Why do christians quote from the old testemant so much?
What an incisive question. I fear there is no one simple, succinct answer. In fact, there will be as many answers as there are Christians. Why does anyone, Christian or otherwise, quote from any scriptures? I think basically there are three answers. They speak to us; they speak of us; they speak for us. (1) In what sense does the Hebrew Bible speak to Christians? [By the way, I’m sorry the biblia (=little books) are generally seen now as the Bible (=the book). These little documents reflect the age in which they were written; each was written in its own form, for its own purpose, with its own message, for its own people. We probably should read them in such a context.] Remember, Hebrew scriptures were the only ones available in the time Jesus lived in Israel–the law (Torah), the prophets, and the psalms. So when Jesus quoted scriptures, it was the Hebrew Bible. Jesus himself said he came not to destroy but to fulfill the law and the prophets. Before his ascension, he used them: “. . .
