The case is similar as regards the argument from his language. It is inconceivable, so writers like Heinrici and Curtius urge, that a language like Greek could be familiar to a man like Paul without causing a flood of ancient conceptions and ideas to stream in upon him. Heinrici, indeed, is prepared to decide the question on this ground alone, and concludes his exposition of the Corinthian Epistles with a close analysis of their vocabulary. This shows, he thinks, that Greek concepts and expressions far outweigh in number and importance the “specifically Christian” and those which show the influence of the Old Testament or the language of the synagogue. [pg 088] But in opposition to this, Schmiedel,_(_72_)_ a not less thorough commentator, expresses himself as follows: “We must be on our guard against concluding too hastily from the predominantly Hellenistic character of Paul’s language to a Hellenistic mode of thought. With a language of which one learns colloquially the current use, one does not by any means necessarily assimilate all the thought-forms of which it contains, so to speak, the geological record.” Here too, therefore, one argument is balanced by another. A fact which seems to carry us a little further is the Apostle’s exclusive use of the Greek version of the Old Testament. In a detailed study, of the year 1869, Kautzsch_(_73_)_ showed that out of eighty-four quotations which occur in the Epistles thirty-four agree exactly with the Septuagint, thirty-six show small deviations, and ten depart from it more widely. Two others show a considerable difference, without, however, throwing doubt upon the author’s acquaintance with the wording of the ordinary translation; two others, again, from Job, differ from it entirely. This investigation was carried further by Hans Vollmer_(_74_)_ and brought to a provisional conclusion. According to him the deviations are to be explained by the fact that Paul did not use a single complete recension of the LXX, but had recourse to different editions for different books. In Job he had before him a version which shows affinity with the later Jewish translations. To explain the remaining peculiarities Vollmer brings forward a hypothesis. He is inclined to assume that the Apostle used Greek Scriptural anthologies in which [pg 089] separate passages were collocated, or freely combined with one another. In such collections—their existence is not demonstrable—various versions were, he thinks, used promiscuously. Perhaps the passage quoted as Scripture in I Corinthians ii. 9, which is not traceable in the Old Testament,—“As it is written, what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, hath God prepared for them that love Him”—may be derived from an anthology of this kind.