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2 Timothy 3:14-17

(14) But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, (15) and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. (16) All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and isprofitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, (17) that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

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The Bible as we know it was divided into the Old and New Testaments in the late second century AD by theologian and pastor Melito of Sardis. Though Jewish by birth, Melito was a Hellenist who despised Judaism, and in an Eastersermon, given—not by coincidence—on Abib 14, he even accused the Jews of deicide, the murder of God. No wonder he wanted to separate the Old and the New Testaments!

Since the gospels and epistles of the New Testament were not yet written, the only scriptures the fledgling church possessed were the books that had been written centuries earlier in Hebrew and later translated into Greek (the Septuagint). To those pioneer Christians, they were “the Holy Scriptures” (II Timothy 3:15). When the prospective members in Berea “searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether [the things Paul and Silas taught them] were so” (Acts 17:10-11), they studied what we call the “Old Testament.”

It is not surprising, then, that the New Testament directly quotes the Old Testament about 250 times. Including indirect or partial quotations, the New Testament makes more than a thousand allusions to Old Testament passages. By referring to it so often, the New Testament writers clearly desired to show the continuity between God's revelation to Israel and the gospel Jesus preached.

Researcher Roger Nicole, citing biblical scholar Carl F.H. Henry in his “New Testament Use of the Old Testament,” claims that, if we include New Testament passages that allude to or are reminiscent of the Old Testament, every Old Testament book is represented in the New. In all, more than ten percent of the New Testament is comprised of either direct quotations or allusions to the Old Testament.

We can conclude that the apostles and evangelists were not trying to “unhitch” Christianity from its Hebrew beginnings. In fact, we can confidently say the opposite: They gave unqualified authority to Old Testament Scripture.

— John Reiss

To learn more, see:
Do We Need the Old Testament?