As it is WRITTEN, "The Deliverer will BANISH ungodliness from Jacob"

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Psalm 14:

7 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.
Brenton Septuagint Translation:

Who will bring the salvation of Israel out of Sion? when the Lord brings back the captivity of his people, let Jacob exult, and Israel be glad.
The Redeemer from Zion will cause Jacob to rejoice by saving them from their sins.

Isaiah 59:

20 A Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the LORD.
Brenton Septuagint Translation:

And the deliverer shall come for Sion's sake, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
Paul summarized the above verses in Romans 11:

26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”.
Did Paul quote the Hebrew scriptures?

No, neither the Hebrew scriptures nor the LXX used the word "banish." According to our modern scientific scholarship, Paul did not quote Scripture. In fact, there were no opening and closing quotation marks at the time of Paul. The phrase "as it is written" was a way to punctuate or mark the beginning of a quotation.

Another example is from Rabbi Akiva ben Yosef. He was a Jewish scholar a bit after Paul's time. Sefaria:

Rabbi Akiva said: How fortunate are you, Israel; before Whom are you purified, and Who purifies you? It is your Father in Heaven, as it is stated: “And I will sprinkle purifying water upon you, and you shall be purified” (Ezekiel 36:25).
That's verbatim.

And it says: “The ritual bath of Israel is God” (Jeremiah 17:13).
That's not verbatim. The string of words "ritual bath" is not verbatim in Jeremiah 17:13. He interpreted.

Just as a ritual bath purifies the impure, so too, the Holy One, Blessed be He, purifies Israel.
Right. He rightly interpreted this, but he did not scientifically quote Jeremiah 17:13.

How did scholars at the time of Jesus justify using "as it is written" or "it says" while not quoting the original verbatim?

The Hebrew Scriptures were written centuries before Jesus. By necessity, rabbis had to translate the Ancient Hebrew into contemporary Aramaic while still using the term "as it is written."

For some passages, there were variations in different manuscripts. Still, they would say, "as it is written".

Some rare ancient Hebrew words had uncertain meanings, so the rabbis had to interpret them. Still, they used the phrase "as it is written" to emphasize the authority of Hebrew Scripture.

For this OP, Paul combined two passages and quoted them as a single passage, but not verbatim.

These were reasonable scholarly practices at the time, but they did not have the same sense of precision as modern scholarship.

The apostles were inspired by the Holy Spirit to interpret ancient scriptures. These inspirations justified using the term "as it is written." They were not aiming for verbatim quotations.
 
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