Heb. 10: 30, the writer quotes from Deut. 32: 35, but does not give a literal translation

of the Hebrew or a literal quotation from the 70:  In Rom. 12: 19, Paul quotes the

same passage and uses exactly the same wording, which is remarkable. The famous

quotation from Hab. 2: 4, "The just shall live by faith" gives the key-note of the Gospel

of God's grace made known through Paul's ministry. It is absolutely basic to this

Gospel, and the epistle to the Romans is written around it. It occurs in Galatians with a

slightly different stress (3: 11), and is not quoted by any other N.T. writer except the

author of Hebrews. The emphasis here is on the word `live', for the great theme of this

epistle is the perfecting of the believer through trial and suffering (Heb. 6: 1; 10: 32-39)

with a reward in view. The Apostle does not quote the actual words of Habakkuk, but

gives his own rendering. It is noteworthy that the words of Rom. 1: 17, and Heb. 10: 38,

are identical. One of the chief objections to the Pauline authorship of Hebrews is the

mode of Scriptural citation in this epistle, which, it is alleged, is very different to that of

the Apostle. Schulz, De Wette, Bleek and others maintained that the Pauline habit is to

name the human author, whereas the writer to the Hebrews represents the various

Scriptural passages much more definitely as utterances of God the Holy Spirit, without

any reference to the human instrument by whom it was communicated, and leans to the

Alexandrian rather than the Palestinian Biblical method, being akin to the mechanical

theory of inspiration held by Philo.

But what are the facts? In the Acts of the Apostles we have specimens of the way

the Apostle Paul addresses the Jews, and how he varies his mode of introducing

quotations from the O.T. There are six O.T. quotations in his speech at Antioch in Pisidia

(Acts 13:), prefixed by "He (God) gave testimony and said" (verse 22), "as it is also

written in the second Psalm" (33), "He (God) said on this wise" (34), "He saith also in

another Psalm" (35), "Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in

prophets" (40), "the Lord commanded us saying" (verse 47). It will be noticed that the

human author is not once mentioned. There are only two more occasions in the Acts in

which Paul formally quotes Scripture, namely when brought before the Sanhedrim, he

reviles the high priest and then repents saying: ". . . . . for it is written, Thou shalt not

speak evil of the ruler of thy people" (Acts 23: 5) and in the last chapter where he

quotes for the last time in the N.T. the solemn words of Isa. 6: to the Jews at Rome.

But he introduces the quotation, saying: "Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the

prophet". In neither case is the human writer mentioned by himself.

From an examination of the epistles, it is clear that the Apostle had no stereotyped

method of quoting O.T. Scripture. Three times he mentions Moses as the author of his

quotation, David twice, Isaiah five times, but all these cases, with two exceptions

(Acts 28: 25 and I Cor. 9: 9) occur in one epistle, that to the Romans, and there is

no evidence that the Apostle attributed any particular doctrinal significance to the human

authors. The fact is that Paul often used the impersonal way of introducing Scripture as

is done in the epistle to the Hebrews. In at least three cases Paul makes God the speaker

of a Scripture (Acts 13: 35; II Cor. 6: 17; Eph. 4: 18), not merely quoting a word of

God registered in the Scriptures.