Jesus' attitude to the Old Testament

Jesus was a Jew. His 'Bible' was our Old Testament. The Old Testament pointed forward to Jesus, and he fulfilled it. So how did Jesus himself see the Old Testament? Did he see it like this? Or is this just something that we are 'reading back' into the documents because we would like it to be true?

Jesus told the Jewish religious leaders who opposed him:

'You search the Scriptures because you believe they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me so that I can give you this eternal life.' (John's Gospel, chapter 5, verses 39-40)

After Jesus was raised from the dead, when he was teaching some of his followers on the the way to the village of Emmaus, the Bible says that he

'...quoted passages from the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining what all the Scriptures said about himself.' (Luke's Gospel, chapter 24, verse 27)

Later he told his followers:

'When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me by Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must all come true.' (Luke's Gospel, chapter 24 verse 44)

So Jesus really did understand the Old Testament to be about him - to point forward to him, and be fulfilled by him. This is also how his first followers, and the writers of the New Testament, understood the Old Testament:

Passages in John's Gospel about the Old Testament scriptures pointing to Christ.
How the author of the New Testament book of Hebrews understood the Old Testament to point forward to Christ.

For more about how the whole Bible points to Jesus - Old Testament as well as New Testament - read Vaughan Roberts' excellent book 'God's Big Picture: tracing the story-line of the Bible', or Graeme Goldsworthy's 'According to Plan: the unfolding revelation of God in the Bible', or Alec Motyer's 'Look to the Rock: An Old Testament Background to our understanding of Christ.'