GakuseiDon wrote: ↑Mon Apr 27, 2020 10:30 pm ...What is interesting to me is that in the commentaries I've seen, no-one seems to try to explain what Paul is doing in those passages where he is 'misquoting' scriptures. E.g. "Paul was working from a variant of Scriptures that we don't have" or "Paul must have been working from memory so got it wrong by accident".
I've seen such explanations when Church Fathers provide odd quoting from earlier texts, but not really for Paul in the study notes. They explain what he meant, but not why he did it in the first place. Do you know if there is an 'official' scholarly explanation for what Paul is doing here? Or is it left as "that's just what they did in those days, so not unexpected and doesn't need explanation"?
The best reference that I have found to help understand Paul’s creative use of the Scriptures is, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul, 1989, by Richard B. Hays, (then) Assoc. Professor, Duke University [highlighting mine] ---
“In Paul we encounter a first-century Jewish thinker who, while undergoing a profound disjuncture with his own religious tradition, grappled his way through to a vigorous and theologically generative reappropriation of Israel’s Scriptures.” (Hays, p. 2)
“… the issues raised by his (Paul’s) readings are fundamentally hermeneutical issues, because of the undeniable gap between the “original sense” of the Old Testament texts and Paul’s interpretation ..." (Hays, p. 6)
Paul’s letters were occasional and primarily address issues that he faced with each congregation --- questions, challenges to his authority and teaching, and compensation. Paul had apparently related the details of his Jesus Christ --- as found in the scriptures --- on his initial evangelizing visit. He only occasionally and briefly reminded the congregations of these details in his letters as they were useful in his arguments.
Based on my own studies, and also at least in part supported by Hays, in Paul’s letters the scriptures are used to provide some information about the death of his Jesus Christ, but the information is not presented as a foretelling of those events. However, Paul clearly used the Scriptures as a foretelling of his own efforts, of the gathering together of assemblies in his own time, ---
"What Paul finds in Scripture, above all else, is a prefiguration of the church as the people of God … In short, Paul operates with an ecclesiocentric hermeneutic" (Hays, p. 86).
Of course Paul also used the Scriptures to construct several aspects of his own life and backstories, as I have outlined before on this forum.
In most of his book, I think Hays provides a brave and steely-eyed evaluation of the evidence in terms of Paul’s very creative and generative use of the Scriptures. It’s not until the last chapter that --- at least from my point of view and in my own words --- Hays embarks upon his apology tour, ‘hey, I may have written some scary shit about Paul, but I’m still in the Club’ ---
"Does Paul offer a good model of how to interpret the Bible?" (Hays, p. 179)
"The question of appropriateness of Paul’s readings of Scripture can be considered more precisely if the issue is broken into three components:
1. Are Paul’s specific interpretations of scripture materially normative?
2. Are Paul’s interpretive methods formally exemplary? …." (p. 180)
"… I would argue that the only theologically appropriate response to our study of Pauline hermeneutics is to answer “yes” to both questions 1 and 2 … His letters help us to understand both what the Old Testament means and how it should be read … Paul exhorted his readers to become imitators of him (1 Cor, 4:16, 11:1, Phil. 3:17). Surely to imitate him faithfully we must learn from him the art of reading and proclaiming Scripture" (p. 183).
"The question of appropriateness of Paul’s readings of Scripture can be considered more precisely if the issue is broken into three components:
1. Are Paul’s specific interpretations of scripture materially normative?
2. Are Paul’s interpretive methods formally exemplary? …." (p. 180)
"… I would argue that the only theologically appropriate response to our study of Pauline hermeneutics is to answer “yes” to both questions 1 and 2 … His letters help us to understand both what the Old Testament means and how it should be read … Paul exhorted his readers to become imitators of him (1 Cor, 4:16, 11:1, Phil. 3:17). Surely to imitate him faithfully we must learn from him the art of reading and proclaiming Scripture" (p. 183).
I certainly part ways with Hays here.