Review: Understanding the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Forms, Features, Framings, and Functions

Understanding the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Forms, Features, Framings, and Functions by Douglas S Huffman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“In the Old Testament the New is concealed, in the New the Old is revealed”
(Novum Testamentum in Vetere latet, Vetus Testamentum in Novo patet)
literal: New Testament in the Old lies, the Old Testament in the New is clear.
- St. Augustine, Quaest. in Hept. 2,73: PL 34, 623; cf. DV 16.

Within the Christian faith, there is an obvious connection between what is commonly referred to as the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT), with many of the NT authors being raised and well versed in the OT Scripture that they frequently referenced to varying intentions and purpose (hence the quote from St Augustine above). Recently there has been a resurgence of sorts to the intertextuality between the two in Christian studies and Huffman does a remarkable job presented the current state of research in an accessible manner that can’t help but contribute to a better understanding of both from the Christian perspective. After that, Huffman defines the various classifications and taxonomies by which we can evaluate the use of the OT in the NT, taking into account the Jewish exegetical methods/traditions (such Proem/Introduction, Midrash, Targum, Pesher and Peshat) and literary tools (such allegory, allusion, conflation, echo, paraphrase, recollection, typology, et al) available at the time the NT was written in order to better understand the author’s intent and purpose in his OT references using several different taxonomies of framing, form and function.

All of this takes place in the first third of the book, with the remaining parts taken up with appendices, citations, glossary, indices and call outs … so there is plenty there to support a deep dive into the topic.

The chapters and sections in this work are …

Preface
Abbreviations

1. Introduction to Studying the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
2. Form Classifications for the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
3. Features for Form Identification in the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
4. Framing Classifications for the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
5. Function Classification for the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
6. The New Testament Use of the Old Testament in Luke and Acts 

Appendix A: Apparent Citations Introduced in the New Testament but Difficult to Locate in the Old Testament
Appendix B: A Select Bibliography for the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
Appendix C: Applying the New Taxonomy of Forms to the UBS5 and NA28

Indexes of Old Testament Citations and Allusions for Luke and Acts
Glossary: Common Terms in the Study of the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
Index of Modern Authors
Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Texts

Some of the other points that really got my attention (regardless of whether or not I agreed with them) are:

In antiquity, Marcion of Sinope (ca. CE 85–160) rejected the deity described in the Hebrew Scriptures (i.e., the OT) as a warring creator god who had to be lower than the God of the NT.

The very development of the NT is dependent on the OT, even as faith in Jesus as the Christ of the NT is dependent on what the OT said about the Christ who was coming.

A NT writer may cite one of the OT texts while having the whole network in mind, so uncovering that network may well provide insight for properly understanding the NT author’s use of a particular OT passage.

Allusions and recollections are places in the NT that indirectly borrow from the words and/or ideas of OT passages.

One issue to be faced in charting a taxonomy of forms is the question of where to slot compressed citations, i.e., when a NT author quotes several key phrases from a particular OT source text while eliminating certain parts of the quotation.

Likewise, problematic is the question of composite citations or conflation, i.e. when a NT author cites two (or more) different passages (even from different OT books) as if they are one passage.

A specific allusion involves enough minimal borrowed OT language pointing to a specific OT passage, and a thematic echo is less particular and carries forward ideas and themes found in multiple places in the OT. … literary critics concur that allusion involves (1) the use of a sign or marker that (2) calls to the reader’s mind another known text (3) for a specific purpose.”

Despite the complications indicated above, fortunately most citations of the OT in the NT have introductions of some kind. [“It is written”, “to fulfill”, et al]

Here scholars make distinctions between various first-century practices such as targum (interpretive paraphrases), midrash (interpretation and/or commentary from searching the text itself), pesher (explaining eschatological mysteries), allegory (extracting symbolic meanings), and typology (noticing how historical events, institutions, places, and figures function as divinely ordained symbols of subsequent, greater realities).

I want to suggest that there may well be proper ways to use what scholars have dubbed first-century hermeneutical tools. If there are proper ways to use first-century tools, there are also improper ways to use them, and that means that varying degrees of errant interpretation could occur among ancient writers (even as they do among scholars today!).

