The early Christians turned to the Old Testament in order to understand the life and mission of Jesus. For example, the poems about the “suffering servant” found in the Prophet Isaiah shaped their reflection on the meaning of the passion of Jesus. The Gospels suggest that Jesus himself referred to Old Testament antecedents. For example, he contrasted the success of the preaching ministry of Jonah at Nineveh with the lack of response to his own preaching in Galilee. The first believers then drew another parallel between the time Jonah spent in the belly of the whale and the time Jesus spent in the tomb. For us today, the Old Testament continues to be a rich resource in deepening Christian faith which grew from Judaism.
