The dazzling angelic figures 'in white' draw on the Danielic vision of the man clothed in linen with a face like lightning. Volume is modest since John specifies only white garments, but the radiant-angel topos is widely available in apocalyptic.

I lifted up my eyes, and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, whose thighs were adorned with pure gold of Uphaz: his body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as flaming torches, and his arms and his feet like burnished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.


Mary's lament 'they have taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they have laid him' continues the bride-seeking-her-beloved pattern of the Song (5:6 'I sought him, but I could not find him'). Reinforces the 20:1 allusion through Recurrence within the same scene.

I opened to my beloved; but my beloved left; and had gone away. My heart went out when he spoke. I looked for him, but I didn’t find him. I called him, but he didn’t answer. The watchmen who go about the city found me. They beat me. They bruised me. The keepers of the walls took my cloak away from me. I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, If you find my beloved, that you tell him that I am faint with love. Friends


Mary supposes the risen Jesus to be 'the gardener' in the garden of the tomb — John's deliberate irony casting Jesus as the new Adam who tends the garden (Gen 2:15), undoing Eden's loss. The garden + gardener convergence raises Volume and Coherence above the faint garden echo of 20:1.

Yahweh God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground Yahweh God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became the source of four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon: it flows […]


'Scarcely had I passed them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go' lies behind Mary's recognition and Jesus' 'Don't hold me' (20:16-17). The seeking-then-clinging sequence completes the Canticle pattern begun at 20:1; medium confidence on the cumulative force of the recurrence.

I had scarcely passed from them, when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, into the room of her who conceived me.


Jesus' covenant formula 'my Father and your Father, my God and your God' (20:17) echoes Ruth's pledge 'your people shall be my people, and your God my God,' a paradigmatic statement of incorporative belonging. Faint verbal contact ('your God / my God') with strong thematic Coherence to adoption.

Ruth said, “Don’t entreat me to leave you, and to return from following after you, for where you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God;


'Go to my brothers' (20:17) recalls the vindicated sufferer's vow 'I will declare your name to my brothers,' the turn from passion to proclamation in the psalm John has quoted at the cross (19:24). The Psalm 22 frame gives 'my brothers' high Coherence and Recurrence within the Johannine passion.

I will declare your name to my brothers. In the midst of the assembly, I will praise you.


The royal-messianic 'He will call to me, You are my Father, my God' supplies covenantal background for 'my Father... my God,' linking Jesus' filial claim to the Davidic adoption oracle. Low Volume; one of several candidate Father/God formulae.

He will call to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation!’


The risen Jesus' threefold greeting 'Peace be to you' (20:19,21,26) functions as the eschatological enactment of the Aaronic priestly blessing 'the LORD lift up his countenance on you and give you peace.' Medium Volume (shared 'peace') with strong Coherence as the resurrected high-priestly Lord blesses his gathered people.

‘Yahweh bless you, and keep you. Yahweh make his face to shine on you, and be gracious to you. Yahweh lift up his face toward you, and give you peace.’


Jesus 'breathed on them' and said 'Receive the Holy Spirit' — the verb (enephysesen, LXX of Gen 2:7) directly evokes God breathing the breath of life into Adam's nostrils so he became a living being. John presents the Spirit-impartation as new creation/new Adam; very high Volume given the rare shared verb and high Coherence with the Gospel's creation theology.

Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.


'Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live' stands behind Jesus breathing Spirit into the disciples after the resurrection. Ezekiel's vivified corpses give the scene its resurrection-and-Spirit valence; high Coherence and shared breath/Spirit (ruach/pneuma) vocabulary reinforce the Genesis 2:7 figure.

Then he said to me, Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man, and tell the wind, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Come from the four winds, breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up on their feet, an exceedingly great army.


'He failed to know the one who formed him and inspired him with an active soul and breathed into him a living spirit' restates Gen 2:7 in Second-Temple idiom, evidencing the availability of the breath-of-life motif John reworks. Deuterocanonical witness rather than a direct source.

Because he was ignorant of him that moulded him, And of him that inspired into him an active soul, And breathed into him a vital spirit.


The authority to forgive or retain sins ('he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open') parallels the key-of-the-house-of-David grant of binding/loosing power. The remit-or-retain antithesis matches the open/shut structure of the oracle; medium confidence on the structural rather than verbal link.

I will lay the key of the house of David on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut. He will shut, and no one will open.


'I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake' grounds the forgiveness of sins as a divine prerogative now delegated to the disciples (20:23). Faint background highlighting that sin-forgiveness is God's act, sharpening the Christological claim.

I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins.


Thomas' confession 'My Lord and my God!' (20:28) reproduces the psalmist's vocative 'my God and my Lord' (LXX Ps 34:23: ho theos mou kai ho kyrios mou). The unusual paired address gives high Volume; John climaxes the Gospel by directing to Jesus the cry the psalmist directs to YHWH.

Wake up! Rise up to defend me, my God! My Lord, contend for me!


Thomas addresses Jesus with the divine titles 'Lord... God' that the psalter repeatedly couples ('you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious'), reinforcing the deliberate transfer of YHWH-language to the risen Christ. Supporting Recurrence behind the primary Ps 35:23 allusion.

But you, Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.


'Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed' (20:29) coheres with 'the righteous shall live by his faith,' the OT charter of faith-not-sight. Thematic rather than verbal; faint and one of several wisdom/faith backgrounds.

Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith.


'These are written, that you may believe' enacts the prophetic command 'Write the vision; make it plain... it awaits its appointed time,' grounding the inscribed witness-for-faith in the OT theology of the written vision that calls for belief. Medium Coherence with the Gospel's purpose statement; verbal contact is on the writing-for-faith motif.

Yahweh answered me, “Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he who runs may read it. For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hurries toward the end, and won’t prove false. Though it takes time, wait for it; because it will surely come. It won’t delay.


The notion of words 'written in this book' so that the faithful 'may have life' faintly recalls Daniel's sealed book and those 'found written in the book' who awake to everlasting life. Low Volume; offered as a faint life-through-the-book resonance.

“At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who stands for the children of your people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who shall be found written in the book. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall […]


The confessional goal 'that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God' draws on the royal-messianic decree 'You are my Son,' the OT title-cluster (Messiah / Son of God) John affirms. Background to the titulature rather than a quotation.

I will tell of the decree. Yahweh said to me, “You are my son. Today I have become your father.


Ezekiel's temple river makes the sea teem with fish 'of every kind,' with fishermen spreading nets from Engedi to Eneglaim. John's miraculous catch of fish 'of every kind' (the 153 traditionally read as the count of fish species) and the unbroken net coheres with Ezekiel's eschatological ingathering. Volume is moderate but the thematic coherence (river/sea, abundance, fishing, no-loss) is strong; contested but widely proposed.

It shall happen, that every living creature which swarms, in every place where the rivers come, shall live; and there shall be a very great multitude of fish; for these waters have come there, and the waters of the sea shall be healed, and everything shall live wherever the river comes. It shall happen, that fishermen shall stand by it: from En Gedi even to En Eglaim shall be a place for the spreading of nets; their fish shall be after their kinds, as the […]


The mandate to subdue and have dominion over 'the fish of the sea' lurks behind a restored humanity gathering the fish at the creative word of the risen Lord. Faint: shared lexeme 'fish of the sea' and a new-creation framing (resurrection 'after these things'), but no verbal citation and the link is thematic.

God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”


Moses asks whether all the fish of the sea could be gathered to feed the people; John presents an answering abundance gathered by Jesus' word. Faint association on the motif of impossible provision of fish answered by divine sufficiency; offered only as a contested resonance.

Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to be sufficient for them? Shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to be sufficient for them?”


Peter is addressed as 'Simon, son of Jonah' (vv.15-17) amid a sea/fish narrative; the Jonah-the-prophet sea imagery may color the scene of disciples on the deep at night. Faint and largely onomastic; included honestly as contested.

Yahweh prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.


Peter, 'naked,' covers himself before encountering the Lord (v.7), recalling the shame/covering of Eden when the man hid from the LORD's presence. Faint verbal touch ('naked') with a coherent theme of standing exposed before the divine; contested.

Their eyes were opened, and they both knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made coverings for themselves. They heard the voice of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden. Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I […]


The LORD appears and a meal is set before him/by him; here the risen Lord hosts a theophanic breakfast none dare question. Faint typological resonance of divine appearance plus prepared food; coherence with John's revelation motif ('revealed himself') but no verbal anchor.

Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw that three men stood opposite him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth, and said, “My lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please don’t go away from your servant. Now let a little water be fetched, wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. I will […]


Elijah, exhausted, is given bread baked on coals by the LORD's messenger and strengthened for the journey; Jesus provides bread and fish from a charcoal fire to strengthen the disciples for mission. Faint but coherent provision-meal-after-failure motif; contested.

He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat!” He looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on the coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. Yahweh’s angel came again the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” He arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty […]


God promises to set up 'one shepherd' to feed and tend the flock. Jesus' triple charge to Peter—'feed my lambs / tend my sheep / feed my sheep'—delegates this messianic shepherd office. High volume of shepherd language, strong coherence with Johannine 'good shepherd' (ch.10), and clear availability in Ezekiel 34's feed/tend vocabulary.

I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.


The LORD as shepherd who feeds and leads the flock supplies the foundational pastoral imagery taken up in the commission to feed and tend sheep. Coherent and available, though general; the verbal link is thematic (shepherd/feed) rather than a citation.

Yahweh is my shepherd: I shall lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.


Against false shepherds who scatter, God will raise shepherds who 'feed' the flock so none is missing. Peter's reinstatement as a true shepherd who feeds coheres tightly with Jeremiah's contrast; moderate volume in shared feed/shepherd vocabulary.

Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says Yahweh. Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed my people: You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them; behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings, says Yahweh. I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they […]


The LORD 'will feed his flock like a shepherd' and gently carry the lambs—matching the specific pairing of lambs and sheep in Peter's threefold charge. Strong coherence and the distinctive lamb/sheep doublet raise volume above the generic shepherd topos.

He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young.


Moses asks God to appoint a successor so the congregation is not 'as sheep without a shepherd'; Joshua is commissioned over the flock. Jesus' commissioning of Peter to shepherd reprises this succession-of-shepherd pattern; coherent with the leadership-transfer theme of John 21.

“Let Yahweh, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in; that the congregation of Yahweh not be as sheep which have no shepherd.”


The prophet is told to 'feed the flock' destined for slaughter, foreshadowing a shepherd's costly office immediately before Peter's death-prophecy (vv.18-19). Faint but coherent given the adjoining martyrdom prediction; contested.

Thus says Yahweh my God: “Feed the flock of slaughter. Their buyers slaughter them, and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be Yahweh, for I am rich;’ and their own shepherds don’t pity them. For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land,” says Yahweh; “but, behold, I will deliver the men everyone into his neighbor’s hand, and into the hand of his king. They will strike the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.” So I fed […]


The thrice-repeated 'Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?' echoes the testing/love idiom of the Aqedah where God names the beloved son in a graduated demand. Faint structural resonance (threefold address, love, testing); offered as contested.

He said, “Now take your son, your only son, whom you love, even Isaac, and go into the land of Moriah. Offer him there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of.”


'I have stretched out my hands all day long' supplies a possible scriptural backdrop for 'you will stretch out your hands,' read by early Christians as crucifixion imagery. Faint verbal touch ('stretch out hands'); coherent with the death-prophecy but contested as the source.

I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts;


The afflicted 'spread out my hands' to God in a context of approaching death; resonates with Peter's foretold death by stretched-out hands and being led where he does not wish. Faint, generic gesture-language; contested.

My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, Yahweh. I have spread out my hands to you.


Qoheleth's contrast of youth and the days of trouble in old age frames the 'when you were young... when you are old' antithesis of Peter's prophecy. Faint thematic parallel of life-stage contrast; offered as contested.

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near, when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;


Peter's 'Lord, what about this man?' and Jesus' deferral ('what is that to you? You follow me') faintly mirror the pattern of deferred answers awaiting the Lord's will. Very faint structural resonance; included only as low-confidence and contested.

Moses answered them, “Wait, that I may hear what Yahweh will command concerning you.”


Ben Sira's doxological hyperbole—'we could say more but could never say enough... he is greater than all his works'—matches John's closing topos that the world could not contain the books recording Jesus' deeds. Strong coherence in the inexhaustible-divine-works rhetoric; a recognized Second-Temple parallel to the hyperbole.

We may say many things, yet shall we not attain; And the sum of our words is, He is all. How shall we have strength to glorify him? For he is himself the great one above all his works.


'Of making many books there is no end' supplies the proverbial frame for John's hyperbole about innumerable books. Moderate volume via the shared 'books' motif and a fitting scribal-colophon function closing the work; coherent with an editorial epilogue.

Furthermore, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.


'To whom has he given power to declare his works? Who can search out his mighty deeds?'—the immeasurability of God's works that no one can fully recount. Faint but coherent with John's claim that the world cannot hold the record of Jesus' deeds; contested.

To none has he given power to declare his works: And who will trace out his mighty deeds? Who shall number the strength of his majesty? And who shall also tell out his mercies? As for the wondrous works of the Lord, it is not possible to take from them nor add to them, Neither is it possible to track them out. When a man has finished, then he is but at the beginning; And when he ceaseth, then will he be in perplexity.


God's wondrous deeds 'are more than can be numbered'—the same hyperbole of innumerable divine works underlying John's uncontainable books. Faint and generic; offered as a contested resonance.

Many, Yahweh, my God, are the wonderful works which you have done, and your thoughts which are toward us. They can’t be declared back to you. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.


The risen Jesus tells the apostles to wait for 'the promise of the Father' and the baptism 'in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.' Volume: no verbal quotation yet, but the conceptual content (an outpouring of the Spirit on God's people in the last days) maps directly onto Joel. Recurrence: decisive — Luke makes this same Joel text the explicit hermeneutical key at Pentecost (Acts 2:16-21), so the 'promise' here is programmatic foreshadowing. Thematic coherence: high; the whole opening frames the Spirit as eschatological gift. History of interpretation broadly reads the 'promise of the Father' as Joel's Spirit-pouring. Confidence high on Recurrence and Coherence even though the immediate Volume is thematic.

“It will happen afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. And also on the servants and on the handmaids in those days, I will pour out my Spirit. I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day […]


The Spirit 'put within' God's people to enable obedience is the other great prophetic promise standing behind 'the promise of the Father.' Volume is low (no shared wording in translation), but Thematic Coherence is strong: Ezekiel's interiorized Spirit is the renewal-of-Israel hope that the apostles' question in v.6 presupposes. Recurrence modest. Honestly faint relative to Joel, hence echo/medium.

I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them.


Jesus appears and teaches 'over a period of forty days.' Volume: only the numeral, so verbal borrowing is minimal — this is a figural/typological link, not a citation. Thematic coherence: forty-day periods of divine revelation and preparation recur with Moses on Sinai (Exod 24:18; 34:28), Israel's wilderness, and Elijah (1 Kgs 19:8); Luke evokes a charged interval of instruction before a covenantal threshold. Recurrence: Luke uses forty-day patterning elsewhere (Jesus' temptation, Luke 4:2). Marked figural because the correspondence is structural, not lexical.

Moses entered into the midst of the cloud, and went up on the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.


'You will be witnesses... to the uttermost parts of the earth' closely tracks the Servant's commission to be 'a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.' Volume: the phrase 'to the end(s) of the earth' is a distinctive LXX echo (heos eschatou tes ges). Recurrence: strong — Luke cites Isa 49:6 explicitly at Acts 13:47 and alludes again, making it a structural thesis statement for the book. Thematic coherence: very high; this verse programs Acts' whole geographic movement. A leading candidate in the history of interpretation for the key to Acts.

yes, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give you for a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.”


'You will be witnesses to me' echoes the Lord's words to Israel, 'You are my witnesses... and my servant whom I have chosen.' Volume: the witness-language is distinctive and combined with election (the apostles 'whom he had chosen,' v.2). Recurrence: the witness motif saturates Acts. Thematic coherence: high; Israel's vocation to testify to the one God is transferred to the apostles. Overlaps with Isa 49:6 in the same Isaianic Servant matrix.

“You are my witnesses,” says Yahweh, “With my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither will there be after me. I myself am Yahweh; and besides me there is no savior. I have declared, I have saved, and I have shown; and there was no strange god among you. Therefore you are my witnesses”, says Yahweh, “and I am God.


