Monday, April 2, 2012

Χριστός in the Old Testament



The Greek translations (LXX) of the (proto-)canonical Hebrew scriptures use the word χριστός 41 times. For your convenience, I list them here. Beware that the verse numbering will be that of the LXX, which will come into play especially in the psalms, where most of the psalms in the LXX are numbered one less than their counterparts in English Bibles.
Lev. 4:14, 16; 6:15; 21:10, 12
1Sam. 2:10, 35; 12:3, 5; 16:6; 24:7 (2x), 11; 26:9, 11, 16, 23
2Sam. 1:14, 16; 2:5; 19:22; 22:51; 23:1
1Chron. 16:22
2Chron. 6:42; 22:7
Psa. 2:2; 17:51; 19:7; 27:8; 83:10; 88:39, 52; 104:15; 131:10, 17
Amos 4:13
Hab. 3:13
Isa. 45:1
Lam. 4:20
Dan. 9:26
How many of these are quoted in the NT?

Psa 2:2 in Acts 4:25-26
(24) When they heard it, they raised their voices together to God and said, "Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and everything in them, (25) it is you who said by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant: 'Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? (26) The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers have gathered together against the Lord and against his Messiah.' (NRSV)
And that's it.

[This is according to the index of quotations in the UBS GNT (4th ed.). I have not checked for allusions.]

I don't know about you, but I find it somewhat surprising that for all the christological interpretations in the NT, only one NT passage quotes an OT passage that actually uses the term 'Christ'. I would have assumed there would be a little more of this, especially quotations of some of the psalms that use the word.

For an earlier post on a similar theme, see here.

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