Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Joel 3:1 and Acts 2:17

Septuagint · New Testament

Summary

In Joel, God promises to pour out his Spirit on all kinds of people so that sons and daughters will prophesy. Peter quotes the passage at Pentecost and reshaped it, now connecting it to the last days and reinterpreting the promises.

Passages

LXX Joel 3:1

Septuagint

1 And afterward I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 2 And on the servants and on the female servants in those days I will pour out of my Spirit. 3 And I will show wonders in heaven, and upon the earth, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. 4 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes. 5 And whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem the saved one will be as the Lord has said, and those who have good news preached to them, whom the Lord has called.

100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Joel

Acts 2:17

New Testament

16 But this is what was spoken about through the prophet Joel: 17 ‘And in the last days it will be,’ God says, ‘that I will pour out my Spirit on all people, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 19 And I will perform wonders in the sky aboveand miraculous signs on the earth below, blood and fire and clouds of smoke. 20 The sun will be changed to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes. 21 And then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Acts

References

“... Peter quotes an eschatological restoration text, Joel 2:28–32, which could be among the passages that Luke indicates that Jesus taught his disciples (Luke 24:44–45). Ancient speakers displayed their knowledge with numerous quotations and allusions; Jewish teachers cited Scripture. But they regularly paraphrased wording as needed to suit the present application. Peter’s additions to Joel’s text emphasize that what is occurring fulfills the eschatological promise of prophetic empowerment hence that the time of eschatological fulfillment has arrived. [...] Peter’s most significant changes: (1) highlight Joel’s emphasis on the gift’s eschatological character, by the last days (2:17); (2) reinforce Joel’s on the prophetic character of the gift, by adding, and they shall prophesy (2:18); (3) an ethnically universalized application of all flesh (2:17) in Luke’s later context (see 2:39); (4) an emphasis on the present fulfillment (not in Joel), by linking the earthly “signs” (2:19) with Jesus’s ministry in 2:22. ...”

Craig S. Keener, Acts, NCBC (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), 143–144.

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

LXX Joel4 chapters

Compare LXX Joel 3:1 and Acts 2:17

Summary

Passages

LXX Joel 3:1

Acts 2:17

References

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