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Thomas Hartwell Horne, B.D., in his valuable "Introduction to the critical study and
knowledge of the Holy Scriptures" has devoted a large section of Volume II to the
analysis of Old Testament quotations in the New. His classification is as follows:--
1:
Quotations exactly agreeing with the Hebrew.
2:
Those nearly agreeing with the Hebrew.
3:
Quotations agreeing with the Hebrew in sense, but not in words.
4:
Such as give the general sense.
5:
Quotations which are taken from several passages of Scripture.
6:
Quotations differing from the Hebrew, but agreeing with the Septuagint.
7:
Quotations in which there is reason to suspect a different reading in the Hebrew, or
that the apostles understood the words in a sense different from that expressed in
our Lexicons.
8:
Passages where the Hebrew seems corrupted.
9:
Passages which are not properly citations, but mere references or allusions.
Examples from each of these headings we hope to give later.
E. W. Grinfield, M.A., in alluding to Hartwell Horne's classification of quotations
given above, remarks:--
"It is necessary to observe, however, that in the first list of `Quotations exactly
agreeing with the Hebrew', all agree verbatim with the LXX except 6 (there are about
70 quotations in this list); and that in his second table of `Quotations nearly agreeing
with the Hebrew', many exactly agree with the LXX, and all very nearly; whilst in his
third list, `Quotations agreeing with the Hebrew in sense, but not in words', many
exactly agree with the LXX, and the rest very nearly. In his seventh list of `Quotations
in which there is reason to suspect a different reading, etc.', some agree exactly, and all
very nearly, with the 70:"
It will be seen that a great many more quotations of the LXX must be credited to that
version than Hartwell Horne's list would at first lead one to suppose.
This question of the quotation of the O.T. by the New, and the classification of such
quotations, has exercised the minds and thoughts of many, but we have not met a more
thorough and careful work on the subject than that of David McCalman Turpie, M.A.,
which is entitled: "The Old Testament in the New", which was published by
Williams and Norton in 1868. Quoting from his preface:--
"It will be found that there can be no more than five great classes, to one or the other
of which all the quotations will be referable. These five classes are the following:--
Class A would contain those which agree with the Original Hebrew Text, when the
latter has been correctly rendered in the Septuagint.
Class B would contain those which agree with the Original Hebrew Text, when the
latter has not been correctly rendered in the Septuagint.
Class C would contain those which differ from the Original Hebrew Text, when the
latter has been correctly rendered in the Septuagint.
Class D would contain those which differ from the Original Hebrew Text, but
agree with the Septuagint, which of course would vary from its original.