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LXX Joel

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 3

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.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Joel 3:3 and Acts 2:19

Septuagint · New Testament

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Summary

Joel promises wonders in heaven and on earth before a coming day of judgment. In Acts, Peter’s speech is based on the Greek version of Joel but adds “above” and “below” and “signs” on earth, changing the text to reshape its use for the narrative.

Passages

LXX Joel 3:3

Septuagint
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 2:19

New Testament
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

“... The citation is very close to the Septuagint. But there are three significant differences between Luke and the Septuagint. First, the Septuagint has ‘after these things’ (meta tauta) in agreement with the Masoretic Text, whereas Luke has ‘in the last days’ (en tais eschatais hemerais, 2:17). Second, Luke has ‘and they will prophesy’ (kai propheteusousin) in Acts 2:18 in addition to the one already present in Joel 3. Rather than the Septuagint’s ‘wonders in the heaven and on earth below,’ Luke has in 2:19 ‘wonders in heaven above and signs on earth below,’ adding the adverb kato (below), as well as the substantive semeia (signs). Observing the differences is the easy part. Assessing them is difficult. ...”
Luke Timothy Johnson, Septuagintal Midrash in the Speeches of Acts, The Père Marquette Lecture in Theology 2002 (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 2002), 20.

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 Joel 3:3 and Acts 2:19

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