richard hays echoes of scripture in the gospels

Their way of pursuing what we call “doing theology” was to produce richly intertextual narrative accounts of the significance of Jesus. Scripture provided the “encyclopedia of production” for the Evangelists narration of the story of Jesus. The pervasive, complex, and multivalent uses if Scripture we find in the Gospels could arise only in and for a community immersed in scriptural language and imagery. It would mean learning the texts by heart in the fullest sense. What would it mean to undertake the task of reading Scripture along with the Evangelists? First of all, it would mean cultivating a deep knowledge of the Old Testament texts, getting these texts into our blood and bones. While we can understand the essence of the gospel with a superficial understanding of the Old Testament, we will not get the depth and nuance of the Gospels or the gospel without a deep appreciation for Israel’s Scriptures. Hays concludes his book reflecting on what this approach to Scripture should look like for us today.

We are called to wrestle with Scripture in our context today, and the model for this interaction is found in the pages of the Bible itself. Particular voices within the canon will be more or less useful in different times and places, as the church discerns the points of vital intersection between the Bible and its own immediate cultural situation. The fourfold Gospel witness is a providential gift to the church it protects the community against the dangers of rigid monologic discourse and offers a range of theological resources for diverse circumstances. One function of the church’s canon, a diverse collection of writings, is to model a repertoire of faithful ways to receive and proclaim God’s word. Hays suggests that these differences are a God-given gift to the church. Each of the Evangelists provides a different perspective.

But this isn’t a simple monochromatic lens providing a selection of proof-texts for our faith. As Christians we can, and should, read the Old Testament through the filtering lens of Jesus the Christ.

Richard hays echoes of scripture in the gospels