John R. Levison, “The Inspired Interpretation of Scripture in 2 Corinthians 3, the Writings of Philo Judaeus, and the Letter to the Hebrews,” in The Spirit Says; Inspiration and Interpretation in Israelite, Jewish, and Early Christian Texts, ed. Ronald Herms, John R. Levison, and Archie T. Wright (Ektasis: Religious Experience From Antiquity to the Middle Ages 8; Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2021), 285-87:
Modified Citations
In two texts, the spirit alters ancient texts to meet the
needs of the community to which the letter is addressed.
Hebrews 3:7–11. The citation in this text is altered
and attributed to the spirit. LXX Ps 94:9–10 reads:
Where your fathers tried me;
they put me to the proof and saw my works.
For forty years
I loathed that generation.
Heb 3:9–10 reads instead, “where your ancestors put me to
the test, though they had seen my works for forty years. Therefore I was
angry with that generation.” In LXX Psalm 94, God loathes Israel for forty
years. In Hebrews, Israel tests God for forty years. This alteration heightens
the protracted character of Israel’s rebellion, as well as what is at stake in
persistent resistance to God—a key theme of the letter to the Hebrews.
This difference is not the product of a different Vorlage.
The author cites the text of LXX Ps 94:9–10 when writing later, “But with whom
was God angry forty years?” (Heb 3:17). The author knows LXX Psalm 94 as it now
stands, but in Heb 3:9 the spirit speaks a modified version, which emphasizes
the danger of becoming hardened toward God over a span of years. Such
recalcitrance, cautions the author, invariably leads to irrevocable unbelief.
Hebrews 10:16–17. In Jeremiah 31, God makes a
covenant with the house of Israel; in Hebrews 10, God makes a covenant “with
them.” In Jeremiah 31, God “remembers their sins no more;” in Hebrews 10, the
words, “and their lawless deeds,” are inserted: “their sins and their
lawless deeds no more.” These changes, like the alteration in Hebrews 3,
are not due to a different Vorlage, since the author earlier cited
Jeremiah 31:31–34 more closely:
|
Jer 31:33, 34 (LXX 38:31, 34) |
Heb 8:10–12 |
Heb 10:16–17 |
|
Because this is the covenant that I will make with the
house of Israel after those days, quoth the Lord ... |
This is the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel after those days, says the Lord ... |
This is the covenant that I will make with them.
after those days, says the Lord ... |
|
because I will be gracious regarding their injustices, and
remember their sins |
For I will be merciful toward their iniquities. and I will
remember their sins |
I will remember their sins and their lawless
deeds |
|
no more. |
no more |
no more |
When the author attributes the words of Jeremiah to the holy
spirit and interprets them as a present testimony to his hearers (“the Holy
Spirit also testifies to us ...”), the words are tailored to accommodate the
situation of the letter’s recipients. The words, “with them,” replace “the
house of Israel” and allow the text of Jeremiah to include the readers of the
letter. The addition of the words, “and their lawless deeds,” to Jer 31:34
accentuates concrete sinful activity and, as a consequence, emphasizes the
scope and depth of God’s mercy (Heb 10:17).
