Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 71:282 (Apr 1914)
Article: The New Testament Quotation Of A Twice-Repeated Prophecy
Author: Henry A. Sanders

BSac 71:282 (April 1914) p. 275

The New Testament Quotation Of A Twice-Repeated Prophecy

Henry A. Sanders

The prophecy contained in Isaiah 40:3–8 and Malachi 3:1 is quoted with varying degrees of completeness by all four of the Evangelists, though the characteristic part of the prophecy does not appear in the other New Testament writers.1 It has been generally assumed that all drew independently from the Old Testament, or that Mark influenced the others, in which case it is necessary to assume that Luke again had recourse to Isaiah to complete the quotation. There are, however, certain difficulties with accepting either of these views. Thus all the quotations agree in a noteworthy variation from Isaiah, which surely could not have happened if all had drawn independently. Neither can Mark have been the source of the other three; for, in addition to the extra verses quoted by Luke, it may be noted that Mark alone joins the two prophecies, while assigning both to Isaiah (cf. א B D L A 33, etc. OL Vg Syrr Cop Arm^cdd Pers Goth Iren Orig Porphyr etc.). The prophecy of Malachi is quoted, to be sure, by Matthew and Luke, but in unconnected passages. It certainly does not seem likely that all three would have excluded the Malachi verse from the immediate context, if they drew the Isaiah verses from Mark.

Not only do these reasons give a decided intimation that

BSac 71:282 (April 1914) p. 276

the Evangelists drew these Old Testament citations from an intermediate source, but the passages are long enough and show sufficient variations both originally and in MS. transmission to enable one to reach definite conclusions on the question, if a careful comparison of all the passages be made. My attention was first drawn to this subject by the discovery of a long addition to the citation at Mark 1:3 in the fourth-century Greek MS. W and the necessity of explaining the source of the corruption previously known only in the twelfth-century Old Latin MS. c.

The question can be handled most clearly by giving in parallel columns all the instances of New Testament quotation of these Old Testament passages.

As regards the Malachi passage it is evident that the Evangelists have reproduced the idea merely, yet the agreements, set in small type, are sufficient to prove Malachi the ultimate source. Furthermore the agreements of the three against Malachi, set with hair-spacings, prove conclusively that there was an intermediate source, which prepared the passage of Malachi for the use of the Evangelists. Mark cannot hav...