Reading Backwards

An investigation into how the four Gospel writers drew on the Old Testament to demonstrate their belief that Jesus was nothing less than the embodiment of Israel’s God.



The claim that the events of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection took place ‘according to the Scriptures’ stands at the heart of the New Testament's earliest message. All four canonical Gospels declare that the Torah, Prophets and Psalms mysteriously prefigure Jesus. In this ground-breaking new book, Hays traces the strategies the Gospel writers employ to ‘read backwards’, showing how the Old Testament figuratively discloses the astonishing truth about Jesus' identity.