Introduction
A previous article concluded that Paul’s use of Deut 30:12-14 in Rom 10:3-8 can only be correctly understood against the backdrop of Hezekiah. Paul reads the covenant in Deuteronomy through the lens of Isaiah. We noted that Paul’s usage was not dependant on proverbial Second Temple Jewish tradition and stated that it was either totally unique—originating with Paul himself—or it was a further development of existing Christian tradition.[1] This article will examine the hypothesis of possible development of existing Christian tradition and it will also re-examine the original Deuteronomic covenant in order to discover if Paul was theologically justified in re-casting Deut 30:12-14 within an Isaianic framework.
Precursor Traditions
The suggestion is that antecedent tradition existed that influenced Paul’s choice of Deut 30:12-14, in particular his use of Isaiah as an interpretive instrument through which to read the Deuteronomy text. Our hypothesis is that the choice of Isaiah as an interpretive lens can be traced directly back to the Baptist,[2] who in turn influenced his disciples and even Jesus. The Baptist aligned himself with Isaiah’s “crying voice” (Matt 3:3), and introduced Jesus (John 1:35) to his own disciples using words that echo the description of the Servant of God in the Septuagint version of Isaiah: “Behold, the Lamb of God” (cf. Isa 53:4, 7, 12).
Moreover, of the two disciples who were thus introduced by the Baptist to Jesus, one of them is traditionally considered to be the author of the Fourth Gospel and it is this Gospel that frames the account of Jesus’ public ministry with an inclusio using citations from Isaiah (commencing with John 1:23/Isa.40:3 and ending with John 12:38/Isa 53:1; John 12:40/Isa 6:9, 10). Luke’s gospel has Jesus commencing his public ministry by reading from Isa 61:1-2 (Luke 4:18-19) and his interchange with the disciples of the imprisoned Baptist, although not a citation, is also based on Isaiah, with the implicit understanding that the captives would not be released (Luke 3:20; 7:20-23 cf. Isa 61:2).[3]
The earliest Christian traditions have John the Baptist employing Isaiah (Mark 1:2-3; Matt 3:3; Luke 3:4-6) and this obviously influenced early church thinking about Christ. The Johannine Gospel has four explicit quotes from Isaiah (nearly a quarter of his citations) but it has many allusions and echoes that are generally unrecognized. If the Fourth Gospel was early[4] then it would have had a direct influence on Paul’s transformative quotation in Romans; even if the Fourth Gospel was a late writing, it still reflects the fact that the underlying Christian Isaianic thinking was early and directly attributable to the influence of John the Baptist. So it is entirely feasible that Paul was either influenced by the Fourth Gospel, or by the traditional Christian interpretations of Isaiah that formed the underlying Gospel sources.
Isaiah and Hezekiah in the Fourth Gospel
Our proposal is that Paul based his argument in Romans 10:3-8, not on proverbial tradition, but on John 3:12 which alludes to Isa 7:11. The discussion with Nicodemus concerns the origins not only of the Messiah but of every believer:
| John 3 | Isaiah |
|---|---|
| Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him. (v. 2) | Immanuel (7:14) “God with us” |
| Born from above (v. 3) the only begotten Son of God.(v. 18) | Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. (7:14) |
| Born of water (v. 5) | Waters of (Shiloh) Siloam: Inasmuch as these people refused The waters of Shiloh that flow softly (8:6) |
| If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended (avnabe,bhken) to heaven but He who came down (kataba,j) from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. (vv. 12-13) |
Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.” (7:11)
|
| He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.(v. 18) |
If you will not believe, Surely you shall not be established (7:9)
|
In his commentary on Romans, E. Käsemann notes the pairing of the verbs anabai,nein (“ascend”) and katabai,nein (“come down”) not only at Rom 10:6-8 but also at John 1:51, 3:13.[5] Käsemann considers that elements of Romans 10:6-8 betray a pre-Pauline “hymnic (or) liturgical text.” On the other hand it might be said that John 3:13 should be excluded from consideration, for although the schema at John 3:13 (down/up) is formally identical to that of Rom 10:6-7, it actually follows a reverse conceptual order from that of Paul (up/down). J. D. G. Dunn argues that the order is simply determined by the original order of the clauses in Deuteronomy.[6] However, these points are insignificant when placed alongside the other evidence, which demonstrates forcefully that John and Paul based their narratives on Isaiah or, (if it existed at that time), that Paul used the Fourth Gospel.
