Biblical writers didn’t always produce original material. They used a variety of sources. This was especially true of New Testament writers. The reason is obvious, but sometimes overlooked: they had the Old Testament as a point of reference for what they had experienced and, therefore, what they wrote.
The New Testament writers cite the Old Testament hundreds of times. That sort of frequency demands attention. If you’re going to be serious about Bible study, you cannot neglect observing what New Testament writers did with the Old Testament.
Unfortunately, failing at this simple strategy for understanding the Bible is something I’ve seen a multitude of times. The Bible students and pastors I’ve trained are largely ignorant of the importance of the Old Testament. The prevailing attitudes are that the Torah and the Historical books (Genesis through 2 Chronicles) only have value for character sketches. The poetic books are relegated to devotional reading. And the prophets become fodder for end times speculation, regardless of the fact that most prophecies you see were regarded as already fulfilled by the New Testament writers.
There are many reasons Bible students should pay attention to how New Testament writers cite the Old Testament.
For example, doing so would reveal that prophecy is not always fulfilled according to literal expectations. Matthew saw the emergency trip of Jesus to Egypt and back as a “fulfillment” of Hosea 11:1. But Hosea 11:1 isn’t even a prophecy; it looks backward into Israel’s history, not forward into the future. Matthew’s point about Hosea is to strike an analogy between Israel and the Messiah, Jesus. The thought is an abstract one but theologically powerful.
Equally striking is how writers assign Old Testament verses that have God in view to Jesus. When John has Jesus telling the woman at the well that he would give her living water, it’s no accident that he alludes to Jeremiah 17:13, which has God as the source of living water. The citation interchanges God and Jesus.
When the New Testament writers cite the Old Testament, they do so to make theological points. Observing them teaches us biblical theology. We would do well to see how biblical writers did their own Bible study.