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How the Bible Interprets Itself: A Lesson from Jesus

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The authors of the Bible interpret earlier portions of the Bible in ways that can be difficult to understand. Part of the challenge comes from the modern expectations we bring to the Bible. Taking the time to study how Jesus interprets his Bible offers an antidote. 

The Bible of Jesus 

Jesus prays and studies the Scriptures. We may never fully understand why he needs to pray or study Scripture. His example shows us what we need to do. 

Jesus interprets Scripture in the same ways that the authors of the Bible of Jesus interpret Scripture. We do not often think about the way the authors of the Old Testament interpret earlier Scripture. But that’s what they do. Jesus knows this and follows their example. In this way Jesus is an example, showing us what we can learn by studying his Bible. 

How Jesus’s Bible Quotes Itself

The authors God chose and the Spirit moved to write Scripture spend time studying earlier Scriptures. If we judge them by how often they quote, paraphrase, and allude to earlier Scripture, we might think that is all they ever did! The Old Testament contains hundreds of cases of interpretive quotations and allusions to earlier parts of the Old Testament as well as thousands of more subtle broad allusions. 

The authors of the Bible had been interpreting earlier parts of the Bible for more than a thousand years by the days of Jesus and his followers. So when Jesus and the authors of the New Testament interpret earlier Scripture, they are not doing something new. They are continuing something that had ancient roots going back to Moses. The way that Torah interprets Torah sets the standard. Later authors of the Old Testament like the prophets and the psalmists interpret Torah in the same manner. 

Jesus shows his followers, the authors of the New Testament, and even us today how to understand Scripture’s interpretation of itself. It may benefit us to look at some examples. 

The Interpretation of Jesus 

Jesus interprets a psalm of David by another poem of David. Jesus begins with a question, makes a statement, quotes Psalm 110:1, and then asks another question. Our focus is on the statement. 

While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, “Why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”‘ David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?” The large crowd listened to him with delight. — Mark 12:35‒37 (NIV)

Jesus states that David is “speaking by the Holy Spirit” in verse 36. Why does he say this? Jesus connects the Spirit with the Davidic promise in Psalm 110:1 by a statement of David outside the psalms.  

In David’s last words he offers his mature interpretation of Yahweh’s promise to him. David has come to the conclusion that Yahweh’s promise is “an everlasting covenant” in 2 Samuel 23:5. He says this even though the term covenant was not used in 2 Samuel 7 when Nathan delivered the promise to David. What concerns us here is how David describes his interpretation of the promise. 

David says, “The Spirit of Yahweh spoke through me” (2 Sam 23:2, author’s translation). Jesus connects David’s acknowledgment of the Spirit-inspired interpretation of the promise in David’s last words in 2 Samuel 23:2 to David’s interpretation of the same promise in Psalm 110:1. 

Jesus Interprets Scripture With Scripture

Jesus interprets Scripture with Scripture. He does this just as his Bible does this. Four times psalms that include interpretations of the Davidic promise also acknowledge it as divine speech — Psalm 2:6 (“I will proclaim the Lord’s decree”), Psalm 89:3 (“You said, ‘I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant’”), Psalm 110:1 (“The Lord said to my lord”), and Psalm 132:11 (“The Lord swore an oath to David”). 

Jesus’s Interpretation of Daniel 7

Besides public teaching like we find in Mark 12, Jesus also interprets Scripture when he privately teaches his followers. In Mark 13:26 he quotes from Daniel 7:13, telling his followers to expect “the son of a human being coming on the clouds” (author’s translation). 

Those who know the context of the vision in Daniel 7 may be surprised at first by Jesus’s teaching. In Daniel 7:27 the celestial agent identifies the one like a human being who is given the kingdom in the vision as “the holy people of the Most High” who receive the kingdom. Jesus does not interpret this collective figure against the sense of the text when he presents the figure as an individual. Jesus follows the interpretation of Daniel 7 itself. The wild animals of this vision symbolize both individual kings and their collective kingdoms in verses 17 and 23. Likewise Jesus interprets the figure like a human being who represents the collective holy people of God as their individual king. Jesus interprets the vision in the same way that Daniel 7 interprets itself. 

Jesus Blends Scriptural Allusions

Readers of Mark need to keep in mind both Jesus’s public teaching about the son of David at Yahweh’s right hand in Psalm 110:1 and his private teaching on the one like a human being coming with the clouds in Daniel 7:13. These two interpretations of Scripture prepare readers to make sense of what the high priest hears Jesus say. 

The high priest presses his interrogation of Jesus with a crucial question: “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” (Mark 14:61). In his answer Jesus inserts an allusion to Psalm 110:1 in the middle of an allusion to Daniel 7:13. 

“Jesus said, ‘I am. You will see the son of a human being [Dan 7:13] seated at the right hand [Ps 110:1] of power and coming with the clouds of heaven [Dan 7:13].'” — Mark 14:62 (Author’s translation)

Though the high priest was not present to hear the public or the private teachings of Jesus, he understands Jesus’s answer as blasphemy and tears his clothes. By blending allusions to the son of David of Psalm 110 with the one like a human being from Daniel 7, Jesus claims to be the Messiah, the Son of God. 

Jesus interprets the Davidic promise in Psalm 110 in exactly the same way David himself interprets Yahweh’s promise to him. Jesus interprets the vision in Daniel 7 in the same way that the celestial agent interprets the vision for Daniel. Jesus blends these interpretations together for the high priest in the manner that the Old Testament frequently blends two or more earlier Scriptures.  

The New Testament Authors Follow Jesus’s Example

These examples show us that Jesus is thoroughly versed in the interpretation of earlier Scriptures we find throughout the Old Testament. He does not invent a new approach to biblical interpretation. Jesus interprets the Old Testament the way it interprets itself.

It is no surprise that the authors of the New Testament follow Jesus in continuing the kind of interpretation presented across the Old Testament going all the way back to Moses. This respectful handling of the Old Testament’s interpretation of itself by Jesus and the apostles points the way for us. 

The Example of Jesus 

Jesus has something to teach us about how the Bible interprets itself. We might start by studying the teachings of Jesus. But it should not end there. We need to take the next step and follow the example of Jesus and the apostles. We need to study the Bible of Jesus. This includes the Old Testament’s interpretation of itself. 

Taking the time to study earlier Scriptures with the biblical authors offers much promise. It shows us the deep connections of redemption. These connections help us discover the way that Yahweh’s redemption unfolds across time. The gospel that begins in Torah culminates in the teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. 

Understanding the Bible’s use of the Bible is not easy. Jesus shows us the importance of studying the interpretation of earlier Scripture within the Bible itself. The teachings of Jesus point the way. 

Want to learn more about how the Bible interprets itself? Let Gary Edward Schnittjer and Matthew S. Harmon take you on a tour of how both testaments interpret and repurpose earlier Biblical texts in How to Study the Bible’s Use of the Bible: Seven Hermeneutical Choices for the Old and New Testaments, out now from Zondervan Academic. 

How to Study the Bible’s Use of the Bible is published by Zondervan, the parent company of Bible Gateway.

Cover of "How to Study the Bible's Use of the Bible" with overlay text reading, An essential text aimed at teaching a hermeneutic for understanding the Bible's use of the Bible
Gary Edward Schnittjer
Gary Edward Schnittjer (PhD, Dallas Theological Seminary) is distinguished professor of Old Testament in the School of Divinity at Cairn University. He is the author of the award-winning book Old Testament Use of Old Testament,Torah Story, now in its second edition, and Old Testament Narrative Books: The Israel Story.

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