Readers who look up an Old Testament quotation in their own Bible sometimes get a surprise. Hebrews 10:5 quotes Psalm 40 as saying “a body you prepared for me.” Turn to the psalm, and it says something like “you have opened my ears.” Matthew quotes Isaiah as saying “the virgin will conceive.” Many modern Bibles have “the young woman” in Isaiah. James, at the council in Jerusalem, quotes Amos about “the rest of humankind” seeking the Lord. Amos, in the Hebrew, speaks of Israel taking possession of “the remnant of Edom.”
These are not misprints. They happen because the New Testament was written in Greek, and its writers usually quoted the Old Testament in Greek too. The Greek Old Testament they used most, the Septuagint, was a translation made by Jewish scholars in the centuries before Christ (see The Septuagint, the first Bible translation). Most English Old Testaments, including Open Word Bible’s, are translated from the Hebrew. Where the Septuagint and the Hebrew differ, the quotation in the New Testament and the passage in the Old will differ too.
This article looks at six well-known cases, at what they show about how the apostles read Scripture, and at how a translation can let readers see both texts.
Why the wording differs
There are three main reasons.
First, the Septuagint is a translation, and translators make choices. A Hebrew word with more than one sense has to be put into Greek with one word, and the Greek word may lean one way.
Second, the Septuagint was sometimes translated from a different Hebrew text. Before the Masoretes standardised the Hebrew text in the early Middle Ages, more than one form of some books circulated. The Dead Sea Scrolls have shown that some readings once known only from the Greek also existed in Hebrew (see What the Dead Sea Scrolls show). In such places the Greek may preserve an older or different Hebrew reading.
Third, the translators sometimes read the same consonants differently. Hebrew was written without vowels, and several letters look alike. A word could be read two ways, and the Greek translators sometimes took the other way from the later Masoretic tradition.
On top of this, the New Testament writers did not always quote word for word. They sometimes quoted from memory, shortened a passage, combined verses from different books, or adapted the wording to their point, as Jewish teachers of their time also did. And sometimes they followed the Hebrew, or another Greek version, rather than the Septuagint we have.
Counts vary with how one defines a quotation, but the New Testament quotes the Old several hundred times, besides many more allusions. In most places the Hebrew and Greek say much the same. The cases below are the ones where the difference matters.
1. “The virgin” (Matthew 1:23; Isaiah 7:14)
Matthew tells of the conception of Jesus and then quotes Isaiah: “the virgin will become pregnant and have a son, and people will call him Immanuel.” Matthew’s word for “virgin” is παρθένος (parthenos), the word the Septuagint uses in Isaiah 7:14.
The Hebrew of Isaiah has עַלְמָה (ʿalmāh). Open Word Bible’s meaning decision for Isaiah 7:14 describes it carefully: a word for “a young woman who has come of age,” used of Rebekah before her marriage, of Moses’ sister as a girl, and of the young women of the royal court. It “does not by itself say whether she is a virgin or married, though it is never clearly used of a married woman.” The decision is marked uncertain, and a footnote gives “the virgin” as the other rendering. So our Isaiah reads:
Because of this, the Lord himself will give all of you a sign: see, the young woman is pregnant; she will give birth to a son and call him by the name Immanuel.
In Matthew, the meaning decision goes the other way, because Matthew’s own word is clear: “the virgin: a woman who has never had sexual relations.” A footnote explains that Matthew quotes the Greek, which uses this word, while the Hebrew has a word for a young woman of marriageable age. It adds that in Matthew the sense is plain from the story itself (1:18, 20, 25):
“See, the virgin will become pregnant and have a son, and people will call him Immanuel.” The name means “God is with us.”
There is a second, smaller difference. In the Hebrew, “she will call” him Immanuel; in the Septuagint, “you will call”; in Matthew, “they will call.” Our record for Matthew 1:23 notes all three and takes Matthew’s “they” as people in general.
This verse has been argued over for centuries, often bitterly. The records do not try to settle the argument by translating one text to match the other. They translate each text as it stands and say why they differ. The record for Isaiah also notes what both texts share: the sign belonged to King Ahaz’s day, and Isaiah’s promise reaches further, to a child who will reign on David’s throne (9:5–6).
2. “A body you prepared for me” (Hebrews 10:5; Psalm 40:7)
Hebrews puts the words of Psalm 40 into the mouth of Christ as he comes into the world. Our Balanced level:
That is why, as Christ comes into the world, he says: “Sacrifice and offering you did not want, but a body you have made ready for me.”
The key word is σῶμα (sōma), “body.” But the Hebrew of the psalm (40:7 in the Hebrew numbering, 40:6 in most English Bibles) has אָ֭זְנַיִם כָּרִ֣יתָ, “ears you have dug for me.” Our Literal level of the psalm keeps the picture:
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire — ears you have dug for me — burnt offering and sin offering you did not ask for.
The meaning decision for the psalm explains the idiom: to dig out ears is to open them, so that a person truly listens, and in Hebrew to hear is also to obey. It marks this uncertain and notes another view, that the image recalls the ear of a slave pierced at the door as a mark of service for life (Exodus 21:6), though that law uses a different word.
