Texts in Conversation
In Ezekiel 36, God promises to sprinkle clean water on Israel and put a new spirit in them. Titus draws on this language, describing salvation as a washing of rebirth and renewal by the Spirit.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
LXX Ezekiel 36:25
Septuagint
25 and I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be purged from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols, and I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and will put a new spirit in you: and I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you, and will cause you to walk in my ordinances, and to keep my judgments, and do them. 28 And you shall dwell upon the land which I gave to your fathers; and you shall be to me a people, and I will be to you a God. 29 And I will save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the grain, and multiply it, and will not bring famine upon you.
Titus 3:5
New Testament
4 But “when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, 5 he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us in full measure through Jesus Christ our Savior.
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Notes and References
... Even before the mention of the outpouring of the Spirit, this description of the Spirit’s activity in 3:5d–e echoes the Old Testament texts that speak of the new covenant. Given the potency of the Spirit tradition and some verbal and conceptual cues, this language (“the washing [loutron] of regeneration,” “renewal by the Holy Spirit”) would call to mind the vivid images of the promise of the Spirit in Ezekiel 36:25–27 (which included the imagery of sprinkling with water, renewal of the heart, and gift of the Spirit) and other such texts (compare Psalm 103:30 LXX [104:30 ET]). And the thought of new life implicit in this poem (see 3:1–2; 2:14d)—the Spirit-enabled “doing of the law”—cannot be far from mind. When the Old Testament promise of the Spirit’s “outpouring” is subsequently echoed in 3:6, what must be observed is that in the Ezekiel text’s broader context (especially 36:18), the verb that links the prophetic past as expressed in Joel with the eschatological present as expressed here, “pour out” (ekcheō), is in Ezekiel overwhelmingly used of God’s wrath ...
Towner, Philip H.
"1-2 Timothy and Titus" in Beale, G. K., and D. A. Carson, editors. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
(pp. 909-910) Baker Academic; Apollos, 2007
* 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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