Did Jesus Accept the Old Testament?

What does the New Testament say about the Old Testament?

• Jesus and the other New Testament writers quote the Old Testament approximately 300 times.
• The New Testament as a whole quotes from 34 books of the Old Testament Books.
• The New Testament never quotes from the any of the apocryphal books written between 400 - 200 BC.
• The Catholic argument that "the apocryphal books cannot be rejected as uninspired on the basis that they are never quoted from in the New Testament because Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon are also never quoted in the New Testament, and we all accept them as inspired." The rebuttal to this Catholic argument is that "Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther" were always included in the "history collection" of Jewish books and "Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon" were always included in the "poetry collection". By quoting one book from the collection, it verifies the entire collection.
• Of the 26 books and letters forming the New Testament, 20 quote the Old. The only ones that don't directly quote the Old Testament are the six shortest-Titus, Philemon, 1, 2 and 3 John, and Jude. However, Titus, 1 John, 3 John and Jude allude to Old Testament personalities or passages.
• Matthew 1:22-23 cites Isaiah 7:14 as being fulfilled by Jesus being born of the virgin Mary.
  
  • Isaiah 7:14: All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).
  
  
• Matthew 2:5-7 says Micah 5:2 is fulfilled by Jesus being born in Bethlehem.
  
  • Micah 5:2: But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past.
  
  
• Matthew 2:15 cites Hosea 11:1 as being fulfilled by Jesus and his parents leaving Egypt and living in Nazareth.
  
  • Matthew 2:15: and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”
  
  
• Matthew 2:17-18 says Jeremiah 31:15 is fulfilled by the slaughter of male infants, ordered by Herod.
• Matthew 3:3 refers to Isaiah 40:3 being fulfilled by John the Baptist 's ministry.
  
  • Isaiah 40:3: Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God!
  
  
• Matthew 4:12-17 cites Isaiah 9:1-2 as being fulfilled when it describes Jesus' movements in the early part of his ministry.
• Matthew 8:16-17 cites Isaiah 53:4 in respect of Jesus healing the sick.
  
  • Matthew 8:16-17: That evening many demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. He cast out the evil spirits with a simple command, and he healed all the sick. This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said, “He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases.”
    
  • Isaiah 53:4: Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!
  
  
• Matthew 12:15-21 refers to Isaiah 42:1-4 when it describes Jesus healing the sick and ordering those who are healed and are following him to be silent about what they had seen.
• Matthew 13:13-15 refers to Isaiah 6:9-10 being fulfilled when it describes Jesus using parables that could not be understood.
• Matthew 21:1-5 sees Zechariah 9:9 as a 'prophecy' fulfilled when it describes Jesus entering Jerusalem.
  
  • Zechariah 9:9: Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey— riding on a donkey’s colt.
  
  
• Matthew 26:31 references Zechariah 13:7 about Jesus being arrested and his disciples deserting him.
  
  • Zechariah 13:7: Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, the man who is my partner,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “Strike down the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn against the lambs.
  
  
• Matthew 27:3-10 references Zechariah 11:13 to refer to Judas returning the thirty pieces of silver that he was paid for betraying Jesus.
  
  • Zechariah 11:13: And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—this magnificent sum at which they valued me! So I took the thirty coins and threw them to the potter in the Temple of the Lord.
  
  
• Matthew 27:35 references Psalm 22:18 about the gambling for Jesus' clothes when he is crucified.
  
  • Psalm 22:18: They divide my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing.
  
  
• John 1:17: For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.
• John 19:37 quoting Zechariah 12:10: and “They will look on the one they pierced.”
  
  • Zechariah 12:10: “Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died.
  
  
• Galatians 3:19: Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. God gave his law through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people.
• Hebrews 1:1-2: Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe.
• Hebrews constantly refers to the Old Testament. We'll get into more detail on Paul's use of the Old Testament in a later study.

What books did Jesus endorse as true scripture?

• Jesus quoted from 24 different Old Testament books.
• Matthew 4 - In the temptation with Satan, Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 6:13, Deuteronomy 6:16, Deuteronomy 8:3, Isaiah 9:1-2 & Psalm 91:11-12.
• Matthew 4:10 quoting Deuteronomy 6:13: “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”
• Matthew 5:17: “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.
• Matthew 5:18 (KJV): For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
  
  • The "Jot" is the Hebrew word "Yodh" which is the 10th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is also the smallest letter.
  • The "tittle" is the small decorative spur or point on the upper edge of the yodh. One example would be the difference between the letter L and I. The difference is only one small mark. We use phrases like "the dotting of the i, and the "crossing of the t."
  • It is interesting that the Jewish scribes who copied the MT (Massoretic Text) of the Hebrew Bible scrolls paid the greatest attention to the minutiae of detail and such marks attached to each consonant throughout the entire text. They even numbered every letter, word, sentence, paragraph, chapter, section, and scroll to insure that the total equaled that of the text being copied before allowing it to enter the holy synagogue. If an error were found by the editors, the entire hand-written manuscript was destroyed!
  
