Jesus' Use of the Old Testament and the Genesis of New Testament Theology

Abstract

placed me, in the categories of that period, among the "rabbinists" rather than the "helle-nists," and a visit in 1954 to Qumran and to the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem, where the analysis of the Scrolls was proceeding, left a deep impression of the significance of the discoveries for the beginnings of Christianity. The importance of the pesher commentaries, of 4QFlorilegium, of 4QTestimonia, and of other midrashim combined with my dissertation topic 1 to raise questions about the secondary role given the NT's use of the OT by the then-dominant reconstruction of the ministry of Jesus and by what is now called the classical form criticism. The place of the OT in early Christian thought will depend on its significance (1) in the word and works of Jesus, (2) in the composition of the four gospels, and (3) of other early Christian literature, which for all practical purposes means our NT. It would be enhanced if one could identify (4) certain dominical teachings from the OT that were taken up in Acts and in the letters of the apostolic missions.