Hermeneutics in Practice/The Apostle Paul’s Use Of Old Testament Scripture

 The Logic of Paul’s Use of Deuteronomy 25:4 in 1 Corinthians 9:9-10

In the broader context of Deuteronomy 25, God was concerned with justice even for the most vulnerable. The apostle Paul in making the case that “servants of the gospel who sow spiritual things among people should benefit materially from those same people” analogically uses a Deuteronomic law for a stronger argument.[1] The first approach uses a lesser to greater argument (moving from a law about animals to applying a principle related to humans). In defending the rights of apostles in First Corinthians (“Do we not have the right to our food and drink?” 9:4), Paul compares by pulling on a universal principle. “He applied an Old Testament law to the issue at hand, insisting that God was concerned about more than an oxen,”[2]  also an integral part of that agrarian society. Even though the Deuteronomic text on the surface deals with an oxen plowing/threshing grain, “the command is not for the oxen in Israel’s day, but it is for our sake.”[3] Another way to say it is that there was a deeper moral principle that undergirded the Deuteronomic law and Paul exegeted a fuller meaning in First Corinthians 9:10.[4]