When Paul quotes Scripture, he regularly intends to refer, not simply to the actual words quoted, but to the whole passage. Again and again, when you look up the chapter from which the quotation is taken, a flood of light streams back onto Paul's actual argument. Among many favorite examples, I mention 2 Corinthians 4:13. "We have the same spirit of faith," declares Paul, "in accordance with Scripture--'I believed, and so I spoke'--we also believe, and so we speak." What does the quotation of Psalm 116:10 add to his argument? Surely believing-and-so-speaking is rather obvious? Isn't that what one normally does? Yes, but look at the whole psalm--the one we know as 116 in the Hebrew and English, divided into two in the Septuagint. It is a prayer of one who is suffering terribly, but who trusts in God and is delivered. In other words, it is exactly the prayer of someone in the situation of Paul in 2 Corinthians 4. Paul has the whole Psalm in mind, and wants his readers to catch the "echoes" of it as well.
N.T. Wright, Justification (Downers Grove: IVP, 2009), 33.
No comments:
Post a Comment