Jesus And The Hebrew Scriptures

One cannot over emphasize the importance of gaining a clear understanding as to Jesus Christ’s own view of the canon of the Hebrew Scriptures. For if Christ held the view that the Old Testament Scriptures wherein fact the Word of God, then a person submitted to His Lordship has no alternative but to accept His judgment as authoritative. John W. Wenham points out:



"Our Lord not only believed the truths of Old Testament history and used the scriptures as final authority in matters of faith and conduct, He also regarded the writings themselves as inspired.

To Him Moses, the Prophets, David, and the other Scriptural writers were given their messages by the Spirit of God. There was not a trace of the modern idea that the men were inspired, but not their writings. …Our Lord often prefaced a quotation of Scripture with such words as ‘Moses said," (Mark 7:10), ‘Isaiah was right when he prophesied,’ (Mark 7:6, cf. Matt. 13:14), or ‘David, himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit,’ (Mark 12:36)."]



If Christ held any position other than the highest view possible relative to the inspiration and authority of the Old Testament, it is never revealed in the New Testament Gospels. Nowhere does Jesus ever negatively criticize the 39 books of the Old Testament, but rather He quotes them with complete confidence that they are in fact the very Word of God.



"But He answered and said, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’’" (Matt. 4:4)



"Jesus said to him, ‘It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’’" (Matt. 4:7)



"Then Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’’" (Matt. 4:10)



"Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. ‘For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.’" (Matt. 5:17,18)



"… The scripture cannot be broken…" (John 10:35)



It is interesting also to notice that Christ uses the very passages contemporary critics either attack or dismiss outright in order to affirm His utter confidence in the historicity, inspiration and authority of the Hebrew canon: The literal creation of Adam and Eve as the basis for His teaching on marriage and divorce, (Matt. 19:4-6), Noah and the Ark is used to parallel the historical reality of Christ’s second coming (Matt. 25:37-39), Jonah and the great fish parallels Christ’s historical resurrection from the dead, (Matt. 12:40,41) . Far from functioning as mere ‘literary parallels’ or the like, Christ affirms the ‘literal’ historicity of three of the most maligned and rejected passages in the Hebrew canon.



About Dr. Craig Johnson



Dr. Craig Johnson is a Fellow of the International Academy Strasbourg France where he read in Apologetics under Dr John Warwick Montgomery.