The Old Testament Speaks
THE OLD TESTAMENT SPEAKS
ROMANS 3:13-18
Paul quotes extensively from the Old Testament to show all have sinned.
Verse 13 is an exact quotation of Psalm 5:9, as it appears in the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint. The original appears to be directed by David against the rebels in his kingdom, if Psalms 3–6 are correctly ascribed to the time of the monarch’s retreat before Absalom.
3:14 is a freely quoted version, of Psalm 10:7, of unknown reference, while 3:15-17 are selectively extracted from Isaiah 59:7f. It is interesting to observe the workings of the human mind that has been taught to think and be expressed within the framework of Old Testament language and thought. It is important always to remember, in reading Paul’s letters, the letter to the Hebrews, Peter’s five addresses in the opening chapters of the Acts, and also much of what Jesus Christ himself said, that the communication presupposed such habits of thought and expression, and such a frame of reference.
The purpose of this chain of Old Testament quotations is to establish, by appeal to the very oracles of which the Jews were the custodians (3:2), the sinfulness of Jewry, and the power of such quotation in the argument is beyond doubt. Nor must it be supposed, easily though the words of the Old Testament came to his lips, that Paul’s quotation was haphazard.
First, he establishes by quotation the charge of universal sin (3:10f.). He proceeds to reinforce it (3:12), and to illustrate the rebellion of the heart by the malevolent utterances of the lips, words fraught with death and corruption, tongues dedicated to deceit, and malice that kills in their words (3:13). Their speech betrayed the noble functions of speech, calling down harm, and giving expression to the bitterness of the godless personality which sought such self-revelation (3:14).
It is word and deed which betrays the soul’s condition. Words are the revelation of thought, and what lays hold upon the mind turns inevitably into action (3:15). The world’s violence begins in the mind. And the evil in society at large is only the collective outcome, the total individual wickedness. Ruin and misery are inevitable results (3:16). Peace vanishes, in the life of individuals and society (17), and all because people fail to “stand in awe, and sin not” (3:18 and Psalm 4:4, KJV). A devastating build-up of quotations, in fact.