Mattathias's charge to 'pay back the Gentiles what they deserve' and the Maccabean refusal to render to pagan kings what belongs to the law of God forms a Second-Temple backdrop to the tribute question's loaded politics. Availability and coherence are plausible but verbal volume is faint and the link is contested.

Render a recompense to the Gentiles, and take heed to the commandments of the law.


'Fear the LORD and the king' supplies a wisdom precedent for distinguishing yet ordering obligations to God and to civil authority, coherent with 'give to Caesar... and to God.' Volume is low and the connection is inferential, hence contested.

My son, fear Yahweh and the king. Don’t join those who are rebellious:


The Sadducees cite 'Moses wrote to us' the levirate law: if a man dies childless his brother must take the wife and raise up offspring for the brother. This is a near-verbatim paraphrase of the Deuteronomic statute, high volume, and load-bearing for the whole dispute.

If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies, and has no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, that his name not be blotted out of Israel.


Judah's command to Onan to 'raise up offspring for your brother' is the narrative enactment of levirate duty and the closest verbal parallel to 'raise up children for his brother.' Moderate volume, coherent with the Deuteronomy citation as the precedent case the Sadducees invoke.

Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her, and raise up seed to your brother.”


Jesus' clinching proof: 'Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' Verbatim LXX quotation with the bush setting named, highest volume, the keystone of the resurrection argument ('not of the dead but of the living').

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.


'Children of the resurrection... like the angels' draws on Daniel's resurrection hope, where the wise shine like the stars and the dead awake to everlasting life, a key Second-Temple text affirming bodily resurrection over against the Sadducees. Coherent and recurrent in resurrection discourse; moderate volume.

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 shine as the brightness of the expanse; and those who turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.


The patriarchal naming 'the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob' as the LORD's everlasting name extends just beyond 3:6 into the surrounding self-revelation, reinforcing the living-God argument. Largely the same citation, so listed as a faint extension rather than a separate echo.

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. Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and tell them, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have surely visited you, and […]


The hope that the righteous will become 'companions of the host of heaven' / shine and be made like the angels parallels 'they are like the angels, children of the resurrection.' A pseudepigraphal analogue warranted by the angelomorphic-resurrection motif, but volume is faint and the dependence is contested.

[source text not in the World English Bible]


'They live to God, as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob live' anticipates Jesus' very logic that the patriarchs are alive to God, joined to the Exodus 3:6 naming. A strikingly coherent Second-Temple parallel (also 4 Macc 16:25), though as a likely independent reading of the same text it is marked low/contested.

they who believe that to God they die not; for, as our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, they live to God.


Explicit citation 'David himself says in the book of Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.' Verbatim LXX quotation (Ps 109:1), highest volume, the single most-cited royal psalm in the NT, fully coherent with the Davidic-Lord puzzle.

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


The premise that 'the Christ is David's son' rests on the Davidic covenant promise of an everlasting offspring/son for David's throne, which Jesus' question both presupposes and transcends. Coherent and recurrent in messianic expectation; moderate volume as the unstated scriptural basis of 'David's son.'

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. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men;


'The LORD swore to David... one of your own offspring I will set on your throne' is a further scriptural warrant for the 'son of David' messianism the riddle interrogates. Low volume, secondary to 2 Samuel 7, and inferential.

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


Condemnation of those who 'devour widows' houses' invokes the covenant prohibition against afflicting widows, with God's threat to answer their cry in wrath, grounding the 'greater condemnation.' Recurrence of widow-protection law is strong; moderate volume and tight coherence with Luke's concern for the vulnerable.

“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.


The prophetic woe against those who frame unjust decrees to rob the widow of her right and make the poor their prey parallels scribes who 'devour widows' houses' under a pretense of piety. Coherent with the long-robed religious oppressors here; moderate volume from the shared widow-spoliation indictment.

Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees; to deprive the needy from justice, and to rob the poor among my people of their rights, that widows may be their plunder, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!


