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Qala d'Yeshua

The Scriptures Inside the Scripture

when the Gospels quote the Torah and the prophets, the words underneath are Hebrew
88 quotations mapped  ·  7 flagged as resting on the Greek  ·  1 that runs the other way  ·  0 silently corrected

A Gospel is a text with older texts inside it. When Yeshua reads in a synagogue or answers from the Torah, the scroll in the room was Hebrew, but the Gospel that reports it was written in Greek, and the Greek often quotes the Septuagint, the Greek translation of those scriptures. This rendering follows one rule: quotations render from the Hebrew source, and where an evangelist’s argument rests on the Greek instead, that is disclosed, never silently corrected.

The rule

Hebrew-primary, divergence disclosed

88 quotations, every one traced to its Hebrew verse

Every direct Old Testament quotation in the four Gospels was mapped to its source verse and rendered against the Hebrew text itself (the Leningrad codex, via Tyndale House’s openly-licensed tagged edition) with the Greek Septuagint (Swete’s public-domain edition) set beside it for every single row. Nothing was back-translated from the Greek when the prophet’s own words were available.

The map

88 quotations

Matthew 39, Mark 17, Luke 18, John 14: drawn from the standard scholarly apparatus, with zero fabricated links and zero unresolved references. A deliberately high-confidence core, not an exhaustive sweep.

Two kinds

Spoken and written

67 are citations: scripture spoken or read aloud by Yeshua, the Baptizer, the accuser in the wilderness, crowds, priests. 21 are the evangelists’ own “that it might be fulfilled” formulas.

The verdict

Most agree with the Hebrew

66 of the 88 match or depend on the Hebrew directly. The rest carry a specific, named flag: adaptation, phrasing, Targum affinity, or genuine dependence on the Greek.

Dual-validated

Checked twice, by rivals

The whole map was adversarially verified by two independent AI reviewers. Between them they caught a wrong-verse Septuagint lookup (the Ten Commandments are reordered in the Greek) and one over-broad flag, both fixed at the source, on the record.

The keystone

Almah and parthenos

Matthew 1:23 quoting Isaiah 7:14

The clearest case of a Gospel argument resting on the Greek rather than the Hebrew, and the archetype for how this rendering handles it.

Isaiah 7:14 · the Hebrew
לָכֵן יִתֵּן אֲדֹנָי הוּא לָכֶם אוֹת הִנֵּה הָעַלְמָה הָרָה וְיֹלֶדֶת בֵּן וְקָרָאת שְׁמוֹ עִמָּנוּ אֵל
Lakhen yiTen ʾadoNai huʾ laKhem ʾot hiNeh haʿalMah haRah veyoLedet Ben vekaRat sheMo ʿiManu ʾEl
The Hebrew word

hā-ʿalmāh: “the young woman.” The Hebrew word for “virgin” would be betulāh; that is not the word Isaiah uses.

The Greek Septuagint

hē parthenos (παρθένος): “the virgin.” Matthew’s virgin-birth argument follows this Greek reading.

So the rendering gives the prophet his own word (young woman) and states plainly, right at the verse, that Matthew’s argument rests on the Septuagint’s virgin. Neither text is corrected into the other. Both facts stay visible.

The flags

Where the argument rests on the Greek

every one confirmed against the Septuagint text itself

Seven quotation rows carry the LXX-divergence flag: places where rendering the Hebrew alone would undercut what the evangelist is actually arguing. Each flag was confirmed against the actual Greek, word by word.

Mt 1:23 ← Isa 7:14the virginHebrew almah “young woman” vs LXX parthenos “virgin.” The keystone case, above.
Mt 12:18–21 ← Isa 42:1–4the Gentiles will hopeThe Servant Song’s closing line follows the LXX (“in his name the Gentiles will hope”) against the Hebrew’s “the coastlands wait for his torah.”
Mt 13:14 ← Isa 6:9hear but never understandMatthew quotes the LXX form verbatim. (Mark and Luke’s version of the same passage is closer to the Aramaic Targum, flagged separately as Targum affinity.)
Mt 15:8 / Mk 7:6 ← Isa 29:13in vain they worship me“Teaching human precepts” follows the LXX against the different Hebrew second half, the same Greek form in both Gospels.
Mt 21:16 ← Ps 8:2prepared praiseLXX “you prepared praise” vs Hebrew ʿoz “strength.” The temple retort works in the Greek.
Lk 4:18 ← Isa 61:1the synagogue readingThe reading follows the LXX (including “recovery of sight to the blind”) and quotes it selectively, omitting the LXX’s “heal the brokenhearted.”

One flag was honestly withdrawn: Jn 12:38 reproduces the LXX wording of Isa 53:1 down to an opening “Lord” the Hebrew lacks, but John’s argument rests on content Hebrew and Greek share, so it does not earn the flag. The rule is narrow on purpose: flagged only where the argument rests on the Greek, not wherever the wording differs.

The reverse

Where the Gospel sides with the Hebrew

against the Greek it was written in

The discipline cuts both ways, and one quotation runs in the opposite direction entirely.

Jn 19:37 ← Zech 12:10 · HEBREW AGAINST LXX

“they will look on the one they pierced”

The Hebrew reads daqaru: “pierced.” The Septuagint reads “they mocked” (κατωρχήσαντο). At the crucifixion, John follows the Hebrew against the Greek, a textbook case for rendering from the Hebrew.

Mt 2:15 ← Hos 11:1

“out of Egypt I called my son”

The LXX reads “his children” (plural). Matthew’s “my son” follows the Hebrew.

Mt 8:17 ← Isa 53:4

“took our infirmities”

The LXX spiritualizes: “bears our sins.” Matthew keeps the Hebrew bodily; the gold renders it: “He has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains.”

The remaining rows carry their own named flags: free adaptation (Jn 12:40’s reworking of Isa 6:10; the conflated Mal 3:1 + Exod 23:20 of “behold, I send my messenger”), a phrasing divergence (whether Isa 40:3’s “in the wilderness” belongs to the voice or the preparing), Targum affinity (Mark’s Isa 6:9–10), and the cry from the cross (Ps 22:1, Mt 27:46 / Mk 15:34), where the Gospels themselves record the words in Aramaic and the Hebrew psalm stands beneath them as the source.

On the page

Where you can see all of this

the ≡ quotation bands, verse by verse

Every quoting verse in the interlinear carries a band marked ≡ quotes … naming its source: with the full Hebrew verse, a transliteration, a plain-language note, and, where it applies, the divergence flag as a visible label. Open Matthew 1 and the keystone is the first thing you meet: ≡ quotes Isa 7:14 · LXX DIVERGENCE, with the Hebrew and the note side by side. Nothing on this page is hidden apparatus; it is all on the reading surface.

“Honest partial coverage over false completeness.”
From the quotation-map build record
Hebrew text: Leningrad codex via the Tyndale House / STEPBible tagged edition (CC-BY-4.0). Greek Septuagint: Swete’s edition (public domain). Every flag cites the specific words that ground it.
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more studies: The Four Words Beneath “Save”  ·  How Much Galilean Is Really Here  ·  Why Aramaic?