SOURCES OF THE PAULINE MATERIAL
SOURCES OF THE PAULINE MATERIAL
Virgil Warren, PhD
Introductory Guidelines
The kinds of sources found in Pauline material are not only those that appear in literature generally, but those that fit the nature of scripture. This observation is not meant to prejudice research but to point out a consistency Christians expect to find in this study. So the first guideline is that (a) scripture is like what God himself would exhale. Presumably 2 Timothy 3:16 teaches that scripture as such is God-breathed as to its intended content. Sources and processes of origination for Pauline material correlate with the nature of scripture that issues from them.
(b) Supernatural agency is not invoked unnecessarily. The aim here is to make minimum affirmation, not to account for Christianity without divine agency. Avoiding overkill lets God do more than necessary without claiming he did do more. God need not have done for Paul what Paul could do for himself.
With content as well as manner of expression, we can allow for both the protective and positive roles of the Spirit. To conform to God-breathedness, scripture need only result in trustworthy text; God need not be the immediate cause of every text. God may indeed operate in prescriptive-positive fashion by giving even the very words and writing them himself, as when he wrote on the wall of Belshazzar’s palace (Daniel 5) or engraved the ten commandments on stone (Exodus 31:18); and he may directly reveal ideas, as he did to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-4:17).
But the Spirit may also operate in more permissive-protective fashion and achieve the same level of trustworthy results. He may give abilities (1 Kings 3:4-15), experiences (Acts 10:9-34-48), or offices (2 Samuel 7:1-17); and then permit a man like Paul, not only to generate ways of communicating God’s revelation, but to generate the revelation itself. If the ideas or ways of saying them are incorrect or inadequate, the Spirit can intervene to correct his prophet and protect him from error (cp. Nathan in 2 Samuel 7). Under either model, the quality of Paul’s material would be the same as if God himself had said it.
(c) Jewish backgrounds take precedence over Gentile ones. Even on naturalistic grounds, we would expect Christianity to have come primarily from Jewish sources. Paul’s worldview is neither Greek nor Roman, but Jewish. Even in ambiguous cases, presumption favors a scenario that emphasizes Jewish revelation, thought form, teaching style, and literary custom.
All things being equal, (d) Pauline materials are as likely to have come from Paul himself as from unknown persons. Everything creative and artistic in his writings need not be anonymous products of the early church rather than from a man we know was a driving personality behind the initial spread of Christianity. The New Testament was not produced in a vacuum; neither did it just evolve.
I. Content Sources for Pauline Material
A. The Old Testament canon
Paul uses an array of Old Testament materials in his writings and uses them in several ways. The passages he cites (1) give content that he reiterates to his readers. But more than that, those texts (2) provide authority for what he says. They often (3) establish bases for inferences that he makes beyond what they directly affirm. Paul uses incidents and persons in scripture that (4) illustrate theological points not necessarily implied by them. Those points rest on Paul’s own authority as Christ’s spokesman, but he makes them memorable by attaching them to striking images his Jewish audience knew.
B. Direct revelation
In Galatians, Paul is adamant about not getting his message from other people but through revelation from Jesus Christ (1:11-12). In chapters 1-2, he claims to be a primary witness for Christ, one who did not depend on previous apostolic testimony or the witness of men like Ananias, who baptized him; Paul apparently refused to be classified as a tradition bearer.1 Not only was his message true; it was directly revealed truth. This revelation was from Christ in a way distinct from information learned through other people and from his own thoughts as well (see I F). In Ephesians 3:3 he says that “the mystery” was made known to him by revelation (cp. 1 Corinthians 2:10? 12:1-4? Galatians 2:2). He tells the Corinthians, “The things I am writing to you . . . are an epistle of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 14:37).
