Texts in Conversation
In Romans 15, Paul adapts Deuteronomy 32, which calls the nations to rejoice with Israel after justice and restoration. What ends the song of suffering in the Torah becomes a call for unity between Jewish people and Gentiles.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
LXX Deuteronomy 32:43
Septuagint
41 For I will sharpen my sword like lightning, and my hand shall take hold of judgment; and I will render judgment to my enemies, and will repay those who hate me. 42 I will make my weapons drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh, it shall glut itself with the blood of the wounded, and from the captivity of the heads of their enemies that rule over them. 43 Rejoice, you heavens, with him, and let all the sons of God worship him; rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people, and let all the angels of God strengthen themselves in him; for he will avenge the blood of his sons, and he will render vengeance, and repay justly his enemies, and will reward those who hate him; and the Lord shall purge the land of his people. 44 And Moses wrote this song in that day, and taught it to the children of Israel; and Moses went in and spoke all the words of this law in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun. 45 And Moses finished speaking to all Israel.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Romans 15:10
New Testament
8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth to confirm the promises made to the fathers, 9 and thus the Gentiles glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Because of this I will confess you among the Gentiles, and I will sing praises to your name.” 10 And again it says: “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.” 11 And again, “Praise the Lord all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him.” 12 And again Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse will come, and the one who rises to rule over the Gentiles, in him will the Gentiles hope.”
Date: 55–58 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Search:
Notes and References
"... The importance of the book of Deuteronomy for the study of Israel’s scriptures in the New Testament can hardly be exaggerated. As is recognized, the fifth book of the Pentateuch, along with the Psalms and the prophecy of Isaiah, is the most quoted of Old Testament books in the New Testament. Paul, for instance, cites Deuteronomy as one of several possible proof-texts (Deuteronomy 32:43 in Romans 15:10; Deuteronomy 17:7 in 1 Corinthians 5:13); he erects a central, theological pillar of how the blessing of Abraham was extended to gentiles by a paradoxical interpretation of ‘the curse of the one who hangs on a tree’ (Deuteronomy 27:26 in Galatians 3:13); and he instructs his congregation on the contrast between living righteously, founded on faith, against life based on the law by a ‘midrashic’ reading of Deuteronomy 30 in Romans 10. The study of quotations is a useful and illuminating exercise, but it hardly exhausts the influence of Deuteronomy on the New Testament and other Jewish writers of the Second Temple Period ..."
Timothy H. Lim, “Deuteronomy in the Judaism of the Second Temple Period,” in Deuteronomy in the New Testament, ed. Maarten J. J. Menken and Steve Moyise (London: T&T Clark International, 2007), 6–26.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.
User Comments
,