Micah's denunciation of greedy religious leaders who 'cry Peace' while devouring the people supports the picture of pretense-pious exploiters facing judgment. Low volume; one node in the broad prophetic-injustice tradition behind v.47, hence contested as a specific source.

Thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who lead my people astray; for those who feed their teeth, they proclaim, “Peace!” and whoever doesn’t provide for their mouths, they prepare war against him:


The law forbidding the perversion of justice due the widow and the taking of her garment in pledge stands behind the 'widows' houses' charge. Faint volume on its own, listed as part of the Torah widow-protection backdrop alongside Exodus 22:22.

You shall not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, nor take a widow’s clothing in pledge;


The widow of Zarephath gives Elijah her last handful of meal and oil, surrendering all she had to live on, and is then sustained. Luke's poor widow likewise gives 'all she had to live on' (bios), and Luke elsewhere pairs Zarephath's widow with the temple critique (4:25-26). The shared figure of the destitute widow whose total self-gift outweighs the abundance of others gives this real coherence, though there is no verbal quotation.

Yahweh’s word came to him, saying, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you.” So he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks: and he called to her, and said, “Please get me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” As she was going to get it, he called to her, and said, “Please bring me a morsel of […]


Jehoiada bores a hole in a chest set beside the altar so the people cast (Greek LXX: emballein) their money into it as the temple treasury. Luke uses the same image of people 'casting in' (ballontas/eballen) their gifts into the temple treasury (gazophylakion), the institution Second-Temple readers would recognize. Availability and the shared treasury vocabulary support a faint echo of the temple-offering institution.

But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into Yahweh’s house: and the priests who kept the threshold put therein all the money that was brought into Yahweh’s house. It was so, when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king’s scribe and the high priest came up, and they put up in bags and counted the money that was found in Yahweh’s house.


The Levitical vow-valuation code scales required offerings to a person's ability, anticipating the principle that the poor are assessed according to their means. Jesus' verdict that the widow gave 'more' precisely because she gave from poverty rather than abundance inverts and fulfills this proportional logic. The connection is thematic and contested rather than verbal.

Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘When a man consecrates a person to Yahweh in a vow, according to your valuation, your valuation of a male from twenty years old even to sixty years old shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary. If she is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels. If the person is from five years old even to twenty years old, then your valuation shall […]


Deuteronomy repeatedly singles out the widow alongside the orphan and sojourner as the paradigm of the vulnerable whom God watches over. The widow's appearance as the moral exemplar against the rich foregrounds this Torah category. Faint, atmospheric availability rather than a specific citation.

When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow. When you harvest your vineyard, you shall not glean it after […]


Micah prophesies that Zion will be plowed as a field and Jerusalem become heaps, the temple mount a wooded height, the classic oracle of the temple's destruction quoted at Jeremiah 26:18. Jesus' prediction that not one stone will be left on another draws directly on this prophetic tradition of the sanctuary leveled for the people's injustice. High coherence with Luke's broader judgment-on-Jerusalem theme.

Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.


Jeremiah threatens to make the temple like Shiloh and the city a curse, citing Micah's Zion-plowed oracle in a temple sermon that nearly costs him his life. Luke frames Jesus' temple-destruction saying in the same setting (teaching in the temple, opposed by leaders), echoing the prophet who foretold the first temple's fall. Strong recurrence of the temple-doom motif.

then I will make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.


Jeremiah's temple sermon warns that God will do to this house, called by his name, as he did to Shiloh, because the people made it a den of robbers. Luke has just narrated Jesus quoting Jer 7:11 in the temple cleansing (19:46), so the threatened destruction of the desecrated house carries forward here. Coherence and recurrence within Luke's temple sequence.

Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says Yahweh. “But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. Now, because you have done all these works,” says Yahweh, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you didn’t hear; and I called you, but you didn’t answer: […]


The Lord warns Solomon that if Israel turns away he will cast off the house he has hallowed and it will become a heap of ruins, an astonishment, with passersby hissing. The admiration of the temple's beautiful stones immediately before the announcement of its fall mirrors this conditional doom on the very house just dedicated. Thematic coherence with the temple-destruction prophecies.

then I will cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. Though this house is so high, yet shall everyone who passes by it be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, ‘Why has Yahweh done thus to this land, and to this house?’


