How did Jesus read his Bible, and what does that mean for how we should read ours?

That’s the basic question behind The Word Fulfilled: Reading the Bible with Jesus, my latest book and my first in thirteen years. It builds on a simple idea: as Christians we are followers of Jesus, learning from his teachings and his way of life—and this should include his way of reading Scripture.

Now, anyone who knows even a little about early Judaism (Jesus’ Jewish context) will know that Jesus didn’t have a “Bible,” at least not like we do. For one thing, Jesus’ Scriptures were not the Christian Old and New Testaments, but rather the Jewish Tanakh: the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Writings (including the Psalms). For another, there was no book that collected all these writings of Scripture together. That kind of “Bible” was many centuries away.

I explore all this in The Word Fulfilled, along with some implications of this for how we think about our Bible as Christians. Then, I look at seven particular passages from the Jewish Scriptures which Jesus highlights in the Gospel accounts, exploring how Jesus read them. As part of this I also describe broader trends in how Jesus in the Gospels (and the New Testament as a whole) uses Scripture: his favourite biblical books, his posture in reading Scripture generally, and so on. All this has significant implications for how we should read the Bible today.

The book is written in a conversational style. I’ve deliberately avoided excessive notes. To make up for this (since it is important to “show your work”), I’ve included a “Digging Deeper” section at the end of the book which explores the historical and cultural context of Jesus and the Gospels. There’s also a study guide for those who might want to use the book for small group discussions.

This conversational style also includes what is perhaps the most distinctive feature of the book. Each of the core chapters (focusing on the seven scriptural passages) includes a vignette, a fictional story of Jesus growing up in his context, engaging with his Scriptures. These were fun to write, and they’ve been well-received when I’ve used them in preaching and teaching settings. I hope every reader enjoys these pieces of “Gospels fan faction” as much as I enjoyed writing them!