by Kent Leslie ✉️
In class I briefly talked about how the apostles used the scriptures as allegories. But let me add a bit more about how the apostles quote the Old Testament.
Ordinarily the apostles quote the scriptures in context. Context, of course, is what was currently going on when something is said or written. And often it’s mighty important to know what was going on. If I say “Step on it,” it’s important to know:
- Are we in a car, driving slowly?
- Are we in the kitchen, looking at a cockroach?
- Am I showing off my new wastebasket with a foot pedal?
- Am I trying to prove to you I fixed the stepladder?
The meaning of “Step on it” changes greatly depending on the context. The same is true with quite a few scriptures. And context isn’t hard to figure out: Just read the paragraph the verse is in. This is basic reading comprehension; we learned it in grade school.
The problem is people often don’t care what the context of a verse is. They just want to quote scripture because it’s powerful and authoritative, and maybe they can swipe some of that power and authority for themselves, and get us to do what they say because they have a proof text from the bible. Okay, but did they accurately quote bible? Because if they didn’t, they’re misquoting it just like the devil did when it tried to get Jesus to jump off the temple. [
Thanks to people misquoting bible, sometimes we misquote bible. We may not mean to; I never mean to! But if we grew up hearing it misquoted all the time—and some of us have—we might think we do know what it means, and we really don’t. For instance “Touch not the Lord’s anointed”—I grew up hearing that whenever someone wanted to teach, “Don’t challenge the pastor. Don’t challenge church leaders. They’re the Lord’s anointed; he put them in charge, and how dare you challenge someone God anointed.” (I always suspected there was a problem with this teaching, because I remember all the times King Saul, whom David called “the Lord’s anointed” many times, did something evil.)
So what’s the context of “Touch not the Lord’s anointed”? It comes from David’s
Ps 105.12-15: When they were few in number,
very few indeed, and resident aliens in Canaan,
13 wandering from nation to nation and from one kingdom to another,
14 he allowed no one to oppress them; he rebuked kings on their behalf:
15“Do not touch my anointed ones, or harm my prophets.”
David is obviously talking about the Hebrew people. Not the king! Not leadership! The people are the Lord’s anointed. Don’t touch them. So what are we doing saying “Touch not the Lord’s anointed” and saying it’s only about leaders? It’s a warning to leaders.
Y’know, whenever a verse gets flipped an entire 180 degrees away from what it actually means, you gotta wonder just how much the devil’s behind it.
Anyway this is why we gotta double-check every proof text. Just in case! Pastors won’t mean to misquote the scriptures, but they will, because they think they already know what it means, and they might be wrong. We all might be wrong. That’s why iron’s gotta sharpen iron. [
As for when Paul uses proof texts, we check those to see what he’s up to. When Paul quotes bible, usually he’s quoting it correctly. It means the very same thing it meant in the Old Testament. And we’ll have a better understanding about Paul’s New Testament teachings when we understand his Old Testament quotes.
From time to time, you will find a preacher claim Paul did change the meanings of these verses when he quoted them. And yes, when Paul’s using these verses as an allegory (I’ll explain that next), he doe; but usually he doesn’t do that. The Holy Spirit didn’t give Paul the power to change the meaning of the bible. He doesn’t give anyone that power.
(By the way, I’ve found this is a really useful way to test prophets. When prophets misquote the bible, that’s how you know that particular message did not come from the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s never gonna misquote his own bible! Know your bible, and you’ll catch more false prophets than Pokémons.)
Allegories. Okay, sometimes Paul and the other apostles quote the bible not as proof texts, but to use them as analogies. They’re not trying to prove something based on bible: They’re borrowing the bible’s imagery. Paul does this a bunch in Galatians 4 when he compares God’s promise and the Law to Isaac and Ishmael, Sarah and Hagar. That’s not what these boys and their mothers literally mean; and Paul’s not even trying to say that’s what they literally mean. He’s using them to say, “You are like Isaac, and following the Law is like being the son whom Abrhaham later drove away.” It’s a simile.
The writers of the New Testament did that a lot. History repeats itself all the time, so there are lots of images we can borrow from the bible and say, “This is an awful lot like that.” But let’s not go overboard and claim, “This is that.”
And I think it’s fairly obvious when the apostles are using the scriptures as allegories: You look at the context of their proof texts, and it doesn’t work! So relax; they’re making an allegory. But the rest of the time, they quoted the scriptures properly. Same as we should strive to do.