{"id":6466,"date":"2025-02-26T17:28:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T17:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/nlt\/?p=6466"},"modified":"2025-04-17T13:08:51","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T13:08:51","slug":"word-studies-in-the-new-living-translation-new-testament-quotations-from-the-old-testament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/nlt\/2025\/02\/26\/word-studies-in-the-new-living-translation-new-testament-quotations-from-the-old-testament\/","title":{"rendered":"Word Studies in the New Living Translation: New Testament Quotations from the Old Testament"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Mark D. Taylor, NLT Bible Translation Committee<\/p>\n\n\n

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There are more than one hundred passages in the New Testament that include quotations from the Old Testament, along with hundreds more that contain allusions. Where a quotation occurs, the New Living Translation (NLT) always sets it apart in some way, either as poetry or by using quotation marks. For instance, Romans 9:17 sets off the Old Testament passage in quotation marks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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17<\/sup><\/strong>For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, \u201cI have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.\u201d*<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The asterisk at the end of the quotation shows the reader that there is a footnote at the bottom of the page. The footnote identifies the Old Testament passage quoted in the Romans passage:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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9:17<\/strong> Exod 9:16 (Greek version).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s look at this passage in Exodus 9:16, along with some surrounding context (9:13, 15-16):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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13<\/sup>Then the Lord said to Moses, \u201cGet up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh. Tell him, \u2018This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so they can worship me. . . . 15<\/sup>By now I could have lifted my hand and struck you and your people with a plague to wipe you off the face of the earth. 16<\/sup>But I have spared you for a purpose\u2014to show you my power* and to spread my fame throughout the earth.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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We might expect the wording to be identical between Romans 9:17 and Exodus 9:16. But the Romans passage says, \u201cfor the very purpose of displaying my power in you,\u201d and the Exodus passage says, \u201cto show you my power.\u201d The difference arises because the Romans passage is translated from a Greek text into English, while the Exodus passage is translated from a Hebrew text into English. But note the asterisk after the word power<\/em> in the Exodus passage. It points to a footnote at the bottom of the page. The footnote reads:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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9:16<\/strong> Greek version reads to display my power in you<\/em>; compare Rom 9:17.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cGreek version\u201d referenced in the footnote is the Septuagint\u2014an ancient translation of the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek. In this instance, it is clear that Paul was quoting from the Septuagint translation when he quoted Exodus 9:16 in his letter to the Romans. So the footnote in the NLT shows how the Greek version would be translated into English. It is essentially the same wording as is found in Romans 9:17. By comparing the two passages, the perceptive reader can see that there is a difference in wording in the OT text and the NT text, but the footnote in the Exodus passage shows that Paul was quoting from the Greek version.<\/p>\n\n\n

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So whenever a New Testament passage is quoting from the Greek Septuagint, the NLT indicates that the quotation stems from the Greek text. The NLT also provides a translation of the Septuagint reading in the footnote at the corresponding OT passage. This allows the careful reader to see the relationship between the Greek text in the NT and the Hebrew text in the OT. Likewise, the reader can see how the Septuagint\u2014the Greek translation of the OT passage\u2014relates to the Greek text in the NT passage.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Many readers ignore the footnotes when they read the Bible text, but the NLT footnotes provide \u201croad maps\u201d to help readers follow the relationship between New Testament passages and the Old Testament passages they draw from or quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read carefully! In addition to revealing things about the ancient texts that have brought the Scriptures to us, the Old Testament quotes in the New Testament reveal much about God\u2019s grand narrative of redemption and how the coming of Jesus the Messiah fulfills the hopes of God\u2019s Old Testament people\u2014and the hopes of us all!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark D. Taylor, NLT Bible Translation Committee There are more than one hundred passages in the New Testament that include quotations from the Old Testament, along with hundreds more that contain allusions. Where a quotation occurs, the New Living Translation (NLT) always sets it apart in some way, either as poetry or by using […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[45,236,55],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6466"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6466"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6533,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6466\/revisions\/6533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}