Does Jesus misquote Psalm 8:2?

Question

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, "Hosanna to the son of David!" they were indignant, and they said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, 'Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise'?" -Matthew 21:15,16

Jesus quotes from Psalm 8:2

Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.

My question is in regards to the end of David's clause "you establish strength." How does Jesus find "praise" in this verse?

Answer 1

Jesus is quoting a version of Psalm 8 that corresponds to the Septuagint (Greek translation), which does contain significant variations from the Masoretic (Hebrew version). The Masoretic is used for most versions of the Christian Old Testament in English. The Septuagint was completed roughly two centuries before Jesus did his teaching.

Psalm 8.3¹ εκ στοματος νηπιων και θηλαζοντων κατηρτισω αινον ενεκα των εχθρων σου του καταλυσαι εχθρον και εκδικητην

Matthew 21.16 και ειπον αυτω ακουεις τι ουτοι λεγουσιν ο δε ιησους λεγει αυτοις ναι ουδεποτε ανεγνωτε οτι εκ στοματος νηπιων και θηλαζοντων κατηρτισω αινον

The portion of Psalm 8 that Jesus quotes is identical to the Septuagint version: εκ στοματος νηπιων και θηλαζοντων κατηρτισω αινον.

Those two words at the end, κατηρτισω αινον, mean '[he] prepared praise'.

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¹ Just for clarity, 8.3 was not a typo. Psalm 8.2 in the Masoretic text is numbered as Psalm 8.3 in the Septuagint text.

Answer 2

A supplement to Mark Edward's answer:

Though "strength" and "praise" are two very different words, the "strength" in Ps 8 in the Hebrew text comes from "mouths", and the psalm is about praising God. It is not a stretch to think that the psalm talks about praise from the infants' mouths.

Moreover, the New Testament seldom quotes the Old Testament word for word, but rather refers to the meaning of the text as it related the topic at hand. Cf. the table on this site.

Answer 3

Ps 8:2 reads as follows:

Masoretic Text (Hebrew): From the mouths of infants and nursing babies You have established strength Because of Your enemies, To do away with the enemy and the revengeful. The highlighted word is עֹז (oz), meaning (BDB) noun masculine strength, might; — absolute ׳ע Judges 9:51 +, עוֺז Psalm 84:6 +, עָזֿ Isaiah 26:1, once עָ֑ז Genesis 49:3; construct עֹז Micah 5:3 +, עָזֿ Psalm 28:8; suffix עָזִּי Exodus 15:2 2t., עֻזִּי Psalm 28:7 +; עָזְּךָ Psalm 21:2 2t., עֻזְּךָ Psalm 66:3 +; suffix 1 plural עוּזֵנוּ Psalm 81:2; 3 masculine plural עֻזָּמוּ Psalm 89:18, etc.; — strength, might (usually in poetry, 44 t. Psalms)

Septuagint (= LXX, Greek): Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou perfected praise, because of thine enemies; that thou mightest put down the enemy and avenger. The highlighted word is αἶνος (ainos) which means (BDAG) "praise"; Thayer - "praise, laudatory discourse".

In Matt 21:16, the Greek text of the NT uses exactly the same word as the LXX. So, Jesus quoted the LXX exactly.

WHY?

Therefore, we should ask, Why does the LXX differ from the Masoretic (Hebrew) Text? We do not know the answer to this but it is very likely one of the following reasons:

1. The exemplar for the LXX differed here (and many other places) from the Masoretic text
2. The LXX translators took liberties with the translation. (This is much less likely but instances of this can be shown in other places.)

Therefore, the most likely reason that the LXX differed from the Masoretic text is that the Hebrew text the LXX used differed as in mast places where the two diverge.

There may also be a third possibility as noted by Ellicott and his comments on Ps 8:2 -

Ordained strength . . .—At the first glance, the LXX. translation, as quoted in Matthew 21:16 (see Note, New Testament Commentary), “Thou hast perfected praise,” seems to be correct, from a comparison with Psalm 29:1, where strength translates the same Hebrew word, and plainly means homage. This expresses, doubtless, part of the thought of the poet, that in a child’s simple and innocent wonder lies the truest worship; that God accomplishes the greatest things and reveals His glory by means of the weakest instruments—a thought which was seized upon by our Lord to condemn the want of spirituality in the scribes and Pharisees. But the context, speaking the language of war, seems to demand the primitive meaning, stronghold or defence. The truth which the Bible proclaims of the innate divinity of man, his essential likeness to God, is the principal subject of the poet; and in the princely heart of innocence of an unspoilt child he sees, as Wordsworth saw, its confirmation. “Trailing clouds of glory do we come, From God who is our home.” Such a proof is strong even against the noisy clamour of apostate men, who rebel against the Divine government, and lay upon God the blame of their aberration from His order. “His merry babbling mouth provides a defence of the Creator against all the calumnies of the foe” (Ewald). Others think rather of the faculty of speech, and the wonder and glory of it.

