The Use of the Old Testament in the New Testament
The use of the Old Testament in the New Testament is one of the most difficult aspects of Bible interpretation. As you read the New Testament, you are no doubt struck by the numerous times it quotes or alludes to the Old Testament. Examining the quotations closely, you notice they are not always exact word-for-word quotations. Does this overturn all we have said about the principles of normal interpretation? As the New Testament writers exercised freedom in the way they quoted the Old Testament, were they abandoning normal, grammatical, historical interpretation?
How does this relate to the doctrine of
verbal inspiration and biblical inerrancy? If there are disparities between the
Old Testament and their New Testament quotations, can we still hold to the
inerrancy of the Bible?
Were the New Testament
writers interpreting the Old Testament by a different standard as they quoted
from it? And if so, does that give us liberty today to do the same?
Variations in the Wording of the Quotations
When citing the Old Testament, the New Testament
writers often changed the wording or omitted words. They used freedom in
changing points of grammar, in paraphrasing, omitting selected portions, giving
partial quotations, using synonyms, and recognizing new aspects of truth. We
will look at a number of these kinds of changes and then note various purposes
the writers had in quoting the Old Testament.
Making Variations in Grammar
1. The New Testament writers
sometimes substituted a pronoun for a noun. When Matthew quoted Isaiah 40:3,
“make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God,” he wrote, “Make
straight paths for Him” (Matt. 3:3), substituting “Him” for “our God.”
Isaiah
wrote, “All your sons will be taught by the Lord” (Isa. 54:13). When Jesus
quoted that verse, He said, “They will all be taught by God” (John 6:45).
Obviously in His remarks “They” suited His purposes better than “All your
sons.” In quoting Jeremiah 31:33, “This is the covenant I will make with the
house of Israel,” the writer to the Hebrews used the words “with them” (Heb.
10:16) rather than “with the house of Israel.”
2. Nouns
were sometimes used in place of pronouns. “Blessed is the King who comes in the
name of the Lord” (Luke 19:38) makes more specific the words of Psalm 118:26,
“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”
3. A plural
noun is sometimes used in place of a singular noun. Matthew referred to Jesus
speaking in “parables” (Matt. 13:35), but the verse he quoted (Ps. 78:2) has
the singular “parable” in the Hebrew. The words “his mouth” (Ps. 10:7) are
changed to the plural form “their mouths” when this verse is quoted in Romans
3:14.
4. Sometimes
the writers changed a pronoun. Isaiah said, “The virgin … will call Him
Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14). When Matthew quoted this verse, he said, “They will call
Him Immanuel” (Matt. 1:23). Both were obviously true. The virgin named Him
Immanuel and others will call Him by the same name. Zechariah 12:10 states,
“They will look on Me, the One they have pierced,” but when John quoted the
verse he wrote, “They will look on the One they have pierced” (John 19:37).
Moses told the people that God said, “I will make them envious by those who are
not a people” (Deut. 32:21). When Paul quoted this verse, he made it more
pointed by changing “them” to “you”: “I will make you envious by those who are
not a nation” (Rom. 10:19).
5.
Occasionally the speaker is identified in the quotation. John the Baptist
quoted Isaiah 40:3, but included in it the fact that he was the one Isaiah
referred to. Isaiah spoke of “A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare
the way for the Lord,’ ” whereas John said in response to a question by
the religious leaders about his identity, “I am the voice of one calling in the
desert” (John 1:23). Obviously he needed to alter the quotation slightly to
answer their question.
6. Sometimes
direct discourse is changed to indirect discourse. This is seen in Hosea 2:23,
“I will say to those called ‘Not My people,’ ‘You are My people,’ ” which
is quoted in Romans 9:25 as follows: “I will call them ‘My people’ who are not
My people.”
7. Other
times an indirect discourse is changed to direct discourse. “He” in Isaiah
29:16 (“He did not make me”) is changed to “You” in Romans 9:20 (“Why did You
make me like this?”). In addition the affirmative sentence is changed to a
question.
8. The
verbal form is sometimes altered slightly. The commands beginning with the
words “You shall not” in Exodus 20:13–16 are changed to the imperative “Do not”
in Mark 10:19. Regarding the Passover lambs the Lord instructed the people, “Do
not break any of the bones” (Ex. 12:46). When John applied this to Jesus, he
changed the imperative to an indicative statement, “Not one of His bones will
be broken” (John 19:36). Isaiah’s words in Isaiah 6:9 are in the imperative
mood: “Be ever hearing, but never understanding.” But when Jesus quoted this
verse in Matthew 13:14 He changed it to the future tense, indicative mood: “You
will be ever hearing but never understanding.”
