Paul’s Bible was not a leather-bound Protestant Old Testament printed from the medieval Masoretic Text.
It was not a modern Orthodox Study Bible either.
Paul was a first-century Jew writing to Greek-speaking churches across the Roman world.
When he quotes Israel’s Scriptures, he normally writes them in Greek.
Very often his wording agrees closely with the Greek Jewish translations commonly called the Septuagint.
That fact matters enormously for understanding both Paul and the early Church.
But the story is more complicated than:
“Paul always quoted one fixed LXX Bible identical to a modern printed Septuagint.”
What Is the Septuagint?
“Septuagint” or LXX originally referred especially to the Greek translation of the Torah associated with the famous tradition of seventy or seventy-two translators.
Over time the name came to refer more broadly to the ancient Greek translations of Jewish Scriptures.
These books were translated:
- at different times;
- by different translators;
- with different styles;
- from Hebrew textual forms that were not always identical to the later Masoretic tradition.
By Paul’s time, Greek-speaking Jews possessed a rich and somewhat pluriform scriptural tradition.
Paul Writes to Greek-Speaking Churches
Paul’s letters are in Greek.
His Gentile converts generally encountered Israel’s Scriptures in Greek.
Therefore it is unsurprising that Greek Scripture dominates his quotations.
A 2024 scholarly overview in New Blackfriars describes Paul as receiving and extensively quoting the Jewish Scriptures in Greek from the Septuagintal tradition.
This is mainstream Pauline scholarship.
Romans Is Saturated With Scripture
Romans contains an extraordinary concentration of Old Testament quotation and allusion.
Paul builds arguments from:
- Genesis;
- Exodus;
- Deuteronomy;
- Psalms;
- Isaiah;
- Hosea;
- Joel;
- Malachi;
- and other texts.
Romans 9–11 in particular becomes a dense scriptural conversation about Israel, election, Gentiles, and mercy.
Paul’s theology cannot be separated from his Bible.
Romans 3: A Scriptural Catena
Romans 3:10–18 strings together multiple scriptural passages describing universal human sinfulness.
Paul combines material from Psalms and Isaiah into a single rhetorical chain.
This shows that quoting Scripture in antiquity did not always mean giving one isolated verse with modern quotation marks and citation numbers.
Paul can weave several sacred texts together because he treats Scripture as a unified witness.
Isaiah 40 and 1 Corinthians 2
First Corinthians 2:16 asks:
“Who has known the mind of the Lord?”
The wording corresponds closely to the Greek tradition of Isaiah 40:13, where nous—mind—appears.
The Hebrew tradition underlying the Masoretic Text speaks of the Spirit of the LORD in a way that produces different wording.
Paul’s quotation therefore gives a concrete example where knowing the Greek Old Testament helps explain his text.
Habakkuk 2:4
Paul’s famous phrase:
“the righteous shall live by faith”
comes from Habakkuk 2:4.
The Hebrew and Greek textual traditions have differences in wording and pronouns.
Paul’s use participates in an already complex history of interpretation.
This reminds us that New Testament authors are not quoting a single modern critical edition.
Does Paul Ever Differ From the Septuagint?
Frequently.
Sometimes the differences are minor.
Sometimes Paul:
- shortens a quotation;
- changes pronouns;
- adapts wording to his argument;
- combines texts;
- cites from memory;
- follows another Greek textual form;
- occasionally appears closer to Hebrew wording.
This is normal ancient scriptural practice.
It does not mean Paul is careless.
He interprets Scripture rhetorically and Christologically.
“The Septuagint” Was Not One Fixed Edition
This is perhaps the most important precision point.
People sometimes imagine Paul carrying something equivalent to a modern Rahlfs-Hanhart Septuagint containing every Old Testament book in a standardized text.
That is anachronistic.
Ancient Greek scriptural texts existed in multiple forms.
The Dead Sea Scrolls have also demonstrated that Hebrew biblical texts before the stabilization of the medieval Masoretic tradition were themselves pluriform.
Some Septuagint differences may reflect different Hebrew source texts rather than free translation.
Paul Knew Hebrew Scripture Too
Paul describes himself as a Jew deeply trained in ancestral tradition.
Whether he personally translated particular quotations directly from Hebrew is debated passage by passage.
Some Pauline readings look closer to Hebrew than to surviving standard LXX forms.
But that does not overturn the larger pattern:
Greek Scripture is Paul’s normal quoted scriptural language in his Greek letters.
Did Paul Quote the Deuterocanonical Books?
Paul does not normally give explicit formulaic quotations such as “it is written” followed unambiguously by Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, or the Maccabees in the same way he quotes Isaiah or Psalms.
But scholars have long noted possible echoes and conceptual parallels, especially between Romans and Wisdom of Solomon.
Romans 1’s description of idolatry and creation has notable affinities with Wisdom 13–14.
The relationship may involve direct literary knowledge or shared Jewish argumentative traditions.
