ABSTRACT
The writers of the books which eventually made up the New Testament take the Old Testament to be the Word of God and a constitutive part of the tradition of Christianity itself. In Acts 4:25, for example, the Holy Spirit is said to have spoken through the mouth of David. The foretelling of the life, death and resurrection of Christ in the Old Testament is a constant theme running through the New. Micah 5:2, for instance, speaks of the birth at Bethlehem; Hosea 11:1 of the coming from (after a flight into) Egypt of the Son of God (cf. Matt. 2:15); Psalm 41:9 of the betrayal. In both the Gospel and the Epistles Old Testament authors speak as authorities: ‘David said…’ (Mark 12:36); ‘Moses said…’; ‘Moses wrote…’ (Mark 7:10; 12:19); ‘Isaiah prophesied…’; ‘Isaiah cried…’; ‘Isaiah says…’ (Mark 7:6; Rom. 9:27; 10:20). As well as this direct citation, we find a weaving of words and phrases and images and echoes from the Old Testament into the very texture of the New Testament's language. 1 Peter 2:1–10 and Acts 7, where Stephen makes his speech, are particularly rich examples. In these ways the Old Testament forms in part the very stuff of which the New Testament is made.
