A selection from the many verses showing that the work of Jesus was foretold in the Old Testament.
After his resurrection, on two occasions Jesus tells his disciples that his suffering and resurrection have been predicted in the Old Testament:
25 He said to them, “Foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Didn’t the Christ have to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?” 27 Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
44 He said to them, “This is what I told you, while I was still with you, that all things which are written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me must be fulfilled.”
45 Then he opened their minds, that they might understand the Scriptures. 46 He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
Peter tells his hearers that several other prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus Christ:
22 For Moses indeed said to the fathers, ‘The Lord God will raise up a prophet for you from amongst your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him in all things whatever he says to you. 23 It will be that every soul that will not listen to that prophet will be utterly destroyed from amongst the people.’ 24 Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who followed after, as many as have spoken, they also told of these days.
The apostle Peter also says that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham that all nations will be blessed through one of his descendants:
25 You are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘All the families of the earth will be blessed through your offspring.’ 26 God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to you first to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your wickedness.”
Paul tells his hearers that several prophecies were fulfilled when Jesus was put to death:
27 For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they didn’t know him, nor the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. 28 Though they found no cause for death, they still asked Pilate to have him killed. 29 When they had fulfilled all things that were written about him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a tomb.
These chapters have links to this theme:
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