Matthew 16:17 may serve as a control text for the wording of Paul’s claim in Galatians. Jesus tells Peter that he did not get his Good Confession from other people (“flesh and blood”), but from the Father. Jesus may have meant a general idea—that Peter’s confession did not represent what people were saying about the Son of Man (16:13). It was a viewpoint that came mediately from the Father through the Son rather than immediately from the Father to Peter. Back in Galatians, Paul’s words similarly had a more general import, referring to something that originated in his own thinking—as based on Old Testament exegesis, for example. It was tantamount to direct revelation because the Spirit who worked manifestly with Paul confirmed his understanding by not correcting it.2
C. Jewish Apocrypha
Paul’s use of the armor figure in Ephesians 6:13-18 has antecedents in Wisdom 5:17-23. Most connections with apocryphal works are general ideas and verbal reminiscences rather than intentional references; they are not necessarily any more than cross references between different books within the New Testament. Even then they are few, being mostly from The Book of Wisdom and The Book of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus).3 Paul never uses the apocrypha as an authoritative basis for anything doctrinal or factual. In comparison to canonical references, even verbal similarities with the apocrypha are sparse
D. Jewish Pseudepigrapha
The principal example of this source in Paul appears in 2 Timothy 3:8, where he refers to the magicians who withstood Moses, calling them Jannes (“Seducer”) and Jambres (“Insurrectionist”). Exodus 7:11, 22; 8:7 does not name these men; the names appear in several later Jewish works as well as early Christian and even pagan sources, the earliest reference being in the Essene work known as the Damascus Document. (See The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha [Doubleday, 1985], Vol. II, pp. 427-36; and “Jannes and Jambres,” The New Schaff-Herzog Religious Encyclopedia, p. 95.) The fictitious “names” apparently derive from their role in opposing Moses in front of Pharaoh. It is sufficient here to suppose that Paul designated these men by traditional labels much as we refer to the Magi as Melchior, Balthasar, and Gaspar.
Citation by an inspired writer does not mean the whole work is inspired, nor necessarily that the specific item is true. It may illustrate the author’s point, much the way a preacher might illustrate honesty with Parson Weems’ story about George Washington cutting down a cherry tree with his hatchet.4
E. Pagan citations
All four pagan citations in the New Testament occur in Paul. The first is an altar inscription in Athens: “To an Unknown God” (Acts 17:23). The next comes from Aratus in Acts 17:28: “For we are also his offspring.” The third is from Menander/Euripides in 1 Corinthians 15:33: “Evil companions corrupt good morals.” The last appears in Titus 1:12, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons,” a quotation from the Cretan poet Epimenides.
Beyond these few clear cases, originally pagan materials could be reworked for Christian purposes. Some Old Testament psalms resemble Near Eastern counterparts; they were “baptized” into Jewish thought much as we sing “Bridge over Troubled Waters” with Christian meaning (For a brief discussion and bibliography, see R. K. Harrison, Introduction to the Old Testament [Eerdmans, 1969], pp. 997-99). Some of the proverbs in the Book of Proverbs originated from wise men of the East who are not likely to have been Jewish (Proverbs 24:23; 30-31). There is no clear case of this in Paul or the New Testament, although such a proposal has been made for John 1:1-14, The Ode to the Logos.
F. Christian tradition
In light of Paul’s claim to be a primary witness for Christ (Galatians 1:11-12), we wonder whether “received [from the Lord]” in 1 Corinthians 11:23; 15:3-8 can mean “received ultimately from the Lord” as an item of tradition or must mean “received directly from the Lord” as an item of special revelation. The first passage is especially interesting because it cites an event in the private life of Christ during his ministry (note Hebrews 5:7). Neither in his letters nor in The Acts does Paul indicate that he witnessed Christ’s ministry; so we do not know how he knew about what happened. He would have been a prime candidate for the Jews to send out to investigate the work of John the Baptist and Jesus (John 1:19; Matthew 15:1-2; Mark 3:2 + 2:24; Matthew 22:15ff; John 7:32-46; etc.). From personal observation Paul could have known about public events in Jerusalem, especially during the final week (Luke 24:18; Acts 26:26) and if he was a member of the Sanhedrin (Acts 7:58; 26:10). We do not know how he knew about earlier events. According to Acts 20:35 Paul refers to the only saying of the Lord outside the gospels: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” He did know about these things.
