THE USE OF THE OLD
TESTAMENT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
1. Introduction
Even a superficial reading of the New Testament reveals how frequently its authors and those about whom they write quote from the Old Testament often. This should come as a surprise to no one familiar with the authoritative role that the scriptures played in Jewish religious life. What may come as a surprise, at least to the modern reader, however, is the variety of ways in which scripture is interpreted and used by Jesus and the early church. In their hands, the meaning of the Old Testament is not restricted to its so-called literal and historical meaning, but has other dimensions of meaning. Moreover, with one exception, the interpretive methods adopted by Jesus and the early church are identical with those used by other Jewish interpreters of the second-Temple and early rabbinic periods.
One can identify three interpretive methods used by Jesus and the early church that have parallels from texts from the second-Temple period and in early rabbinic exegesis. First, a text from the Old Testament can be interpreted literally, according to the author's intended meaning. Second, Jesus and the early church find subtle and not-so-obvious interpretations for Old Testament texts, in some cases, using certain rules of exegesis known from early rabbinic texts. This interpretive approach could be called midrashic. Third, one finds what scholars call pesher-type interpretations in the New Testament; these are characterized by finding a second, eschatological (including messianic) meaning for an Old Testament text that is not originally eschatological (or messianic) in meaning. In addition, unique to the New Testament is what is called typological interpretation, in which a person, place, thing or event in the Old Testament is assumed to foreshadow an eschatological reality to which it is analogically or functionally similar.
2. Literal Interpretation
Most Jews began with the literal interpretation of the Old Testament, especially the Torah; this was the substratum of all other interpretive approaches. In other words, what the author of a text plainly intended is taken to be its literal and primary meaning.
2.1. New Testament
2.1.1. Jesus
A. Matt 9:9-13; 12:1-8 (Hosea 6:6)
In the context of responding to the charge that he ate with sinners, Jesus tells the Pharisees "Go and learn the meaning of this: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice' (Hosea 6:6) (Matt 9:13; see also Mark 2:13-17; Luke 5:27-32). Jesus' interprets this passage according to its intended sense, to mean that the commandments are to be prioritized, so that mercy takes precedence over sacrifice or other religious rituals.
Jesus also interprets Hosea 6:6 literally in another context. Once some Pharisees criticize him for allowing his disciples to pluck grain on the Sabbath; what they were doing was a form of work and should not be done on the day of rest. Jesus replies by citing the precedent of David's breaking the Torah in time of need, in order to make the point that the intention of the Torah is not to lead to hardship. Jesus' point seems to be that, out of a concern for his hungry disciples, the Pharisees should allow them to pick what grain they need to satisfy their hunger. If Jesus' accusers say that they would like to do this, but cannot, since the Torah forbids it, they will find themselves holding the absurd position that they love human beings more than God does. In this context, Jesus then tells his critics to read Hosea 6:6 "I desire mercy and not sacrifice," which is intended as a proof that to act to meet human need takes precedence over the fulfillment of the ritual law; that is, the Torah is to be prioritized, so that the ritual law, in this case the Sabbath law, should never preclude an act of mercy (Matt 12:7; see also Mark 2:23-27 = Luke 6:1-5).
B. Mark 7:1-13 = Matt 15:1-9 (Exod 20:12/Deut 5:16; Exod 21:17/Lev 20:9)
Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for allowing their oral tradition to prevent the performance of the commandment to honor one's mother and father (Exod 21:17 / Deut 5:16; Exod 21:17 / Lev 20:9). The Pharisees allowed someone to dedicate something of value or money to the Temple so that only the owner could benefit from its use, but no one else, including the owner's mother and father. It is evident how this would be open to abuse: people would dedicate something of value to the Temple in order that his or her parents could not benefit from it, thereby violating the command of the written Torah to honor his mother and father. The point is that with the oral law the Pharisees have actually done evil, or at least prevented good from being done. On the basis of a literal reading of the commandment to honor one's parents (Exod 20:12 / Deut 5:16) and not to curse them (Exod 21:17 / Lev 20:9), Jesus condemns this Pharisaic practice. It should be noted that Jesus also re-applies Isaiah's words to his generation to his own: "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men" (Isa 29:13). He considers the Pharisees to have the same spiritual problem of the Israelites in the time of Isaiah: replacing true obedience with man-made rules.
