing clothes like that of Elijah (cf. 2 Kings 1:8) gives the Old Testament-literate reader some clues that John is the forerunner of the Messiah described in Mal. 4:5-6.

Image

Sometimes Old Testament images show up in the New. The common vocabulary may be just a word, like "wilderness." Other times there may not be common vocabulary, but there are instead common themes. When Jesus goes to the wilderness where he is tempted, people who know the Old Testament are likely to make mental connections between Israel in the wilderness and Jesus in the wilderness (cf. Mt. 4:1). Compare the feeding of the five thousand (Mt. 14:13 and parallels) with feeding miracles accomplished by Elijah (1 Kings 17:8-16) and Elisha (2 Kings 4:42-44). The three stories all explore the theme of abundance brought about by a servant of God during a time of scarcity.

How the Old Testament is Functioning in the New

Showing Fulfillment of Prophecy

With his citations of the Old Testament, Matthew, for example, demonstrates that Jesus' life and mission fulfill the promises God has made in the Old Testament. The evangelist emphasizes continuity between Old and New Testaments.

When Peter quotes Joel who is quoting God saying that "Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy" (Acts 2:18), he is arguing that what Joel prophesied has now happened. Pentecost is a new thing, but it is tied to an old word.

Providing Typological Associations for Minor Characters

Sometimes Old Testament characters become a type or even stereotype for characters in the New Testament. For example,

• the tyrant king type = Pharaoh in the Exodus story = Herod in Matthew 2.
• the prophet/forerunner = Elijah = John the Baptist (see texts above).

Providing Typological Associations between Israel and the Church

New Testament writers often use Israel and stories about Israel as a type for the church. For example, when Peter says to his audience, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy" (1 Peter 2:9-10), he is borrowing a collection of images used throughout the Old Testament for Israel. (See the connections, for example, with Exodus 19, Isaiah 43, Malachi 3 and Hosea 2.)

Providing Typological Associations for Jesus

The Old Testament helps New Testament writers explain who Jesus was and what he was doing. The Old Testament helps New Testament writers construct their christology. All of these descriptions of Jesus have Old Testament connections:

• law giver like Moses (cf. Mt. 5-7)
• suffering servant (cf. Is. 53:4 and Mt. 8:16)
• something greater than Solomon (Mt. 12:38)
• something greater than David (Mt. 22:41)
• Son of Man (Mt. 26:64; cf. Daniel 7:13)

Structuring the Gospel

Sometimes the Old Testament provides a structure that New Testament writers borrow for their own material. For example, Deuteronomy is a series of speeches by Moses. Since Matthew's gospel consists of discourses (or speeches) interspersed with narrative, scholars have pointed out that the overall structure of Matthew has points of contact with the structure of Deuteronomy.

How to Find Old Testament Connections in the New

Citation Formulas within the New Testament

Sometimes the text of the New Testament itself will alert you to the fact that the Old Testament is showing up there. Citation formulas ("It is written," and so on) act like footnotes that point you to the author's Old Testament source.

The Nestle Aland Edition of the New Testament

If you have a Nestle Aland Greek New Testament, you have an excellent tool for finding Old Testament citations and allusions in the New. Even if you do not read Greek, the Nestle Aland text can help you with its marginal notes and indexes. Here are some things to be aware of:

Italics in the Greek text of the New Testament mean that the words are being quoted from the Old Testament. For the source of the words, look in the outer margin for an italicized citation. For example, Mt. 2:6 is italicized; in the margin is the note: Mch 5,1.3. This means that Micah 5:1 & 5:3 in the LXX are being cited in Matthew.

By the way, just because something is in italics, do not assume that it is always an exact quotation of the LXX. The text may have undergone changes or adaptations to fit it into its New Testament context.

Outer margin notes tell you what the authors think are Old Testament and New Testament material that might be related to the verses you are reading. For example, at Mt. 2:5, just before the quotation of Micah, in the margin of the Nestle Aland text is "J 7,42." This is a reference to John 7:42, which also mentions Bethlehem as the Messiah's birthplace.
The marginal notes do not mean to suggest direct relationships between texts. They only mean to point you to similar material elsewhere in the Old Testament or New Testament.

For help understanding the abbreviations and signs in the outer margin, see the Nestle Aland introduction, pp. 76-79.

An Index of Old Testament citations & allusions (as well as citations and allusions to some other ancient literature) is located in the back of the Nestle Aland text, beginning on p. 770. This is arranged by Old Testament book and verse.

For example, on the first page of the index, beside Gen. 1,27 are these notes: Mt 19,4 Mc 10,6 Act 17,29 R 8,29 1 Kor 11,7 1 T2, 13. At all those places in the New Testament, Gen. 1:27 is in the background (in the judgment of the Nestle Aland editors), whether as a citation, allusion, reminiscence, or whatever. The italic type for the Matthew and Mark texts indicates that those two verses are a citation of Gen. 1:27.

Study Bible Notes

Often a study Bible will point you in the direction of direct citations or allusions to the Old Testament in the New. Read the notes for information about what the editors of that Bible think are important cross references.

Commentaries

If you are interested in a particular pericope and its relation to the Old Testament, often a commentary can help. Usually these will have information on various texts that may be in the background as a New Testament writer composes his work.

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