Tuesday, January 7, 2020

I. Howard Marshall on Peter's and James' Alteration of Old Testament Texts in Acts 2 and 15


Commenting on Acts 2:16-21 and Peter’s appeal to the Old Testament, I. Howard Marshall noted:

What was happening was to be seen as the fulfilment of a prophecy by Joel, and here Peter proceeded to cite the relevant passage, Joel 2:28-32. A further phrase from the same passage is to be found in verse 39, and the same passage is also cited in Rom 10:13 and Rev. 6:12 (these citations show that the prophecy was one that was used in the early church, and not one first introduced into the speech by Luke himself). The quotation follows the LXX but with a number of small alterations to adept the prophecy to its context (it was natural for New Testament writers to adopt the form of Old Testament text which best suited their purpose or to adapt the wording as necessary. The meaning was more important than reproduction of the exact wording; see E.E. Ellis, ‘Quotations (in the New Testament)’, NBD, p. 1071). One of the more important of these changes is the way in which Joel’s ‘And it shall come to pass afterward’ has been altered to ‘And in the last days it shall be’. Peter regards Joel’s prophecy as applying to the last days, and claims that his hearers are now living in the last days. God’s final act of salvation has begun to take place. (I. Howard Marshall, Acts: An Introduction and Commentary [Tyndale New Testament Commentaries; Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1980], 73, emphasis in bold added)

Elsewhere, with respect to James’ use of Amos 9:11-12 in Acts 15:16-18, Marshall wrote the following about the version of the text James used:

The LXX version rests on a hypothetical Hebrew text which differs only slightly in lettering from the MT; hence the difference may be due to a revision of the Hebrew text to make it relevant to a new situation. (Ibid., 253)

According to Marshall, who was a leading New Testament scholar during his lifetime, had no issue with the New Testament authors and apostles, not simply reinterpreting Old Testament texts in light of the Christ event, but reworked the text of the Old Testament “to make it relevant to a new situation.” Imagine if Joseph Smith did this—Evangelicals would be using this as “proof” of how anti-Christian “Mormonism” is, and yet, the New Testament apostles had no qualms with doing such!

On the issue of prophets and apostles changing their words and/or the words of previous prophets, one might wish to pursue the following article:


Biblical Prophets Changing their Words and the Words of Previous Prophets