How the Greek came to have “body” is not known for certain. Some think the translators gave a free rendering, the whole person instead of the part that hears. Others think a copying error in Greek is to blame. Our record for Hebrews says only what is clear: “the Greek Psalm, which Hebrews quotes, differs from the Hebrew,” and “a few manuscripts of the Greek Psalm have ‘ears,’ like the Hebrew.”
What matters for the reader is that the argument of Hebrews rests on the word “body.” A few verses later the author draws the conclusion: we have been made holy “through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (10:10). Yet the two texts are not far apart in sense. Both say that God wants obedience more than sacrifice. The psalm says that God gave the speaker ears to hear and obey. Hebrews says that God gave Christ a body with which to obey, to the point of offering it.
The record for Hebrews 10:6 notes a smaller change. Most manuscripts of the Greek psalm say God “did not ask for” burnt offerings; Hebrews says he “did not take pleasure in” them. And 10:7 shortens the psalm, stopping at “to do your will” so that the sentence turns on that phrase.
3. “The rest of humankind” (Acts 15:16–17; Amos 9:11–12)
At the council in Jerusalem, the church had to decide whether Gentile believers must keep the law of Moses. James answered with Amos:
‘After this I will come back, and I will build again the fallen tent of David. I will build again its ruins and raise it up once more, so that the rest of humankind may seek the Lord, all the nations that are called by my name, says the Lord, who does these things, things made known long ago.’
In the Hebrew of Amos 9:12, the purpose of rebuilding David’s fallen booth is different:
so that they may possess what is left of Edom and every nation that is called by my name, declares the LORD, who will do this.
The records on both sides explain what happened, and it is a striking example of reading the same consonants two ways. The Hebrew words for “Edom” and for “humankind” are written with the same consonants, ʾdm. The verbs “possess” and “seek” differ by a single letter. The Greek translators read “humankind” and “seek.” So “that they may possess the remnant of Edom” became “that the rest of humankind may seek the Lord.”
The Hebrew pictures the restored kingdom of David ruling again over the nations that David once ruled. The Greek pictures the nations seeking the Lord. James quotes the Greek. But, as our record for Amos 9:12 points out, the Hebrew already says something important for James’s case: the nations are “called by my name,” that is, they belong to the LORD. The record for Acts 15 puts it this way: “Both forms say that the nations will come under the name of Israel’s God, which is James’s point.”
James also changes the opening. Amos says “On that day I will raise up”; James says “After these things I will return,” which may echo Jeremiah 12:15.
4. A chain of texts (Romans 3:10–18)
In Romans 3, Paul proves that “all, Jews and Greeks alike, are under the power of sin” with a string of quotations, one after another, with no break between them. Our records name each source:
- verses 10–12 from Psalm 14:1–3 (and Psalm 53), with Paul’s own word “righteous” for the psalm’s “does good”;
- verse 13 from Psalm 5:10 and Psalm 140:4 (Hebrew numbering);
- verse 14 from Psalm 10:7;
- verses 15–17 from Isaiah 59:7–8, shortened, with an echo of Proverbs 1:16;
- verse 18 from Psalm 36:2.
Paul follows the Septuagint for most of these lines, and he weaves them into a single indictment. This way of joining texts on a common theme, like pearls on a string, was familiar in Jewish teaching. A modern reader might expect quotation marks around each piece. Paul gives one formula, “as it is written,” and lets the whole chain stand as Scripture’s verdict.
The chain had a curious afterlife. Some Greek manuscripts of Psalm 14 (13 in the Greek numbering) contain the whole of Romans 3:13–18 inside the psalm, almost certainly because Christian copyists filled it in from Romans. The longer form passed into the Latin and from there into the old English Psalter of the Book of Common Prayer. It is a reminder that quotations could influence the texts they quoted, as well as the other way round (see When manuscripts disagree).
5. “Let all God’s angels worship him” (Hebrews 1:6)
Hebrews 1 sets out a chain of Old Testament texts to show that the Son is greater than the angels. One of them reads:
And again, at the time God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, “All the angels of God are to worship him.”
The search for this quotation leads to an interesting place. The standard Hebrew text has nothing like it. The closest Hebrew is Psalm 97:7, “bow down before him, all you gods,” which the Septuagint renders “bow down to him, all his angels.” But the wording of Hebrews matches more closely a line in the Greek of the Song of Moses, Deuteronomy 32:43, which is longer in the Greek than in the Hebrew.
Here the Dead Sea Scrolls have changed the picture. A Hebrew manuscript of Deuteronomy found at Qumran has a longer form of 32:43 than the standard Hebrew, including the line “bow down to him, all gods.” So the Greek was not inventing. It was translating a Hebrew form of the verse that the later standard text does not have.
Open Word Bible follows the standard Hebrew in Deuteronomy 32:43, and its footnote there gives the longer Qumran text and the Greek, and mentions both Hebrews 1:6 and Romans 15:10, which quotes another line of the same verse. The record for Hebrews 1:6 identifies the source as Deuteronomy 32:43 in its Greek form, compares Psalm 97:7, and adds that in the Song “God is the one worshiped; the author applies the words to the Son.”