The Sending Formula
The emphasis that Jesus was “sent” (John 3:17) is not uniquely Johannine,[7] but the evangelist’s association with the waters of Siloam is unique (John 9:7). This clearly indicates that Jesus drew his metaphor from Isaiah who prophetically foretold Hezekiah’s birth.[8] In earlier article, “Deuteronomy 30:12-14 in Romans 10:3-8”, we noted how Shiloh (Siloam) functioned metaphorically and typologically for faith in the Davidic covenant – reflected in the fountain that feeds the pool. The evangelist takes pains to instruct us that Siloam means (avpestalme,noj) “sent.” The blind man was made to wash at the pool of Siloam (John 9:7).
Similarly, Paul interjects, “How shall they preach [the Gospel] unless they are sent?” (Rom 10:15), and “blindness in part has happened to Israel” (Rom 11:25), for they have “eyes that do not see” (Rom 11:8 citing Isa 29:10/Isa 6:9, cf. Deut 29:4).
The major theme of the Fourth Gospel is the legitimacy and origin of the Messiah:
Then Jesus cried out, as He taught in the temple, saying, You both know Me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. ‘But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me. John 7:28-29
Jesus’ cry happened on the great day of the Feast of Tabernacles on which, traditionally, a water pouring ceremony was carried out on the base of the altar with water that was carried from the pool of Siloam.[9] Dunn insists that Paul and his readers thought of Jesus (“the Sent One”) simply in terms of a divine commission rather than any divine incarnation[10] — the Fourth evangelist thought of Jesus in the same terms. Our conclusion so far must be that Romans, John and Isaiah are in harmony – the background is the birth of Hezekiah, the suffering servant, who functioned as a proto-type for the Messiah.
Theological Justification
Paul’s omission of a requirement to “do the law” and his statement that Christ is the “end of the Law” (te,loj)[11] is thought to introduce such a radical discontinuity that it is often rejected, leaving Paul open to accusations of dishonestly manipulating scripture when he cites the Law. However, this fails to recognize that the Deuteronomic covenant is not a simple re-iteration of the Siniatic covenant:
These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb. Deut.29:1
The Deuteronomic covenant anticipated Israel’s failure to keep the Law – it envisaged a recall from an exile that would occur as a result of apostasy. Moreover, when it was given, the people were on the border of the land and they were required to circumcise the generation born in the wilderness because the rite had been neglected (Josh 5:2-9). The neglect was in fact an outright rejection of the Abrahamic covenant, but God’s covenant with Israel was not contingent upon Israel’s obedience.[12] Even when faced with national disobedience God would remain faithful to his covenant promises.
| ABRAHAMIC COVENANT (Genesis) | DEUTERONOMY 29-33 |
|---|---|
| And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee (17:7) | That he may establish thee today for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob (29:13) |
| And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee (17:9-10) | Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; But with him that standeth here with us this day before the Lord our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day (29:14-15) |
|
Jehovah–Jireh [means “Yahweh will be revealed”] (22:14) Walk before me, and be thou perfect (17:1). Because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge (26:4-5) |
The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this Law (29:29) |
| That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies (22:17) | And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers (30:5) |
| And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you (17:11) | And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live (30:6) |
| And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee (12:3) | And the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee (30:7) |
Paul’s choice of the Deuteronomy text was therefore quite deliberate- it spoke of Israel’s failure to keep the Law; it anticipated future apostasy and exile (an inability to externalize righteousness by Law-keeping); and finally, it acknowledged that admission into “their rest” could only occur under the Abrahamic covenant. Moreover, the requirement to “do it” (the Law) was met by Abraham before the law even existed. Abraham “kept the Law” proleptically – this is reflected in Gen 26:4-5, where God promises to bless Isaac’s seed because: “Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws”. This verse is unique in that it contains the first occurrence in the Bible of the four words to describe the Law: charge (mishmereth), statute (chaqah), commandments (misvah) and laws (torah). All these words are first associated with Abraham and not with Moses. The Abrahamic covenant was therefore definitive for Paul’s understanding of the Law.
