What did Jesus teach about the Old Testament?

CARM

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:13

What did Jesus teach about the Old Testament? Many people today do not believe in the authority of the

00:19

Old Testament as scripture or as truth. However, Jesus had some quite different things to say regarding the

00:25

Old Testament. Here's a brief list of some of what Jesus taught about the Old Testament. First of all,

00:31

Jesus affirmed the Old Testament as a source of authority. When confronted by Satan, Jesus appealed to the

00:38

Old Testament as a source of authority by saying, It is written, numerous times, as found in Matthew 4, verses 4, 7, and 10.

00:46

Also, Jesus affirmed the imperishability of the Old Testament. He says, as found in Matthew 5, verse 18.

01:02

Also, Jesus affirmed the unbreakability of the Old Testament. He says the scripture cannot be broken in John 10, 35.

01:10

He also affirmed that the Old Testament was a source of doctrinal authority. He appealed to scripture when confronting or correcting false doctrine, stating, as found in Matthew 22, verse 29.

01:26

He also affirmed the truthfulness of the Old Testament. He said, Jesus also affirmed the historical reliability of the

01:37

Old Testament. He affirmed the historical existence of Jonah, as found in Matthew 12, verse 40.

01:43

Also, Noah, as found in Matthew 24, verses 37 -38, and Adam and Eve, as found in Matthew 19, verses 4 -6.

01:51

Jesus also affirmed the scientific reliability of the Old Testament. He affirmed that God created the world, as found in Mark 13, verse 19, and in Matthew 19, verse 4.

02:04

He also affirmed the Old Testament's canonicity, or the fact that there was a rule or standard of books, which had some sort of authority in the

02:12

Jewish community. He made reference to the law and prophets as a unit, in Matthew 5, verse 17, stating,

02:26

Jesus explained the scriptures. In Luke 24, verse 27, the text reads,

02:40

Jesus also referred to the entire canon, by mentioning all the prophets, from Abel, which was the first martyr from Genesis, which is the first book in the

02:49

Hebrew Old Testament, and then to Zechariah, which is found in Chronicles, which is the last book in the

02:55

Hebrew Old Testament. So, the way the Hebrews did it, they divided their texts up differently. They had 24 books, the first one was

03:01

Genesis, the last was Chronicles, and the last one was the Old Testament. Now, that's equivalent to the Old Testament we have today as Christians.

03:07

So, Jesus' reference to Abel and Zechariah can be found in Matthew 23, verse 35.

03:13

So, there's 8 instances where Jesus affirms the reliability of the Old Testament text.

03:19

Now, what does this mean? Since Jesus is God in flesh, performed a life of miraculous deeds, and died in the cross, and was miraculously resurrected 3 days later,

03:29

I think what he taught on issues of doctrine are vastly important. Since he was God in flesh, whatever he taught was true.

03:37

This means that we can trust the accuracy of the Old Testament on issues of history, science, and moral instruction.