Quotations from the OT (including Ecclesiastes) in the NT

From: chris stanley (cstanley@atlas.mckendree.edu)
Date: Thu Jan 15 1998 - 09:48:41 EST


A few days ago I posted a lengthy message responding to several recent
posts on OT quotations in the NT. Carl Conrad has informed me that the
message came out garbled in his mailer, but others seems to have received
it clearly, sicne I've received a couple of commments off-line quoting
the full text. We've ust converted to a new mailer on our campus, so I'm
not surprised that some of it came out garbled. I've re-typed the message
below--please let me know if it's still not coming through on your mailer.

Chris Stanley

Text of earlier message:
"I'm just now getting around to responding to the recent discussion on the
presence of OT quotations in the NT, initiated by Jack Vogt on Jan. 5th.
The question of what constitutes a "quotation" has received little
explicit attention in the broad literature on "the use of the OT in the
NT." In most cases the investigator simply offers a list (usually based
on the GNT indices cited recently on the list) with no attempt tot ustify
it on theoretical grounds (whether linguistic or rhetorical). An extended
discussion of the theoretical issues can be found in my book, Paul and the
Language of Scripture (Cambridge U. Press, 1992), pp. 33-7, 65-6. For the
sake of methodological clarity, I would argue that we should reserve the
term "quotation" for passages that are clearly marked as such (by
introductory formulae, etc.), and use other terms (allusion, echo, etc.)
for the unmarked references to Scripture. The question of whether the
reference is intentional or unconscious is notoriously difficult to
resolve in the latter cases, whereas it is quite clear in the former.

The question raised by Jack Vogt regarding Phil 2:6-11 is a perfect
example of this problem. Does Paul "intend" to refer here to Isaiah 42:8
or not? How can we know? The persistent question of when or if we can
discern authorial intent comes fully to the fore in passages like this. It
is hard to see what basis we might have for judging in a case like this.

On a related point, Carl might be interested in the argument advanced by
Dietrich-Alex Koch in his magisterial work, Die Schrift als Zeuge des
Evangeliums (Mohr, 1986), that the original Greek manuscripts of the NT
contained the Tetragrammaton in pasages like this. (Yes, I said NT
manuscripts!) The same phenomenon can be seen in the Qumran texts.
Unfortunately, I don't have Koch's book handy to rehearse his argument,
but the section is clearly marked in his Table of Contents. I don't
believe I've heard this issue discussed on B-Greek before. Any takers?

Chris Stanley
        



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:38:56 EDT