Recognizing how to connect the Old and New Testament through backstory gives us another Scripture pairing tool with which to build our Bible knowledge.
Scripture pairings
In our series of Scripture pairings, verses from the Old Testament and New Testament complement one another and enhance the meaning or what we experience from them. This week we’ll pair two passages through backstory, to find deeper understanding in the New Testament passage from a storyline in the Old Testament.
We can gain greater insight from a Bible passage when we know the backstory, the plotline referenced or alluded to in the verses we’re reading. This week we’ll look for clues as to the originating storyline from the Old Testament and how it helps us understand the New Testament verses in our look at Scripture pairings.
Gospel of Matthew
In the Gospel of Matthew, the first book of the New Testament, Jesus is speaking to some Pharisees and teachers of the law when he shares these words:
“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Matthew 12:40 NIV
Jonah and Jesus
Have you heard of Jonah? If not, that’s okay, in this verse Jesus shares a highlight of Jonah’s plight.
Maybe you recognize this fish tale from a children’s Bible story. Did you know this comes from the Old Testament?
If we look at this one verse from Matthew, do you see the phrase “three days and three nights” repeated?
The Son of Man is Jesus. He compares Jonah’s journey into the depths with His own. Jesus makes the comparison between Jonah’s stint in the fish to the time frame Jesus’ body will be buried. For Jesus, that’s the span between His death on the cross (crucifixion) and His rising from the dead (resurrection) three days later.
Where to find Jonah’s story
We now have a sense of who Jonah is, but where do we find his story?
The verse that precedes this one refers to the “prophet Jonah.”
Old Testament Prophet
If you weren’t sure where to find Jonah’s story in the Bible, this phrase points us toward the Prophets of the Old Testament.
The Prophets, the long list of mostly hard to pronounce names at the end of the Old Testament, would have been a part of the Scriptures with which the people of Jesus day would have been familiar.
Minor Prophet
If we look in the table of contents in our Bible or flip pages until we find it, we’ll see Jonah near the end of the Old Testament in the Minor Prophets section. These are the shorter prophetic books, in fact, Jonah is only one page front and back in my Bible. His story is short enough to read in one sitting.
Jonah’s story
There’s more we could say about Jonah, but for now consider reading his story if you don’t yet know it. Since my Bible study group started with the Old Testament, we were familiar with Jonah’s story when we came to the reference in Matthew.
Here’s the verse from Jonah:
“Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” Jonah 1:17 NIV
We’ve merely highlighted the connection between these two verses from this storyline. For a fuller picture of the comparison, read the book of Jonah and Matthew 10:38-41.
Greater depth to passage
When we connect the Old and New Testament through backstory we enhance our understanding of each passage. In this case, the Old Testament storyline provides a backdrop for the New Testament teaching from Jesus. His own words in the Matthew passage also bring greater depth to the Old Testament verses.
Tool for understanding
This is one of my favorite kinds of match ups. Once you know the story from the Old Testament you can set New Testament Scripture against that backdrop. If you remember the storyline, you have one more tool for understanding the New Testament passage and a way to step back and view the backdrop. Jesus used examples familiar to his listeners. When we know the story he draws from, we gain greater insight too.
Find deeper significance
We can find deeper significance in the passage when we recognize the story connection between the Old and New Testament.
A few more clues
Searching for backstory pairs well with finding phrases that clue us in when a quote in the New Testament is from a prophetic book in the Old Testament. That’s the skill we looked at here:
Scripture pairing – Old Testament quoted in the New Testament
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