Since only by The Twelve witnessed the occurrences in the upper room, how did Paul know what Jesus said at the institution of the Supper? (1) He could have been told by previous apostles, a solution that accords with the principle of minimum affirmation, or unnecessary supernaturalizing. “Received (from the Lord)” in the Corinthian texts would mean “received ultimately from the Lord.” (2) He could also have “received directly from the Lord,” say, in Arabia, a solution that fits the verbiage of Galatians 1. Like John the Baptist in the wilderness, Elijah beside Brook Cherith, and Moses on Mount Sinai, Paul in Arabia would have had a time of special encounter before entering his apostolic ministry.
Did Paul receive from previous apostles information about Christ’s life, or did he receive his message directly from Christ? One solution is to say that he received many facts indirectly but their meaning directly. In Galatians 1:11-12 he addresses the Judaizing controversy that centered around circumcision, which had both a salvation and a political association. Paul may mean that he got directly from Christ the message/ that salvation was by faith rather than by keeping the Law perfectly (Galatians 3:10-14)—which is what circumcision implicitly committed a person to do by identifying him with Mosaism—and that under Messiah God’s people no longer had a national identity marked by circumcision. Relationship to God was available to Gentiles as Gentiles—the “mystery,” as Paul calls it in Ephesians 3:1-13ff. This latter insight Paul would not have gotten from Peter because Paul had no contact with him and Peter himself did not understand that point until Cornelius’ conversion (Acts 10:34-35-47). Cornelius was converted after Paul (Acts 9) and before the 14/17 years elapsed when Paul finally had some significant contact with the Jerusalem apostles (Galatians 1:18-2:10). His indirect knowledge of what “Jesus began to do and to teach” (Acts 1:1) would fit with the fact that Paul’s companion Luke interviewed “eyewitnesses and ministers of the word” (Luke 1:1-4) in writing his gospel (? while Paul was incarcerated in Caesarea for two years) instead of depending simply on the testimony of Paul. “Tradition,” then, may have been a source of Pauline material as to facts, but the meaning of those facts did not come to him that way.
G. Christian hymns
The following texts in Paul are among those identified as early Christian hymns or parts of hymns: Romans 1:2-4; 11:33-35; Ephesians 1:3-14; 2:19-22; 5:14; Philippians 2:6-11; Colossians 1:15-20; 1 Timothy 1:17; 3:16; 6:15-16; 2 Timothy 2:11-13; Titus 3:4-7 (Hebrews 1:1-3/4; cp. John 1:1-14; 1 Peter 1:3-5, 18-21; 2:21-25; 3:18-22; 4:6; 5:5-9; 2 Peter 2:21-25a; see New ISBE, Vol. II, pp.788-90 + bib.; Ralph Martin, Worship in the Early Church, pp. 39-52 + fnts.). Scholars consider stylistic construction, theological content, and unusual vocabulary as marks of Christian hymnody (see Martin, Worship, p. 51).
Incorporating early Christian hymns into scripture presents no difficulty, and musical creations were springing up in the Christian community of Paul’s day as has happened in every Christian renewal movement since then (“hymns” and “spiritual songs” in Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16-17; cp. ? Acts 16:25 + 29-31). But caution is appropriate for other reasons. (1) The fourteen hymnic texts in Revelation are often too specialized for general use and too integral to their settings to have originated separately and later been incorporated into the Apocalypse. The book presents them as what John heard, so they must represent his experience in the “spirit” (4:8, 11; 5:9-10, 12, 13; 7:12; 11:15, 17-18; 12:10-12; 14:7; 15:3-4; 19:1-2, 5, 6-8). If such a thing can occur in Revelation, it can occur in Paul.