'It isn't for you to know times or seasons (chronous e kairous) which the Father has set within his own authority' echoes Daniel's 'he changes times and seasons (kairous kai chronous)... he reveals deep and hidden things.' Volume: the paired words 'times and seasons' are a distinctive doublet shared with LXX Daniel. Thematic coherence: high; both texts locate the calendar of the kingdom in God's sovereign reserve. Recurrence: 'times and seasons' as a fixed pair recurs in Jewish apocalyptic. Solid mid-level link.

He changes the times and the seasons; he removes kings, and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to those who have understanding;


The apostles' question, 'are you now restoring the kingdom to Israel?', sits atop the prophetic hope of the rebuilt 'booth of David' that the remnant and the nations might seek the Lord. Volume: no shared wording here. Recurrence: notable — Luke quotes Amos 9:11-12 at the Jerusalem council (Acts 15:16-17) precisely to interpret how the restored Davidic kingdom includes the nations, which is exactly the tension between v.6 (Israel) and v.8 (the earth). Thematic coherence good; low confidence because the link is conceptual and back-referenced rather than verbal here.

In that day I will raise up the tent of David who is fallen, and close up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old; that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations who are called by my name,” says Yahweh who does this.

In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and will rebuild the ruins of it, and will set up the parts thereof that have been broken down, and will build it up as in the ancient days: that the remnant of men, and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called, may earnestly seek me, saith the Lord who does all these things.


'A cloud received him out of their sight,' and the angels promise he 'will come back in the same way.' Volume: the cloud as the vehicle of the exalted Son of Man is the distinctive Danielic image (one 'coming with the clouds of heaven'). Luke reverses and reaffirms the trajectory — ascent now, return on clouds later. Recurrence: strong in Luke-Acts' Son-of-Man Christology (Luke 21:27; 22:69). Thematic coherence high; the cloud signals heavenly enthronement, the very kingship the disciples asked about in v.6.

I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.


Jesus 'was taken up' while the apostles 'looked steadfastly into the sky,' patterned on Elijah taken up to heaven as Elisha watched ('if you see me as I am taken from you...'). Volume: shared motif of a witnessed bodily assumption, the gaze of the successor(s), and the transfer of spirit/Spirit immediately afterward (Elisha's double portion ~ the apostles' Spirit-baptism). Recurrence: Luke deliberately uses Elijah-Elisha typology throughout (e.g., Luke 9:51, 9:61-62). Thematic coherence very high; the disciples' Spirit-empowerment in v.8 mirrors Elisha's inheritance. A staple of the history of interpretation.

As they still went on, and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.


The ascension and promised return occur at/over the Mount of Olives (named in v.12), the very mountain on which 'the feet of the Lord' will stand on the eschatological day of his coming. Volume: low verbal overlap, but the geography is pointed and the angels' 'will come back in the same way' resonates with Zechariah's theophanic return to that mountain. Thematic coherence strong; recurrence modest. The setting makes this more than coincidental, hence echo/medium.

His feet will stand in that day on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in two, from east to west, making a very great valley. Half of the mountain will move toward the north, and half of it toward the south.


Jesus' bodily removal to heaven faintly recalls Enoch, who 'walked with God, and he was not, for God took him' (LXX: 'God translated him'). Volume: low; only the shared motif of a righteous one taken without ordinary death. Recurrence: Enoch/assumption traditions were live in Second Temple Judaism. Coherence modest. Included as a faint, contested member of the 'assumption of the righteous' background alongside Elijah.

Enoch walked with God, and he was not found, for God took him.


The distance from Olivet is 'a Sabbath day's journey,' a halakhic measure derived from the limits set around the Levitical cities and the camp (cf. the 2,000-cubit reckoning) and the Sabbath-rest command. Volume: the phrase reflects later legal interpretation rather than a quotation, but its scriptural root is the camp/city boundary measures. Thematic coherence modest. Faint, halakhic background note.

You shall measure outside of the city for the east side two thousand cubits, and for the south side two thousand cubits, and for the west side two thousand cubits, and for the north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the middle. This shall be the suburbs of their cities.


The explicit naming of 'the mountain called Olivet' reinforces the eschatological resonance of the Mount of Olives as the place of the Lord's coming (Zech 14:4). Volume low (toponym only). Recurrence: Olivet frames both ascension and the Lukan passion. Coherence ties back to the return promised in v.11. Listed at low confidence as a topographic echo.


Explicitly introduced: 'it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be made desolate; let no one dwell therein.' Volume: a formal, formula-marked quotation with high verbal correspondence to LXX Ps 68:26 (genetheto he epaulis autou eremos). Recurrence: Psalm 69 is among the most-cited psalms in the NT and recurs in Luke's passion theology as a psalm of the righteous sufferer. Thematic coherence high; the betrayer's 'habitation' made desolate justifies vacating Judas' office. Textbook quotation.

Let their habitation be desolate. Let no one dwell in their tents.


The second member of Peter's catena: 'Let another take his office (ten episkopen autou laboi heteros),' verbatim from LXX Ps 108:8. Volume: very high, a direct formula-marked citation. Thematic coherence: decisive — it supplies the warrant for electing a replacement apostle in vv.21-26. Recurrence: Psalm 109 is an imprecatory psalm against a treacherous adversary, read figurally of Judas. Unambiguous quotation.

Let his days be few. Let another take his office.


Peter says 'the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David' the scripture about Judas. This inspiration formula echoes David's own claim, 'The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and his word was on my tongue.' Volume: shared the-Spirit-spoke-through-David formula. Thematic coherence high; it grounds the Davidic psalter as prophetic of Judas. Recurrence: Luke repeatedly attributes the Psalms to David's Spirit-inspired prophecy (e.g., Acts 2:30; 4:25).

“The Spirit of Yahweh spoke by me. His word was on my tongue.


Judas 'obtained a field with the reward for his wickedness,' and the place becomes 'the field of blood.' Volume: the field-bought-with-blood-money and the potter/field motif track Zechariah's thirty pieces of silver cast to the potter in the house of the Lord. Recurrence: Matthew makes the Zechariah link explicit; Luke's version is more allusive. Thematic coherence good — the betrayal price defiles a field. Mid-level because Luke's wording diverges from Zechariah's.

I said to them, “If you think it best, give me my wages; and if not, keep them.” So they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver. Yahweh said to me, “Throw it to the potter, the handsome price that I was valued at by them!” I took the thirty pieces of silver, and threw them to the potter, in Yahweh’s house.


Judas 'falling headlong, his body burst open, and all his intestines gushed out' — a death-of-the-wicked topos closely matching the gruesome end of Antiochus IV, whose bowels were wracked and whose body rotted, a divine judgment on a persecutor. Volume: distinctive shared motif of the betrayer's body bursting/entrails as visible verdict. Thematic coherence high; deuterocanonical and permitted as a source. Recurrence: the 'horrible death of the persecutor' is a Hellenistic-Jewish topos (cf. Wisdom). Medium.

But the All-seeing Lord, the God of Israel, struck him with a fatal and invisible stroke; and as soon as he had ceased speaking this word, an incurable pain of the bowels seized him, and bitter torments of the inner parts; and that most justly, for he had tormented other men’s bowels with many and strange sufferings. But he in no wise ceased from his rude insolence; nay, still more was he filled with arrogancy, breathing fire in his passion against the […]


Judas as the counselor-turned-traitor of Jesus faintly recalls Ahithophel, David's trusted counselor who betrayed him and then died by his own hand. Volume: low (Luke reports a different mode of death than the Matthean hanging); the link is typological — the betrayer of the anointed king meets a self-inflicted, ignominious end. Recurrence: Ahithophel was widely read as a type of the traitor, and Psalm 69/109 imprecations were associated with such figures. Coherence good but verbal volume slight, hence echo/low.

When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey, and arose, and went home, to his city, and set his house in order, and hanged himself; and he died, and was buried in the tomb of his father.


The prayer addresses God as 'You, Lord, who know the hearts of all,' invoking the divine heart-knower who chooses leaders against human appearances — the very principle of Samuel's anointing of David ('the Lord looks on the heart'). Volume: the kardiognostes (heart-knower) idea is distinctive and Luke coins/repeats it (Acts 15:8). Thematic coherence high; God, not the lots alone, selects the apostle. Recurrence good.

But Yahweh said to Samuel, “Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him: for I see not as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart.”


