QUOTATIONS

Quotations
from the Old Testament in the New, which are very numerous, are
not made according to any uniform method. When the New Testament
was written, the Old was not divided, as it now is, into
chapters and verses, and hence such peculiarities as these: When
Luke (20:37) refers to Ex. 3:6, he quotes from "Moses at the
bush", i.e., the section containing the record of Moses at the
bush. So also Mark (2:26) refers to 1 Sam. 21:1-6, in the words,
"in the days of Abiathar;" and Paul (Rom. 11:2) refers to 1
Kings ch. 17-19, in the words, "in Elias", i.e., in the portion
of the history regarding Elias.

  In general, the New Testament writers quote from the
Septuagint (q.v.) version of the Old Testament, as it was then
in common use among the Jews. But it is noticeable that these
quotations are not made in any uniform manner. Sometimes, e.g.,
the quotation does not agree literally either with the LXX. or
the Hebrew text. This occurs in about one hundred instances.
Sometimes the LXX. is literally quoted (in about ninety
instances), and sometimes it is corrected or altered in the
quotations (in over eighty instances).

  Quotations are sometimes made also directly from the Hebrew
text (Matt. 4:15, 16; John 19:37; 1 Cor. 15:54). Besides the
quotations made directly, there are found numberless allusions,
more or less distinct, showing that the minds of the New
Testament writers were filled with the expressions and ideas as
well as historical facts recorded in the Old.

  There are in all two hundred and eighty-three direct
quotations from the Old Testament in the New, but not one clear
and certain case of quotation from the Apocrypha (q.v.).

  Besides quotations in the New from the Old Testament, there
are in Paul's writings three quotations from certain Greek
poets, Acts 17:28; 1 Cor. 15:33; Titus 1:12. These quotations
are memorials of his early classical education.