The Septuagint in the New Testament

The following table provides a summary overview of New Testament quotations from the Old Testament. Twenty-four Old Testament books, listed in the first column of the table—Genesis through Malachi—, are quoted in sixteen New Testament books—Matthew through 2 Peter—, named in the top row. The row in blue provides the total number of quotations from the Old Testament in each New Testament book. In addition, this line shows the total of all verses in the Old Testament books quoted, the total number of quotations (320), and the frequency of quotations for those books taken as a whole. Thus, for the 24 Old Testament books listed, the average frequency of quotations is 18.0 per every thousand verses. Of course, if the entire Old Testament were taken into account, the quotation frequency would be much lower. To include verse counts from books not quoted (Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Chronicles, etc.) would, however, ensnare us in the question of the Old Testament canon, which is outside the scope of the present investigation.

As a guide to reading the table, note that the book of Genesis has 1508 verses and is quoted 31 times in the New Testament. The number of quotations from Genesis, divided by the number of verses in that book and multiplied by 1000, yields 20.6 — implying that Genesis was a bit more popular with New Testament authors than the average Old Testament book. Continuing along the “Genesis” row, we see that four of these quotations appear in the book of Acts, and nine in Romans. Looking along the columns, observe that the book of John quotes the Old Testament only 14 times—the least of any gospel. John quotes the Psalms 7 times, Isaiah 4 times, and Zechariah twice. (Fractional quotations will be explained shortly.)

Some additional remarks about the table: (1) the reader may notice that fractional quotations are listed. The reason for this is that in cases such as Matthew 5:33 and 5.38, multiple Old Testament books contain the same quotation. Since it is impossible to tell which book is being quoted, each is given partial credit. For instance, Matthew may have had Exodus 21:24, Leviticus 19.12 or Deuteronomy 19:21 in mind in Matthew 5:38. Each Old Testament book is thus given one-third credit.

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Author: R. Grant Jones

Keywords: Septuagint, Septuagint quotes, Septuagint quotes in the New Testament, Septuagint New Testament, Old Testament quotes, Septuagint references, Septuagint references in the New Testament

Bible reference(s): Matthew 1:23, Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 12:21, Isaiah 42:4, Matthew 13:14-15, Isaiah 6:9-10, Matthew 15:8-9, Isaiah 29:13, Matthew 21:16, Psalm 8:2, Luke 3:4-6, Isaiah 40:3-5, Luke 4:18-19, Isaiah 61:1-2, Acts 7:42-43, Amos 5:25-27, Acts 8:32-33, Isaiah 53:7-8, Acts 13:41, Habakkuk 1:5, Acts 15:16-17, Amos 9:11-12, Romans 2:24, Isaiah 52:5, Romans 9:27-28, Isaiah 10:22-23, Romans 10:20, Isaiah 65:1, Romans 11:9-10, Psalm 69:22, Romans 11:26-27, Isaiah 59:20-21, Romans 11:34, Isaiah 40:13, Romans 15:12, Isaiah 11:10, Heb 1:6, Deut 32:43, Heb 2:6-8, Psalm 8:4-6, Heb 2:13, Isaiah 8:17, Heb 3:15, Psalm 95:7-8, Heb 8:8-12, Jer 31:31-34, Heb 10:5-7, Psalm 40:6-8, Heb 10:37-38, Hab 2:3-4, Heb 11:21, Genesis 47:31, Heb 12:5-6, Prov 3:11-12, James 4:6, Prov 3:34, 1 Pet 2:22, Isaiah 53:9, 1 Pet 4:18, Prov 11:31

Source: “The Septuagint in the New Testament.”

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