The Jewish exegetical practices—resulting in commentary from searching the scriptural text itself—known by the Hebrew term midrash were not designated as such until the early fourth century CE.

The term targum is used to refer to this practice of making an interpretive paraphrase of an OT passage translating it from Hebrew into Aramaic (when referencing the written Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible, the term is capitalized as Targum).

It is better to understand pesher as something additional to midrash. More than apocalyptic midrash, pesher is particularly caught up with interpreting eschatological mystery.

Properly understood, typology sees actual historical figures and events portrayed in the OT as symbolic foreshadows of subsequent historical figures and events. … In this way typology is viewed as a kind of fulfillment function for the function of the OT in the New.

Peshat or literal interpretation: Understanding a passage to mean plainly and exactly what it says. Longenecker notes that the Hebrew word peshat (“to strip off, to flatten, to rush out, to flay”) has been associated with plain interpretation since at least the fourth century CE and came to be used somewhat synonymously (even if not by all commentators) with the word “to interpret.”

Written before the NT was compiled into Christian Scripture, the referent to “Holy Scriptures” here, or “sacred writings” (ἱερὰ γράμματα), is clearly the OT, and (to the chagrin of people like Marcion mentioned in chap. 1 above) clearly the OT is judged as applicable to the Christian life.

Scripture is fulfilled in one sense when a prediction comes true, in another sense when a promise is still kept or some other pattern is still followed, and in a third sense when a prefigurement comes to light. 

But I also want to acknowledge the possibility that a NT author may intend more than one function for his use of a particular OT text and that those multiple functions may not be next to each other on the continuum as I have sketched it. …

1. Ultimate truths: The author/speaker of the NT text may simply want to declare the message contained in the OT text.
2. Ethical wisdom: The author/speaker of the NT text appeals to the ethical directives of the OT text as applicable to the reading/listening audience.
3. Prophecy fulfillment: The event under discussion in the NT is viewed by the author/speaker as somehow fulfilling a prophecy recorded or indicated in the OT.
4. Promising patterns: The NT author sees God as continuing to keep to his promised and/or characteristic behavior as reflected or recorded in the OT.
5. Typological correlation: Divinely intended symbolism in history whereby historical figures, places, events, or institutions (the “types”) foreshadow subsequent greater realities (the “antitypes”).
6. Historical backdrop: The NT author/speaker uses an OT text to provide the reader/listener with historical information helpful for understanding the subject under consideration in the NT context.
7. Cultural background: The NT author/speaker uses a reference to the OT in order to explain some cultural behavior in the NT story by its background in the OT story.
8. Instructive exemplars: The NT speaker/author refers to the OT as giving an example that is to be followed by the listeners/readers of the NT text.
9. Illustrations and imagery: The NT speaker/author refers to someone or something in the OT as an illustration of the subject matter under discussion in the NT context or otherwise draws upon imagery from the OT.
10. Vocabulary and style: The NT writer borrows upon the vocabulary and style of OT writers without intending particular citations and interpretations.

Programmatic Motives

1. Evangelizing people to faith in Jesus Christ, the fulfiller of Scripture. As already indicated, in several key places in his narrative, Luke uses Scripture to justify the mission of Jesus and the expansion of the gospel message about him.
2. Extolling God’s sovereign plan for history. Luke-Acts proclaims the idea that God has a plan for history. Four Lukan texts make this particularly clear, and each of them references (or at least alludes to) the Israelite Scriptures (see Luke 7:24–28; 16:16–17; Acts 10:42–43; 17:24–31).
3. Authenticating the faith heritage of Christianity. His constant use of the Israelite Scriptures is another way for Luke to stress that the story of the Christian church is the continuation of the Jesus story even as the Jesus story is the continuation of the story recorded in Israel’s sacred writings.
4. Expanding the notion of God’s people to include gentiles in the church. Overlapping with the previous motifs related to evangelism, God’s plan, and faith heritage is Luke’s concern to appeal to the OT Scriptures to encourage the expansion of God’s people to include gentile believers.
5. Encouraging the interpretation of Scripture. As already noted, most citations of the OT in Luke-Acts occur in speeches, primarily with Jesus speaking in the Gospel of Luke and with apostolic preaching in Acts.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#UnderstandingtheNewTestamentUseoftheOldTestament #NetGalley.


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