'Reading Backwards' by Richard B Hays (SPCK, 2015, 176 pages, £16.99, available from Amazon for £14.88)

Anyone interested in reading God's Word more informatively and effectively will find this a fascinating and valuable aid towards understanding an important aspect of Bible study: namely how the New Testament writers used what we now call the Old Testament. The aim of the book is to uncover the strategies the Gospel writers employed when appropriating Israel's scriptures in order to provide their readers with a fuller portrait of Jesus, a methodology that Hays describes as 'reading backwards'.

The book is based on a series of six lectures the author delivered at Cambridge University but it is very accessible rather than too academic. There are, however, useful endnotes and a full bibliography for those wanting to take these studies further. The time constraints of a lecture series means the book cannot cover such an extensive topic in the depth it deserves, but it is still long enough to contain many useful examples, and if it leaves you wanting more then it will have achieved one of its main aims.

The structure of the book is very straightforward. The introduction sets out the main points involved and emphasises what the book is and is not about. Then each Gospel is examined in turn to discover how the individual writers used Israel's scriptures in their own distinctive way. Hay discusses the strengths and weakness of each writer's approach, and explains how each contributes to the composite multi-faceted picture of Jesus that results. The conclusion provides a good summary, tying everything together in a satisfying way.

Hays uncovers the strategies used by the Gospel writers to appropriate Old Testament scriptures in relation to Jesus, each of which builds a composite, multi-faceted picture of our Saviour."

There are many ways in which this book could be useful and significant. It will help promote the importance of Hebraic roots within Christianity, and also counter the heretical view that the Old Testament is obsolete or portrays 'a different God' (a heresy known as Marcionism).

Furthermore, we can begin to appreciate that the Gospel writers are actually teaching us how to read the Old Testament more as God intended. In particular, the technique of 'reading backwards' illustrates how prophecy is to be evaluated in retrospect and that it should not always be treated as predictive. Also it is to be hoped that, via the general approach of the Gospel writers to their Scriptures and more specifically from the examples given, thoughtful readers of the New Testament might become better attuned to hear for themselves both implicit and explicit resonances from the Old Testament. Given all this, a richer Bible reading experience should be the overall result.