From Tomsk, Siberia in Russia
It is my persuasion that one of the most important and defining hermeneutical insights to be brought to the interpretation of the New Testament is this: the writers of the New Testament wrote in Greek, but they thought in Hebrew. This is true to a degree more dramatic in some writers than in others (the most dramatic of all: Rabbi Saul/Paul), but it is never not a factor. In the course of my own studies, that reality confronts me again and again with reference to this passage or that concept. In making my way through Romans here in Tomsk this week, I have encountered a number of passages where the meaning of a specific text becomes more clear and/or compelling if the appropriate nuance of Hebrew thought or expression is made a part of the reading of that text.
And thus was born the idea for an intellectual exercise. I am going to identify some of those New Testament texts which seem to be so much informed by ideas or forms of expression which arise from an Old Testament milieu (indeed, ideas or forms which are often entirely foreign to the New Testament milieu), and then try to point out how those texts are more completely understood when comprehended with that Old Testament thought form in mind. The effort will be by fits and starts, to be sure, and the entries will appear with no taxonomical considerations whatever. But it occurs to me that it would be interesting to have a catalogue of such texts, and perhaps it might even be a help in some quarter. And so herewith the first installment of…
Opening the New Testament and Finding the Old
Being an attempt to make full proof of the following proposition:
The Writers of the New Testament wrote in Greek, but they thought in Hebrew.
The Old Testament thought form
Again and again in the Hebrew Scriptures, God’s Word is represented as a soldier, a mighty warrior who goes out to do the bidding of his commander and always accomplishes the task assigned him. It’s a rich word picture, redolent with various specific points of timely application. One of the most apparent uses of the figure is 1 Samuel 3:19 – “Thus Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fail” (NASB). That final phrase is literally, “the Lord did let none of his [Samuel’s] words fall to the ground.” That is what demonstrated to the nation that Samuel was genuinely a prophet of the Lord (3:20) – the requirement of Deut 18:20-22 was without exception met when Samuel spoke. I think the picture is this: one very simple test of a good soldier is that he always comes home at night! To “fall to the ground” is to be defeated in battle, and thus not to return. Just as a good soldier goes out to battle and then returns, his enemy having fallen to the ground, so God’s word, spoken through His prophet Samuel, did not “fall to the ground.”
Another aspect of the word picture is seen in Isa 55:11 – “So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty [ריקם].” A good soldier vanquishes and strips his enemy, and thus he returns with spoil. So it will be with God’s word: it will accomplish what He desires and return, soldier-like, with the spoils of victory. And again in Isaiah 45:23 – “The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back.” That final word [ישׁוב] means “to turn back,” but in the context of military conflict, it speaks of “retreat” – very possibly the picture here.
The New Testament Use
In Romans 9-11, the apostle Paul is defending and celebrating the righteousness of God (1:17) in His dealings with Israel. He commences that extended discussion by affirming that it is “not as though the Word of God had taken none effect’ (NASB). The Greek there is έκπέπτωκεν, from ekpiptō. “ The root is πίπτω, “to fall,” here strengthened to mean “to fall out (of rank, in a military context), or to fall so as to not get up again.” I think Rabbi Saul/Paul may well have had in mind that Old Testament figure of God’s word as a mighty soldier. It is unthinkable that His word be defeated, slain in the battle to which it is sent. Indeed, in the thought section to follow (9:6-13), Paul twice cites passages which demonstrate that the way God is working in this present time (cf. 11:5) is entirely consistent with God’s purposes and character, and thus His word is accomplishing its mission in this age, just as it has in the past.
The passage is certainly coherent if we perceive it simply in the abstract, “has not taken effect.” But to my mind it is the more compelling – and the more (happily) Hebraic – to see it as answering to that Old Testament prophetic word picture. Thus, Paul’s asseveration might be comprehended to mean (in rather expanded form): “certainly it is not as though God’s word concerning Israel has fallen in battle, is a soldier slain.” And having made that blessed point, he proceeds in careful fashion to explain and celebrate this blessed reality: all that God has ever said regarding His purposes in Israel is being and ultimately shall be fulfilled.