2.1.2. 1 Corinthians 6:16 (Gen 2:24)
In 1 Cor 6:12-20, Paul deals with a problem about which he has heard from Chloe’s people. It seems that there were men in the Corinthian church who were claiming that, since "all things are lawful" (1 Cor 6:12a) for them, they could use the services of local prostitutes. In 1 Cor 6:12, Paul appears to be quoting a maxim that the Corinthians are likely bandying about; the source of this maxim, however, is probably Paul himself (see 1 Cor 10:23), since this sounds like something Paul would have taught them (see Gal 5:1a). (If so, Paul finds himself in a difficult situation, because the Corinthians are using his own words against him.) Paul agrees with the maxim that “all things are lawful,” but he qualifies it by saying that not all things are beneficial (6:12b). He then repeats the maxim, and gives another variation of his qualification of it : "But I will not be mastered by anything." This means that Paul will not give up his self-control in the name of freedom. In this context, Paul cites Gen 2:24 "And the two become one flesh," interpreting this passage literally, to prove to the Corinthians that it is wrong for them to make use of prostitutes: his point is that a man should have sexual relations only with his wife, the one with whom he has become one flesh.
2.2. Second-Temple Jewish Texts
There are innumerable examples of literal interpretation of the Old Testament in second-Temple Jewish texts. For example, in Damascus Document 9.12, Lev 19:18 is quoted as binding on the members of the community: "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against of your people." This text is interpreted literally and applied to those who enter the community. It is stipulated that any member of the community who brings a charge against another member without proof is guilty of violating the prohibition of Lev 19:18: he is taking vengeance and bearing a grudge. Similarly, in Damascus Document 10.16-17, Deut 5:12 "Keep the Sabbath and make it holy" is interpreted literally as binding on the community. There follows in several Sabbath halakot (regulations) designed to specify how to keep the Sabbath.
It goes without saying that the early rabbis interpreted the Torah literally; like the Qumran community and other Jews, the early rabbis, probably spiritual descendants of the Pharisees, sought to specify exactly what the Torah required. This resulted in their halakot, oral tradition clarifying the meaning of the Torah, which was eventually collected together to become the Mishah.
3. Midrashic Interpretation
Jews of the second-Temple period also interpreted the Old Testament in a way that could be called midrashic. Midrashic interpretation is not really one type of interpretation, but describes a general approach to Old Testament interpretation. What all midrashic interpretation has in common is the characteristic of being a subtle and not-so-obvious interpretation of the Old Testament. In some cases, a peculiarity of the text is exploited to bring out of it a unexpected meaning. In other cases, certain interpretive rules are used to make explicit an implicit meaning of an Old Testament text. (Sometimes the interpretive rule is cited explicitly, whereas, in other cases, its use is implicit.) The two most common of these interpretive rules, to use the rabbinic terms, are qal vahomer ("light and heavy") and gezerah shavah ("An equal category"). A qal vahomer argument is an argument from minor to major: "If that is true, how much more is this true." A gezerah shavah argument assumes that a biblical passage that has a verbal or some other similarity with another passage can be interpreted in light of that otherwise unrelated passage, so that meaning can be imported into the interpreted passage from the other. In short, midrashic interpretation begins with the assumption that an Old Testament text may contain a deeper meaning that can be brought to the surface by careful observation and sometimes the application of an interpretive rule. in which the use of the same term in two distinct parts of the Torah allows the application of a detail from the one case to the other, unrelated case. G
3.1. Jesus
3.1.1. Mark 12:18-27 = Matt 22:23-33 = Luke 20:27-40 (Exod 3:6, 15)
Against the Sadducees, Jesus teaches that there will be a resurrection of the dead; at this time there will be no sexual relations among men and women, since they will be like the angels. To prove that there will be a final resurrection, Jesus finds a peculiarity in Exod 3:6: he points out that God said to Moses, "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Jacob and the God of Isaac," and draws this not-so-obvious conclusion