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The Holy Scriptures
What were the Hebrew Scriptures in the Time of Jesus?
There is absolutely no doubt that the Jewish Scriptures were deeply woven into the fabric of the people of the New Testament. Jesus had quoted often from the Law, from the Psalms, and from the Prophets (Luke 24:44), the three divisions of the Hebrew Bible. He continually used them in His arguments and to substantiate His mission and identity.Throughout the Book of Acts and the Epistles the apostolic writers reveal
their familiarity with the Old Testament by frequently quoting from the Hebrew
text or the Greek Septuagint. Paul went so far as to say that the Scriptures
were inspired or more literally "God breathed":
2 Tim 3:16-17 "All Scripture is given by inspiration of
God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly
equipped for every good work."
Paul also declared to Timothy that the Scriptures of the Old Testament were
able to give salvation through Jesus:
2 Tim 3:15 "… the Holy Scriptures, which are able to
make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."
In fact the hope of the early church was so secure in the Hebrew Scriptures
that a new Jewish version of the Old Testament in Greek was made, because the
Septuagint had become to all intents and purposes a Christian book. It wasn't
long before some Jewish scribes created at least one new translation in the
early centuries to furnish a more literal rendering of the Hebrew text that
would be less acceptable to Christian uses.