6. Two cases that go the other way
The New Testament does not always follow the Septuagint. Two quotations show the range.
”Out of Egypt I called my son” (Matthew 2:15; Hosea 11:1). Matthew quotes Hosea’s words about the exodus of Israel and applies them to Jesus. Here Matthew agrees with the Hebrew, “my son.” The Septuagint of Hosea reads “his children.” Our record for Hosea 11:1 notes this, and says honestly that its description of the Greek is “written from general knowledge,” for reviewers to check. Either way, Matthew did not take the line from the Septuagint as we have it. The record for Matthew 2:15 explains how Matthew reads it: “In Hosea the son is Israel.” Matthew sees Jesus, God’s Son, living through Israel’s story again, into Egypt and out of it.
”He gave gifts to people” (Ephesians 4:8; Psalm 68:19). Paul quotes Psalm 68, a victory hymn in which God goes up to his holy mountain, leading captives. But where both the Hebrew and the Greek psalm say God “received gifts” from people, Paul says he “gave gifts.” Our records on both sides footnote the difference. They note that an old Aramaic paraphrase of the Psalms, and the Syriac translation, also read “gave,” so Paul may be following a known interpretation of the verse. The record for Psalm 68:19 suggests how the two fit: “the conqueror who receives tribute is the one who gives it out to his people.” The record for Ephesians marks the point uncertain and gives Paul’s purpose plainly: the risen Christ gives gifts to his church, which verses 11–16 go on to list.
A smaller example is Romans 10:18, where Paul quotes Psalm 19:5 (19:4 in English): “their voice went out to the whole earth.” The Septuagint, which Paul quotes word for word, has “their voice” or “sound.” The Hebrew has a word that means a measuring line. Our Literal level of the psalm keeps “their line,” and a footnote, marked uncertain, explains the Greek.
What the apostles were doing
How should a reader understand all this? Several things can be said fairly, though Christians and scholars weigh them differently.
The Septuagint was the Bible of Greek-speaking Jews and of most of the early church. Quoting it was as natural for Paul, writing to Greek-speaking churches, as it is for an English preacher to quote an English Bible. Where it differed from the Hebrew, it was not always the less accurate text.
The apostles’ arguments rarely depend on a reading found only in the Greek. James’s point in Acts 15 is supported by the Hebrew of Amos too. The psalm and Hebrews agree that God wants obedience above sacrifice. Matthew’s case for the virgin birth rests on his own account of it, not on the meaning of a word in Isaiah. In some places, though, the Greek wording carries more of the argument, as “body” does in Hebrews 10. Readers who hold a high view of Scripture have generally said that the New Testament writers were guided in how they used the text, and that the sense they draw out is there in the Old Testament as a whole, if not always in the single verse.
The apostles also read the Old Testament in the light of Christ. When Matthew applies Hosea’s words about Israel to Jesus, he is not mistaking Israel for Jesus. He is reading Israel’s story as pointing beyond itself, in a way that Jewish readers of the time also read their Scriptures, though not toward the same conclusion.
How a translation shows it
A translation can handle this in three ways.
It can harmonise, making the Old Testament match the New, or the New match the Old. Some older English Bibles did this in places, consciously or not. The cost is that readers no longer see the actual text of either.
It can translate each text as it stands and leave the reader to discover the differences. This is honest, but it can confuse readers who compare passages and find them unlike.
Or it can translate each text as it stands and say why they differ. Open Word Bible takes this approach. In its records, a quotation or echo is marked with a meaning decision of the kind called an allusion, naming the source. There are thousands of them in the drafts. Where the New Testament wording differs from the Hebrew in a way that matters, the allusion decision explains the difference and is usually shown as a footnote. Where the Old Testament passage is quoted in the New, its own record points forward to the quotation. A reader in Psalm 40 learns that Hebrews reads “a body”; a reader in Hebrews 10 learns that the psalm in Hebrew reads “ears.”
The divine name is a special case. When a New Testament writer quotes an Old Testament passage containing YHWH, the Greek has kyrios, so our New Testament says “Lord,” and a meaning decision notes the Hebrew behind it. Acts 15:17 is an example: the record notes that in Amos the speaker is “the Lord, written with the divine name,” and the English, following the Greek, says “the Lord” (see The divine name in translation).
Some Bibles also mark quotations on the page, for example by printing Old Testament quotations in small capitals, as the New American Standard Bible does. Open Word Bible marks them in the record rather than in the type, so that the explanation travels with the mark. These drafts are AI-assisted and have not been reviewed, and several records ask reviewers to check their description of the Greek. Quotations like these are exactly where that checking matters.
For more on the Greek Old Testament, see The Septuagint, the first Bible translation. For the Hebrew text behind our Old Testament, see The Hebrew text behind Old Testaments.
Open Hebrews 10, Psalm 40, Acts 15 or Amos 9 and compare the records on each side.