Acts 1:20 and Psalms 69:25

[dustdev14]

Acts 1:20 “For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take” the psalms this is referring to is 69:25 which I decided to have a read through of in multiple different translations. Firstly, I can’t find anything about “and his bishoprick let another take” so there’s one problem I have, but secondly, the entire psalm seems to be about a man crying out to God to carry him as he goes through times where everybody hates him and mocks him for being religious, which results in the man calling God to punish those who scorn believers, as they have no place in God’s kingdom. What does this, in any way, have to do with replacing Judas? The closest thing I can piece together is that Judas is being compared to those who scorned the man in the Psalm, and God punished him by making him so guilty that he took his own life. To me that seems like a stretch, but I’d like to here your thoughts on the issue frankly I just don’t see any way that these two pieces of scripture connect, and to me it seems like Peter is just sort of quoting scripture out of context. Any insight on the issue is apprieciated.

Kaden

 

[BartholomewB]

Luke is putting together two quotations from two different Psalms. The second one is from Psalm 108 (109) 8, which in the KJV reads, “Let his days be few, and let another take his office.”

In the Septuagint, the Greek word for “office” in this verse is episkope, the same word that the KJV translates as “bishoprick” in Acts. In Jerome’s Latin, also, the words are the same in both verses: Episcopatum ejus accipiat alter.

The apparent discrepancy is explained by the fact that in the KJV, as in most English Bibles, the book of Acts is translated from the Greek while the book of Psalms is translated from the Hebrew.

 

[dustdev14]

I really think the “discrepancy” was that my Bible only referenced the first psalm. Although, If you don’t mind me asking, what reference did you use to find the original Greek wording?

 

[BartholomewB]

There are two ways. First, the quick and easy way, but it gives you just the plain Greek text without any additional resources such as a concordance or a lexicon:

http://newadvent.com/bible/psa108.htm

Then there’s the slow, cumbersome way, which is useful if you want to dig a bit deeper. There are two sites, quite similar to one another, Bible Hub and Bible Gateway. I tend to go to Bible Hub first, possibly just because I’m more familiar with it. The place to start is the parallel texts, twenty-something published translations of every verse in the Bible, using the dropdown boxes at the top left.

https://biblehub.com/acts/1-20.htm

Then click on “Interlin” (for Interlinear), which will show you the verse in Greek (for the NT) or Hebrew (for the OT). The next step after that will be the concordance, in addition to a wide array of other resources. Enjoy!

 

[Gorgias]

What does this, in any way, have to do with replacing Judas?

In Psalm 69, we have the lament of an innocent man who is being persecuted unjustly. As you read through that psalm, you can see the correspondences that we’d apply to Jesus. We can picture Jesus as the man who is crying out to God!

So, he asks God to punish those who set him up and persecuted him. That applies to Judas.

Then, as @BartholomewB pointed out, we have another quote. (The cross-references in the NAB cite both of these; check it out here. In Psalm 109, the psalmist asks that those who have harmed him be punished. Among the punishments are that his role as an overseer be removed from him and given to another.

In this chapter, it makes sense and fits the context.

I did a quick check of the NAB; both punctuate the sentence such that it’s obvious that there are two distinct citations here.

 

[Diaconia]

You both may enjoy a wonderful free program called ISA (Interlinear Scripture Analyzer).

It is written by a Dutch gentleman, and is very good. I use it all the time when looking up a particular pericope or word.

http://www.scripture4all.org/

God bless those who study His sacred Word,
Deacon Christopher