(2) Furthermore, specialists have enough trouble identifying the limits of Paul’s hymns that we wonder how easily they can be distinguished from their surroundings. Conceptually and even grammatically, they flow so well out of and back into the context that it seems easier to credit one author with writing the whole thing. 1 Timothy 6:15-16 is hardly separable from or more stylistic than 6:11-14, with which it forms a seamless expression. Paul shifted into poetic phrasing to give an aesthetic touch for more striking effect. (3) Some hymns are not very complete units that could work as free-standing pieces. (4) If they do form a unit, they are often too short to be songs (1 Timothy 1:17; 3:16).
(5) Internally the hymns do not represent a highly structured genre. They have no rhyme scheme and little that could be called meter. Their balanced construction is not much more than the Hebrew parallelism Paul grew up with and studied under Gamaliel. The format of these hymns is free enough for a writer like Paul to produce. This kind of expression could probably have been spontaneous as a good preacher does on occasion. Spontaneous rap and traditional African-American oratory show that the “hymn” phenomenon in the writings of Paul is not something more than what he could have inserted with his own hand.5 They are hardly more elaborate than the salutations (Galatians 1:3-4; cp. Revelation 1:4b-6), “prayers” (1 Thessalonians 3:11-13), benedictions (2 Corinthians 13:14; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17; cp. Hebrews 13:20-21), and doxologies that mark culmination points he punctuates with “Amen” (Romans 11:33-36; 16:25-27; Ephesians 3:20-21; 1 Timothy 1:17; 6:15-16; cp. Jude 24-25). How is Ephesians 2:19-22 more stylistic, theological, and linguistically peculiar than 4:4-7? Not everything that has an artistic flair comes from another source.6 Grosheid, 1 Corinthians, 66, ¶3, suggests that 1 Corinthians 2:9 is a hymn quoted by Paul rather than a fresh combination of Old Testament phraseologies.
H. Christian sayings
Five times in the pastorals Paul speaks of faithful sayings: 1 Timothy 1:15; 3:1; 4:(8-) 9 (-10); 2 Timothy 2:11-13; Titus 3:8. Commentators typically understand these as references to slogans circulating in the church. That could be so, but it may be that Paul means something less formal, perhaps a saying of his own or a comment that just came to mind. These comments could have the force of saying, “A good way to say it is . . . .”
I. Catechisms/creeds/confessions of faith/baptismal liturgies
Some texts called “hymns” above are also considered parts of confessions. Double classification can happen because confessions can be put to music. In some cases, these hymn-confessions commentators consider baptismal liturgies because confessions relate to becoming a Christian.
Ralph Martin considers 1 Timothy 3:16 “a clear instance of an early confession of faith” (Worship, p. 53). 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 is regularly considered a creedal statement along with Ephesians 5:25-26, Philippians 2:11, and a number of similar passages, including Acts 8:37. While the evidence brought forward to support that thesis is interesting, we come away wondering whether it would not be more natural to suppose that later confessions and baptismal ceremonies formalized these earlier descriptions instead of supposing that the earlier material itself was formal.
J. Unknown sources
Paul introduces Ephesians 5:14 with a citation formula—the same one he uses in 4:8, but the source is unknown despite a similarity to several Old Testament references (Isaiah 26:19; 51:17; 52:1; 60:1; Malachi 4:2): “Wherefore he/it says, ‘Arise, sleeping-one, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’” Martin considers it a snatch from an early baptismal hymn (Worship, p. 104), an assessment cautiously approved by F. F. Bruce (Epistle to the Ephesians [Pickering & Inglis, 1961], p. 108).7
II. Non-Content Sources of Pauline Material
A. Creative Thought
1. Paul uses creative thought to interpret. He derives theological insight from previous scripture. Earlier we noted his extensive use of the Old Testament and his use of those texts for more than information he repeats. Beyond direct exegetical data, he infers things that are not said in the text itself and combines truths from different places to produce inferences. Galatians 3:7-14 combines five passages to make his most succinct statement of salvation by faith as per Habakkuk 2:4. Direct revelation is not necessarily occurring here; yet the Old Testament is not the direct source either.