Benson and Barnes offer a similar explanation.

Answer 4

In Hebrew it's ?oz, "strength".

In the Septuagint it's ainos, "praise" (though Strong's says it's more properly simply a story or a saying).

The New Testament writers generally use the Septuagint. (Jesus, speaking Aramaic, may or may not have done so; the author could always cross-reference it to the LXX afterwards anyway.)

Is the LXX mistranslated? Maybe. We don't know exactly how well the Masoretic Hebrew text we have corresponds to the original that the Septuagint translators had.

Two things suggest to me that "strength" could be "praise". First, Strong's includes public or personal strength in it. One might say someone is in a strong position if they go up in the polls.

Also, it's out of the mouths, not the hands, of babes. That kind of suggests verbal strengthening.

Answer 5

The two sayings are synonymous, for "perfected praise" is an "ordination of strength" to the praiser, as well as to those in the faith who are hearing the praise. Have you not been blessed and strengthened by another brother's praise of God? In this way, the idea, though using different words, is actually the same regardless of the phrase used because God ordains strength via perfected praise.

The same thing can be said when Peter seemingly misquotes an old testament verse in saying "He who believes shall not be confounded"… but the original says "shall not make haste". Again, these two carry the same idea, even though they sound far different. This is because when we "make haste" or get ahead of God, we will often find ourselves put to confusion and confounded; Whereas, proper faith and belief will never make haste or get ahead of God, but will patiently wait on Him, and thus never be confounded, at least not by God. We often confound ourselves in our human reasoning, but we know that proper and patient faith always pleases our Creator and thus would never result in Him granting us confusion, for He is not the author thereof.

Answer 6

Oz עֹז in Hebrew is “strength” in English. | Since the Masoretic niqqudim was not available yet for Jesus to study, Could the Aramaic-speaking Yeshua of Nazareth have misquoted the Hebrew vowels from “Psalms”|Tehillim 8:2 [actually Psalms 8:3 in a Hebrew Tanakh] when singing the phrase יסדת עז “Yisadeta Oz”?

• Ez עֵז would be “goat”.
• Az עַז would be “strong”.
• Oz עֹז is “strength”.

“Oz” is used as [strength] in Proverbs / Mishlei 31:25, and in Psalms / Tehillim 8:3.

“Out-[of the]-mouth [of] infants and sucklings You-founded strength because of Your-adversaries, to put an end to enemy and avenger.” ( מִפִּ֚י עֽוֹלְלִ֨ים וְֽיֹנְקִים֘ יִסַּ֪דְתָּ֫ עֹ֥ז לְמַ֥עַן צֽוֹרְרֶ֑יךָ לְהַשְׁבִּ֥ית א֜וֹיֵ֗ב וּמִתְנַקֵּֽם )

The niqqudim of the MT was not available to Jesus of Nazareth. - The oral tradition of singing the phrase יסדת עז “Yisadeta Oz” with context of the verse would have been what Yeshua learned. - Jesus did not say : “You have established goat”, or “You founded strong”, but would have memorized through singing the word Oz as strength.

Whoever wrote the KJV version of Matthew 21:16 misquotes Psalms|Tehillim 8:3 and the Hebrew words of Jesus|Yeshua of Nazareth.

Answer 7

I think I have a solution to this problem.

1. You must believe that the Bible is inerrant.
2. You must believe that Jesus is the pre-existing Second Person of the Holy Trinity and must have inspired David to sing Psalm 8:2 and therefore must have known it better than all of us.
3. "perfected praise" in Matthew 21:16 must be correct (holding otherwise is probably heretical) and the Septuagint version of Psalm 8:2/3 as received through the Latin Vulgate and the Douay-Rheims in English must be correct as it states "perfected praise".
4. Consequently, the Masoretic Text is wrong.

Answer 8

To understand the reason Jesus quoted the Septuagint version of Matt. 21:16 which states the word Praise, to the chief priests and scribes that day, was because there were many, many, Jewish people from all around the World there for Passover, and the common language of the day was Greek, which most understood. It is simply a matter of understanding who Jesus is speaking to. The actual verse in Psalm 8:2 says Strength in the King James version; which does not contradict what Jesus says, it only clarifies what Praise actually does when it comes from the Mouth of innocent Babes.In that day, they only had the Old Testament to refer to, which for the people arriving for Passover, was most likely the Septuagint version.