Through Old Testament Eyes

The book of Revelation simply cannot be understood apart from the Old Testament. “Through Old Testament Eyes” is a new kind of commentary series that illuminates the Old Testament backgrounds, allusions, patterns, and references saturating the New Testament. The structure and content of the Old Testament were second nature to the New Testament authors and their audiences, but today's readers have no reference point for understanding their intricate role in the New Testament. Bible teachers, preachers, and students committed to understanding Scripture will gain insight through these rich Old Testament connections, which clarify puzzling passages and explain others in fresh ways. The images of Revelation-like a seven-sealed scroll, four horsemen bringing destruction and death, locusts from the Abyss, and more-often seem hopelessly complex to today's readers and have led to egregious misunderstanding and misinterpretations. But as Tremper Longman demonstrates in “Revelation Through Old Testament Eyes”, this confusion arises from unfamiliarity with symbolism that Revelation's first readers readily comprehended. In large part, the imagery arises from first-century AD Greco-Roman culture and from the Old Testament, with its own background in ancient Near Eastern literature. Through its unmistakable Old Testament connections, Revelation exhorts readers to persevere in the present and place their hope in God for the future. Avoiding overly technical discussions and interpretive debates to concentrate on Old Testament influences, “Revelation Through Old Testament Eyes” combines rigorous, focused New Testament scholarship with deep respect for the entire biblical text.

Through Old Testament Eyes is a new kind of commentary series that opens the New Testament writings in greater depth to anyone committed to understanding or teaching Scripture. In this inaugural volume, the richness of Old Testament allusions and background in Mark clarifies puzzling passages and explains others in fresh ways. The exodus motif structures Mark. Mark also presents Jesus as the true temple of God in contrast to the existing temple, which has been corrupted. These important themes are hidden to modern eyes without the insight of an Old Testament perspective, and this commentary builds on that insight to emphasize how the gospel applies to the daily lives of Christians today.

Through Old Testament Eyes is a new kind of commentary series that illuminates the Old Testament backgrounds, allusions, patterns, and references that saturate the New Testament. These links were second nature to the New Testament authors and their audiences, but today's readers often cannot see them. Bible teachers, preachers, and students committed to understanding Scripture will gain insight through these rich Old Testament connections, which clarify puzzling passages and explain others in fresh ways. The Gospel of Matthew contains both overt and subtle connections to the Old Testament, capitalizing on the scriptural literacy of the work's original, first-century Jewish audience. These complex and multifaceted connections are not always recognized by today's readers, meaning significant ideas can be easily missed or misappropriated. David B. Capes elucidates these extensive backgrounds, echoes, quotations, ways of thinking, and patterns of living, showing how God's plan--introduced in the Hebrew Scriptures--is revealed through the very person, work, life, and ministry of Jesus. Avoiding overly technical discussions and interpretive debates to concentrate on Old Testament influences, this book combines rigorous, focused New Testament scholarship with deep respect for the entire biblical text.