Regarding the first point Dr. Lightfoot asserts:
"The first is refuted by a large number of examples. St. Paul, for
instance, describes it as the special privilege of the Jews that
they had the keeping of 'the oracles of God' (Rom. iii. 2). Can we
suppose that he meant anything else but the Old Testament Scriptures
by this expression? Is it possible that he would exclude the books
of Genesis, of Joshua, of Samuel and Kings, or only include such
fragments of them as professed to give the direct sayings of God?
Would he, or would he not, comprise under the term the account of
the creation and fall (1 Cor. xi. 8 _sq._), of the wanderings in the
wilderness (1 Cor. x. 1 _sq._), of Sarah and Hagar (Gal. iv. 21
_sq._)? Does not the main part of his argument in the very next
chapter (Rom. iv.) depend more on the narrative of God's dealings
than His words? Again, when the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews
refers to 'the first principles of the oracles of God' (v. 12), his
meaning is explained by his practice; for he elicits the Divine
teaching quite as much from the history as from the direct precepts
of the Old Testament. But if the language of the New Testament
writers leaves any loophole for doubt, this is not the case with
their contemporary Philo.
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