“Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: ‘Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure.’ Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—in the volume of the book, it is written of Me—to do Your will, O God.’” (Hebrews 10:5-7, emphasis added).
“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. Then I said, “Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book, it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:6-8, emphasis added).
As can be easily seen, Hebrews 10:5-7 is an inspired quotation of Psalm 40:6-8. Because of the clear difference between “My ears You have opened” of Psalm 40:6 and “a body You have prepared for Me” in Hebrews 10:5, questions naturally arise: Why the difference? How can both be accurate? What just happened here?
While every possible question might not be answered to everyone’s satisfaction, let’s consider these three.
Why the difference? The words of Psalm 40:6 are found in the Hebrew (or Masoretic) text; it is the text of the Old Testament that was preserved through the centuries with scrupulous care by the Jewish scribes (or Masoretes). The words of Hebrews 10:5 are found in the Greek text (i.e., the Septuagint or LXX). It is the text of the Old Testament which came as the result of seventy (LXX in Roman numerals) uninspired men who translated the Old Testament into the Greek language. This heroic work was done in the third century B. C. in Egypt.
How can both be accurate? We can be certain that the Hebrew text is accurate because it was written by an inspired penman. The ancient, though uninspired, superscription of Psalm 40 identifies David as its author. Since holy men of God were moved by the Holy Spirit to receive revelation and record Scripture (2 Peter 1:20-21), the ultimate source of all Scripture is God, who cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18).
The same can be said about the words of Hebrews 10:5. Though the translation was not made by inspired men, it was quoted by an inspired writer and affirmed by the Spirit of truth as being accurate. This would seem to indicate that in the translators’ attempt to “give the sense” (Nehemiah 8:8) of this prophecy they were accurate here. Common sense concurs: For Jesus to have ears attentive to God’s will (Psalm 40:6), they had to be attached to a human body (Hebrews 10:5), which would be used as an instrument to obey God perfectly.
What just happened here? One giant takeaway from all of this is: God’s word is capable of being translated from the original languages it was given in to another language. When it is translated accurately, both copies are God’s inspired word.