'They drew lots... and the lot fell on Matthias.' Volume: the procedure directly enacts the proverb, 'The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord' — the conceptual warrant for using lots to discern the divine choice. Thematic coherence very high; the casting of lots is framed (by the preceding prayer) as God's verdict, exactly Proverbs' theology of the lot. Recurrence: lot-casting for sacred appointment recurs across the OT (Lev 16:8; Josh 18:10; 1 Chr 24-26). Strong link.

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from Yahweh.


After the leader's departure to heaven (Moses/Jesus), a successor is formally installed so the community is not 'as sheep without a shepherd' — Moses asks the Lord, 'who knows the spirits of all flesh,' to appoint a man, and Joshua is set in office. Volume: low verbal overlap, but note the striking parallel to v.24's heart/spirit-knower address. This is primarily a figural/structural correspondence: a divinely designated succession to preserve the leadership of the twelve. Thematic coherence high; the number-twelve restoration of Israel is at stake. Marked figural.

Moses spoke to Yahweh, saying, “Let Yahweh, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in; that the congregation of Yahweh not be as sheep which have no shepherd.” Yahweh said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. Set him before Eleazar the priest, and before […]


The qualification that the candidate 'accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us' echoes the idiom for leadership over Israel, 'who shall go out before them and come in before them' (of Joshua's commissioning). Volume: the 'go in and out' idiom is distinctive Septuagintal leadership language. Coherence reinforces the succession theme of the pericope. Low because the phrase is a common idiom (cf. Deut 31:2; 1 Sam 18:13).

who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in; that the congregation of Yahweh not be as sheep which have no shepherd.”


The summary of Judas as one who 'received his portion in this ministry' yet 'fell away' (v.17, 25) faintly recalls the table-companion who betrays — 'my own familiar friend... who ate of my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.' Volume: low here (Luke does not quote it), but the betrayer-among-the-intimates frame coheres. Recurrence: this psalm is cited of Judas elsewhere in the gospel tradition. Faint, contested.

Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who ate bread with me, has lifted up his heel against me.


The Sinai theophany supplies the dominant template: a sound from heaven, fire descending on the assembly, and the whole 'house' shaken/filled echo the thunder, fire, and trembling mountain when YHWH descended in fire and the trumpet-sound grew loud (Exod 19:16-19). Volume is carried structurally (sound + fire + divine descent on the gathered people) more than by shared vocabulary. Recurrence is strong: Luke repeatedly frames the Spirit's coming as a new covenantal endowment. Thematic coherence is very high, since Pentecost (Weeks) was associated in Second Temple/rabbinic tradition with the Sinai law-giving, making Acts 2 a Spirit-Sinai counterpart. History of interpretation overwhelmingly reads Pentecost as a Sinai antitype.

On the third day, when it was morning, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of an exceedingly loud trumpet; and all the people who were in the camp trembled. Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the lower part of the mountain. Mount Sinai, all it, smoked, because Yahweh descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked […]


Babel reversal: at Babel one language is confused and humanity scattered; at Pentecost the Spirit enables many tongues that gather scattered nations into mutual comprehension. Verbal volume is low/absent, but the structural correspondence (languages, scattering vs. ingathering) is a classic typological inversion. Thematic coherence is high given the immediately following nations-list (vv.9-11). Recurrence: Luke's universalizing program (gospel to all nations) reinforces the figure. Widely noted in history of interpretation as the undoing of Babel; the satisfaction of reading it this way is considerable.

The whole earth was of one language and of one speech. As they traveled east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there. They said one to another, “Come, let’s make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole […]


The outpouring of the Spirit enacted here is precisely what Peter will name as Joel's prophecy in vv.16-21; the narrative event (all filled with the Spirit, all speaking/prophesying) is the fulfillment Joel foretold of the Spirit poured 'on all flesh.' High thematic coherence and explicit recurrence within the same chapter. Volume in vv.1-4 is event-level rather than verbal, but the link is interpretively certain because Luke makes it explicit a few verses later.

“It will happen afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. And also on the servants and on the handmaids in those days, I will pour out my Spirit.


When the Spirit rests on the seventy elders they prophesy, and Moses wishes 'that all the LORD's people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them.' Acts 2 reads as the realization of that wish: the Spirit democratized onto the whole community, who immediately prophesy/speak. Moderate volume (shared motif of Spirit-induced prophecy distributed across many), strong thematic coherence, recurrence via Joel which itself develops the Numbers ideal.

Moses went out, and told the people Yahweh’s words; and he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them around the Tent. Yahweh came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was on him, and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did so no more. But two men remained in the camp. The name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the Spirit rested on […]


Elijah's Horeb theophany pairs wind and fire as accompaniments of divine presence, a constellation reused here (wind-like sound, fire-like tongues). Faint, carried by shared theophanic imagery rather than wording; contested because the Sinai/Exodus material is the more direct source and the elements function differently (there God is not in the wind/fire).

He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before Yahweh.” Behold, Yahweh passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before Yahweh; but Yahweh was not in the wind. After the wind an earthquake; but Yahweh was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire passed; but Yahweh was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.


The life-giving rûaḥ/breath/wind that comes and animates the people resonates with the wind-like sound that fills the house and empowers the disciples. Low verbal volume in the Greek, but the Spirit-as-wind giving new life is thematically coherent with the inauguration of the renewed community; contested as a deliberate echo.

Then he said to me, Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man, and tell the wind, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Come from the four winds, breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up on their feet, an exceedingly great army. Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope […]


The roll-call of peoples 'from every nation under heaven' (Parthians, Medes, Elamites, etc., vv.9-11) functions as a New Testament Table of Nations, recalling the Genesis 10 enumeration of the descendants of Noah scattered across the earth. The motif of representative nations gathered echoes the primeval mapping of humanity; thematic coherence high, verbal overlap modest (proper-name catalogue form). Pairs with the Babel figure of vv.1-4.

Now this is the history of the generations of the sons of Noah and of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood. The sons of Japheth were: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. The sons of Gomer were: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. The sons of Javan were: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. Of these were the islands of the nations divided in their lands, everyone after his language, after their families, in […]


The phrase 'peoples under the whole heaven' supplies the universalizing idiom behind 'every nation under heaven' (v.5). Faint, formulaic; contested as a specific source since the expression is common LXX phrasing.

This day will I begin to put the dread of you and the fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole sky, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of you.”


Isaiah's eschatological ingathering of the dispersed of Israel/Judah from Egypt, Cush, Elam, Shinar, and the coastlands anticipates the gathering of diaspora Jews 'from every nation' to Jerusalem. The geographic spread of the returnees parallels the list of nations here. Low volume, plausible thematic coherence with a restoration-of-the-dispersed reading; contested.

It will happen in that day that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.


The crowd's marveling that each hears the disciples 'speaking in our own tongues the mighty works of God' realizes Joel's promised universal prophesying poured out on all flesh; the mockery of drunkenness (v.13) sets up Peter's Joel citation directly. Recurrence within the chapter is explicit; thematic coherence high.


Formal, formula-marked citation ('this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel,' v.16) reproducing Joel 2:28-32 (LXX 3:1-5) at high verbal volume: pouring out the Spirit on all flesh, sons/daughters prophesying, young men visions, old men dreams, servants and handmaids, wonders in heaven and signs on earth, blood/fire/smoke, sun to darkness and moon to blood before the great day of the Lord, and whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Luke's 'in the last days' adapts Joel's 'afterward.' The anchor quotation of the chapter; maximal on all three auditable tests.

“It will happen afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. And also on the servants and on the handmaids in those days, I will pour out my Spirit. I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day […]


The 'smoke' (kapnos) among the apocalyptic signs (v.19) may resonate with the smoke of Sinai where 'the mountain was wholly in smoke' at the theophany, reinforcing the Sinai-Pentecost frame. Low volume and the wording is governed by Joel; contested.

Mount Sinai, all it, smoked, because Yahweh descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.


'Before the great and notable day of the Lord' overlaps the Malachi expectation of the great and dreadful day of the LORD; the phrase is shared eschatological idiom that Joel and Malachi both carry. Faint and mediated through Joel; contested as an independent source.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.


Formal citation introduced by 'David says concerning him' (v.25), reproducing Psalm 16:8-11 (LXX 15:8-11) at very high verbal volume: 'I saw the Lord always before me... at my right hand... my heart was glad, my tongue rejoiced, my flesh will dwell in hope, you will not abandon my soul to Hades nor let your Holy One see corruption; you made known to me the ways of life.' The corruption/incorruption clause is the load-bearing proof, expounded in vv.29-31. Maximal on all tests; recurrence reinforced by the same psalm in Acts 13.

