Old Testament messianic prophecies quoted in the New Testament
Old Testament messianic prophecies quoted in the New Testament
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Old Testament messianic prophecies quoted in the New Testament

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Old Testament messianic prophecies quoted in the New Testament

The books of the New Testament frequently cite Jewish scripture to support the claim of the Early Christians that Jesus was the promised Jewish Messiah. Scholars have observed that few of these citations are actual predictions in context; the majority of these quotations and references are taken from the prophetic Book of Isaiah, but they range over the entire corpus of Jewish writings.

Jews do not regard any of these as having been fulfilled by Jesus, and in some cases do not regard them as messianic prophecies at all. Old Testament prophecies that were regarded as referring to the arrival of Christ are either not thought to be prophecies by critical biblical scholars, as the verses make no stated claim of being predictions, or are seen as having no correlation as they do not explicitly refer to the Messiah. Historical criticism has been agreed to be a field that is unable to argue for the evidential fulfillment of prophecy, or that Jesus was indeed the Messiah because he fulfilled messianic prophecies, as it cannot "construct such an argument" within that academic method, since it is a theological claim. Ancient Jews before the first century CE had a variety of views about the Messiah, but none included a Jesus-like Savior. Mainstream Bible scholars state that no view of the Messiah as based on the Old Testament predicted a Messiah who would suffer and die for the sins of all people, and that the story of Jesus' death, therefore, involved a profound shift in meaning from the Old Testament tradition.

While certain critical scholars have claimed that the Gospels misquoted the Hebrew Bible, some Christian scholars argue the New Testament authors read the Bible through figural reading, where a meaning is realized only after a second event adds new significance to the first. Approaches include sensus plenior, where a text contains both a literal authorial meaning and deeper ones by God that the original writers did not realize.

The Hebrew scriptures were an important source for the New Testament authors. There are 27 direct quotations in the Gospel of Mark, 54 in Matthew, 24 in Luke, and 14 in John, and the influence of the scriptures is vastly increased when allusions and echoes are included, with half of Mark's gospel being made up of allusions to and citations of the scriptures. Matthew contains all Mark's quotations and introduces around 30 more, sometimes in the mouth of Jesus, sometimes as his own commentary on the narrative, and Luke makes allusions to all but three of the Old Testament books.

An example of one is Matthew 1:23: "'Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,' which means, 'God is with us.'". This references Isaiah 7:14: "therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign: the maiden is with child and she will bear a son, and will call his name Immanuel".

The Hebrew word translated here as "maiden" is almah, meaning a young woman who is ripe for marriage, i.e. aged less than 13, or between 12 and 14 years old, according to other sources, rather than a virgin. Matthew, however, used the Septuagint text of Isaiah rather than the Masoretic Text, and the word that appears there is παρθένος (parthenos), meaning virgin.

Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city: to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand: from the time that the word went out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the time of an anointed prince, there shall be seven weeks; and for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with streets and moat, but in a troubled time. After the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing, and the troops of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. He shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall make sacrifice and offering cease; and in their place shall be an abomination that desolates, until the decreed end is poured out upon the desolator.

— Daniel 9:24–27

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