The authors of ancient Jewish texts regularly quote and allude to what Christians call the Old Testament. The vocabulary, style and fundamental theological ideas of the New Testament are inescapably scriptural. Although some passages in Matthew, John, Paul and Revelation may show knowledge of the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament authors, writing in Greek, naturally used Greek translations of the scriptures. There was a traditional rhetoric of allusion as well as one of quotation, and the New Testament alludes to scripture far more often than it quotes it. The miracles that the New Testament attributes to Jesus are consistently good illustrations of how much meaning can be enfolded in allusions. Many modern scholars have viewed the intertextual nature of so many of the miracle stories as strong evidence of their fictional origin: early Christians made claims for Jesus by rewriting scriptural tales.