2026.03.03 | Douglas S. Huffman. Understanding the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Forms, Features, Framings, and Functions. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2024. pp. xix + 268. ISBN: 9781540966407.

Review by Kai Akagi, Rikkyo University.

The use of the Old Testament in the New Testament is studied within various frameworks, using various paradigms and methods, and for various research and educational purposes. New works on the topic continue to be produced rapidly. Douglas S. Huffman’s Understanding the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Forms, Features, Framings, and Functions provides an introductory educational resource for an evangelical audience that distills the complexity of certain areas within the study of the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament. It does so by offering explanation, examples, and paradigms for understanding and organizing each of the areas of the New Testament use of the Old Testament that it considers. 

The preface introduces the volume as an introduction to the study of the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament, but one that “also takes aim at contributing something new to the ongoing discussion” (p. xi). The book consists of six chapters (“Introduction to the Study of the New Testament Use of the Old Testament,” “Form Classifications for the New Testament Use of the Old Testament,” “Features for Form Identification in the New Testament Use of the Old Testament,” “Framing Classifications for the New Testament Use of the Old Testament,” “Function Classifications for the New Testament Use of the Old Testament,” and “The New Testament Use of the Old Testament in Luke and Acts”) over 158 pages, followed by 77 pages of appendices, a seven-page glossary, and indices of modern authors and of scriptural and other ancient texts. The three appendices are “Apparent Citations Introduced in the New Testament but Difficult to Locate in the Old Testament” (Appendix A), “A Select Bibliography for the New Testament Use of the Old Testament” (Appendix B), and “Applying the New Taxonomy of Forms to the UBS⁵ and NA²⁸ Indexes of Old Testament Citations and Allusions for Luke and Acts” (Appendix C).

Each of the four middle chapters of the book, constituting the main discussion in the volume, introduces its respective topic with a discussion of previous taxonomies and a presentation of the author’s own taxonomy with examples. Despite the complexities of the topics considered and the inevitable complexity of comparing taxonomies, Huffman succeeds in presenting his discussion in a manner that is easy to understand.

The terms “form,” “feature,” “framing,” and “function” are used with different referents in discussion of the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament, and an explanation of Huffman’s use of these terms may provide an understanding of the approach and content of the book. By “form,” Huffman refers not to text-form (which, although mentioned in the book, is not a primary focus), but whether the Old Testament is quoted directly, paraphrased, or used in some other way. Huffman uses his own modified Haysian taxonomy of six form classifications: formulaic quotation, direct quotation, paraphrase, allusion, recollection, and thematic echo. The chapter on “features” is connected to the content of this chapter by offering criteria for classifying uses according to the taxonomy of “forms.”

Huffman’s “framings” approximate to hermeneutical or exegetical methods of a New Testament author’s use of the Old Testament. Huffman presents fifteen types of “framings.” Seven of these correspond to the rules of Hillel, two more (“proem” and yelammedenu rabbenu) are considered “midrashic homiletical framings,” and six more are Huffman’s own list of “other sermonic framings”: targum or paraphrasing translation, pesher, allegory, typology, peshat or literal interpretation, and conflation.

By “functions,” Huffman refers to the purposes with which New Testament authors use Old Testament texts. These purposes to an extent reflect Huffman’s theological approach. The functions he lists are “ultimate truths,” “ethical wisdom,” “prophecy fulfillment,” “promising patterns,” typological correlation.” “historical backdrop,” “cultural background,” “instructive exemplars,” “illustrations and imagery,” and “vocabulary and style.”

The author considers his volume’s main contribution to be “more rigorous taxonomies of the forms and functions of the New Testament use of the Old Testament” (p. xii). The extent to which others will adopt Huffman’s taxonomies cannot yet be evaluated. As someone whose research gives attention to New Testament use of other texts and who often works in Luke-Acts, however, I anticipate Appendix A and Appendix C of the volume to be the most useful for future work. In Appendix A, Huffman provides a concise treatment of several apparent quotations with unidentified sources and thus provides commentary and attempted solutions for interaction in exegetical consideration of these texts. The usefulness of Appendix C lies in its nearly exhaustive listing and classification of uses of the Old Testament in Luke-Acts. Even where a reader may disagree with Huffman’s classification of a particular use, Huffman’s listing and classification may provide material for interaction in discussion of each of these uses.

There are three additional points concerning the approach of the volume that, while in keeping with the purpose for which it is written, should be noted. First, the volume appears to be written with an evangelical seminary as the primary intended context for use, and it is not a nuanced work of rigorous research. Theologically, Huffman writes with the premise that the Old Testament and New Testament are a coherent unity by which “even as the Jesus of the NT alone makes sense of the OT, it is also the case that the OT alone makes sense of the Jesus of the NT” (p. 4, n. 5), and by which “given the actions of God in the world, the one Testament grew out of the other, but not merely as part of the other” (p. 4). His concern is thus of use of the Old Testament within a clearly defined and unified canon, and matters of the use of the Old Testament in texts outside the New Testament (aside from the inclusion of some rabbinic exegetical methods in the list of “framings”) and of canonical development in relation to use of the Old Testament in the New Testament are not addressed. Related to this theological understanding of the Bible, there are some simple characterizations of first-century Judaism and the differences between Judaism and early Christian with which not all readers will agree. For example, Huffman states, “The NT writers presumed that God could indeed fulfill Scripture by sending his Son as the prophesied messianic figure, and the first-century Jews presumed that God would not-could not fulfill Scripture by sending his Son as the Messiah” (p. 10). Huffman further states his position that “We must stress the continuity between the OT and the NT so as to avoid all versions of Marcionism that would seek to destroy the unity of Scripture” (p. 23).

Second, the volume is not a book on intertextuality, which is set aside with a simplistic explanation (22). It does not discuss semiotic approaches, theory of literary allusion, or adaptation theory, and there is very little consideration of composite and layered uses of Old Testament texts. This is in keeping with the purpose of the volume, but in places the absence of interaction with philosophy of language results is simplistic statements, such as “Understanding something in its original context is a basic principle of human communication” (18).

Third, the authors with whom Huffman interacts reflect the context for which he writes such that Anglophone evangelicals, including some that are relatively not widely known, receive a significant proportion of interaction, while some significant recent works related to the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament receive little attention. Of the thirty-six authors cited six or more times, all authors cited are either Anglophone evangelicals or those whose work tends to receive attention in evangelical seminaries in the USA. It may also be noted that all of these thirty-six authors are male, the most cited female author being Susan E. Docherty, who is cited five times.

In conclusion, Huffman’s volume is an educational resource for evangelical seminaries that provides an accessible introduction to some of the ways in which the Old Testament is used in the New Testament with taxonomies for approaching them in an organized way. While the volume has a limited scope in keeping with its purpose, in addition to those using the volume as a textbook or for self-study, some readers may wish to adopt Huffman’s taxonomies, and the appendices provide a useful resources for study of the use of the Old Testament in Luke-Acts and for exegetical consideration of some of the apparent quotations in the New Testament that are difficult to explain.

Kai Akagi
Rikkyo University
kakagi [at] akagiresearch.com