Texts in Conversation
In Luke, Jesus says that life comes through doing the commandments, echoing Leviticus 18, which promises life to those who obey the Torah. The connection is not presented as a direct quotation but as an allusion to the principle.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
LXX Leviticus 18:5
Septuagint
3 You shall not do according to the devices of Egypt, in which you lived: and according to the devices of the land of Canaan, into which I bring you, you shall not do; and you shall not walk in their ordinances. 4 You shall observe my judgments, and shall keep my ordinances, and shall walk in them: I am the Lord your God. 5 So you shall keep all my ordinances, and all my judgments, and do them; which if a man does, he shall live in them: I am the Lord your God. 6 No man shall draw near to any of his near kindred to uncover their nakedness; I am the Lord. 7 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, or the nakedness of your mother, for she is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Luke 10:28
New Testament
26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you understand it?” 27 The expert answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” 28 Jesus said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” 29 But the expert, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him up, and went off, leaving him half dead.
Date: 75–85 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Readings of Leviticus 18:5 possibly underlie two synoptic teachings of Jesus. (Gathercole, “Torah, Life, Salvation,” 140–142 notes that Luke 10:28 has been noticed as relating to Leviticus 18:5 before, but not taken into consideration by Dunn and others) Jesus is approached by an unnamed person, who afterwards appears to be rich (Mark 10:22), with a question as to what to do to earn eternal life ... The combination of doing and future living is reminiscent of LXX Leviticus 18:5 but cannot be qualified as a direct quotation. Nonetheless, Jesus answers by referring to the practice of commandments ... A reference to Leviticus 18:5 gains plausibility since the text stipulates the commandments as a way to life. Remarkably, however, the accent is put on the ethical or social commandments ..."
Eric Ottenheijm, “‘Which If a Man Do Them He Shall Live by Them’: Jewish and Christian Discourse on Lev 18:5,” in The Scriptures of Israel in Jewish and Christian Tradition: Essays in Honour of Maarten J. J. Menken, ed. Bart Koet, Steven Moyise, and Joseph Verheyden, NovTSup 148 (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 303–316.
* 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.
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