Pauline Semantics

In his recent Paul and Scripture: Studying the New Testament Use of the Old Testament , Steven Moyise suggests that Paul’s treatment of Abraham counters the “heroic” tradition concerning Abraham by equating “reckoned righteous” with “justifies the ungodly.”  How does he get there?

Paul “uses a well-known exegetical device (known as gezerah sewa ) whereby a word in one text is explained by its occurrence in another text.  Psalm 32.2 is such a verse, using the key verb ‘reckon,’” just like Genesis 15:6.  ”On the surface, the two verses have little in common.  Genesis 15:6 is about Abraham’s acceptance of God’s promise to provide him with descendants; Psalm 32:2 is David’s lament over his sin.  But David is talking about ‘blessing,’ and the whole Abrahamic narrative is about God’s promise of blessing.  The reference to ‘blessing’ and the shared word ‘reckon’ suggests to Paul that the two verses are referring to the same thing.  Thus he can deduce that ‘David speaks of the blessedness of those to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works (Roman 4.6).  In other words, having righteousness reckoned to oneself (Abraham) is equivalent to having one’s sins forgiven (David).”

The details of Moyise’s interpretation are not central to my concern at the moment.  Rather, I am intrigued by the way Paul comes to his conclusion.  A verbal link between two passages provides the cornerstone for one of Paul’s central claims about justification.

Nor is this the only example in the NT.

Pablo Gadenz finds Paul using the same technique in Romans 9:28, 33.  In 9:27-28, he  cites Isaiah 10:22-23 while in v. 33 he cites Isaiah 28:16.  Gadenz explains by noting that in the LXX the verbs  sunteleo and  suntemno (“thoroughly and quickly” in the NASB of Romans 9:28) are used together only in Isaiah 10:22 and 28:22 (part of the same passage as 28:16).  In the Hebrew, the phrase is identical in both passages.

Hebrews provides a number of examples, as David Wenkel shows in a 2007 Biblical Theology Bulletin article.  The quotation from PSalm 110 in Hebrews 1:13 is brought into conversation with the quotation from Psalm 8 in Hebrews 2:8.  The word that links the two passages is “feet.”  (Wenkel, rightly, is arguing that the link is far from merely verbal; the two Psalms have a number of other things i common.  But as cited by Hebrews the only common term is “feet.”)

Hebrews 4:3-4 links Psalm 95’s summary of Israel’s unfaithfulness at Kadesh with the creation account in Genesis 1.  ”Rest” is the term that links the two passages.  Wenkel argues that the verbal connection between Hebrews 5:5 and 6 is the emphatic “you” that begins each declaration: You are Son (Psalm 2) and You are priest (Psalm 110).

Finally, he notes the connections between Hebrews 10:6-7 and 10:37-38.  Both speak of Yahweh’s coming (vv, 7, 37) and also use the phrase “no pleasure” (Yahweh takes no pleasure in sacrifices, v 6; Yahweh has no pleasure in the soul that shrinks back, v. 38).  This is particularly intriguing: The ones who shrink back are shrinking back to Judaism and its sacrifices, the very sacrifices that Yahweh says He takes no pleasure in.  He takes no pleasure in Judaizers because they revert to offering meat for which He has no desire.

My theoretical question is: Would Paul have attempted these exegetical moves if he had been operating by the principles of modern hermeneutics?  Can modern hermeneutics justify this use of individual words?