Jesus, during His earthly ministry, made numerous references to the Hebrew Scriptures, which are known to us today as the Old Testament. He quoted from them extensively, affirmed their authority, and declared that they testified about Him. For instance, in John 5:39, Jesus says, “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me.”

Moreover, Jesus affirmed the enduring validity of the Scriptures. In Matthew 5:18, He states, “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” This underscores His view of the divine authority and permanence of the Scriptures.

While Jesus did not speak specifically about the New Testament, as it was written after His resurrection and ascension, He did promise the Holy Spirit who would guide His disciples and enable them to remember His teachings accurately. In John 14:26, Jesus assures, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” This promise indicates the divine guidance in the writing of what would become the New Testament, composed by those who were eyewitnesses to Jesus’ life and ministry or were close associates of those eyewitnesses.

The apostles, who were Jesus’ followers and played a foundational role in the early church, recognized the writings of each other as Scripture. For example, 2 Peter 3:15-16 refers to Paul’s letters in this way: “And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.” This suggests an early understanding of the divine authority of the apostolic writings alongside the Hebrew Scriptures.

Thus, while Jesus did not comment on the Bible as a whole in the form we have it today, His teachings and actions affirm the divine authority of the Scriptures available to Him—the Old Testament—and He promised the Holy Spirit would guide His followers in truth, which includes the writings of the New Testament. The early church’s recognition of the New Testament writings as authoritative and inspired by God reflects this divine guidance.