2. Paul uses creative thought to make practical applications. He gives inspired advice in 1 Corinthians 7:8-9, 12-40 vs. divine commandment in 7:10-11 (cp. Peter’s “I perceive” in Acts 10:34). As used here, “advice” differs from “commandment” in that advice does not necessarily imply disobedience if it is not taken. Like wisdom literature in the Old Testament, advice concerns what is best, not just what is morally mandated. Sometimes there is more than one way to carry out what fundamental truth requires. Choosing any one of these options is good; the role of the Spirit under such circumstances is not positively to command the one way to operate, but to prevent a writer like Paul from giving directives that would fall outside the boundaries set by first principles (cp. ? Matthew 16:19; 18:15-20).
B. Rhetorical Style
Many times, Paul uses Old Testament concrete items to picture New Testament spiritual truths. In Jewish style he often presents the abstract in concrete form. Some of his work has the shape of Jewish midrash, where Old Testament events and persons are used to picture spiritual truths they do not themselves necessarily mean:
the Hagar-Sarah allegory (Galatians 4:21-31),
the Christ-Adam parallel (Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:21-23, 45-59),
episodes in the lives of the patriarchs (Romans 9:6-13),
several items associated with the exodus from Egypt and the wilderness wanderings (Romans 9:14-18; 1 Corinthians 10:1-11; 2 Corinthians 3:3-18; 8:15). Similarly, he appeals to
Christ’s death-burial-resurrection-ascension (Romans 6:1-14; Galatians 2:20; 6:14; Colossians 2:12-15; 3:1-5).
There is an immense amount of other illustrative material as well:
the Olive Tree Parable (Romans 11:16-24),
the building imagery (Romans 9:32-33; 15:20; 1 Corinthians 3:9-15; Ephesians 2:10; 3:20-22),
the Greek games (1 Corinthians 9:24-27; 2 Timothy 4:5-7),
adoption (Romans 7:15, 23; Galatians 4:5-6),
marriage (Romans 7:2-4),
the family,
agriculture (1 Corinthians 3:6-8; Galatians 6:7-10),
baptism (1 Corinthians 6:11; Ephesians 5:26; Titus 3:5),
the physical body (Romans 12:3-8; 1 Corinthians 12:12-30; 10:16-17; Galatians 2:9; Ephesians 3:6; 4:4, 16-17; 1 Timothy 3:15), and much more.
The amount of such imagery is overwhelming, and it is interwoven in ways that nearly forbid analysis.
The use of Greek rhetorical antecedents in Paul is a study in itself. For details and proposals, see George A. Kennedy, Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times (U. of N. Carolina Press, 1980, especially pp. 120-60).
III. Reasons for the Use of Sources in Pauline Material
Christians hesitate to suppose that New Testament writers used sources because using sources suggests (a) gaining information. Except for previous revelation and direct revelation, that could remove the origin of the Christian message from New Testament writers to somewhere else and reduce it from divine to human. Even if sources were used for that reason, there would be no problem as long as the Spirit is exercising his protective-permissive role.
Most non-canonical “sources”—even the questionable ones— Pauline does not use for getting content so much as for (b) establishing a point of contact with the audience. His references to the Athens altar inscription and to Aratus in the Areopagus speech are examples.
Furthermore, such “sources” are not for getting content, but for (c) expressing content in memorable ways. A good example is Paul’s adaptation of Gnostic imagery and terminology when he contrasts Christianity with Gnosticism in Colossians 1-2. He uses the gnostic terms for the elements that most closely correspond to Gnosticism.
Concluding Observations
The content, hermeneutics, and form of presentation in scripture should fit the claims scripture makes for itself. We find no sources, proposed sources, or ways of using them in Paul that are incompatible with God-breathedness. The content sources for his letters are primarily Old Testament scripture, direct revelation, and creative thought protected by the Spirit. He makes secondary use of non-canonical Jewish writings and a few pagan citations. He appeals to canonical materials and direct revelation for content and authority, and uses extra-canonical sources as vehicles of expression.