Haggai promises the latter glory of this house, adorned with the wealth of nations, will exceed the former. The disciples' marveling at the temple's beautiful stones and votive gifts evokes that anticipated splendor, which Jesus then declares doomed. Faint ironic counterpoint rather than citation.

‘The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,’ says Yahweh of Armies; ‘and in this place will I give peace,’ says Yahweh of Armies.”


Daniel speaks of what 'must happen' (dei genesthai) in the latter days, language Jesus reuses verbatim in 'these things must happen first.' Daniel's apocalyptic framework of divinely-decreed end-time events shapes the whole discourse's logic of necessity. Strong verbal coherence with Danielic apocalyptic.

but there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has made known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head on your bed, are these: as for you, O king, your thoughts came on your bed, what should happen hereafter; and he who reveals secrets has made known to you what shall happen.


Azariah's oracle: 'nation was crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them with every distress.' Jesus' 'nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom' is the closest verbal parallel in the OT, framing political chaos as divine eschatological distress. High volume and coherence.

They were broken in pieces, nation against nation, and city against city; for God troubled them with all adversity.


Isaiah's oracle against Egypt: 'I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians, and they will fight, everyone against his brother and against his neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.' The kingdom-against-kingdom formula and the picture of internecine collapse map directly onto Jesus' words. Strong verbal recurrence.

I will stir up the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they will fight everyone against his brother, and everyone against his neighbor; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.


In the Day-of-the-Lord oracle against Babylon, the heavens tremble and the earth is shaken out of its place in God's wrath. Jesus' great earthquakes and 'terrors and great signs from heaven' draw on this Day-of-the-Lord seismic and celestial imagery. Coherence with the prophetic eschatological catalog.

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place in the wrath of Yahweh of Armies, and in the day of his fierce anger.


In the Gog oracle a great earthquake shakes the land, with pestilence, bloodshed, famine, and signs of God's judgment. The clustering of earthquake, plague, and famine as eschatological signs parallels Jesus' list closely. Recurrence of the standard Day-of-the-Lord disaster catalog.

For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; so that the fish of the sea, and the birds of the sky, and the animals of the field, and all creeping things who creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the surface of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the […]


Jeremiah names sword, famine, and pestilence (plague) as the triad by which God consumes the people, a formula repeated dozens of times in the prophet. Jesus' famines and plagues echo this fixed prophetic triad of covenant curse. Strong recurrence across Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and meal offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.


Rumors and reports of war from east and north alarm the eschatological king and provoke great fury. Jesus' 'when you hear of wars and disturbances, don't be terrified' echoes the apocalyptic motif of unsettling war-reports that must not panic the faithful. Faint Danielic coloring.

But news out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him; and he shall go out with great fury to destroy and utterly to sweep away many.


Joel promises wonders in heaven and on earth as portents of the Day of the Lord. Jesus' 'great signs from heaven' belongs to this Joel tradition of celestial portents, developed more fully later in the discourse. Coherence with Joel's sign vocabulary.

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 of Yahweh comes.


God assures the prophet that kings and officials will fight against him but 'shall not prevail against you, for I am with you to deliver you.' Jesus' promise that adversaries 'will not be able to withstand or to contradict' the wisdom he gives mirrors this prophetic commissioning against hostile authorities. High coherence with the persecuted-prophet pattern.

They will fight against you; but they will not prevail against you; for I am with you”, says Yahweh, “to deliver you.”


God tells Moses, 'I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.' Jesus' 'I will give you a mouth and wisdom' directly evokes this divine endowment of speech to a reluctant spokesman before a hostile king. Strong verbal and situational coherence.

Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you shall speak.”