I have set Yahweh always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices. My body shall also dwell in safety. For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption. You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forever more.


'Freed him from the agony/pangs of death' (v.24) uses ōdines thanatou, the LXX rendering of the 'cords/pangs of death' surrounding the psalmist (Ps 18:4-5; 2 Sam 22:5-6), where God delivers from Sheol. Low-to-moderate verbal volume on the death-pangs phrase; thematic coherence with deliverance from death is strong, but the wording is a stock LXX idiom (also Ps 116:3), so contested.

The cords of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death came on me. In my distress I called on Yahweh, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears.


Formal citation introduced by 'he says himself' (v.34), reproducing Psalm 110:1 (LXX 109:1) at high verbal volume: 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.' Used to prove the exaltation/enthronement that David did not himself attain. Maximal on volume; recurrence is very high (most-cited OT verse in the NT) and thematic coherence with the resurrection-exaltation argument is exact.

Yahweh says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.”


'God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body (loins)... he would set one on his throne' (v.30) is a near-verbatim echo of Psalm 132:11 LXX (God's sworn oath to David, 'of the fruit of your body I will set upon your throne'). High verbal volume in the oath-and-throne clause; thematic coherence with the Davidic-messianic argument is exact. Functions as an embedded citation alongside the Nathan oracle.

Yahweh has sworn to David in truth. He will not turn from it: “I will set the fruit of your body on your throne.


The Davidic covenant promise that God would raise up David's offspring and establish his kingdom/throne forever underlies 'God had sworn... that he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne' (v.30). Strong thematic coherence and recurrence (the Nathan oracle is foundational to NT messianism); volume mediated through Ps 132. Paired with Ps 132:11 as the basis of David's prophetic foresight.

When your days are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.


'David both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day' (v.29) draws on the notice that David 'slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David' (1 Kgs 2:10), the historical premise of the argument that Psalm 16 cannot ultimately refer to David. Moderate verbal volume (death-and-burial formula), high thematic coherence as the hinge of Peter's exegesis.

David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.


Peter re-cites the climactic line of Psalm 16 in vv.31 ('neither was his soul left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption') as the resolved exposition of the quotation given in vv.25-28. Direct re-quotation at high volume; recurrence within the pericope is the structural point of the argument.

For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption.


'The promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself' (v.39) picks up Joel's closing clause ('whoever calls on the name of the Lord... among the survivors whom the Lord calls'), already quoted in v.21. The 'as many as the Lord shall call' is a deliberate verbal echo of Joel's remnant 'whom the Lord calls.' Moderate volume, strong recurrence (re-using the just-cited oracle), high coherence.

It will happen that whoever will call on Yahweh’s name shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, and among the remnant, those whom Yahweh calls.


'To all who are far off' (tois eis makran, v.39) echoes Isaiah's 'Peace, peace, to the far and to the near' (Isa 57:19 LXX, 'those far off and those near'), an OT idiom for the inclusion of the distant/diaspora and, ultimately, the nations. Moderate verbal volume on the 'far off' phrase; thematic coherence with Acts' universal mission is high. Reused in NT reconciliation language elsewhere, supporting recurrence.

I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near,” says Yahweh; “and I will heal them.”


'Save yourselves from this crooked generation' (v.40) draws on the Song of Moses' indictment of Israel as 'a perverse and crooked generation' (Deut 32:5, skolias), the standard LXX phrase for covenant-faithless Israel. Moderate verbal volume (genea skolia), strong thematic coherence as a call to separate from the faithless generation.

They have dealt corruptly with him. They are not his children, because of their defect. They are a perverse and crooked generation.


Being 'cut to the heart' (katenygēsan, v.37) on recognizing the one they crucified resonates with Zechariah's promise that they will 'look on him whom they pierced' and mourn. Low verbal volume (different roots), but thematic coherence (contrition over the slain/pierced one) is suggestive; contested.

I will pour on the house of David, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn.

And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and compassion: and they shall look upon me, because they have mocked me, and they shall make lamentation for him, as for a beloved friend, and they shall grieve intensely, as for a firstborn son.


The community 'had all things in common... and distributed to all, as any had need' (vv.44-45) realizes the Deuteronomic ideal that 'there shall be no poor among you' if Israel obeys, with goods shared so none lacks. Moderate volume via the 'need/no poor' motif; thematic coherence high, and Luke develops it again in Acts 4:34 ('there was not a needy person'), echoing Deut 15 directly, which supplies recurrence.

However there shall be no poor with you (for Yahweh will surely bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it) if only you diligently listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all this commandment which I command you this day.


The whole chapter unfolds on the Feast of Weeks/Pentecost (Lev 23:15-21, fifty days from Passover, with firstfruits offered), and the harvest of 'about three thousand souls' added (v.41) reads as the firstfruits of the eschatological harvest gathered on that very feast. Low verbal volume; calendrical and firstfruits-harvest coherence is the basis; contested as deliberate allusion.

“‘You shall count from the next day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be completed: even to the next day after the seventh Sabbath you shall number fifty days; and you shall offer a new meal offering to Yahweh. You shall bring out of your habitations two loaves of bread for a wave offering made of two tenth parts of an ephah of fine flour. They shall be baked with yeast, for first fruits […]


The devout, fearing community joined in fellowship and praise, growing daily, faintly recalls the remnant who 'feared the LORD and spoke with one another,' written in the book of remembrance. Very faint, thematic-coherence-only; contested.

Then those who feared Yahweh spoke one with another; and Yahweh listened, and heard, and a book of memory was written before him, for those who feared Yahweh, and who honored his name.


The healed man 'walking, leaping' (vv. 8-9) enacts Isaiah's eschatological promise 'then shall the lame man leap as a hart'; the verbal pairing of lameness and leaping is the signature image, and Luke uses the same scene to frame the apostolic age as the dawning restoration of Israel.

Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.


Same oracle of bodily restoration in the messianic age ('eyes of the blind opened'); the lame-man healing as a sign of the new era partakes of the wider Isa 35 catalogue even though only the lameness clause (v. 6) is verbally activated.

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.


'He raiseth up the poor out of the dust' resonates faintly with the beggar at the gate being raised up; thematic coherence with God lifting the destitute, but no verbal borrowing.

He raises up the poor out of the dust. Lifts up the needy from the ash heap;


'The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers' (v. 13) reproduces the patriarchal covenant formula of the burning bush, anchoring the resurrection proclamation in the God who self-identifies to Moses.

Moreover he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look at God.


The expanded title 'the God of our fathers' as the LORD's memorial name reinforces the Exodus 3 self-disclosure; v. 15 supplies the 'God of your fathers... my name for ever' phrasing behind Peter's formula.

God said moreover to Moses, “You shall tell the children of Israel this, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations.


'has glorified his Servant (pais) Jesus' (v. 13) echoes the LXX of the fourth Servant Song, 'my servant... shall be exalted and glorified'; the combination of pais + glorification is a deliberate Servant identification.

Behold, my servant shall deal wisely, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.


The 'Righteous One' (v. 14) whom they denied draws on the suffering Servant who is called 'the righteous one, my servant' who justifies many; coheres with the pais/Servant frame of v. 13.

After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities.


'the Holy One' (v. 14) recalls the Davidic 'you will not let your Holy One see corruption,' cited fully in Acts 2:27; the title clusters here with the resurrection claim 'God raised from the dead' (v. 15).


'whom you delivered up' (v. 13) faintly mirrors the Servant who 'was delivered up' (paredothe) for the transgressors; the handing-over language belongs to the same Servant matrix.

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.


'you did this in ignorance' (v. 17) invokes the Torah distinction between unwitting sin (atonable) and high-handed sin; Peter casts the crucifixion as forgivable ignorance, opening the call to repentance.

“‘When you shall err, and not observe all these commandments, which Yahweh has spoken to Moses, even all that Yahweh has commanded you by Moses, from the day that Yahweh gave commandment, and onward throughout your generations; then it shall be, if it was done unwittingly, without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one young bull for a burnt offering, for a pleasant aroma to Yahweh, with its meal offering, and its […]


The priestly category of sinning 'through ignorance' underlies Peter's exoneration in v. 17; thematic, no verbal quotation.

“Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘If anyone sins unintentionally, in any of the things which Yahweh has commanded not to be done, and does any one of them:


'that your sins may be blotted out' (v. 19) echoes the LORD's promise 'I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions'; the blotting-out image of divine forgiveness is distinctive.

I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins.


'blot out my transgressions' supplies the same penitential idiom behind v. 19; coheres with the call to repent, though Isa 43 is the closer match.

Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.


'times of restoration (apokatastasis) of all things' (v. 21) draws on the Elijah-tradition of restoring/turning hearts before the day of the LORD; LXX Mal 3:23-24 uses apokatastesei, the verbal root behind Peter's eschatological 'restoration'.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”


Joel's promise of God restoring the years coheres with the 'times of refreshing... restoration of all things' (vv. 19-21); thematic restoration motif, no verbal link.

I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the great locust, the grasshopper, and the caterpillar, my great army, which I sent among you.


vv. 22-23 quote the promise of 'a prophet like me from among your brethren... you shall listen to him,' applied to Jesus as the eschatological prophet-like-Moses; the most explicit OT citation in the sermon.

Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from your midst, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him. This is according to all that you desired of Yahweh your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, “Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I not die.” Yahweh said to me, “They have well said that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a prophet from among their […]


The penalty clause 'every soul that will not listen... shall be utterly destroyed from among the people' (v. 23) is not in Deut 18 but fused from Lev 23:29 ('cut off from his people'); a conflated citation, classic of the Acts speeches.

For whoever it is who shall not deny himself in that same day; shall be cut off from his people.


'In your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed' (v. 25) cites the Abrahamic promise after the Aqedah, grounding the gospel's reach to all nations in the patriarchal covenant.

All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your seed, because you have obeyed my voice.”


The base form of the blessing-to-the-families promise; Peter's 'all the families of the earth' matches Gen 12:3 ('families') more closely than the 'nations' of Gen 22:18, so both stand behind the citation.

I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. All of the families of the earth will be blessed in you.”


'the covenant which God made with our fathers' (v. 25) recalls the everlasting covenant established with Abraham and his seed; supplies the covenantal frame for the quoted blessing.

I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your seed after you.


'turning away every one of you from your wickedness' (v. 26) faintly echoes 'the Redeemer shall come... unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob'; thematic turning-from-sin, no firm verbal tie.

“A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob,” says Yahweh.


'all the prophets from Samuel' (v. 24) presupposes Samuel's establishment as the LORD's prophet to all Israel; an allusive nod to the prophetic line's inauguration rather than a quotation.

All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of Yahweh.


The apostles 'proclaimed in Jesus the resurrection from the dead'; the conceptual rooting of bodily resurrection in Israel's Scripture points most clearly to Daniel 12:2, the OT's clearest resurrection text and the locus the Sadducees (named here as objecting) famously denied. No verbal borrowing — thematic only — but Luke's framing of the Sadducee dispute presupposes this scriptural background.

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.


A secondary OT resurrection text ('your dead shall live') that, with Daniel 12:2, supplies the scriptural matrix for the apostolic resurrection preaching the Sadducees here oppose. Faint, no lexical overlap; included for maximal coverage.

Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast out the departed spirits.


Verse 11 directly quotes Ps 118:22 (LXX 117:22), 'the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner,' applied to the crucified-and-raised Jesus and turned polemically on 'you, the builders' (the rulers). High Volume (near-verbatim citation), high Recurrence (the rejected-stone testimonium pervades early Christian usage), and strong Thematic Coherence (rejection-then-vindication mirrors crucifixion-resurrection).

The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.


The 'stone' Christology in v.11 draws on the broader OT stone complex; Isa 28:16's precious cornerstone laid in Zion frequently fuses with Ps 118:22 in early Christian testimonia. No direct citation here, but the cornerstone vocabulary and foundation-of-salvation logic (leading into v.12) cohere with Isaiah's tested stone.

Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily.


Daniel's stone, cut without hands, that shatters the kingdoms and fills the earth, belongs to the same messianic stone-testimonia cluster; the contrast between human builders' rejection and God's exaltation of the stone resonates faintly with Daniel's God-given stone overturning earthly powers. Contested, no verbal link.

You saw until a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken in pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that no place was found for them: and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.


Verse 12, 'there is salvation in none other... no other name... by which we must be saved,' echoes Isaiah's exclusivist monotheism of salvation: 'there is no other God besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me... be saved, all the ends of the earth.' The 'none other / no other' salvation formula maps onto Isaiah's 'none besides me.'

Declare and present it. Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has shown this from ancient time? Who has declared it of old? Haven’t I, Yahweh? There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior; There is no one besides me. “Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.


Verse 12's stress that salvation comes only through 'the name' echoes Joel 2:32 (LXX 3:5), 'everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved' — the same name-and-salvation linkage Peter cited at Pentecost (Acts 2:21), now narrowed to the name of Jesus. Thematic coherence is strong; the recurrence in Acts strengthens the link.

It will happen that whoever will call on Yahweh’s name shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, and among the remnant, those whom Yahweh calls.


'I, even I, am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior' reinforces the exclusive-salvation claim of v.12. A faint reinforcing echo within the same Isaianic monotheism-of-salvation field as Isa 45:21-22; included for maximal coverage.

I myself am Yahweh; and besides me there is no savior.


The rulers' inability to deny the 'notable miracle' yet their determination to suppress it (vv.16-18) continues the irony of the just-quoted rejected stone (v.11): the builders go on rejecting despite the manifest vindication standing before them in the healed man. A narrative echo of the immediately preceding citation rather than a fresh source.


Peter's principle in v.19, that obeying God rather than men must be judged 'in the sight of God,' resonates faintly with the Deuteronomic insistence on listening to God alone; the obey-God-not-men theme is biblical but here lacks any verbal anchor. Marked low and contested.

and lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky.


The prayer's address in v.24, 'you who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them,' is the fourfold creation formula of Exod 20:11 (the Sabbath commandment) almost verbatim in the LXX. High Volume on the formula; strong coherence as the appeal to the Creator-Sovereign grounds the appeal against earthly rulers that follows.

for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.


Psalm 146:6 (LXX 145:6), 'who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them,' is verbally as close as Exod 20:11 to v.24 and is a doxological-prayer use of the formula, making it an especially apt parallel for this corporate prayer. Strong Volume and coherence; offered alongside Exod 20:11.

who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps truth forever;


Nehemiah's communal prayer, 'you have made heaven... the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them,' is another instance of the creation formula embedded in corporate prayer addressed to 'you, even you, are LORD alone' — closely matching this assembly's prayer opening 'O Lord, you are God.' Strong thematic fit; verbal overlap shared with the wider formula.

You are Yahweh, even you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their army, the earth and all things that are on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all. The army of heaven worships you.


Verses 25-26 quote Psalm 2:1-2 verbatim (LXX), 'Why did the nations rage... the kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ,' explicitly attributed to David and then applied in vv.27-28 to Herod, Pilate, Gentiles and Israel arrayed against the anointed Jesus. Maximal Volume, high Recurrence (Ps 2 is a core messianic testimonium), high coherence.

Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against Yahweh, and against his Anointed, saying,


Verse 27's designation of Jesus as the one 'whom you anointed' presses the same Psalm 2 just cited, where the LORD's 'Christ/anointed' (v.2) is the begotten Son (v.7). The anointing language extends the Psalm 2 citation into the prayer's interpretation. Recurrence within the immediate context strengthens it.

I will tell of the decree. Yahweh said to me, “You are my son. Today I have become your father.


'Your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed' (v.27) may also evoke Isa 61:1, 'the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me,' the Servant's Spirit-anointing for proclamation — coherent with the anointed-Servant motif but without verbal borrowing here. Low and contested.

The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is on me; because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to those who are bound;

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to preach glad tidings to the poor, to heal the broken in heart, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind;


The repeated title 'your holy servant (pais) Jesus' (vv.27, 30) draws on the Isaianic Servant (Isa 52:13, 'behold, my servant'), the LXX pais being the term Acts applies to Jesus. Conceptual servant-Christology rather than citation; low confidence, contested.

Behold, my servant shall deal wisely, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.


Hezekiah's prayer ('O LORD... you are God... you have made heaven and earth,' Isa 37:16 / 2 Kgs 19:15) is a near-structural model for this prayer: address God as sole Creator, then lay enemies' threats before him and ask for deliverance and a vindicating sign (cf. v.29, 'look at their threats'). A formal/typological echo of the threatened-people's prayer-to-the-Creator pattern.

“Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, who is enthroned among the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.


Verse 28, the rulers did only 'whatever your hand and your council foreordained to happen,' echoes Isaiah's God whose 'counsel shall stand' and who declares the end from the beginning (Isa 46:10). The pairing of God's sovereign 'counsel/will' overruling hostile human action coheres tightly with the prayer's theology.

declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure;


The plea in v.30 that 'signs and wonders' be done evokes the fixed Exodus pairing of 'signs and wonders' worked by God's outstretched hand against Pharaoh (Exod 7:3 and throughout). Combined with 'stretch out your hand,' the language casts the apostolic mission in a new-Exodus, divine-deliverance key.

I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.


'Signs and wonders' (v.30) is the recurrent Deuteronomic shorthand for the LORD's Exodus deliverance (Deut 6:22; cf. 26:8, 34:11). A reinforcing echo of the same Exodus-deliverance vocabulary; low and contested alongside Exod 7:3.

and Yahweh showed great and awesome signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house, before our eyes;


Verse 31, 'the place was shaken where they were gathered,' echoes the Sinai theophany where the whole mountain trembled greatly at God's descent (Exod 19:18). The shaking as a sign of God's answering presence and the Spirit-filling that follows cohere with theophanic precedent.

Mount Sinai, all it, smoked, because Yahweh descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.


The shaking of 'the place' (the praying assembly) after the prayer also recalls Isa 6:4, where the thresholds/foundations of the temple shook at the divine voice amid the seraphic praise. A theophanic shaking echo; low and contested.

The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.


Ps 114:7's call for the earth to 'tremble at the presence of the Lord' supplies the wider biblical motif of creation quaking before God; the shaken place in v.31 participates in this theophany-tremor field. Faint, no verbal link.

Tremble, you earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,


Verse 34, 'neither was there among them any who lacked,' closely echoes Deut 15:4 LXX, 'there shall be no poor/needy among you,' the Deuteronomic ideal of the covenant community in which God's blessing eliminates poverty. Luke presents the Jerusalem community's common purse as the fulfillment of this Torah promise — strong thematic coherence and notable verbal overlap on 'no one lacked / no poor.'

However there shall be no poor with you (for Yahweh will surely bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it)


The believers being 'of one heart and soul' (v.32) faintly recalls the Shema's 'with all your heart and with all your soul' (Deut 6:5); here the heart-and-soul language describes communal unity rather than love of God. A lexical resonance only, low and contested.

You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.


'One heart and one soul' (v.32) may echo the new-covenant promise of Jer 32:39 (LXX 39:39), 'I will give them one heart and one way,' where God grants the restored people a unified heart. The Spirit-given unity of the believers coheres with this restoration promise. Low, contested.

and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their good, and of their children after them:


The closing note that Barnabas, 'a Levite' (v.36), sold his field and laid the proceeds at the apostles' feet plays ironically against Num 18:20, where Levites were to have no landed inheritance because the LORD was their portion. Barnabas's divestment of a field embodies that Levitical landlessness in the new community. Typological/ironic, no verbal borrowing.

Yahweh said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel.


The Achan narrative is the controlling template. The verb 'kept back part' (nosphizomai, vv. 2-3) is the same rare term LXX Joshua 7:1 uses for Achan's appropriation of devoted spoil. As Israel's first sin after entering the land brings death into the new covenant community amid divine judgment, so Ananias' withholding brings death into the first days of the Spirit-filled church. Volume, thematic coherence, and recurrence (the lexical link) all converge; the typology is widely recognized.

But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the devoted things; for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. Therefore Yahweh’s anger burned against the children of Israel.


Achan confesses he 'coveted' and 'hid' the silver and a portion of the spoil — the precise act of secret retention that Ananias and Sapphira repeat with the price of the land. The shared motif of concealed appropriation of what was set apart strengthens the figural reading.

When I saw among the plunder a beautiful Babylonian robe, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, then I coveted them and took them. Behold, they are hidden in the ground in the middle of my tent, with the silver under it.”


Achan and his household are destroyed; the whole assembly witnesses the judgment. The death of a couple acting in concert and the spread of 'great fear' over the assembly (vv. 5, 11) mirror the corporate purgation of sin in the camp.

Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? Yahweh will trouble you this day.” All Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned them with fire and stoned them with stones.


Gehazi secretly takes money Elisha had refused, lies about it, and is struck with judgment. The pattern — covetous secret acquisition of money in the holy sphere, a prophet who discerns the hidden deceit, and a curse falling immediately — closely parallels Peter's exposure of Ananias and Sapphira.

But Gehazi the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, “Behold, my master has spared this Naaman the Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought. As Yahweh lives, I will run after him, and take something from him.” So Gehazi followed after Naaman. When Naaman saw one running after him, he came down from the chariot to meet him, and said, “Is all well?” He said, “All is well. My master has sent me, saying, ‘Behold, even now two young men of […]


Nadab and Abihu offer unauthorized fire at the inauguration of priestly worship and are struck dead on the spot, with the surrounding community charged to revere God's holiness. The sudden lethal judgment at the foundational moment of a new cultic order, producing awe, is typologically akin.

Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered strange fire before Yahweh, which he had not commanded them. Fire came out from before Yahweh, and devoured them, and they died before Yahweh.


Korah, Dathan, and Abiram are swallowed in sudden death for violating the divinely ordered community, instilling fear in all Israel. A faint analogue of immediate corporate-purgative judgment.

As he made an end of speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split apart. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, all of Korah’s men, and all their goods. So they, and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol. The earth closed on them, and they perished from among the assembly.


'Satan stood up against Israel and incited David' supplies the only clear OT instance of Satan inciting a sin within the covenant people; Peter's 'why has Satan filled your heart' (v. 3) draws on this conception of satanic instigation prompting an act against God.

Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.


'When your fathers tested me' frames Israel's wilderness rebellion as 'tempting' the LORD. Peter charges Sapphira with agreeing 'to tempt the Spirit of the Lord' (v. 9), language drawn from the wilderness testing tradition.

when your fathers tempted me, tested me, and saw my work.


'You shall not test the LORD your God' is the legal locus of the prohibition Sapphira violates; reinforces the 'tempt the Spirit' motif.

You shall not tempt Yahweh your God, as you tempted him in Massah.


Massah, the paradigm of 'testing' the LORD at the waters; faint background to v. 9's 'tempt the Spirit of the Lord.'

Therefore the people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test Yahweh?”


The flying scroll is a curse that 'enters the house' of the thief and the false swearer and consumes it; a faint thematic analogue to a deadly curse falling on a deceitful householding couple.

Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the surface of the whole land; for everyone who steals shall be cut off according to it on the one side; and everyone who swears falsely shall be cut off according to it on the other side. I will cause it to go out,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and it will enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him who swears falsely by my name; and it will remain in the midst of his house, and will […]


'Signs and wonders' (sēmeia kai terata, v. 12) is the fixed Septuagintal idiom for the LORD's mighty acts in Egypt. Its application to the apostles casts their ministry as a new exodus-scale display of divine power among the people.

I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.


'The LORD showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt' — a recurrent Deuteronomic formula behind Acts' summary that 'many signs and wonders were done among the people.'

and Yahweh showed great and awesome signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house, before our eyes;


Solomon's portico (stoa) gives the apostles' gathering place its name (v. 12); the Solomonic temple architecture grounds the new community in the continuity of Israel's sanctuary.

He made the porch of pillars; its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth thirty cubits; and a porch before them; and pillars and a threshold before them.


Healing power transmitted through mere contact with Elisha's bones offers a precedent for healing mediated by Peter's passing shadow (v. 15) — power so abundant it operates at the margins of the prophet's person.

As they were burying a man, behold, they saw a band of raiders; and they threw the man into Elisha’s tomb. As soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.


The eschatological healing of all the afflicted — the sick made whole — stands behind the summary that the crowds 'were all healed' (v. 16) as a sign of the dawning age of restoration.

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.


'Stand in the gate of the LORD's house and proclaim there this word' parallels the angel's commission, 'Go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life' (v. 20). The prophetic charge to stand in the temple and declare the full message is the model.

“Stand in the gate of Yahweh’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear Yahweh’s word, all you of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship Yahweh.’”


