Chapter 4: the Septuagint and 1 Timothy
1. The Echo of Isa 45:19-22 in 1 Tim 2:3-5
Comparison of Textual Versions and Evaluation
Isa 45:19-22 MT Isa 45:19-22 LXX 1 Tim 2:3-5a
[…]
יִנֲא
הָוהְי
רֵבֹדּ
קֶדֶצ
דיִגַּמ
םי ִרָשׁיֵמ
׃
וּצְבָקִּה
וּאֹבָו
וּשְׁגַּנְתִה
וָדְּחַי
יֵטיִלְפּ
םִיוֹגַּה
אלֹ
וּעְדָי
םיִאְשֹׂנַּה
ץֵע־תֶא
םָלְסִפּ
םיִלְלַפּ ְתִמוּ
לֵא־לֶא
אלֹ
ַעיִשׁוֹי
[...]
יַלֵא־וּנְפּ
ְו
וּעְשָׁוִּה
ץ ֶראָ־יֵסְפאַ־לָכּ
יִכּ
־יִנֲא
לֵא
ןיֵאְו
׃דוֹע
388 […] ἐγώ εἰµι κύριος λαλῶν δικαιοσύνην καὶ ἀναγγέλλων ἀλήθειαν. συνάχθητε καὶ ἥκετε, βουλεύσασθε ἅµα, οἱ σῳζόµενοι ἀπὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν. οὐκ ἔγνωσαν τὸ ξύλον γλύµµα αὐτῶν καὶ προσευχόµενοι ὡς πρὸς θεούς, οἳ οὐ σῴζουσιν […] ἐπιστράφητε πρός µε καὶ σωθήσεσθε, οἱ ἀπ᾿ ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆς· ἐγώ εἰµι ὁ θεός, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἄλλος389 τοῦτο καλὸν καὶ ἀπόδεκτον ἐνώπιον τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡµῶν θεοῦ, ὃς πάντας ἀνθρώπους θέλει σωθῆναι καὶ εἰς ἐπίγνωσινἀληθείας ἐλθεῖν.Εἷςγὰρ θεός390388 ET: ‘I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare what is right. Assemble and come, draw near together, survivors of the nations that do not know, that carry the wood of idols and pray to gods who do not save. […] Turn to God and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other.’
389 ET: ‘I the Lord speak the truth, I announce what is right. Come together and draw near, you survivors of the nations. The ones who carry their wooden idols have no knowledge, and they pray to gods who cannot save […] Turn to me and be saved, the ones from the ends of the earth. I am God and there is no other.’
390 ET: ‘This is good and pleasing before God our savior, who desires all men to be saved and come into knowledge of the truth. For there is one God’
This parallel was detected by the ‘Multiple Segments’ search feature, using the following search command:
(θεός, κύριος) <within 30 words> ((σῴζω, σωτήρ, σωτηρία, σωτήριος, ῥύοµαι) <within 5 words> (ἐπίγνωσις, ἐπιγινώσκω, γινώσκω, γνῶσις))
This search returned eight passages from the Septuagint.391 One of these passages, Isa 45, is thematically coherent with 1 Tim 2 in that it shares a common concern for the salvation of all people. Although there is a relatively high number of matching words, there is no apparent attempt to highlight the source text, so this parallel is classified as an echo rather than as a direct reference.
The parallel is seen more clearly in the Septuagint than the MT, due to its decision to render םי ִר ָשׁיֵמ (‘level path’, ‘true speech’ etc.)392 as ἀλήθεια (‘truth’) in verse 19. Summary: Class E1 (likely) echo of Isa 45:19-22.