  
• Matthew 7:12: “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.
• Matthew 8:4 references Leviticus 14:2-32: Then Jesus said to him, “Don’t tell anyone about this. Instead, go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy. This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed.”
• Matthew 11:10 quotes Malachi 3:1: John is the man to whom the Scriptures refer when they say, ‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way before you.’
• Matthew 11:13: For before John came, all the prophets and the law of Moses looked forward to this present time.
• Matthew 12:39: But Jesus replied, “Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah.
• Matthew 13:14-15 quotes Isaiah 6:9-10: This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says ‘When you hear what I say, you will not understand. When you see what I do, you will not comprehend. For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes— so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.’
• Matthew 15:7-9 quotes Isaiah 29:13: You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’
• Matthew 15:7-8 quotes Isaiah 29:13: You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
• Matthew 19:4 quotes Genesis 1:27; 5:2: “Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’
• Matthew 19:5 quotes Genesis 2:24: And he said, ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’
• Matthew 19:8 referencing Deuteronomy 24:1: Jesus replied, “Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to your hard hearts, but it was not what God had originally intended.
• Matthew 19:18-19: “Which ones?” the man asked. And Jesus replied: “‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. Honor your father and mother. Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (referring to Exodus 20:12-16; Deuteronomy 5:16-20; Leviticus 19:18).
• Matthew 21:13: He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!” (quoting Isaiah 56:7; Jeremiah 7:11)
• Matthew 22:31-32: “But now, as to whether there will be a resurrection of the dead—haven’t you ever read about this in the Scriptures? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ So he is the God of the living, not the dead.”
• Matthew 22:31-32 quoting Exodus 3:6: “But now, as to whether there will be a resurrection of the dead—haven’t you ever read about this in the Scriptures? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ So he is the God of the living, not the dead.”
• Matthew 22:36-40: “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
• Matthew 22:41-45 quotes Psalm 110:1: Then, surrounded by the Pharisees, Jesus asked them a question: “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They replied, “He is the son of David.” Jesus responded, “Then why does David, speaking under the inspiration of the Spirit, call the Messiah ‘my Lord’? For David said, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies beneath your feet. Since David called the Messiah ‘my Lord,’ how can the Messiah be his son?”
  
  • NOTE: This is also in Mark 12:36.
  
  
• Matthew 22:43-44 quotes Psalm 110:1: Jesus responded, “Then why does David, speaking under the inspiration of the Spirit, call the Messiah ‘my Lord’? For David said, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies beneath your feet.’
• Matthew 24:15: “The day is coming when you will see what Daniel the prophet spoke about—the sacrilegious object that causes desecration standing in the Holy Place.” (Reader, pay attention!)
• Matthew 27:46 quotes Psalm 22:1 - also in Mark 15:34: At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
• Mark 4:12 quotes Isaiah 6:9-10: so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled: ‘When they see what I do, they will learn nothing. When they hear what I say, they will not understand. Otherwise, they will turn to me and be forgiven.’”
• Mark 7:6: Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
• Mark 7:10 references Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16: For instance, Moses gave you this law from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’
• Mark 12:1-12: The parable of the Wicked Vineyard Tenants here is based on Isaiah's Song of the Vineyard in Isaiah 5:l-7.
• Mark 12:26 quotes Exodus 3:6: “But now, as to whether the dead will be raised—haven’t you ever read about this in the writings of Moses, in the story of the burning bush? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said to Moses, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’
• Mark 12:29-31 quotes Deuteronomy 6:4-5 & Leviticus 19:18: Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
• Luke 4:8 quotes Deuteronomy 6:13: Jesus replied, “The Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”
• Luke 4:17-21: The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!” (quoting Isaiah 61:1-2 but he stops in the middle of the 2nd verse!)
• Luke 16:16: “Until John the Baptist, the law of Moses and the messages of the prophets were your guides. But now the Good News of the Kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is eager to get in.
• Luke 16:17: But that doesn’t mean that the law has lost its force. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the smallest point of God’s law to be overturned.
• Luke 20:37 references Exodus 3:6: “But now, as to whether the dead will be raised—even Moses proved this when he wrote about the burning bush. Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, he referred to the Lord as ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
• Luke 20:41-43 quotes Psalm 110:1: Then Jesus presented them with a question. “Why is it,” he asked, “that the Messiah is said to be the son of David? For David himself wrote in the book of Psalms: The Lord said to my Lord, Sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet.’
• Luke 24:44: Then he said, “When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
• Luke 24:25-27: Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?” Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
• Luke 24:32: They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?”
• Luke 24:44-45: Then he said, “When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
• John 3:14 references Numbers 21:9: And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
• John 5:39, 45-46: “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! ... “Yet it isn’t I who will accuse you before the Father. Moses will accuse you! Yes, Moses, in whom you put your hopes. If you really believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me.
• John 6:32: Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven.
• John 7:19,22-23: Moses gave you the law, but none of you obeys it! In fact, you are trying to kill me.” ... But you work on the Sabbath, too, when you obey Moses’ law of circumcision. (Actually, this tradition of circumcision began with the patriarchs, long before the law of Moses.) For if the correct time for circumcising your son falls on the Sabbath, you go ahead and do it so as not to break the law of Moses. So why should you be angry with me for healing a man on the Sabbath?
• John 8:17 quoting Deuteronomy 19:15: Your own law says that if two people agree about something, their witness is accepted as fact.
• John 10:34 quoting Psalm 82:6: Jesus replied, “It is written in your own Scriptures that God said to certain leaders of the people, ‘I say, you are gods!’
• John 15:25 quoted Psalms 35:19; 69:4: This fulfills what is written in their Scriptures: ‘They hated me without cause.’
• There are many more times Jesus quotes the Bible, but there's no point in belaboring the simple point that Jesus knew and used the Old Testament and quoted from it freely! There seemed no doubt in his mind as to the authenticity of the Old Testament.