Jesus in the Old Testament

When Does the Bible Start Talking about Jesus? “In the Beginning . . . ”

We often read our Bibles as if Jesus made his first appearance in this world as a baby in the New Testament. But did he first appear in the book of Matthew? Or is Jesus in the Old Testament too? The Bible's witness to Jesus did not begin in the Gospels. In fact, a common thread runs throughout the pages of our Bibles from the beginning of Genesis to the last page of Revelation: Christ. And for many people, realizing Jesus did not enter the biblical narrative in the book Matthew is the hinge that opens up their Bibles and turns the pages from black and white to technicolor. It takes a bit of digging and an understanding of some basic theological concepts, but it’s well worth the effort—and might just change how you read and study your Bible.

Journey through the Old Testament with us, or skip ahead to any section on this page:

Can We Really Find Jesus in the Old Testament’s Pages?

Prophecies about Jesus

What Typology Is and Why It Matters

Finding Jesus in Old Testament Pictures and Patterns

Jesus in the Old Testament Feasts

Jesus as Prophet, Priest, and King

12 Verses about Jesus in the Old Testament

Can We Really Find Jesus in the Old Testament’s Pages?

Yes—he’s all over the place. In fact, more than once Jesus opened what we know as the Old Testament (it was the only Scripture that existed then!) to show his disciples passages that pointed to him. But that’s just the beginning.

New lenses for the old, old story

After Jesus’ resurrection, two of his disciples, despondent over Jesus’ recent crucifixion, were walking on a dusty road to a town outside of Jerusalem called Emmaus. Unbeknownst to them, the resurrected Christ joined them on their journey—and soon they were telling this man they did not recognize their story. At this point, Jesus begins to readjust their focus. Luke 24:27 says that “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself,” and later in verse 44, “‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures’” (emphasis added). Jesus didn’t start explaining how he was their long-awaited King and Messiah by pointing to the New Testament—it had not yet been penned. He started at the beginning, “with Moses and all the Prophets,” in Genesis. It’s why Jesus said the Old Testament Scriptures “testify of me” and that if the people believed Moses, they “would believe me; for he wrote about me” (John 5:39, 46, emphasis added).

Beginning with Moses . . . in the book of Matthew

The first 18 verses in the book of Matthew also confirm Jesus was present in Genesis—verses that appear to be a long and uninteresting genealogy. But as Christopher J. H. Wright says in Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament, we’ll never really understand Jesus unless we see him through the broader narrative:

We will only understand Jesus properly if we see him in the light of this story, which he completes and brings to its climax. So when we turn the page from the Old to the New Testament, we find a link between the two, which is more important than the attention we usually give it. It is a central historical interface binding together the two great acts of God’s drama of salvation. The Old Testament tells the story [that] Jesus completes.

Consider Matthew 1:1: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” In just 15 words, we learn that Jesus was Jewish, that he was a real man who lived at a specific time in history, and that he descended from the royal line of King David. Perhaps most importantly, Matthew includes Jesus’ relation to Abraham. Any first-century Jewish person would have known the phrases “son of David” and “son of Abraham” hinted at their coming King and Messiah, whom God said in Genesis 12:1–3 would come from Abraham’s family line: “In you [Abraham] all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (v. 3; see also 18:17–18; Acts 3:24–26).

Then, in the first words of verse 18 immediately following that genealogy, Matthew says those centuries of preparation for the Messiah are complete, “the end of the line,” according to Wright:

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way . . .

Israel’s Messiah had come. But his birth is not the end of the story. As Wright says, Jesus is “the end of the beginning, but he is also (looking forward to) the beginning of the end.” We shouldn’t be surprised that God revealed his plan of redemption in Genesis—in fact, he told us so:

I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. . . . My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.” (Isa 46:10 NIV, emphasis added)

God’s Messiah is present in the Old Testament “from the beginning” confirmed in the first words of the New Testament. In Jesus in the Bible, Kenneth Boa writes that though the word “Messiah” is not used until much later in Scripture, God begins hinting at a Savior sent from heaven who would “undo the terrible effects of Adam’s choices” in the book of Genesis. Boa writes:

As Genesis unfolds, this deliverer, whom we know as Christ, is said to somehow be the offspring of Eve (3:15). He will come, ultimately, from the line of Seth (4:25). He will be the son of Shem (9:27), the descendant of Abraham (12:3), of Isaac (21:12), of Jacob (25:23), and a member of the tribe of Judah (49:10).

Prophecies about Jesus

According to the Lexham Bible Dictionary (LBD), a prophecy is “an oral, divine message mediated through an individual that is directed at a person or people group and intended to elicit a specific response.” Prophecies can predict or foretell future events or admonish (sometimes these two overlap).

The Old Testament is packed with prophecies about Jesus. Some scholars—like John F. Walvoord in Every Prophecy about Jesus—say there are hundreds of prophecies related to the coming Messiah! Mathematician Peter Stoner states that one person fulfilling just eight of these prophecies is one in 100,000,000,000,000,000. The probability of one person fulfilling all of the prophecies about Jesus the Old Testament? A lot more zeros.

Here’s just a smattering.

The Messiah would be born in Bethlehem

“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.” (Mic 5:2)

See: Matthew 2:1–7; John 7:42; Luke 2:4–7

The Messiah would be from the tribe of Judah

“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” (Gen 49:10)

See: Matthew 1:1–6; Luke 3:31–34

The Messiah would enter Jerusalem on a colt

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zech 9:9)

See: Matthew 21:6–11

The Messiah would be betrayed by a friend

“Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.” (Ps 41:9; see also Ps 55:12–14)

See: Matthew 10:4; 26:49–50; John 13:21

The Messiah would be crucified—his hands and feet pierced

“For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet.” (Ps 22:16)

See: John 19:28

The Messiah would be raised from the dead