The Lord promises to be with the mouth of both Moses and Aaron and to teach them what to do, the divine-rhetoric motif extended. The doubling of mouth-and-teaching reinforces the Exodus background of God supplying words to those summoned before rulers. Recurrence strengthens the Mosaic echo.

You shall speak to him, and put the words in his mouth. I will be with your mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. He will be your spokesman to the people; and it will happen, that he will be to you a mouth, and you will be to him as God.


Daniel is brought before the king and delivered up on account of his fidelity, a model of the faithful Jew arraigned before pagan authority who is nonetheless preserved. Jesus' 'bringing you before kings and governors for my name's sake' as occasion for testimony evokes the Danielic court-confessor tradition. Coherence with Daniel's witness motif.

Then answered they and said before the king, That Daniel, who is of the children of the captivity of Judah, doesn’t respect you, O king, nor the decree that you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day. Then the king, when he heard these words, was very displeased, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him; and he labored until the going down of the sun to rescue him. Then these men assembled together to the king, and said to the king, Know, […]


The little horn wears out the saints of the Most High, who are given into his hand for a time. Jesus' forecast of persecution, betrayal, and death of his followers fits the Danielic pattern of the saints handed over before final vindication. Recurrence within the apocalyptic source of the discourse.

He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time.


Micah laments that son dishonors father, daughter rises against mother, and a man's enemies are those of his own household. Jesus' 'you will be handed over even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends' draws on this prophetic image of eschatological family betrayal. Strong coherence and recurrence in Synoptic tradition.

For the son dishonors the father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.


The people swear that not one hair of Jonathan's head shall fall to the ground, for he has worked with God this day, sparing his life. Jesus' 'not a hair of your head will perish' is a near-verbatim proverbial assurance of divine preservation. High volume on the distinctive idiom.

The people said to Saul, “Shall Jonathan die, who has worked this great salvation in Israel? Far from it! As Yahweh lives, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he has worked with God this day!” So the people rescued Jonathan, that he didn’t die.


The wise woman of Tekoa secures David's oath that 'not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground,' the same idiom of total protection. The recurrence of the hair-of-the-head formula across Samuel reinforces its proverbial status behind Jesus' saying. Coherence with the OT preservation idiom.

Then she said, “Please let the king remember Yahweh your God, that the avenger of blood destroy not any more, lest they destroy my son.” He said, “As Yahweh lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the earth.”


Solomon declares that if Adonijah proves worthy, 'not one of his hairs shall fall to the earth.' A third occurrence of the hair-preservation formula, confirming it as a fixed Hebrew idiom Jesus deploys. Faint but corroborating recurrence.

Solomon said, “If he shows himself a worthy man, not a hair of him shall fall to the earth; but if wickedness be found in him, he shall die.”


Daniel is told, 'blessed is he who waits' and to stand in his lot at the end of days, framing endurance as the path to eschatological reward. Jesus' 'by your endurance you will win your lives' resonates with this Danielic call to persevere to the resurrection-end. Thematic coherence with apocalyptic endurance.

Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred thirty-five days. But go you your way until the end; for you shall rest, and shall stand in your lot, at the end of the days.


Daniel foretells that after the anointed one is cut off, the people of a coming prince destroy the city and sanctuary, with war and decreed desolations to the end. Jesus' Jerusalem surrounded by armies whose 'desolation is at hand' draws directly on Daniel's desolation-of-the-city oracle, the discourse's structural key. High coherence with the Danielic eremosis.

After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One shall be cut off, and shall have nothing: and the people of the prince who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and its end shall be with a flood, and even to the end shall be war; desolations are determined. He shall make a firm covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease; and on the wing of abominations shall come one who […]


Daniel asks how long the vision of the transgression that makes desolate, the sanctuary and host trampled underfoot, will last. Jesus' 'desolation' plus 'Jerusalem trampled by the Gentiles until... fulfilled' fuses this trampling-of-the-sanctuary imagery with a temporal limit. Strong conceptual overlap of trampling and desolation.

Then I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said to that certain one who spoke, How long shall be the vision about the continual burnt offering, and the disobedience that makes desolate, to give both the sanctuary and the army to be trodden under foot?


