Numerous quotations of the Hebrew Bible are made in the New Testament. In general, the New Testament writers quote from the Septuagint ("LXX") version of the Hebrew Bible, as it was then in common use among Gentiles, both Roman and Greek, while Jews of the time spoke mainly Aramaic and Hebrew, and would either have read the Hebrew Bible in its original Hebrew, or in an Aramaic translation. However, the quotations quite often are not exact; this can be attributed either to the author using a different source text, or simply to the author paraphrasing the quotation.
This article is not intended as a complete reference list of Hebrew Bible quotations in the New Testament; merely as an overview of the practice.
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Because of the number and disparity of the New Testament authors, there is no uniform standard for these quotes. When the New Testament was written, the Old Testament was not divided into chapters and verses, and hence the authors had to provide contextual references:
Sometimes the quotations do not agree literally either with the LXX or the Hebrew text. In about ninety instances, the LXX is literally quoted. However, in around eighty further instances, the quote is corrected or altered in some way. For example, at Matthew 21:42 Jesus says "Did ye never read in the scriptures that the stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner?" - a reference to Psalm 118:22. Likewise, Mark 12:10.
Other quotations are sometimes made directly from the Hebrew text (Matthew 4:15–16; John 19:37; 1 Corinthians 15:54). Besides the quotations made directly, there are found numberless allusions, more or less distinct, showing that the minds of the New Testament writers were filled with the expressions and ideas as well as historical facts recorded in the Old Testament.
There are in all two hundred and eighty-three direct quotations from the Old Testament in the New Testament, and some quotations from other books. A number of Old Testament books remain unquoted in the New Testament. In Paul's writings, there are three quotations from certain Greek poets (Acts 17:28; 1 Corinthians 15:33; Titus 1:12). These quotations are memorials of his early classical education. The Epistle of Jude quotes the pseudepigraphal Book of Enoch (1 Enoch 1:9) and the Assumption of Moses.
This article incorporates text from Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), a publication now in the public domain.