Metabiblical

⁹For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. Is it for the oxen that God careth, ¹⁰or saith he it assuredly for our sake? Yea, for our sake it was written: because he that ploweth ought to plow in hope, and he that thresheth, to thresh in hope of partaking. ¹¹If we sowed unto you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we shall reap your carnal things? — 1 Corinthians 9, American Standard Version

²²Wherefore also it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. ²³Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was reckoned unto him; ²⁴but for our sake also, unto whom it shall be reckoned, who believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, ²⁵who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification. — Romans 4, American Standard Version

Paul held in common with those with whom he communicated, from both contemporary Judaism and the early Christian communities, the position that the Scriptures were undeniably directed to the present period. — Henning Graf Reventlow, The History of Biblical Interpretation, Volume 1, pp. 61-62

It would be tempting to quote Reventlow at great length on the subject of Paul, and every paragraph is interesting. In a number of ways, Paul interprets the Bible as one would expect from his historical context, reading the Scriptures as addressed to the present: for our sake, as Paul puts it. But according to Reventlow, Paul feels more free to alter his source texts than other interpreters.

I will not try to retrace all of Paul’s interpretive steps here, but just consider the difference between Deuteronomy 30:11-14, and Paul’s citation of the same in Romans 10:6-8. Here is Deuteronomy, extolling the virtues of the law:

¹¹For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not too hard for thee, neither is it far off. ¹²It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it? ¹³Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it? ¹⁴But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

Here is Paul (Romans 10:6-8):

⁶But the righteousness which is of faith saith thus, Say not in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down:) ⁷or, Who shall descend into the abyss? (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.) ⁸But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach: ⁹because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: ¹⁰for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

If you have difficulty making the leap from the thought of Deuteronomy to what Paul is doing with Deuteronomy, you are not alone. Compare Fitzmeyer, in the Anchor Yale Bible commentary on Romans, p. 588:

The use of this OT passage creates a difficulty, for in the OT is refers ex professo to the Mosaic law, but Paul applies it to the gospel. Paul, however, does not quote the OT in the sense of following what Moses has said. In his argument to establish dikaiosynē ek pisteōs, he merely borrows phrases from Deuteronomy and applies them to Christ. Hence he is not interpreting the OT in the strict sense.

It would be interesting enough to read through Paul’s writings, collect his uses of the Old Testament, and use this to infer something about Paul’s outlook toward the proper use of Scripture. But we can do better!

In 2 Corinthians 3:12-18, Paul interprets an Old Testament passage as casting light on how to properly interpret the Old Testament.

¹²Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness of speech, ¹³and are not as Moses, who put a veil upon his face, that the children of Israel should not look stedfastly on the end of that which was passing away: ¹⁴but their minds were hardened: for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remaineth, it not being revealed to them that it is done away in Christ. ¹⁵But unto this day, whensoever Moses is read, a veil lieth upon their heart. ¹⁶But whensoever it shall turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ¹⁸But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.

Moses, according to Exodus 34, would speak to God, in person, causing his face to glow. This glow would persist for a while after Moses’ audiences with God, in such a way that it terrified those who saw him. To accommodate this situation, Moses took up the habit of putting on a veil after speaking with God. Moses would first speak to God, face to face, unveiled, and then put on his veil and relay God’s commandments to the people.

For Paul, this is a picture of how non-Christian Jews in his own day interacted with the Torah. Although hearing the words of the Torah regularly, those who attend synagogue services are unable to see who is speaking — the veil, as it were, continues to conceal the actual brilliance of the Scriptures. It is Christians, according to Paul, who like Moses take in the divine oracles with unveiled face, perceiving them in its their signification: as an announcement of the gospel.

Perhaps we can glimpse in Paul’s metaphor the reason for the freedom he feels in appropriating the words and phrases of Scripture. The believer in Christ uses boldness of speech, because the illumination of the gospel message transforms the believer through a process as effortless as simply looking into a mirror. And what is it that the believer sees in the mirror? According to Paul, the transformed believer looks into the mirror and beholds the glory of the Lord. And with this sort of transformation, it becomes hard to imagine any strict set of hermeneutical rules standing between the reader and what the reader sees in the text.