The below list comes from an excellent new handbook:
G. K. Beale. Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Exegesis and Interpretation. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2012. xviii + 173 pp. 
A 39-page PDF that includes the table of contents is available here.
I was pleasantly surprised how easy this book is to read. I’ve read a lot of Greg Beale’s work (books, articles, reviews), and this book is by far his most readable work I’ve read. His other works tend not to follow the maxim, “Omit needless words,” and his syntax and word choices often seem like they’ve been translated from German into English by a Frenchman (hyperbole alert).
(I just lost my credibility with my fully Reformed friends because they regularly plow through the writings of Puritans and old Presbyterians and don’t understand how I could possibly find Beale difficult to read.)
Chapter 4 lists 12 primary ways the NT uses the OT (pp. 55–93):
- To Indicate Direct Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy
- To Indicate Indirect Fulfillment of Old Testament Typological Prophecy
- To Indicate Affirmation That a Not-Yet-Fulfilled Old Testament Prophecy Will Assuredly Be Fulfilled in the Future
- To Indicate an Analogical or Illustrative Use of the Old Testament
- To Indicate the Symbolic Use of the Old Testament
- To Indicate an Abiding Authority Carried Over from the Old Testament
- To Indicate a Proverbial Use of the Old Testament
- To Indicate a Rhetorical Use of the Old Testament
- To Indicate the Use of an Old Testament Segment as a Blueprint or Prototype for a New Testament Segment
- To Indicate an Alternate Textual Use of the Old Testament
- To Indicate an Assimilated Use of the Old Testament
- To Indicate an Ironic or Inverted Use of the Old Testament
Conclusion:
The uses discussed in this chapter likely do not exhaust the ways that NT writers employ the OT. Nevertheless, the examples listed and elaborated upon here represent the most typical uses found in the NT, especially the employments that indicate direct fulfillment of prophecy, typology, analogy, an abiding authority, and a different textual form than the Hebrew. Throughout all of the above uses (except the assimilated use), it is important to keep in mind the crucial role of the broad OT context. (p. 93)
Related: Other posts tagged “OT in the NT“
