The Old Testament
in the New

An Introduction

STEVE MOYISE

T&T Clark

A Continuum imprint

The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NXM

15 East 26th Street, New York, NY 10010

www.continuumbooks.com

© 2001 Steve Moyise

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission prior from the publishers.

Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, © 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 0 567 081990 (paperback)

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Contents

Introduction

1 Texts and Interpretation in the First Century

2 The Old Testament in Mark

3 The Old Testament in Matthew

4 The Old Testament in Luke-Acts

5 The Old Testament in John

6 The Old Testament in Paul

7 The Old Testament in Hebrews

8 The Old Testament in 1 and 2 Peter, Jude

9 The Old Testament in Revelation

10 Concluding Hermeneutical Observations

Bibliography

Index of References

Index of Authors and Subjects

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Introduction

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. (1 Cor 15:3–4)

In this summary of the gospel, Paul is keen to demonstrate that the gospel he preaches is the same as that preached by the early disciples. He has not introduced novelty, as some are suggesting, nor does he claim any great originality. He passed on what he himself received. Having established this, he then moves on to the substance of the gospel. It concerns a person, namely Jesus Christ, though it is not clear whether christos is being used here as a name (‘Jesus Christ died for our sins’) or as a title (‘the Messiah died for our sins’). Either way, the central thrust (judging by its repetition) is that his death and resurrection are both ‘in accordance with the scriptures’. In other words, Christianity did not spring out of a vacuum but is in direct continuity with the religion enshrined in what Christians now call the Old Testament. Not only did Paul pass on what he himself received; the gospel itself is in accord with those writings which for centuries had been received and passed on by the Jews.

The emphasis here is on the death and resurrection of Jesus but Matthew also sees the details of Jesus’ birth as a fulfilment of scripture. For example, in the infancy stories (Matt 1–2) we are told that scripture predicted the nature of his birth (1:23), its location in Bethlehem (2:6), the flight to Egypt and his departure when safe to do so (2:15), ...