The Jewish and pagan writings could be called “Class 1” sources, because they are extant pieces that can be verified. We hesitate, however, to buy into the plethora of other “sources” behind the finished products. “Class 2” sources are imaginary: tradition, hymns, sayings, confessions, catechisms, liturgies. Virtually every notable comment Paul makes could be taken from him. This strikes us as literary method “gone to seed.” When we compile all the Old Testament quotations, hymns, sayings, and so forth, Paul’s letters become conglomerates of sources more than living compositions. Somewhere between extremes ought to lie a “golden mean.” The apostle could have incorporated references to any such source, but affirming that he did so here or there, is another thing, especially in the frequency that scholars often suggest.
A prominent plague in biblical studies is the attempt to claim more than the evidence warrants, manifested in the tendency to technicalize and formalize. As linguistic studies load biblical terms and phrases with too much precision, so also literary criticism is too wooden. It undersells creativity and spontaneity. (a) Modern literary critics tend to project onto their objects of study the procedures they use when they write, and they are largely “combining minds” rather than “creative minds.” But creative minds are what launch new movements like Christianity. (b) The style of criticism correlates with developmentalism more than revelation as the explanation of Christian origins. The evolutionary mindset that pervades Western assumptions, when applied to literary criticism, overdoes the notion that writings are products of process. Not enough credit goes to what gifted people can do on their own “from scratch,” much less what revelation might add. There were background influences on Paul’s letters, but that does not mean he is reflecting a source at every juncture. Even if he were, we could not detect that with much assurance.
As a final note, not all the proposed “sources” in Class 2 are equally probable. Early hymns and sayings are more likely than baptismal liturgies, catechisms, and confessions. In regard to the latter, (c) scholars are projecting back into first-generation Christianity the forms that emerged a couple generations later in the second century and beyond. These are apt to be anachronisms. We have no reason to suppose that such usages were in the church in the apostolic era. They belong to an age of crystallization and formalization rather than to the flexible period of a vital new movement.
Endnotes
1In 1 Corinthians 11:2 and 2 Thessalonians 2:15; 3:6, Paul does talk about delivering “traditions” to his readers (vs. Galatians 1:14; Colossians 2:8). The verbiage need not imply that he received them from earlier apostles. The term is also translated “ordinances” and carries the word picture of “passing (something) along.” It could be “passed along from” Christ to him or from Paul to them.
2After his conversion in Damascus, he fled the city (Acts 9:19-25) and went to Arabia and then came back to Damascus (Galatians 1:17) before going up to Jerusalem and fleeing to Syria and Cilicia (Acts 9:26-30 = Galatians 1:18-21), where Tarsus became his home base until moving to Antioch (Acts 11:25-26). From Paul’s comments in Galatians 1, we could conjecture that his time in Arabia was spent in study, thought, and receiving revelation from Christ because he puts his flight to Arabia in contrast to conferring with earlier apostles. Even before fleeing to Arabia, he could integrate his new experience with Old Testament teaching and show that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God (Acts 9:20 + 22).
This activity presents a quick reversal of conviction and an immediate effort at proclamation. The new perspective may have automatically re-organized the Old Testament Messianic material he already knew. About all he would have needed to trigger that new understanding was the seminal fact that the Messiah would suffer. A suffering Messiah was a major stick-point in Jewish attitudes against Jesus as the Messiah: Luke 24:25-26, 46; 1 Corinthians 1:23a; 2:2; 1 Peter 1:11; Galatians 3:1; 5:11; 6:14.
