Paul and Scripture: Studying the New Testament Use of the Old Testament

Written by Steve Moyise Reviewed By Christopher A. Beetham

Steve Moyise is Professor of New Testament at the University of Chichester, UK. He has authored several books in the field of ‘the Old Testament in the New,’ including The Old Testament in the Book of Revelation(1995), The Old Testament in the New: An Introduction (2001), and Evoking Scripture: Seeing the Old Testament in the New (2008). He is also co-editing a series with Maarten Menken that explores how particular books of the OT are used in the New, four books to date: Psalms (2004), Isaiah (2005), Deuteronomy (2007), and the Minor Prophets (2009), all in the JSNTS/LNTS series.

Although the author at least mentions that the “theme” of his book is “to study how Paul interpreted Scripture” (p. 1, emphasis in original), a fuller introduction is desirable to give the reader some needed orientation. The back cover offers endorsements by four NT professors, and at least from these it can be gathered that the book is probably an “overview” (Horrell) or “introduction” (Enns) to “Paul’s use of Scripture” (Horrell) or “Paul’s quotations from the Scriptures” (Ciampa) or—and this is probably the most accurate, as I see it now—“how each of the main features of Paul’s teaching grows out of and interacts with the Hebrew Scriptures” (Dunn). According to the endorsements, the intended audience is students. Without anything of a true introduction, however, it was not until halfway through the book that I began to have a feel for the book’s aim. I had mistakenly assumed that the book was intended to replace E. E. Ellis’s Paul’s Use of the Old Testament, a classic in the field but now somewhat dated (1957).

The book consists of an ‘introduction’ and eight chapters. The introduction is largely an historical orientation to the apostle Paul. The first three chapters then discuss Adam (“creation stories”), Abraham, and Moses in turn and how these significant figures of the biblical history shaped Paul’s thought. The next four chapters explore Paul’s use of Scripture from each of the tripartite divisions of the Hebrew Bible: the law (ch. 4), the prophets (chs. 5–6), and the writings (ch. 7). Because Paul’s use of the prophets is extensive, the topic is subdivided into two parts: ‘Israel and the Gentiles’ (ch. 5) and ‘the life of the Christian community’ (ch. 6). The concluding chapter introduces the reader to modern approaches to Paul’s use of Scripture (ch. 8).

Scattered throughout at appropriate places in the manuscript are shaded boxes that discuss in more detail significant yet possibly unfamiliar topics that the text proper briefly mentions. Such topics include ‘Introductory formulae (IF),’ ‘New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS),’ ‘Allegory and typology,’ ‘Testimony hypothesis,’ ‘Origen’s Hexapla,’ and ‘Criteria for assessing the presence of an allusion.’

In my estimation, the book is written for students as an introduction to how the main themes of Paul’s teaching stem from a reconfigured understanding of Scripture in light of the Christ-event and how the apostle interprets Scripture to support that teaching. It is less an introduction to Paul’s use of Scripture proper. The work discusses the same topic as that of Ellis broadly speaking, but the two go about their studies in different ways. For example, while Ellis spends significant time discussing text-form and first-century Jewish exegetical methods, Moyise largely passes over such discussions. Ellis’s book is more for an informed, third-year student, while Moyise assumes no prior formal study of Paul.

Moyise focuses upon Paul’s explicit quotations, but some of the more obvious allusions are also discussed (e.g., Ps 143:2 LXX at Rom 3:20 [pp. 100–101]). The book does not discuss every quotation, but only those that feature significantly in the major emphases of Paul’s teaching. Highlights include chapter 4 on the law with its lucid introduction to the New Perspective, and chapter 8 with its summary of recent approaches—intertextual, narrative, and rhetorical—to the study of Paul and Scripture and their major practitioners.

While Moyise would probably not be comfortable to don the tag ‘evangelical,’ he is fair to represent issues that concern them. For example, with regard to the issue of the authorship of Ephesians and the Pastoral Epistles, Moyise reports the conservative positions without a hint of belittlement (pp. 1–2). Some critical scholars never bother to mention that alternatives exist and if they do, only to pour scorn upon them. Moyise is also sensitive to what is often a conservative concern about Paul and assertions of his quoting out of context. Moyise feels no need to defend Paul, but frequently I found him offering thoughtful interpretive options that try to provide a reasonable explanation for how the apostle used Scripture, rather than blathering blanket-allegations that the apostle twisted them to further his own ends. Not that all will be satisfied with all of his conclusions. Moyise is content to raise questions and offer possible solutions without sweeping unseemly evidence under the rug. It is in this way that the book highlights why Paul’s use of Scripture is such a tantalizing yet challenging field that refuses simple or simplistic answers. For a possible future edition, I would suggest that a more thorough discussion of Paul’s first century presuppositions would be valuable—too often the debates concerning ‘original context’ are driven more by twenty-first-century presuppositions than by the light of the apostle’s own.

I recommend the book as an up-to-date supplement to Ellis and as an inviting, informed, accessible introduction to Scripture and scripturally-shaped themes in Paul. Moyise leaves the reader wanting to read further and study more, which is, of course, precisely his point.


Christopher A. Beetham

Christopher A. Beetham
Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology and Evangelical Theological College
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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