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Question 1

James 4:6 quotes Proverbs 3:34 as “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble,” which matches the Septuagint rather than the Masoretic “Surely he scoffs at the scoffers”; what does that difference suggest about how the apostles viewed “exact wording” versus “true meaning” when they treated something as Scripture?

Another way to ask: James quotes Proverbs in a way that matches the Septuagint, not the Hebrew wording. What does that suggest about whether the apostles cared more about exact words or the true meaning when calling something Scripture?

Direct Answer Based on David Bercot’s teaching, the apostles treated Scripture as God’s Word even when the *exact wording* differed between textual traditions, and they felt free to quote the wording they regarded as the better, more usable form (often the Septuagint), without acting as if only one wording could be “Scripture.”

Support from Transcript:

Bercot notes James 4:6 “follows the reading of the Septuagint,” while the Masoretic of Proverbs 3:34 says something “different from what James quoted.”
He repeatedly says the Masoretic readings are often “a very good thought,” but “it’s not how” the NT writer quotes it (Hebrews 13:6; Psalm 118:6).
He explains that sometimes the Septuagint “has more text… and sometimes it has less,” implying the apostles weren’t demanding one fixed word-count or identical phrasing.
He concludes from mixed quotation patterns: “neither text had the exclusive claim of being God’s Word. It’s a matter of which text is the better of the two for us to use.”

Discussion Follow-ups If apostles could quote Scripture faithfully while using variant wordings, what should that do to how we argue from “exact wording” in English translations today?

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