Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 38:1 (Mar 1995)
Article: Two First-Century Messianic Uses Of The OT: Heb 1:5-13 And 4QFLOR 1.1-19
Author: Herbert W. Bateman IV

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JETS 38:1 (March 1995) p. 11

Two First-Century Messianic Uses Of The OT:
Heb 1:5-13 And 4QFLOR 1.1-19

Herbert W. Bateman IV*

Since the unprecedented finds of the Qumran scrolls between 1947 and 1956, scholars have either overemphasized or undervalued their importance for NT studies.1 Nevertheless Julius Scott identifies their value as well as that of other Jewish literature for NT studies when he says that “such intertestamental books as those in the apocrypha, pseudepigrapha and QL remain, individually and collectively, windows through which we may catch glimpses of various aspects of that bygone world and culture into which God sent his Son, ‘when the fulness of time came’ (Gal 4:4).”2 The Qumran text entitled Florilegium (4QFlor)3 provides one such window. In fact an examination of the structural, exegetical and conceptual use of the OT in 4QFlor 1.1-19 will provide historical insight into how the OT is used in Heb 1:5–13 as well as understanding of a first-century Christian messianic use of the OT.

I. Structural Use

Artfully framed between two rhetorical questions, the group of OT passages (catena) in Heb 1:5–13 has three structural parallels with 4QFlor 1.1-19. First, both string OT passages of Scripture together. Florilegium

*=Herbert Bateman is a New Testament adjunct faculty member at Dallas Theological Seminary, 3909 Swiss Avenue, Dallas, TX 75204.

JETS 38:1 (March 1995) p. 12

1.1–19 strings together Deut 23:3–4; Exod 15:17c–18; 2 Sam 7:10b–14a; Pss 1:1a; 2:1–2; Isa 8:11; Ezek 37:23a; Amos 9:11. Hebrews 1:5–13 strings together Deut 32:43; 4 2 Sam 7:14; Pss 2:7; 45:6–7; 102:25–27; 104:4; 110:1. Alt...

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