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 quotation marks. For instance, Romans 9:17 sets off the Old Testament passage in quotation marks:
17For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.”*
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:
9:17 Exod 9:16 (Greek version).
Now let’s look at this passage in Exodus 9:16, along with some surrounding context (9:13, 15-16):
13Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh. Tell him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so they can worship me. . . . 15By 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. 16But I have spared you for a purpose—to show you my power* and to spread my fame throughout the earth.’”
We might expect the wording to be identical between Romans 9:17 and Exodus 9:16. But the Romans passage says, “for the very purpose of displaying my power in you,” and the Exodus passage says, “to show you my power.” 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 in the Exodus passage. It points to a footnote at the bottom of the page. The footnote reads:
9:16 Greek version reads to display my power in you; compare Rom 9:17.
The “Greek version” referenced in the footnote is the Septuagint—an 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.
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—the Greek translation of the OT passage—relates to the Greek text in the NT passage.
Many readers ignore the footnotes when they read the Bible text, but the NLT footnotes provide “road maps” to help readers follow the relationship between New Testament passages and the Old Testament passages they draw from or quote.
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’s grand narrative of redemption and how the coming of Jesus the Messiah fulfills the hopes of God’s Old Testament people—and the hopes of us all!