In | The Old Testament in Paul’s Letters

Colossians and Ephesians are similar in many respects, but they differ in their use of the old testament. Ephesians quotes the old testament seven times, while Colossians is one of six Pauline letters without a single old testament quotation. All but one of Paul’s letters have allusions to old testament passages. 

Can you guess the one Pauline letter without an Old Testament allusion or quotation?

This is likely due to the length of the letter as much as anything else, as Philemon is, at around 335 words, roughly half as long as the next shortest letter. Unsurprisingly, the major letters contain the most quotations.

The longest of Paul’s letters is Romans. Roughly what percentage of all Old Testament quotations in the Pauline letters do you think can be found in Romans?

Romans is not only Paul’s longest letter, but it’s also his densest and most reliant on Old Testament material. As he maps the Bible’s redemption story, he draws on a variety of Old Testament sources, with a focus on the Pentateuch, the Prophets and Psalms. Altogether, Romans contains more than 200 of these quotations and allusions.

Apart from the four major letters, Ephesians has the most Old Testament references by a wide margin, but still has less than a third as many as Romans.

Reference: Lars Kierspel, Charts on the Life, Letters, and Theology of Paul, 2012, pp. 91-104.

Having learned about the way Paul used the Old Testament in his different letters, which book do you think he quoted the most?

The Pauline letters quote Isaiah thirty times, with many of these references coming in explanations of the relationship between Jews and Gentiles in the Church. Psalms is quoted 26 times, followed by Genesis (19) and Deuteronomy (17). All but one of Ephesians’ Old Testament quotations are from the Psalms and the Pentateuch, with Zechariah 8:16, quoted in Ephesians 4:25, being the outlier.

Only eight Old Testament books are not referenced in Paul’s letters. Which of the following do you think was referenced in at least one of the letters?