The Context of Isa 45:19-22
These verses of Isaiah belong to a wider section that declares ‘God’s sovereignty over idols’ (Isa 45:14 – 46:13)393 and the immediate context emphasizes that only God can save.394 According to Oswalt, these verses ‘reveal the nature and character of God, a God who longs to reveal himself to people.’395 Subsequently, Oswalt concludes that, ‘most commentators agree that this segment is about the salvation of the world.’396
391 The eight occurrences are in Ps 19:6-8; Ps 70:15-17; Ps 81:1-6; Odes 9:76-78; Hos 13:4; Isa 30:15, Isa 45:19-21; and Isa 60:16.
392 Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of
the Old Testament, 2 Volume Set (trans. M. E. J. Richardson; Study Guide edition.;
Leiden ; Boston: Brill Academic Pub, 2002).
393 John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah: Chapters 40-66 (The New International Commentary on the Old Testament; Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1998), 211. 394 Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah: Chapters 40-66, 211–25.
395 This comment is found within Oswalt’s exegesis of vv. 18-19. Oswalt, The Book of
Isaiah: Chapters 40-66, 217.
396 This comment relates specifically to vv. 20-25. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah:
Parallels to Isa 45:19-22 in the Septuagint
Gough lists a parallel between Isa 45:19 and Exod 3:14 and a parallel between Isa 45:21 and Deut 4:35.397 Both of these parallels relate to the uniqueness of God (cf. Εἷς γὰρ θεός, ‘for there is one God,’ 1 Tim 2:5a).
God’s desire for all people to be saved (Isa 45:20) is reflected in a number passages of the Septuagint, including in Ezek 18:23 (see the discussion of this parallel in Section 4.2, above), in Amos 9:11-12 (see below for the quotation of these verses in Acts 15), and in Gen 12:3 (which Knight suggests is part of the ‘OT background’ for 1 Tim 2:4, as noted below).
The method identified a parallel between 1 Tim 2:4 and 2 Kgs 19:19, which is also similar to Isa 45:19-22. Here, Hezekiah prays in response to the threats of the King of Assyria:
κύριε ὁ θεὸς ἡµῶν, σῶσον ἡµᾶς ἐκ χειρὸς αὐτοῦ, καὶ γνώσονται πᾶσαι αἱ βασιλεῖαι τῆς γῆς ὅτι σὺ κύριος ὁ θεὸς µόνος398 (2 Kgs 19:19, cf. Isa 37:20)
Hezekiah’s prayer is used in the early church in Acts 4:24 in response to opposition from religious leaders.399
The Context of 1 Tim 2:3-5
Towner places these verses within a section (i.e. 1 Tim 2:1-7) that describes ‘appropriate prayer’ within the church,400 whereby ‘the controlling theme of the passage is salvation.’401 He suggests that ‘the statement of the breadth of God’s will about salvation [i.e. 1 Tim 2:4] echoes Paul’s statements in Rom 3:27-31 and 11:26-
397 Gough, The New Testament Quotations, 194.
398 ET: ‘Lord, our God, save us out of his hand, and all the earth will know that you Lord are the only God.’
399 Acts 4:24b contains the statement σὺ ὁ ποιήσας τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν, which is almost identical to the σὺ ἐποίησας τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν of 2 Kgs 19:15 and Isa 37:16. This reference is noted in McLean, Citations and Allusions, 62.
400 Towner, The Letters to Timothy and Titus, 162. 401 Towner, The Letters to Timothy and Titus, 176.
32,’ but he does not mention a dependency on Isa 45, or any other verse from the Jewish Scriptures.402
Knight sees 1 Tim 2:3-5 as belonging to a section on ‘prayer for all people’ (vv. 1- 8)403 and claims that God’s desire for all people to be saved (v. 4), ‘expresses the truth for which Paul continually contended.’404 Knight then notes a number of New
Testament passages that contain this ‘truth’, and suggests an ‘OT background’ in Ezek 18:23 (as noted by the UBS5 and NA28), as well as its parallel passage in Ezek 33:11, and ‘especially the Abrahamic covenant, Gen 12:3, reflected throughout Isaiah.’405 Although he may include Isa 45:19-22 in this summary statement, he does not mention it explicitly.
