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LXX Deuteronomy

Septuagint

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Chapter 18

1 The priests, the Levites, even the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel; the burnt offerings of the Lord are their inheritance, they shall eat them. 2 And they shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Lord himself is his portion, as he said to him. 3 And this is the due of the priests in the things coming from the people from those who offer sacrifices, whether it be a calf or a sheep; and he shall give the shoulder to the priest, and the cheeks, and the great intestine: 4 and the first fruits of your grain, and of your wine, and of your oil; and you shall give to him the first fruits of the fleeces of your sheep:⁠ 5 because the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes, to stand before the Lord your God, to minister and bless in his name, himself and his sons among the children of Israel. 6 And if a Levite come from one of your cities of all the children of Israel, where he himself dwells, accordingly as his mind desires, to the place which the Lord shall have chosen, 7 he shall minister to the name of the Lord his God, as all his brothers the Levites, who stand there present before the Lord. 8 He shall eat an allotted portion, besides the sale of his hereditary property. 9 And when you shall have entered into the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found in you one who purges his son or his daughter with fire, one who uses divination, who deals with omens, and augury, a sorcerer,⁠ 11 one employing incantation, one who has in him a divining spirit, an observer of signs, questioning the dead. 12 For every one that does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God; for because of these abominations the Lord will destroy them from before your face. 13 You shall be perfect before the Lord your God. 14 For all these nations whose land you shall inherit, they will listen to omens and divinations; but the Lord your God has not permitted you so to do. 15 The Lord your God shall raise up to you a prophet of your brothers, like me; you shall listen to him: 16 according to all things which you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, We will not again hear the voice of the Lord our God, and we will not any more see this great fire, and so we shall not die. 17 And the Lord said to me, They have spoken rightly all that they have said. 18 I will raise up to them a prophet of their brothers, like you;⁠ and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them as I shall command him. 19 And whatever man shall not listen to whatever words that prophet shall speak in my name,⁠ I will take vengeance on him. 20 But the prophet whoever shall impiously speak in my name a word which I have not commanded him to speak, and whoever shall speak in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. 21 But if you shall say in your heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? 22 Whatever words that prophet shall speak in the name of the Lord, and they shall not come true, and not come to pass, this is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; that prophet has spoken wickedly: you shall not spare him.

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Deuteronomy 18:18 and Acts 3:22

Septuagint · New Testament

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Summary

Acts quotes the promise of a prophet like Moses from Deuteronomy and applies it to Jesus, similar to messianic traditions in Jewish writings such as the Dead Sea Scrolls. It also connects it to an anticipated prophetic and messianic figure.

Passages

LXX Deuteronomy 18:18

Septuagint
16 according to all things which you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, We will not again hear the voice of the Lord our God, and we will not any more see this great fire, and so we shall not die. 17 And the Lord said to me, They have spoken rightly all that they have said. 18 I will raise up to them a prophet of their brothers, like you; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them as I shall command him. 19 And whatever man shall not listen to whatever words that prophet shall speak in my name, I will take vengeance on him. 20 But the prophet whoever shall impiously speak in my name a word which I have not commanded him to speak, and whoever shall speak in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Deuteronomy

Acts 3:22

New Testament
20 so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and so that he may send the Messiah appointed for you—that is, Jesus. 21 This one heaven must receive until the time all things are restored, which God declared from times long ago through his holy prophets. 22 Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must obey him in everything he tells you. 23 Every person who does not obey that prophet will be destroyed and thus removed from the people.’ 24 And all the prophets, from Samuel and those who followed him, have spoken about and announced these days.
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Acts

References

"... It must be borne in mind that while the Qumran sectaries thought in terms of three eschatological figures and applied Deuteronomy 18:18-19 to the prophetic figure in 4Q Testimonia, the New Testament applied that same passage to Jesus (Acts 3:22-23). In addition to its application to the eschatological redeemer, the word 'mashiach' in the literature from Qumran could be variously understood as referring to the elect of Israel in a corporate sense (4Q Florilegium i; 19 interpreting Psalm 2:2), or to prophets (CD ii. 12:1, and 1 QM xi. 7-8) ..."
David E. Aune, A Note on Jesus' Messianic Consciousness and 11HQ Melchizedek (Evangelical Quarterly, 1973), 161–165.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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LXX Deuteronomy 18:18 and Acts 3:22

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