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LXX Psalms

Septuagint

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Psalm 30

1 For the end, a Psalm of David, an utterance of extreme fear. 2 Lord, I have hoped in you; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in your righteousness and rescue me. 3 Incline your ear to me; make haste to rescue me: be to me for a protecting God, and for a house of refuge to save me. 4 For you are my strength and my refuge; and you shall guide me for your name's sake, and maintain me. 5 You shall bring me out of this snare which they have hidden for me; for you, Lord, are my defender. 6 Into your hands I will commit my spirit:⁠ you have redeemed me, Lord God of truth. 7 You have hated those who idly persist in vanities: but I have hoped in the Lord. 8 I will exult and be glad in your mercy: for you have looked upon my affliction; you have saved my soul from distresses. 9 And you have not shut me up into the hands of the enemy: you have set my feet in a wide place. 10 Pity me, Lord, for I am afflicted: my eye is troubled with indignation, my soul and my belly. 11 For my life is spent with grief, and my years with groanings: my strength has been weakened through poverty, and my bones are troubled. 12 I became a reproach among all my enemies, but exceedingly so to my neighbors, and a fear to my acquaintance: they that saw me outside fled from me. 13 I have been forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I have become as a broken vessel. 14 For I heard the slander of many that lived all around: when they were gathered together against me, they took counsel to take my life. 15 But I hoped in you, Lord: I said, You are my God. 16 My times are in your hands: deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me. 17 Make your face to shine upon your servant: save me in your mercy. 18 Lord, let me not be ashamed, for I have called upon you: let the ungodly be ashamed, and brought down to Hades. 19 Let the deceitful lips become silent, which speak iniquity against the righteous with pride and scorn. 20 How abundant is the multitude of your goodness, Lord, which you have laid up for those who fear you! you have worked it out for those who hope on you, in the presence of the sons of men. 21 You will hide them in the secret of your presence from the vexation of man: you will screen them in a tabernacle from the contradiction of tongues. 22 Blessed be the Lord: for he has magnified his mercy in a fortified city. 23 But I said in my extreme fear, I am cast out from the sight of your eyes: therefore you did listen, Lord, to the voice of my plea when I cried to you. 24 Love the Lord, all you his saints: for the Lord seeks for truth, and renders a reward to those who deal very proudly. 25 Be of good courage, and let your heart be strengthened, all you that hope in the Lord.

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Psalms 30:6 and Luke 23:45

Septuagint · New Testament

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Summary

In Luke, Jesus’ dying prayer comes from the Greek Septuagint translation of Psalm 30 instead of Mark’s cry echoing Psalm 22. This changes the tone from divine abandonment to confident trust, perhaps reinterpreting the moment for Luke’s audience.

Passages

LXX Psalms 30:6

Septuagint
4 For you are my strength and my refuge; and you shall guide me for your name's sake, and maintain me. 5 You shall bring me out of this snare which they have hidden for me; for you, Lord, are my defender. 6 Into your hands I will commit my spirit: you have redeemed me, Lord God of truth. 7 You have hated those who idly persist in vanities: but I have hoped in the Lord. 8 I will exult and be glad in your mercy: for you have looked upon my affliction; you have saved my soul from distresses.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Psalms

Luke 23:45

New Testament
43 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, 44 because the sun’s light failed. The temple curtain was torn in two. 45 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And after he said this he breathed his last. 46 Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he praised God and said, “Certainly this man was innocent!”
75–85 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Luke

References

"... A second problem is that one early reader, Luke, appears to miss the obvious signal that vindication is being clearly announced, and instead eradicates the cry of dereliction, presumably because to him it appears to portray a failed and doubting Jesus, not the promise of reversal. Instead the third evangelist replaces the Markan saying with the more irenic and confident words, ‘Father into your hands I commit my spirit’ (Lk. 23.46). This is a substitution of one psalm text (Ps. 22.2) with another (Ps. 31.5), which is perhaps a subtle and subversive rewriting of the Markan narrative removing its dark and despairing tones. Luke, however, is not the only early Christian writer to modify the Markan cry of dereliction. In the Gospel of Peter, the last words Jesus utters are a declamatory statement, ‘My power, the power, you have left me’ (Gos. Pet. 5.19). As has been noted elsewhere, ‘[b]y using the verb καταλείπω, instead of ἐγκαταλείπω as in the canonical accounts, the intention appears to be to tone down the sense of desertion, and instead make this a notice concerning knowledge of impending death and departure’ (Foster 2010: 328). So again, another earlier reader fails to recognize the supposed clues that the use of Ps. 22.2 is meant to betoken a vindicated character, and not the anguish of a forsaken figure ..."
P. Foster, “Echoes without Refernce: Critiquing Certain Aspects of Recent Scholarly Trends in the Study of the Jewish Scriptures in the New Testament,” JSNT 38.1 (2015): 96–111.

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 Psalms 30:6 and Luke 23:45

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