Wolfe notes that this parallel between Isa 45 and 1 Tim 2:3-5 has already been noted by Hanson,406 but he subsequently discounts it as ‘too faint to be helpful.’407
Isa 45:19-22 in the New Testament
Isaiah 45 appears to have been familiar within the early church, as seen by the quotation of Isa 45:21 in Mark 12:32 and the citation of Isa 45:23 by Paul in Rom 14:11 (shown below), as well as the liturgical use of Isa 45:23 in Phil 2:10-11.408
γέγραπται γάρ· ζῶ ἐγώ, λέγει κύριος, ὅτι ἐµοὶ κάµψει πᾶν γόνυ καὶ πᾶσα γλῶσσα ἐξοµολογήσεται τῷ θεῷ.409 (Rom 14:11; cf. Isa 45:23)
Both Dittmar and the NA28 list a parallel between Isa 45:21 and Acts 15:17-18, as shown below.410 Acts 15:17 contains a quotation of Amos 9:12 (noted above), which
402 Towner, The Letters to Timothy and Titus, 178. 403 Knight III, The Pastoral Epistles, 113.
404 Knight III, The Pastoral Epistles, 119. 405 Knight III, The Pastoral Epistles, 119.
406 Wolfe, ‘The Sagacious Use of Scripture’, 208. 407 Wolfe, ‘The Sagacious Use of Scripture’, 216.
408 These three parallels are noted in McLean, Citations and Allusions, 92.
409 ET: ‘For it is written, ‘‘As I myself live,’ declares the Lord, ‘every knee will bend to me and every tongue will confess to God.’’’
is thematically coherent with both Isa 45 and 1 Tim 2:4. The similarity between Acts 15:17-18 and Isa 45:21 is shown below:
ὅπως ἂν ἐκζητήσωσιν οἱ κατάλοιποι τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὸν κύριον καὶ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ἐφ᾿ οὓς ἐπικέκληται τὸ ὄνοµά µου ἐπ᾿ αὐτούς, λέγει κύριος ποιῶν ταῦτα γνωστὰἀπ᾿ αἰῶνος411 (Acts 15:17-18). εἰ ἀναγγελοῦσιν, ἐγγισάτωσαν, ἵνα γνῶσιν ἅµα τίς ἀκουστὰ ἐποίησεν ταῦτα ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς.412 (Isa 45:21a)
When commenting on Acts 15:15-18, Bock suggests that the phrase οἱ λόγοι τῶν προφητῶν (‘the words of the prophets’, v.15) is a reference ‘not just about this one passage from Amos; rather, this passage reflects what the prophets teach in general.’ 413 He then suggests that ‘other texts could be noted,’ including ‘Isa 45:20-23.’414 Finally, Bock claims that the quotation in these verses ‘matches Amos 9:11-12 LXX with material in verse 18 from Isa 45:21.’415
Hermeneutical/Theological Reflections
As noted above, God’s desire for all people to be saved is reflected in several passages of the Septuagint, including Isa 45:19-22, which has a number of matching words and ideas with 1 Tim 2:3-5. It is likely that Paul is echoing Isa 45:19-22 and/or one or more of these other passages here in 1 Tim 2.
The use of Isa 45 within Acts 15 and the citation of Isa 45:23 in Rom 14:11 suggest that this passage had already influenced the life and mission of the early church. It 410 Dittmar, Vetus Testamentum in Novo.
411 ET: ‘So that remnant of humanity may seek the Lord – even all the nations over whom my name is called,’ says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.’
412 ET: ‘If they will announce, let them draw near, that they may know together who has caused these things to be heard from the beginning.’
413 Darrell L. Bock, Acts (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 503.
414 Bock, Acts, 503. 415 Bock, Acts, 503.
seems that by the time that Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, God’s desire for all people to be saved (including Jews and Gentiles) had become common knowledge within the church, or at least for these two men, and so there was no need to cite any particular source text, just simply echo the idea that they contain.