9. A general
reference is occasionally made more specific in the New Testament quotations.
Amos 5:26 refers to “the shrine of your king … the star of your god.” When
Stephen quoted this in Acts 7:43, he referred to “the shrine of Moloch and the
star of your god Rephan” (Acts 7:43).
10.
Sometimes the extent of the reference is changed. Amos 5:27 referred to “exile
beyond Damascus,” but Stephen extended it to refer to “exile beyond Babylon”
(Acts 7:43).
11. The
order of the clauses is sometimes rearranged. When Jesus quoted five of the Ten
Commandments in Luke 18:20, He gave them in an order that differs slightly from
the order in Exodus 20:12–16.
12.
Sometimes two quotations are combined and assigned to the more prominent of the
two Old Testament authors. This is the case in Mark 1:2–3. Verse 2 quotes
Malachi 3:1 and verse 3 quotes Isaiah 40:3, and yet Mark introduced the verses
with the words, “It is written in Isaiah the prophet.” Isaiah obviously is the
more prominent of the two authors, and his book begins the section in the
Hebrew Old Testament known as the Prophets, which concludes with Malachi.
13.
Sometimes the New Testament writers rendered the sense of an Old Testament
passage loosely as a paraphrase. An example is Matthew 13:35, “I will utter
things hidden since the Creation of the world,” which paraphrases Psalm 78:2,
“I will utter things hidden from of old.” Isaiah wrote, “In that day the Root
of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to Him”
(Isa. 11:10). Paul rendered this loosely when he wrote, “The Root of Jesse will
spring up, One who will arise to rule over the nations; the Gentiles will hope
in Him” (Rom. 15:12). Though not a word-for-word quotation, the thought is
basically the same. Paul could be faulted if he had claimed to make it an exact
word-for-word quotation, but since he did not make that claim, it seems logical
to allow him the freedom, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to
paraphrase the thought in Isaiah 11:10.
Other
examples are these: Jeremiah 31:34, “For I will forgive their wickedness and
will remember their sins no more,” becomes “Their sins and lawless acts I will
remember no more” in Hebrews 10:17. The last two lines of Isaiah 29:13, “Their
worship of Me is made up only of rules taught by men” becomes “They worship Me
in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men” in Jesus’ words in
Matthew 15:9. Amos referred to idols “which you made for yourselves” (Amos
5:26), but Stephen renders it loosely by referring to “the idols you made to
worship” (Acts 7:43).
Omitting Certain Portions of
Verses
Writers of New Testament books
occasionally shortened Old Testament verses they quoted. An example is seen in
the last line of Mark 4:12, where Jesus said, “Otherwise they might turn and be
forgiven.” This is a condensed rendering of the last half of Isaiah 6:10:
“Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand
with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” In addition to the condensing, the
synonym “forgiven” replaces the word “healed.”
Zechariah
wrote regarding the Lord’s triumphal entry, “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of
Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem!” When John cited this passage he changed
the imperative to a negative, “Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion” (John
12:15). Also it is interesting to note that Zechariah 9:9 has six lines, but
John selected only three to quote. Matthew, however, cited four of the lines
(Matt. 21:5).
Matthew
15:8, “These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from
Me,” purposefully selects part of Isaiah 29:13: “These people come near to Me
with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from
Me.”
Giving Partial Quotations
When Jesus read from Isaiah 61:2,
as recorded in Luke 4:18–19, He stopped in the middle of verse 2 of Isaiah 61,
not reading the words, “and the day of vengeance of our God.” This was because
His carrying out the day of vengeance is yet future and was not relevant to His
first advent. The last part of Isaiah 56:7 reads, “For My house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations.” However, when Jesus quoted that verse He
said, “My house will be called a house of prayer” (Matt. 21:13). He omitted the
words “for all nations.” Why? Because in His earthly ministry the temple was
only for the Jews. It was not for all nations then, as it will be during the
Millennium.
When Matthew
quoted Zechariah 9:9 in Matthew 21:5, he omitted the words “having salvation” (nasb). This is because Jesus was not
bringing national salvation or deliverance to the nation at that time, knowing
that He was rejected by the nation and would be crucified within a few days.
Using Synonyms
The word “highway” in Isaiah 40:3
is replaced by the word “paths” in Matthew 3:3. Apparently John the Baptist
felt this word was more appropriate as he quoted this passage to his audience
in the desert of Judea.