For Paul, Abraham’s belief in the covenant righteousness of God is the true essence of keeping the Law. Paul marries the Abrahamic and Davidic covenant promises by referring to their establishment through belief (Rom 10:3/Isa.7:9/Gen 15:6). The “doing of the Law” transcends the limitations of Law-keeping and epitomizes the New Covenant of Jer 31:33 (of which it was always a part). This is a covenant of obedience and acknowledgement of Christ, by confessing with the mouth that Jesus is Lord and believing with the heart that God has raised Jesus.[13]
Righteousness cannot be established by human effort. Seeking equality with God through the Law will not work (Gen 3:5); moreover, it is an act of hubris to exalt oneself (ascending to heaven—Isa 14:13) against the Lord and his anointed. It is not only impossible (as raising Christ again would be), but totally unnecessary to attempt such extreme measures (to go to the heights/depths) to achieve righteousness, for God has already established covenant righteousness—as he demonstrated with a sign in the heights (heavenly origins) and the depths (resurrection) concerning the Messiah.
Conclusion
Pauline theology is complex, subtle and polyvalent. It is placed firmly within the matrix of the Old Testament. He did not distort the Deuteronomy text; rather, by employing the Isaiah oracle as a refractive lens, Paul placed it within a wider covenant context and pointed it to its natural conclusion – Christ “the end of the Law for (self) righteousness”.
[1] P. Wyns, “Deuteronomy 30:12-14 in Romans 10:3-8” CeJBI 2 (2008).
[2] John the Baptist is posited as having links with the desert dwelling Qumran community; the fragment 4Q174 (1-2 line 15) is a Qumran text that describes Isaiah as “the prophet for the last days”; generally Isaiah was regarded with high esteem in Second Temple Judaism. John the Baptist was the first to interpret the Christ event in the light of Isaiah.
[3] Jesus proclaims the release of captives in Luke 4:16-30 just after John has been put in prison (Luke 3:20), and this is an instructive irony [Ed. AP].
[4] J. A. T. Robinson cogently argues for an early date in The Priority of John (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985).
[5] E. Käsemann, Commentary on Romans (London, SCM Press, 1980), 289
[6] J. D. G. Dunn, Christology in the Making (2nd Ed.; London: SCM Press, 2003), 185.
[7] Mark 12:6 for example: “Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent (avpe,steilen) him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
[8] The Lord has sent a word against Jacob, and it will light upon Israel (Isa 9:8)
[9] The “dry place” (Zion) receives water from the “smitten rock.”
[10] Christology, 246.
[11] T. R. Schreiner in “Paul’s View of the Law in Romans 10:4-5” WTJ 55 (1993): 113-35 lists several possible meanings for Rom 10:4—1. The Law is abolished. 2. Messianic Age ends the Age of Law. 3. Law has ended as a way of salvation. 4. Christ is the end of the Ceremonial Law. 5. The exclusivity of the Law is set aside. 6. Christ is the Goal of the Law. 7. Christ is the End and Goal of the Law. 8. Ceasing to use the Law to establish One’s own righteousness.
[12] The Rabbinic evidence is referred to and assessed by E. P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism (London: SCM Press,1977), 95-96
[13] Resurrection is at the heart of the Abrahamic account (Gen 22:5) and of the Hezekiah narrative (2 Kgs 20:5, Isa 53:10), as is acknowledgement of Yahweh’s self revelation (Gen 22:8, 14) and exaltation and confession of the name (Isa 26:2, 8-9; Isa 12:2; Isa 45:23-24).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One