It was fundamental to the first Christians, being Jews, that
their belief in the Messiahship of Jesus should be demonstrable
from the OT, the ‘oracles of God’ (Rom. 3: 2). Hence the
frequent citations of OT in the NT. Much of the NT argumentation
follows the procedures of contemporary Judaism, such as midrash:
the teaching about the Bread of Life in John 6: 25–59 is based
on an OT text resembling Exod. 16: 4. The gospel of Matthew is
especially emphatic in encouraging its readers to understand how
Jesus was the fulfilment of the destiny of Israel. Thus Matt. 2:
13–15 describes how Joseph took the family to Egypt so that
Jesus would escape the wrath of Herod. This is a most unlikely
piece of history, since the obvious way to flee would have been
into the hills of Galilee or the desert of Judaea or to the
east, not to make an enormous trek to Egypt. But Egypt was the
place where the nation of Israel had sojourned and later
returned to Palestine; Israel was God's ‘son’ (Exod. 4: 22). So
Matthew cites Hos. 11: 1