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LXX Deuteronomy

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 25

1 And if there should be a dispute between men, and they should come forward to judgment, and the judges judge, and justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked: 2 then it will happen, if the unrighteous should be worthy of stripes, you shall lay him down before the judges, and they shall scourge him before them according to his iniquity, by number. 3 And they shall scourge him with forty stripes, they shall not inflict more; for if you should scourge him with more stripes beyond these stripes, your brother will be disgraced before you. 4 You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain.⁠ 5 And if brothers should live together, and one of them should die, and should not have seed, the wife of the deceased shall not marry out of the family to a man not related: her husband's brother shall go in to her, and shall take her to himself for a wife, and shall dwell with her. 6 And it will happen that the child which she shall bear, shall be named by the name of the deceased, and his name shall not be blotted out of Israel. 7 And if the man should not be willing to take his brother's wife, then shall the woman go up to the gate to the elders, and she shall say, My husband's brother will not raise up the name of his brother in Israel, my husband's brother has refused. 8 And the elders of his city shall call him, and speak to him; and if he stand and say, I will not take her: 9 then his brother's wife shall come forward before the elders, and shall loose one shoe from his foot, and shall spit in his face, and shall answer and say, Thus they will do to the man who will not build his brother's house in Israel. 10 And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that has had his shoe loosed. 11 And if men should strive together, a man with his brother, and the wife of one of them should advance to rescue her husband out of the hand of him that strikes him, and she should stretch forth her hand, and take hold of his private parts; 12 you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall not spare her. 13 You shall not have in your bag various weights, a great and a small. 14 You shall not have in your house various measures, a great and a small. 15 You shall have a true and just weight, and a true and just measure, that you may live long upon the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance. 16 For every one that does this is an abomination to the Lord your God, even every one that does injustice. 17 Remember what things Amalek did to you by the way, when you went forth out of Egypt: 18 how he withstood you in the way, and harassed your rear, even those that were weary behind you, and you hungered and were weary; and he did not fear God. 19 And it will happen whenever the Lord your God shall have given you rest from all your enemies all around you, in the land which the Lord your God gives you to inherit, you shall blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven, and shall not forget to do it.

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Deuteronomy 25:4 and 1 Corinthians 9:9

Septuagint · New Testament

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Summary

1 Corinthians 9 uses Deuteronomy’s rule about not muzzling an ox to argue that teachers deserve support. Though the Torah addresses animals, Paul applies the rule more broadly, following a common Jewish way of extending laws to social life.

Passages

LXX Deuteronomy 25:4

Septuagint
3 And they shall scourge him with forty stripes, they shall not inflict more; for if you should scourge him with more stripes beyond these stripes, your brother will be disgraced before you. 4 You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain. 5 And if brothers should live together, and one of them should die, and should not have seed, the wife of the deceased shall not marry out of the family to a man not related: her husband's brother shall go in to her, and shall take her to himself for a wife, and shall dwell with her.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Deuteronomy

1 Corinthians 9:9

New Testament
7 Who ever serves in the army at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not consume its milk? 8 Am I saying these things only on the basis of common sense, or does the law not say this as well? 9 For it is written in the law of Moses, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” God is not concerned here about oxen, is he? 10 Or is he not surely speaking for our benefit? It was written for us, because the one plowing and threshing ought to work in hope of enjoying the harvest. 11 If we sowed spiritual blessings among you, is it too much to reap material things from you?
55–57 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Corinthians

References

"... When Paul interprets ‘Do not muzzle the ox while threshing’ as ‘do not neglect to pay Christian ministers’ commentators have quite naturally assumed that his exegesis was allegorical. However, comparisons with contemporary rabbinic exegesis suggest that this would have been regarded as a literal interpretation of the plain meaning of the text. Even commentators who have wished to rid Paul of all allegory have concluded that here Paul does use allegory ... Kaiser however does claim that Paul’s interpretation is literal. He says that Paul did not ‘resort’ to allegory, because his interpretation was already implicit in Deuteronomy 25:4, 10 though he too fails to present Paul’s methodology. Unlike Kaiser, I would not regard it as a ‘crisis in exegesis’ if Paul did employ allegory. Allegory was a useful tool in the hands of many early Christian commentators because their congregations and opponents alike understood and accepted this method of argument. ..."
David Instone-Brewer, “1 Corinthians 9.9–11: A Literal Interpretation of 'Do not Muzzle the Ox',” NTS 38.4 (1992): 554–565.

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 25:4 and 1 Corinthians 9:9

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