Observations on the Text Form of the Minor Prophets Quotations in Romans 9–11

Abstract

It is striking that all quotations from the Minor Prophets in Romans are to be found in Rom. 9–11, except for the quotation from Hab. 2.4 in Rom. 1.17. This study seeks to investigate the text forms of these Minor Prophets quotations in Rom. 9–11 in order to establish, firstly, the nature of the Vorlage of the quotations and, secondly, to determine and distinguish Pauline redaction during the process of Paul’s use of these quotations. The study concludes that Paul clearly seems to have followed mainly a LXX version of the Minor Prophets, with traces of minor textual variations from those of modern-day reconstructions. The quotations from Mal. 1.2 and Joel 3.5 are in close agreement with the (reconstructed) LXX, whereas the quotation from Hos. 2.25 should be understood rather as a paraphrase. The remaining two quotations from Hos. 2.1 and Nah. 2.1 are indisputably conflated quotations. More significant, however, is the observation that the Stichwörter ἀγάπω, καλέω and σώζω connect the Minor Prophets passages with each other, and build upon each other to support Paul’s argument that God loved, called and saved – which is the good news.