# How Many Times Does the New Testament Quote the Old Testament? > Published counts run from Easton’s 283 to the UBS figure of 343 quotations, with thousands of allusions. This site’s own list is a smaller, sourced set. - Canonical: https://apologetics.wiki/christianity/how-many-times-does-the-new-testament-quote-the-old-testament - Religions: Christianity - Denominations: none - Beliefs: none - Tags: bible, quotations, old-testament - Updated: 2026-10-11 - Author: [Paul Ambrose](https://apologetics.wiki/author/hi-its-paul) ([GitHub](https://github.com/hi-its-paul)) The count depends on what is called a quotation. Easton’s Bible Dictionary says the New Testament has 283 direct quotations from the Old Testament. Later surveys land near 300 quotations, and the allusion counts run into the thousands. [Messianic Prophecies Jesus Fulfilled](/christianity/messianic-prophecies-jesus-fulfilled) is the shorter list of lines read as pointing to Jesus. ![Arc map of Old Testament and New Testament chapter connections. Bar height is the verse count, and arc color follows the distance between chapters.](/brand/bible-connections.png) [See the Full Map](/bible/connections). ## Key Points - Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897) says the New Testament contains 283 direct quotations from the Old Testament, and that he finds no clear quotation from the Apocrypha. [(1)](#ref-1) - Roger Nicole (1958) counts at least 295 quotations, in about 352 New Testament verses, a little over 4.4 percent of the New Testament, or about one verse in 22.5. He also reports allusion totals of 613 (Toy), 1,640 (Dittmar), and 4,105 (Hühn). [(2)](#ref-2) - The Internet Archive record for Archer and Chirichigno’s 1983 survey says the book notes 312 entries. [(3)](#ref-3) Stephen Motyer reports that the United Bible Societies Greek New Testament, 4th edition, indexes 343 quotations and 2,309 allusions and verbal parallels. [(4)](#ref-4) - In that UBS index, as Motyer reports it, Psalms has 79 quotations and 333 allusions, and Isaiah has 66 quotations and 348 allusions. Revelation has no formal quotations and 620 allusions. [(4)](#ref-4) - On this site’s King James text, the phrase “it is written” appears in 63 New Testament verses, including [Matthew 4:4](/bible/matthew/4/4). “Might be fulfilled” appears in 18, including [Matthew 1:22](/bible/matthew/1/22). [(7)](#ref-7) [(8)](#ref-8) - In our data, excluding allusions, there are 443 quotation rows (233 with an explicit formula and 210 direct) across 297 New Testament verses and 300 Old Testament verses, plus 71 allusions. That is a verse-pair count, not a rival scholarly total. ## What the Published Counts Include Easton’s entry treats a direct quotation as the thing to count, and he puts the figure at 283. [(1)](#ref-1) Nicole starts from formulas. He counts 224 quotations introduced by a formula, 7 more joined on by “and,” 19 paraphrases that a formula introduces, and 45 that are certain but unmarked. The sum is at least 295, and those lines occupy about 352 verses. [(2)](#ref-2) The same essay is where the wide allusion range comes from. C. H. Toy counted 613, Wilhelm Dittmar 1,640, and Eugen Hühn 4,105. Nicole reports those figures. He does not treat them as one agreed total. [(2)](#ref-2) Archer and Chirichigno’s book is under copyright. This page uses the jacket’s count of 312 entries and does not reproduce the list. [(3)](#ref-3) The United Bible Societies index is also under copyright. Motyer’s dictionary article is the source for 343 quotations and 2,309 allusions, and for the book highlights: Psalms 79 quotations and 333 allusions, Isaiah 66 and 348, and Revelation with no formal quotation and 620 allusions. [(4)](#ref-4) A Nestle-Aland 28 “Loci citati” count was not verified for this page. ## What This Site Counted in the King James Text A search of the King James New Testament published here finds “it is written” in 63 verses. [Matthew 4:4](/bible/matthew/4/4) is one of them: Jesus answers the tempter with what is written. “Might be fulfilled” appears in 18 verses. Nine of those say “that it might be fulfilled,” including [Matthew 1:22](/bible/matthew/1/22), the line before Matthew cites Isaiah on the virgin birth. [(8)](#ref-8) Those phrase counts are not the same thing as a quotation index. A formula can introduce a quotation, and a quotation can sit in a sentence with no formula. ## How This Site’s List Was Built The verse pages on this site carry a connections accordion. Old Testament verses title it “New Testament Fulfillment and Connections.” New Testament verses title it “Old Testament Prophecy and Connections.” The groups are Quoted in or Quotes, Fulfilled in or Fulfills, Alludes to, and See Also. A verse with no link omits the accordion. [See the Full Map](/bible/connections) draws the same pairs as arcs between chapters. The quotation rows start from the footnotes of the American Standard Version (1901), which is in the public domain. Those footnotes name an Old Testament source. Further rows come from King James formulas, shared wording, OpenBible.info votes, and the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, and they were checked by hand. The cross-reference arcs use OpenBible.info pairs with a vote count of at least 20. OpenBible.info is [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). [(5)](#ref-5) [(6)](#ref-6) The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, the American Standard Version footnotes, and the King James text are in the public domain. The classification on each row is by apologetics.wiki. [About the text](/bible/credits) repeats that credit. In our data the 443 quotation rows, allusions left out, fall most often on Psalms (104 rows), Isaiah (73), and Deuteronomy (68). On the New Testament side the most rows are in Matthew (86), Romans (75), and Hebrews (59). Adding the 71 allusions raises those book totals. A row is one Old Testament verse joined to one New Testament verse, so one saying can produce several rows. The list is not complete. Unmarked quotations and allusions are the part most likely to be missing. A footnote that says “ff” is stored as the first verse only, and “f” as two verses. A range is capped at ten verses and the link opens the first verse. The data is the 66-book Protestant canon only. Apocrypha and Non-Canonical books are not in these files. Edersheim’s appendix is a separate parse, described on [Messianic Prophecies Jesus Fulfilled](/christianity/messianic-prophecies-jesus-fulfilled): he counts 456 passages, and the parse used here found 432. