According to the Scriptures: The Death of Christ in the Old Testament and the New

by David Allen

“If all you know is the New Testament, you do not know the New Testament” - so the late New Testament scholar Martin Hengel is reputed to have said. According to the Scriptures considers the way in the New Testament writers utilized the Jewish Scriptures in order to describe, articulate and evaluate the death of Jesus, takes Hengel at his word. What Old Testament texts are quoted in the New Testament, how are they used and what might such analysis mean for the (contemporary) reader? Focusing in particular on the passion narratives in the Synoptic Gospels, According to the Scriptures seeks to engage with these questions. It will provide a useful new framework for thinking about why the early Church understood Jesus' death in terms of the Scriptures, what difference that understanding made, and what relevance that might have for us as we seek to make sense of the death of Jesus.

224 pages, Paperback

Published January 30, 2018

Reviews

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taking 1 Corinthians 15:3 ("that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures") David Allen takes us on a quick tour of the four gospels, the Pauline Epistles, Hebrews and the Catholic epistles to see to what extent Christ's death really was held to be according to the Scriptures by the first Christian writers. The fact that the first Jewish Christians claimed that their Messiah, the Christ, had been crucified by the Romans was enough of a scandal that there was some necessity to mine the Hebrew heritage to show that this was God's plan all along.

The key scriptures involved are Zechariah 9-14; Isaiah 53; The psalms of lament (most especially psalm 22) and the sacrificial imagery of the Torah. These are sometimes quoted directly, but more often alluded to, making their use ambiguous at times. This is particularly the case with the Isaianic servant songs. Psalm 53 is such a crucial psalm in traditional evangelical tellings of the passion that to find it directly quoted so rarely gives pause for thought. Equally odd is the almost complete absence of any allusion to the non-sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22, something that the early church fathers made much of.

The question remains live as to whether the gospel writers took the Old Testament and framed their telling of Jesus' death around it, or whether they mined the Old Testament for hints and prophesies of the details. My bet is on the latter, hence the odd use of scripture to refer to Judas dipping his bread or the soldiers dividing Jesus' clothes - details that add colour to the story but are not themselves critical to the telling.

A useful book - particularly for anyone who needs to write an essay on the subject!