3The cross-referencing system in the American Standard Version of 1901 notes the following: Romans 1:23 (Wisdom 12:24); 1:30 (Wisdom 14:9); 1:32 (2 Maccabees 11:24); 2:5 (Tobit 4:9); 2:12 (Wisdom 17:2); 4:1 (Ecclesiasticus 44:19ff); 4:3 (Ecclesiasticus 44:19ff; 1 Maccabees 2:52); 4:17 (Wisdom 11:25); 5:5 (Ecclesiasticus 2:10); 5:12 (Ecclesiasticus 25:24; Wisdom 1:13-16); 7:14 (1 Maccabees 1:15); 8:22 (Wisdom 5:17); 9:4 (Wisdom 18:22; 2 Maccabees 8:15); 9:20 (Wisdom 15:7; Ecclesiasticus 33:13); 11:33 (Wisdom 9:13; Ecclesiasticus 18:4); 12:15 (Ecclesiasticus 17:34); 13:1 (Wisdom 6:3);
1 Corinthians 6:2 (Wisdom 3:8; Ecclesiasticus 4:15); 7:18 (1 Maccabees 1:15); 7:36 (Ecclesiasticus 42:9); 9:25 (Wisdom 4:2); 10:1 (Wisdom 10:17; 19:7); 10:10 (Wisdom 18:25); 10:20 (Baruch 4:7); 13:3 (2 Maccabees 7:5-6); 13:12 (2 Esdras 7:98); 14:16 (Tobit 8:8); 15:30 (2 Esdras 7:89);
2 Corinthians 4:7 (2 Esdras 7:88); 9:7 (Ecclesiasticus 35:9); 10:1 (Baruch 2:27); 11:3 (Wisdom 2:24); 11:32 (1 Maccabees 14:47); 12:7 (Ecclesiasticus 43:19);
Galatians 1:13 (2 Maccabees 2:21; 8:1; 14:38); 1:15 (Ecclesiasticus 49:7); 2:9 (Ecclesiasticus 36:24; 1 Maccabees 11:50, 62; 13:50); 2:15 (Tobit 13:6; Wisdom 10:20; 1 Maccabees 1:34); 5:22 (Ecclesiasticus 45:4); 5:26 (Wisdom 14:14); 6:5 (2 Esdras 7:105);
Ephesians 5:18 (2 Maccabees 6:4); 6:1 (Ecclesiasticus 7:27ff);
Philippians 3:8 (Ecclesiasticus 27:4);
Colossians 2:3 (Ecclesiasticus 1:25); 3:11 (2 Maccabees 4:47);
1 Timothy 6:4 (Ecclesiasticus 3:24); 6:15 (2 Maccabees 13:4);
2 Timothy 3:9 (Wisdom 17:7); 4:8 (2 Maccabees 12:6, 41); 4:17 (1 Maccabees 2:60).
Most parallels occur in Romans through Galatians with only four in the prison letters.
4See “Weems, Mason Locke (‘Parson’)” in Dictionary of Christianity in America (InterVarsity, 1990), p. 1240. Jude 9, from the “Assumption of Moses” 1:9; 5:4 (cp. Zechariah 3:2), and Jude 14-15, from “The Book of Enoch,” are the only direct quotations of a non-canonical Jewish work in the New Testament.
5There is no decisive reason that even the poetic pieces in Luke’s infancy narratives could not have been expressed spontaneously without supernatural inspiration (Luke 1:42, 46-55, 68-79; 2:14, 29-32). Note, for example, the “man of words” tradition in the history of African-American English in America (See The History of the English Language [Viking, 1989], particularly pp. 226-33). There is also Hannah’s “Song of Thanksgiving” in 1 Samuel 2:1-10.
6Something can be a “hymn” without originating elsewhere. In this sense, the word describes form and content rather than indicating source. It is one thing to observe that a scripture portion has stylistic construction, theological content, and unusual vocabulary; it is another to call it as a song.
7A similar case appears in James 4:5, which sounds as if it is introducing a quotation: “Or do you think that the scripture speaks in vain? Does the spirit that he made to live in us long to envying?” With no punctuation in the original, it is possible to suppose that James meant to ask two questions—as here translated—rather than to make the last half of the verse a quotation introduced by the first half (two separate questions vs. one question within the former question). If the second part is a quotation, it may refer to an idea expressed in several passages (Genesis 6:3; Exodus 20:5; Jeremiah 3:14; Hosea 2:19-20).
christir.org