Justification by Faith: Paul and Qumran

It is often said that when Paul quotes from the Old Testament, he quotes from the Septuagint. Rom 4,3 (citing Gen 15,6) appears to support that position. The Septuagint version departs significantly from its Hebrew source text. A similar way of analysing the Hebrew text, however, is attested in some contemporary Qumran documents. Paul, then, may have been aware of such an analysis among Jewish scholars and was sympathetic to it. Thus Rom 4,3 is not necessarily a conscious citation from the Septuagint. Another case of equal importance for Paul’s theology is Rom 1,17, which departs from the Septuagint text of Hab 2,4.