01.22. THE USE MADE OF OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE IN THE WRITINGS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

Part Third. THE USE MADE OF OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE IN THE WRITINGS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. THE use here referred to has respect simply to the formal quotations made in the New Testament from the Old, and the purposes to which they are applied. There is a more general use pervading the whole of the New Testament writings, and appearing in the constant appropriation of the truths and principles unfolded in Moses and the prophets, of the hopes and expectations that had been thereby awakened, and the very forms of thought and expression to which, as subjects of former revelations, the minds of God’s people had become habituated. In all these respects the New is the continuation and the proper complement of the Old. But beside this general use, which touches more or less on every department of theological inquiry, there is the more formal and specific use, which consists in the citations made by our Lord and His apostles from the inspired writings of the Old Covenant. These are of great number and variety; and are marked by such peculiarities, that it may justly be regarded as one of the chief problems, which modern exegesis has to solve, to give a satisfactory explanation and defence of the mode of quoting and applying Old Testament Scripture in the New. If this cannot be made to appear consistent with the correct interpretation of the Old Testament, and with the principles of plenary inspiration, there is necessarily a most important failure in the great end and object of exegetical studies.

It is proper, however, to state at the outset, that a very considerable number of the passages, which may, in a sense, be reckoned quotations from Old Testament Scripture, are better omitted in investigations like the present. They consist of silent, unacknowledged appropriations of Old Testament words or sentences, quite natural for those, who from their childhood had been instructed in the oracles of God, but so employed as to involve no question of propriety, or difficulty of interpretation. The speakers or writers, in such cases, do not profess to give forth the precise words and meaning of former revelations; their thoughts and language merely derived from these the form and direction, which by a kind of sacred instinct they took; and it does not matter for any purpose, for which the inspired oracles were given, whether the portions thus appropriated might or might not be very closely followed, and used in connexions somewhat different from those in which they originally stood. For example, when the Virgin Mary, in her song of praise, says, “He hath filled the hungry with good things,” she uses words exactly agreeing in our version with those in Psalms 106:9, and in the original differing only in its having the singular for hungry and good, where the other has the plural: but nothing scarcely can be said to be either gained or lost by bringing the two passages into comparison, nor can we even be certain, that the later passage was actually derived from the other. Or, when the Apostle Peter, in 1 Peter 3:14-15, of his first epistle, gives the exhortation, “Be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts,” there can be no doubt, that he substantially adopts the language of Isaiah, in Isaiah 8:12-13; but as he does not profess to quote what had been written by the prophet, so he reproduces the passage with such freedom, as to manifest, that it was the substance of the exhortation, rather than the ipsissima verba containing it, which he meant to appropriate. There are multitudes of similar examples, which in an exegetical respect involve no difficulty, and call for no special remark; and if noticed at all, it should only be as proofs of the extent to which the ideas and language of the Old Testament have given their impress to the New. Taking in all the instances in which the expressions of the Old Testament are thus used by the authors of the New, as well as the more direct and formal quotations, a number exceeding 600 has been made out. (See the volume of Mr. Gough, “The New Testament Quotations collated with the Scriptures of the Old Testament,” Walton and Maberly, 1855; a volume which shows pains and industry, but is not distinguished for critical ability; and is, besides, too cumbrous and expensive to be of general use.) No proper end, however, could be served hereby exhibiting such a lengthened array as this; it would tend rather to embarrass than promote the object we have in view. Our business must be chiefly with citations of a more formal and explicit kind, fitted, from the manner in which they are employed, to raise the inquiry, whether they are fairly given and legitimately applied.

There are properly, however, two points of inquiry—one bearing respect to the form in which the citations appear; the other, to the application made of them. These are two distinct questions. Are the passages quoted from the Old Testament in the New fairly dealt with, simply as quotations? And are the purposes for which they are adduced, and the sense put upon them, in accordance with their original meaning and design? In answer to the first question, it is found, that the quotations fall into four different classes; the first, a very large one, in which they exactly agree with the Hebrew, (often also with the Septuagint;) the second, likewise a considerable one, in which they substantially agree with the Hebrew, the differences being merely formal or circumstantial, and indicating no diversity of sense; the third, those in which the Septuagint is followed, though it diverges to some extent from the Hebrew; and the fourth, a class of passages in which neither the Hebrew nor the Septuagint is quite exactly adhered to. The whole of the passages might be ranged under these different classes; but for purposes of reference and consultation this would give rise to inconvenience; and we shall, therefore, follow the order of the citations themselves, as they occur in the New Testament. In adopting this course, however, we shall not lose sight of the several classes, which shall be marked respectively, I., II., III., IV., and one or other of them appended to each quotation, indicating the class to which it belongs, with a figure besides, denoting its number in that class. A summation will be given, at the close, of the results obtained, and such explanatory remarks added as may seem to be called for. This will occupy the first section.

Another section will be devoted to the second point noticed—the sense put upon the passages quoted, and the purposes to which they are applied; in other words, the principles involved in the application made of them. In the great majority of cases, however, the application is so manifestly in accordance with their original meaning and design, that it requires no vindication. All of this description, therefore, will be passed over, and attention directed only to such as involve some apparent license in interpretation.