Zechariah pictures all the nations of the earth gathered against Jerusalem, the city made a burdensome stone. Jesus' image of Jerusalem encircled by Gentile armies belongs to this Zion-besieged-by-the-nations tradition. Coherence with the eschatological siege motif, though Zechariah's outcome differs.

It will happen in that day, that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples. All who burden themselves with it will be severely wounded, and all the nations of the earth will be gathered together against it.


The Lord gathers all nations against Jerusalem; the city is taken, houses plundered, and half go into captivity. Jesus' falling by the sword and being led captive into all nations closely tracks Zechariah's siege-and-exile sequence. Strong recurrence of the captivity-of-Jerusalem theme.

For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city will be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go out into captivity, and the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.


Israel laments that adversaries have trodden down the sanctuary. Jesus' 'Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles' echoes this lament over the Gentile trampling of the holy place. Coherence with the trodden-sanctuary lament tradition.

Your holy people possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.


In the Song of Moses, 'vengeance is mine, and recompense,' the day of calamity that comes upon the faithless. Jesus' 'these are days of vengeance' invokes this Mosaic-covenant lawsuit and its appointed day of retribution. High coherence with the covenant-curse framework.

Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides; for the day of their calamity is at hand. Their doom rushes at them.”


Hosea announces, 'the days of punishment (vengeance) have come, the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it,' against a faithless people. Jesus' phrase 'days of vengeance' is the closest verbal echo, applied likewise to Israel's judgment. Strong volume on the distinctive plural idiom.

The days of visitation have come. The days of reckoning have come. Israel will consider the prophet to be a fool, and the man who is inspired to be insane, because of the abundance of your sins, and because your hostility is great.


The covenant curses describe a distant nation swooping like an eagle, besieging the cities, with horrors falling especially on the nursing mother and the tender woman. Jesus' woe to pregnant and nursing women, great distress, sword, and captivity dramatizes these Deuteronomic siege-curses. High coherence and recurrence with the covenant-curse catalog.

Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies; a nation whose language you will not understand; a nation of fierce facial expressions, that doesn’t respect the elderly, nor show favor to the young, and they will eat the fruit of your livestock, and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. They also won’t leave you grain, new wine, or oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, […]


Samaria's guilt brings the sword, infants dashed in pieces and pregnant women ripped open. Jesus' woe to the pregnant and nursing in the day of wrath echoes this prophetic horror of judgment falling on mothers and children. Coherence with the siege-atrocity motif.

Samaria will bear her guilt; for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open.”


Jeremiah foretells Zedekiah and the people falling by the edge of the sword, with no pity, given into the hand of the enemy. Jesus' 'they will fall by the edge of the sword' reproduces the prophet's stock formula for Jerusalem's military doom. Recurrence of the sword-and-captivity language.

Afterward, says Yahweh, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, even such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life: and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.


God scatters the disobedient among all the nations, leaving the pleasant land desolate. Jesus' being 'led captive into all the nations' with a desolate Jerusalem echoes this dispersal-and-desolation outcome. Faint coherence with the exile motif.

“but I will scatter them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they have not known. Thus the land was desolate after them, so that no man passed through nor returned: for they made the pleasant land desolate.”


Tobit foresees Jerusalem and the temple laid desolate for a time until the times are fulfilled, after which the exiles return and the house is rebuilt. Jesus' 'until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled' shares the structure of a measured desolation with an appointed terminus. Second-Temple availability supports a faint conceptual echo.

Go into Media, my child, for I surely believe all the things which Jonah the prophet spoke of Nineveh, that it will be overthrown, but in Media there will rather be peace for a season. Our kindred will be scattered in the earth from the good land. Jerusalem will be desolate, and the house of God in it will be burned up, and will be desolate for a time. God will again have mercy on them, and bring them back into the land, and they will build the house, but […]


In the vineyard song the Lord breaks down the hedge so the vineyard is trampled down. The trampling-down of God's chosen plot resonates with Jerusalem 'trampled by the Gentiles' as the consequence of covenant unfaithfulness. Thematic and faint.

Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall of it, and it will be trampled down.


Daniel sees 'one like a son of man' coming with the clouds of heaven, given dominion, glory, and a kingdom. Jesus' 'they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory' is the climactic appropriation of this throne-vision, the most important OT reference in the discourse. Highest volume, recurrence, and coherence.

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. There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.


In the Day-of-the-Lord oracle the stars, constellations, sun, and moon withhold their light. Jesus' 'signs in the sun, moon, and stars' draws directly on this prophetic darkening of the heavenly bodies. High coherence with the standard cosmic-collapse catalog.

For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going out, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.


The host of heaven rots away, the heavens roll up like a scroll, and all their host falls. Jesus' 'powers of the heavens will be shaken' echoes this dissolution of the celestial host on the day of judgment. Strong recurrence within the Day-of-the-Lord tradition.

All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree.


Joel's day of the Lord: the earth quakes, the heavens tremble, sun and moon darken, the stars withdraw their shining. Jesus' combination of cosmic signs and shaken heavenly powers maps closely onto Joel's portrait. High coherence and recurrence.

The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.


Wonders in the heavens and on earth, the sun turned to darkness and moon to blood before the great and terrible Day. Jesus' celestial signs as harbingers of the coming day belong to this Joel sign-tradition, cited at Acts 2:19-20. Coherence reinforced by Lukan usage.

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 of Yahweh comes.


Isaiah likens the raging nations to the roaring of many waters, the tumult of the seas, before God rebukes them. Jesus' 'anxiety of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the waves' fuses the nations' distress with the sea's roar exactly as Isaiah does. Strong conceptual coherence.

Ah, the uproar of many peoples, who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters! The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters: but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far off, and will be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm.


God 'stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the tumult of the peoples,' linking sea-roar and nations' tumult. Jesus' pairing of the roaring sea with the perplexity of nations echoes this psalmic juxtaposition. Coherence on the distinctive sea-and-nations parallel.

who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations.


Though the earth gives way, the mountains fall into the sea, and its waters roar and foam, the faithful need not fear. Jesus' roaring sea and shaken heavens amid which disciples lift up their heads in confidence mirror this psalm of cosmic upheaval and trust. Coherence with the tehom-chaos imagery.

Therefore we won’t be afraid, though the earth changes, though the mountains are shaken into the heart of the seas; though its waters roar and are troubled, though the mountains tremble with their swelling. Selah.


God promises 'yet once more I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land,' and the kingdoms. Jesus' shaken 'powers of the heavens' draws on Haggai's eschatological cosmic shaking. Coherence with the shaking-of-creation motif.

For this is what Yahweh of Armies says: ‘Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the dry land;


In the apocalypse of Isaiah the earth is utterly broken, staggering like a drunkard, its transgression heavy upon it. The men 'fainting for fear' before a reeling cosmos belongs to this Isaian universal-judgment scene. Coherence with the proto-apocalyptic dissolution.

The earth is utterly broken. The earth is torn apart. The earth is shaken violently. The earth will stagger like a drunken man, and will sway back and forth like a hammock. Its disobedience will be heavy on it, and it will fall and not rise again.


The Lord appears over his people, his arrow goes forth like lightning, marching in the whirlwinds. The theophanic coming with power amid cosmic disturbance faintly colors Jesus' glorious Son-of-Man advent. Faint and atmospheric.

Yahweh will be seen over them; and his arrow will go flash like lightning; and the Lord Yahweh will blow the trumpet, and will go with whirlwinds of the south.


Joel's restoration: the fig tree and vine yield their fruit as a sign the land is renewed after the day of the Lord. Jesus' fig tree budding as a sign that the Kingdom is near may echo this prophetic use of the fig tree as harbinger. Faint thematic link to seasonal-sign imagery.

Don’t be afraid, you animals of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness spring up, for the tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.