A more
difficult use of synonyms is seen in Hebrews 10:5, “A body You prepared for
Me.” This is also the wording in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the
Old Testament, from which many Old Testament writers quoted. However, the
Hebrew has, “My ears You have pierced” (Ps. 40:6). When a slave had his ear
pierced, he was symbolizing his giving himself over to his master for lifelong
service (Ex. 21:6). The idea of having one’s ears pierced is closely connected
to the fact that Jesus had a body prepared for Him by God the Father. As
Westcott wrote, “The ‘body’ is the instrument for fulfilling the divine
command, just as the ‘ear’ is the instrument for receiving it.”6
The Septuagint obviously gave a free translation of the Hebrew, using the words
“body” and “prepared” in place of “ears” and “pierced.”
There was
nothing wrong in quoting from the Septuagint, for the writers did so under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The common translation available to people in
Jesus’ day and in the days of the early church was, of course, the Septuagint.
Therefore it was natural for them to quote from it. On the other hand many of
the citations of the Old Testament in the New are from the Hebrew, with which
the Septuagint often agrees.
Giving New Aspects of Truth
When Paul quoted Psalm 68:18 in
Ephesians 4:8, he changed the words “received gifts from men” to “gave gifts to
men.” Paul was simply building on the fact that since the ascended Lord
received gifts from men, He was then
able to give gifts to men. Also Paul
applied the statement in Psalm 68:18 to spiritual gifts, whereas its Old
Testament use referred to a victorious general sharing the spoils of warfare
with his soldiers.
When Paul
quoted Hosea 2:23 in Romans 9:25, he altered the wording slightly so that it
referred to the Lord calling Gentiles “My people” (Rom. 9:24), rather than
limiting it, as Hosea did, to Jews.
Paul made a
meaningful adjustment in the wording of the command in Deuteronomy 5:16. The
Old Testament verse reads, “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your
God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with
you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” When Paul quoted the verse in
Ephesians 6:2–3, he did not say, “that it may go well with you in the land the
Lord your God has given you.” Instead he wrote, “that you may enjoy long life
on the earth.” The difference is a dispensational one. The promise in
Deuteronomy held true for Israel to whom the Lord was promising life in the
land of Israel in return for their obeying this command. However, since Paul
was addressing believers in the Church Age he did not refer to the land the
Lord was giving; instead he referred to “life on the earth.”
All this
above material illustrates that the New Testament writers often preserved the
thought of the Old Testament passages cited, rather than always giving verbatim
quotations (though they often did that as well). We should not conclude that
verbal variations we have noted are inaccurate. They do not affect the doctrine
of the verbal inspiration of Scripture, because the Holy Spirit, being God, had
the freedom to modify the wording of the Old Testament as He desired. The end
product is the inspired Word of God whether the quotation is complete and exact
or partial and varied.
The
Septuagint is the translation of the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek. It was
made by Jewish scholars residing in Alexandria, Egypt approximately 200 years
before Christ. Obviously this was not inspired by the Holy Spirit. As we have
seen, it varies in many places from the Hebrew. If then it is not always
accurate, how can the New Testament writers have quoted from it? Actually this
is no problem when we realize that even today our quoting from a book does not
mean we approve of it in its entirety. Evangelical scholars have pointed up
that no New Testament quotation from the Septuagint differs in any substantive way from the Hebrew Old
Testament. [1]
About 150
years ago Horne classified the New Testament quotations of the Old into these
11 categories: Quotations that agree exactly with the Hebrew; quotations nearly
agreeing with the Hebrew; quotations agreeing with the Hebrew in sense but not
in words; quotations that give the general sense but that abridge the material
or add to it; quotations taken from several passages of Scripture; quotations
differing from the Hebrew but agreeing with the Septuagint; quotations agreeing
verbatim with the Septuagint or changing the number of persons; quotations
taken from the Septuagint but with some variation; quotations agreeing with the
Septuagint in sense but not in words; quotations differing from the Septuagint
but agreeing exactly or nearly so with the Hebrew; quotations differing from
both the Septuagint and the Hebrew which were probably taken from some other
translation or paraphrase.7
6 B.F. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews: The Greek Text with Notes and Essays,
3d ed. (1889; reprint, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1980),
308.
[1] Campbell,
Donald K. 1991. “Foreword.” In Basic Bible Interpretation: A Practical Guide to Discovering Biblical
Truth, edited by Craig Bubeck Sr., 254–60. Colorado Springs, CO: David C.
Cook.
7 Thomas H. Horne, An Introduction to the Critical Study and
Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures (Philadelphia: J. Whetham & Son,
1841), 311–13.
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