C. The Attitude of Jesus and His Disciples toward Old Testament Scripture

Now we come to the lifetime of Jesus and His disciples. This was about 1400 years after Moses began to write, and over 400 years since the last Old Testament Scripture had been recorded. These men were themselves inspired by the Holy Spirit. They clearly rebuked the Jews of their day regarding any error of which they were guilty. Surely they would have pointed out any problems in the Jewish Scriptures, if such problems existed.

What do we find? Did they say some necessary portions of Old Testament Scripture were missing or uninspired parts had been added? Did they say the Scriptures could no longer be trusted as an accurate revelation of God’s will?

1. In the first century, copies of the Old Testament were widely circulated and studied as revelation from God.

Luke 4:16-21 - In the synagogue in Nazareth Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah, and said the passage was fulfilled in Jesus Himself.

Acts 8:28-35 - The Ethiopian treasurer was reading Isaiah. Philip used it as authority to teach about Jesus.

Acts 15:21 - For many generations, every city had a copy of the Scriptures (of Moses), and they were read in the synagogue every sabbath. The message was still preserved, had been copied and circulated, and was being studied and cited as authority. Did Jesus and His apostles believe this was proper treatment of Scripture?

2. Inspired men quoted Old Testament Scriptures, and expected people to study and respect them as accurate, authoritative revelation from God.

Matthew 4:4,7,10 - Jesus quoted Scripture to defeat Satan's temptations.

Matthew 15:1-9 - Jesus quoted the Old Testament as being the commandment of God, and He rebuked those who did not obey it.

Matthew 22:29-33 - Jesus rebuked people for not knowing the Scriptures. He then quoted Moses, saying that God said this “to you” (to the people in Jesus’ day). Though this passage had been written perhaps 1400 years earlier, Jesus still expected people in His day to understand it and respect it as God’s message to them.

1 Corinthians 10:11; Romans 15:4 — Paul said the Old Testament Scriptures were written for the learning and admonition of people in his day, even though they lived many centuries after the passages were written.

Acts 17:11 - The Bereans were noble-minded, because they were willing to search the Scriptures to determine whether or not they were being taught the truth.

Clearly Jesus and His apostles expected people to view the Scripture as authority to be studied and respected as revelation from God, even though it had been in existence for as much as 1400 years. This necessarily implies that the Scriptures had been accurately preserved. All of this is exactly how we are saying that the Scriptures should still be viewed and used today.

3. Inspired men appealed to Old Testament authority to confirm their own teaching.

Luke 24:27,44-46 - Jesus claimed He fulfilled Moses, all the prophets, and the psalms. Here Jesus appeals to the whole Old Testament as being authoritative.

Acts 17:2,3 - Paul demonstrated that Jesus was the Christ by reasoning with people from the Scriptures.

John 5:39,45-47 - Jesus said that Moses and the Scriptures testify of Him.

(Note that Jesus and His apostles taught that the gospel would replace the Old Testament as God's commandments for His people, but this was because the Old Law had fulfilled its purpose and God had intended all along to replace it - Heb. 8:6-13; 10:1-10; Rom. 7:2-7; Col. 2:14,16; Gal. 3:23,24; etc. At no point did they imply that the reason the law should be replaced was that the written record of it had become lost or perverted in content.)

4. Inspired men used evidence based on minute details of the Scriptures.

Matthew 22:31,32 — Having rebuked men for being ignorant of the Scriptures, Jesus proved the resurrection because God said, “I am the God of Abraham …” [Cf. Gal. 3:16.]

Jesus’ proof was based on a quotation from Moses — the oldest part of the Scriptures. It depended on the accuracy of the written word in verb tense and would have meant nothing had there been any possibility the written word had become inaccurate.

Clearly inspired men viewed the Scriptures as accurate revelation from God, and they expected other people in their day to do likewise. But remember, these men rebuked every point in which the Jews of their day were in error. Had there been any error in the Jews’ Scriptures, these inspired men would surely have told them so. Instead, they quoted the Scriptures and respected them as authority from God.

But the New Testament was written, copied, circulated, collected, translated, and preserved in exactly the same way as the Old Testament had been. God described the New Testament as “Scripture,” just like He did the Old Testament. He clearly stated that the New Testament should be used as written proof of His will for man, just as the Old Testament had been. He promised to preserve the New Testament, exactly as He had promised to preserve the Old Testament.

If God accurately preserved the Old Testament multiplied centuries till Jesus’ day, in fulfillment of His promises, who can doubt that God has likewise preserved the whole Bible through the centuries till today? All who believe in God’s power ought to accept the Bible as God’s word today and ought to use it as the absolute and infallible standard of authority to learn God’s will for our lives.