It should not be overstated as a formally marked quotation.
Does Paul’s LXX Use Prove the Orthodox Old Testament Canon?
Not by itself.
This is a common apologetic shortcut.
Paul’s use of Greek Jewish Scripture proves that the Greek scriptural tradition was central to apostolic Christianity.
It does not by itself answer every later canonical question concerning exactly which books belong to the Old Testament.
Canon history requires additional evidence from:
- Jewish collections;
- early Christian manuscripts;
- patristic lists;
- liturgical use;
- councils;
- reception.
The LXX question and the canon question overlap but are not identical.
Why Greek Scripture Mattered to the Gentile Mission
Paul’s mission brought Israel’s God to the nations through Israel’s Messiah.
Greek Scripture made Israel’s sacred story linguistically accessible throughout much of the eastern Mediterranean.
Gentiles could hear:
- Abraham’s promise;
- Moses;
- David;
- Isaiah;
- the Psalms;
- prophetic hope
in the common language of the churches.
The Septuagintal tradition therefore became a providential bridge for early Christian mission.
Christological Reading
Paul does not quote Scripture as a neutral antiquarian.
He reads it through Christ.
Examples include:
- Abraham’s seed and promise;
- Adam and Christ;
- the rock in the wilderness;
- Deuteronomy’s word brought near;
- Isaiah’s remnant;
- Hosea’s people/not-people language;
- the Abrahamic blessing reaching Gentiles.
Paul’s hermeneutic is typological, messianic, and ecclesial.
Does Paul Ignore Original Context?
Sometimes his readings look startling to modern historical-critical readers.
But Second Temple Jewish interpretation frequently reread Scripture for new circumstances.
Paul also often depends on the larger context more than a superficial reading suggests.
The right question is not merely:
“Did Paul quote a verse exactly as a modern exegete would?”
It is:
“How does Paul understand Israel’s scriptural story reaching its climax in Messiah and the Gentile mission?”
The Orthodox Church and the Septuagint
Eastern Orthodoxy gives the Septuagint a privileged liturgical and ecclesial place.
The Greek Old Testament became the scriptural language of much of the early Greek-speaking Church.
Many patristic arguments, liturgical texts, and New Testament quotations make fullest sense against it.
Orthodox use of the LXX therefore has deep apostolic and patristic roots.
But intellectual honesty requires a qualification:
the Church’s later received Septuagintal Old Testament is not simply identical in every textual detail with whatever Greek manuscript Paul happened to know.
New Testament Quotations and Textual Criticism
Paul’s quotations can actually help scholars reconstruct ancient scriptural textual history.
When Paul agrees with a Greek form against the later Masoretic Text, several possibilities exist:
- he follows a Greek translation;
- the Greek reflects a different Hebrew Vorlage;
- Paul or an earlier Christian adapted the wording;
- multiple textual traditions were circulating.
This is why simplistic “Hebrew versus Greek Bible” rhetoric fails historically.
Which Bible Did Paul Use?
The answer is plural in an important sense.
Paul inhabited the world of Jewish Scripture.
In his surviving Greek letters, he normally cites Greek scriptural forms strongly associated with the Septuagintal tradition.
He may also have known Hebrew and Aramaic forms and can adapt Scripture freely within ancient interpretive conventions.
Therefore:
“Paul used the Septuagint” is broadly true.
“Paul only used one fixed Septuagint identical to a modern printed Orthodox Bible” is not.
Final Verdict
Paul’s normal quoted Old Testament in his Greek letters is the Greek Jewish scriptural tradition commonly called the Septuagint.
That conclusion is historically strong.
But it needs precision:
- the first-century Greek Scriptures were textually diverse;
- “LXX” was not yet one perfectly standardized Christian codex;
- Paul sometimes modifies quotations;
- some readings may reflect other Greek or Hebrew forms;
- he frequently combines and interprets texts for rhetorical and Christological purposes.
For Orthodoxy, Paul’s scriptural practice matters enormously.
The Greek Old Testament is not a late Byzantine curiosity.
It stands in direct continuity with the scriptural world of the apostles and the Greek-speaking early Church.
The best conclusion is:
Paul’s Bible was Israel’s Scripture heard largely in Greek, interpreted around Israel’s Messiah, and opened through the apostolic mission to the nations.
Key Sources
Primary sources
- Romans 3; 4; 9–11; 15.
- 1 Corinthians 2; 10; 15.
- Galatians 3–4.
- Septuagint/Old Greek textual traditions.
- Hebrew biblical manuscripts from the Judean Desert.
Modern scholarship
- Christopher D. Stanley, Paul and the Language of Scripture.
- Dietrich-Alex Koch, Die Schrift als Zeuge des Evangeliums.
- Richard B. Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul.
- Timothy Michael Law, When God Spoke Greek.
- Geoffrey Turner, “Paul and the Old Testament – His Legacy and Ours.”