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Does Easton Count Apocrypha Quotations? Easton’s entry says he finds no clear and certain quotation from the Apocrypha in the New Testament. [(1)](#ref-1) That is his claim about direct quotation. It is not a claim that the Apocrypha had no readers. ### Are Allusions the Same as Quotations? No. Nicole separates formula quotations from the much larger allusion counts, and Motyer’s report of the UBS index does the same: 343 quotations beside 2,309 allusions and verbal parallels. [(2)](#ref-2) [(4)](#ref-4) An allusion can be a few shared words. A quotation is the stronger claim. ### Where Does This Site’s Count Come From? The 443 figure is a count of quotation rows in the files this site publishes, not a new edition of Easton or of the UBS index. The method and the gaps are in [How This Site’s List Was Built](#how-this-sites-list-was-built). Cross-reference votes are from OpenBible.info, under CC BY 4.0. [(5)](#ref-5) ## Passages Quoted on This Page ### Matthew 4:4 King James Version. > But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. ### Matthew 1:22 King James Version. > Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, ### Matthew 1:22–23 King James Version. > [1:22] Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, [1:23] Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. ## Sources Numbered to match the HTML References list. Item 1 is `#ref-1` under `#references`. Scripture links to the King James Version on this site. 1. [Easton’s Bible Dictionary, Quotations](https://www.ccel.org/ccel/easton/ebd2.html?term=Quotations) (Matthew George Easton, 1897. The entry says the New Testament contains two hundred and eighty-three direct quotations from the Old Testament, and that Easton finds no clear quotation from the Apocrypha.) 2. [The New Testament Use of the Old Testament, Revelation and the Bible, pages 137–151](https://thirdmill.org/articles/rog_nicole/rog_nicole.NT_OT.html) (Roger Nicole, 1958, reprinted by Thirdmill. He counts at least 295 quotations in about 352 verses, and he reports the allusion totals of Toy, Dittmar, and Hühn.) 3. [Old Testament Quotations in the New Testament, Internet Archive record](https://archive.org/details/oldtestamentquot0000arch) (Gleason L. Archer and Gregory Chirichigno, 1983. The record’s jacket text says the book notes 312 entries. The verse list is not copied here.) 4. [Old Testament in the New Testament, The, Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology](https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/bed/o/old-testament-in-the-new-testament-the.html) (Stephen Motyer, 1996, reporting the quotation and allusion index of the United Bible Societies Greek New Testament, 4th edition, 1993. Counts only.) 5. [Bible Cross References, OpenBible.info](https://www.openbible.info/labs/cross-references/) (Cross-reference data and vote counts, CC BY 4.0. Most of the underlying references come from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.) 6. [Creative Commons Attribution 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) 7. [Gospel of Matthew, 1:22–23](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/matthew/1). King James Version 8. [Gospel of Matthew, 4:4](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/matthew/4/4). King James Version ## See Also - [Does Archaeology Confirm the Bible?](https://apologetics.wiki/christianity/does-archaeology-confirm-the-bible) — The Pilate stone, the Tel Dan stele, Hezekiah’s tribute on the Taylor Prism, the Siloam tunnel inscription, and the Cyrus Cylinder name people and events the Bible also names. Each find has a limit. - [Does the Bible Contradict Itself?](https://apologetics.wiki/christianity/does-the-bible-contradict-itself) — Some Bible passages look as if they cannot both be true. Judas, the census numbers, and Matthew’s naming of Jeremy are real differences in the text. A contradiction is two claims that cannot both be true in the same way. - [How Many New Testament Manuscripts Are There?](https://apologetics.wiki/christianity/how-many-new-testament-manuscripts-are-there) — On 29 September 2023 the Münster Liste had 5,700 Greek New Testament entries, and the editors called that number a snapshot. Codex Sinaiticus is a fourth-century copy of the whole New Testament. - [How Was the Bible Canon Decided, and What Is the Apocrypha?](https://apologetics.wiki/christianity/what-is-the-apocrypha) — Trent receives the longer Old Testament and anathematizes refusal. Westminster says the books called Apocrypha are no part of the canon. The Catechism says the Church discerned the list by Tradition. - [Is the Bible True?](https://apologetics.wiki/christianity/is-the-bible-true) — Christians receive the Bible as God’s word. Its text is early and well copied, Jesus treated the Scriptures as fulfilled in him, and the crucifixion is a public event. That is not a laboratory proof that God exists.