Psalm 14:3 in LXX

[Kaalvenist]

Has anyone seen this before? I have always read that Romans 3:10-18 is a collection of texts scattered throughout the Old Testament that Paul "strung together" ... namely, Ps. 14:1-3; Ps. 10:7; Isa. 59:7, 8; Ps. 36:1.

But when I just checked the Septuagint reading of Psalm 14 (in two different Septuagint texts), Ps. 14:3 had the entire quotation of Rom. 3:12-18.

This would mean that Paul didn't string the texts together; the Septuagint translators did so at Ps. 14:3, and Paul simply quoted the Septuagint at Ps. 14:1-3 (interestingly enough, 14:2 reads the same in the Septuagint as in our Bibles; so that Paul's reading of "There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God" is his own apostolic, inspired interpretation of that verse, and not also derived from the Septuagint).

 

[py3ak]

Sean, you're right. I'd never realized that before. What do you think is the significance of that?

 

[Kaalvenist]

Originally posted by py3ak
Sean, you're right. I'd never realized that before. What do you think is the significance of that?

Two things come to mind.

1. This demonstrates that Paul was quoting Psalm 14, and not Psalm 53; because although those passages read identically in the Masoretic text (and our English Bibles), they do not read identically in the Septuagint. Paul goes with the Septuagint reading of Psalm 14:1-3, not the Septuagint reading of Psalm 53:1-3.

2. This further demonstrates the apostle's (or apostles') reliance upon the Septuagint as a translation, showing the validity of the use of translations of the Bible, and contributing to my larger argument for exclusive psalmody with regard to the terms in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 (supporting the presumption of a Septuagintal reference to those terms). But that's an argument for another thread and forum.

 

[WrittenFromUtopia]

Good find. The LXX has always proved to be interesting and thought-provoking for me.

 

[Jerusalem Blade]

Very interesting. I had not noticed or been aware of this.

Calvin specifically pronounces on verse 15 of Romans 3:

The expression which Paul adds from Isaiah, Destruction and misery are in their ways, is a most striking one, for it is a description of ferocity of immeasurable barbarity, which produces solitude and waste by destroying everything wherever it goes...

There follows the phrase, The way of peace they have not known. They are so habituated to rapine, acts of violence and wrong, savagery and cruelty, that they do not know how to act in a kind or friendly way.​

No doubt he was aware of the LXX's reading. This quote would be from Isaiah 59:7, 8.

Keil and Delitzsch, in their comments on Psalm 14:3, say:

The citations of the apostle which follow his quotation of the Psalm...were early incorporated in the [Koine] of the LXX. They appear as an integral part of it in the Cod. Alex. [and he lists a few more odd places where it is found in text or margin -SMR]...Origen rightly excluded this apostolic Mosaic work of Old Testament quotations from his text of the Psalm, and the true representation of the matter is to be found in Jerome, in the preface to the xvi. book of his commentary on Isaiah.​

Lastly I submit Douglas Moo's opinion (from his NICNT commentary, The Epistle To the Romans (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996):

The inclusion of Romans 3:13-18 in several MSS of the LXX of Psalm 14 is a striking example of the influence of Christian scribes on the transmission of the LXX. (See S-H for a thorough discussion). (p. 203, fn. 28) [S-H refers to A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, by William Sanday and Arthur C. Headlam (ICC. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1902)]​

What Moo is saying, explicitly -- as Origen implicitly, K&D concurring -- is that the LXX's reading in Psalm 14:3 came from Romans via Christian scribes, and not the other way around, i.e., from the LXX into Romans.

Thank you for highlighting this interesting oddity.

Steve