'Stand in the court of the LORD's house and speak... all the words I command you; do not omit a word' — closely matches the angel's instruction to speak 'all the words of this life,' and the ensuing arrest-and-trial scene mirrors Jeremiah's temple trial.

Thus says Yahweh: Stand in the court of Yahweh’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in Yahweh’s house, all the words that I command you to speak to them; don’t diminish a word.


'The LORD sets the prisoners free' — the angelic jailbreak (vv. 19-23) enacts the psalm's portrait of God liberating the captive.

who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. Yahweh frees the prisoners.


The angels at Sodom deliver and confound; the angel of the Lord opening sealed prison doors while guards remain unaware (vv. 19, 23) is a faint analogue of angelic deliverance amid baffled custodians.

They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.


'Hanging him on a tree' (v. 30) draws directly on the law that a man executed and hung 'on a tree' is under God's curse. Acts deliberately uses xylon ('tree/wood'), the LXX term, to characterize the crucifixion in the categories of this statute. High volume and clear verbal dependence.

If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree; his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God; that you don’t defile your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.


Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse the king's command to disobey God, declaring they will serve God whatever the cost — the paradigm for 'We must obey God rather than men' (v. 29).

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If it happens, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up.


Daniel defies the royal decree to continue worshiping God, modeling principled obedience to God over human authority, the stance Peter articulates in v. 29.

When Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house (now his windows were open in his room toward Jerusalem) and he kneeled on his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did before.


'The God of our fathers' (v. 30) is the self-designation revealed to Moses at the bush, anchoring the apostolic proclamation in the covenant identity of Israel's God.

God said moreover to Moses, “You shall tell the children of Israel this, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations.


'The right hand of the LORD is exalted' lies behind 'God exalted him with his right hand' (v. 31); Psalm 118 is a primary early-church resource for the vindication of the rejected one.

The right hand of Yahweh is exalted! The right hand of Yahweh does valiantly!”


The enthronement 'at the right hand' of God underwrites the exaltation of Jesus 'with his right hand' as Prince and Savior (v. 31), the dominant NT proof-text for the session.

Yahweh says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.”


The execution of enemy kings by hanging on trees illustrates the legal practice behind Deut 21 invoked in v. 30; a secondary witness to 'hanging on a tree.'

Afterward Joshua struck them, put them to death, and hanged them on five trees. They were hanging on the trees until the evening.


The call to return for abundant pardon stands faintly behind 'to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins' (v. 31).

let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.


'There is no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel against the LORD' is the maxim underlying Gamaliel's principle: if the work is of God it cannot be overthrown, and resisting it is fighting against God (vv. 38-39).

There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against Yahweh.


'Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us' directly parallels Gamaliel's 'if this counsel is of men it will be overthrown, but if of God you cannot overthrow it' (vv. 38-39).

Take counsel together, and it will be brought to nothing; speak the word, and it will not stand: for God is with us.”


'The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing... the counsel of the LORD stands forever' is the theological axis of Gamaliel's test distinguishing human schemes (which collapse, like Theudas and Judas, vv. 36-37) from God's enduring purpose.

Yahweh brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the thoughts of the peoples to be of no effect. The counsel of Yahweh stands fast forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.


Of the persecuting king it is warned that he will not escape, 'for he has undertaken to fight against God' (theomachein) — the deuterocanonical source for Gamaliel's climactic 'you would be found even to be fighting against God' (v. 39).

but think not you that you shall be unpunished, having assayed to fight against God.


The Servant 'despised and rejected' faintly informs the apostles 'rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name' (v. 41), participating in the pattern of the suffering righteous.

He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.


Eleazar endures scourging with joy for the sake of obedience; a faint background to the apostles rejoicing after being beaten (vv. 40-41).

and when he was at the point to die with the stripes, he groaned aloud and said, To the Lord, that has the holy knowledge, it is manifest that, whereas I might have been delivered from death, I endure sore pains in my body by being scourged; but in soul I gladly suffer these things for my fear of him.


The apostles, overwhelmed by the burden of the word plus table-service, delegate to appointed assistants who are 'full of the Spirit' — closely paralleling Moses, who cannot bear the people alone and has the LORD distribute his spirit upon seventy elders appointed to share the load. The structural logic (leader unwilling/unable to do all, helpers commissioned, Spirit operative) is the same. Thematic coherence high; volume moderate (no direct citation).

Yahweh said to Moses, “Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them to the Tent of Meeting, that they may stand there with you. I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit which is on you, and will put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you not bear it yourself alone.


Jethro's counsel: Moses is to 'select capable men' of integrity and set them over the people to relieve him of a burden too heavy to carry alone, so he can attend to the weightier matters. Acts 6 mirrors the delegation pattern — 'select from among you... men of good report' set 'over this business' so the Twelve keep to prayer and the word. Recurs with the Numbers 11 motif of shared leadership.

Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. Let them judge the people at all times. It shall be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they shall judge themselves. So shall it be easier for you, and they shall share the load with you.


Moses: 'Choose wise, understanding, and reputable men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads.' The triad wise / known-reputable / appointed maps tightly onto Acts 6:3 ('men of good report, full of wisdom, whom we may appoint'). The LXX vocabulary of selecting reputable, wise men gives real verbal volume here.

Take wise men of understanding and well known according to your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.”


Joshua was 'full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him,' and so was commissioned to lead. Acts 6 fuses the same two elements — men 'full of the Spirit and of wisdom' who are commissioned when the apostles 'laid their hands on them.' Strong thematic coherence and good verbal volume (spirit + wisdom + laying on of hands as ordination).

Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands on him. The children of Israel listened to him, and did as Yahweh commanded Moses.


Moses commissions Joshua, 'a man in whom is the Spirit,' by laying his hand(s) on him before the assembly and the priest. The setting-apart-by-imposition-of-hands of a Spirit-filled man for office is the same ritual gesture used in Acts 6:6, reinforcing the Moses/Joshua succession typology behind the appointment of the seven.

Yahweh said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. Set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation; and commission him in their sight. You shall give authority to him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may obey. He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before Yahweh. At his word they shall go out, and at his […]


The Levites are set apart for the service of the tabernacle when the people 'lay their hands' on them. Since the seven are appointed precisely to 'serve tables' (a ministry of practical service), the Levitical consecration-by-handlaying for service may stand faintly behind the scene, but the verbal contact is thin and the Joshua-commissioning texts are the nearer parallel.

You shall present the Levites before Yahweh. The children of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites,


Bezalel is 'filled with the Spirit of God, with wisdom' for the work of the sanctuary — the same pairing of Spirit and wisdom for a hands-on ministry of service that qualifies the seven (6:3, 6:5). Faint, but it belongs to a recurring OT pattern of Spirit+wisdom equipping for divinely assigned work.

and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all kinds of workmanship,


Israel 'was fruitful... and multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty.' Acts 6:7's growth refrain ('the word of God increased and the number of the disciples multiplied... exceedingly') deliberately reuses Septuagintal multiplication language, casting the church's expansion as a new Exodus-style flourishing of God's people. Recurrence is strong: this refrain runs through Acts.

The children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.


The creation mandate to 'be fruitful and multiply' is the headwater of the OT multiplication idiom that Acts 6:7 redeploys for the growing community. Diffuse rather than pointed; the proximate model is the Exodus growth language, but the Genesis blessing stands behind it.

God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”


The LORD 'executes justice for the orphan and the widow.' The presenting crisis of Acts 6 is widows being neglected in the daily distribution; the church's corrective embodies Torah's persistent demand that the covenant community secure justice for widows. Thematic, not verbal.

He does execute justice for the fatherless and widow, and loves the foreigner, in giving him food and clothing.


'You shall not afflict any widow' under threat of God's anger. The neglect of the Hellenist widows is exactly the failure Torah warns against, and the apostles' swift remedy reflects this covenantal obligation. Faint background to the social problem rather than a textual citation.

“You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child. If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry; and my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.


Stephen's face appears to the council 'like the face of an angel' — the most pointed Moses-typology in the chapter, recalling how Moses' face shone after speaking with God on Sinai so that the people were struck by its radiance. The irony is deliberate: those accusing Stephen of blaspheming Moses behold on him the very Mosaic glory. Strong thematic coherence; the heavenly luminosity motif gives it volume.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mountain, Moses didn’t know that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with him. When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him. Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them. […]