Isaiah declares, 'the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.' Jesus' 'heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away' applies this contrast of transient creation and abiding divine word to his own speech. High coherence on the enduring-word theme.

The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever.”


Isaiah: 'the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment... but my salvation will be forever.' The passing of heaven and earth set against an everlasting divine word/salvation is exactly Jesus' antithesis. Strong recurrence within Isaiah of the perishing-cosmos vs. abiding-word motif.

Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment; and those who dwell therein shall die in the same way: but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.


The heavens and earth perish and wear out like a garment, but God remains the same and his years have no end. Jesus' 'heaven and earth will pass away' draws on this psalmic contrast between the perishable creation and the unchanging God/word. Coherence with the creation-perishes tradition.

Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will endure. Yes, all of them will wear out like a garment. You will change them like a cloak, and they will be changed. But you are the same. Your years will have no end.


The heavens roll up like a scroll and the host falls like a leaf from the fig tree (LXX). The fig-tree image and the passing heavens cluster in Isaiah's judgment, faintly underlying Jesus' fig-tree parable juxtaposed with heaven and earth passing. Faint compositional echo.


Isaiah's apocalypse: 'terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.' Jesus' warning that the day will come 'like a snare on all those who dwell on the surface of all the earth' reproduces both the snare and the inhabitants-of-the-earth phrasing. High volume on the distinctive double image.

Fear, the pit, and the snare, are on you who inhabitant the earth.


The Lord becomes a snare and a trap to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and many stumble and are taken. The snare that suddenly catches the unprepared resonates with Jesus' sudden snare on the earth-dwellers. Faint recurrence of the snare-of-judgment image.

He will be a sanctuary, but for both houses of Israel, he will be a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Many will stumble over it, fall, be broken, be snared, and be captured.”


The Lord will suddenly come to his temple, and who can stand (endure) the day of his coming? Jesus' call to be watchful so as to be able to 'stand before the Son of Man' on the suddenly-arriving day echoes Malachi's question of who can stand at the Lord's advent. Coherence with the standing-at-judgment motif.

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, behold, he comes!” says Yahweh of Armies. “But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderer’s soap;


The day comes burning like an oven against the arrogant and evildoers. The sudden, inescapable arrival of 'that day' against the unwary colors Jesus' warning, though the imagery differs. Faint thematic link to the Day-of-the-Lord suddenness.

“For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.


The psalm asks who may stand in God's holy place, answering with the clean of hands and pure of heart. Jesus' exhortation to watchful, sober readiness so as to stand before the Son of Man evokes the worthiness-to-stand theme. Faint and contested.

Who may ascend to Yahweh’s hill? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from Yahweh, righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek your face—even Jacob. Selah.


Wisdom warns against being among drunkards and gluttons, for drunkenness and carousing bring poverty and ruin. Jesus' caution that hearts not be weighed down by carousing and drunkenness draws on this sapiential warning against dissipation. Faint wisdom-tradition coloring.

Don’t be among ones drinking too much wine, or those who gorge themselves on meat: for the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor; and drowsiness clothes them in rags.


Standing 'before the Son of Man' recalls the Danielic court scene where the saints are vindicated before the one like a son of man given dominion. The closing exhortation ties the paraenesis back to Daniel 7, the discourse's controlling vision. Coherence by inclusio with 21:27.

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.


On the Day of the Lord his feet stand on the Mount of Olives, the eschatological theater of judgment and kingship east of Jerusalem. Luke's note that Jesus lodged each night on the Mount of Olives, having just delivered the end-time discourse, faintly invokes this prophetic Olivet locale. Faint geographical-typological echo.

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.


The glory of the Lord departs the city and rests on the mountain east of Jerusalem (the Mount of Olives). Jesus teaching by day in the temple but withdrawing each night to Olivet, after pronouncing the temple's doom, faintly mirrors the glory's removal to the eastern mount. Very faint and contested.

Yahweh’s glory went up from the midst of the city, and stood on the mountain which is on the east side of the city.


The narrative is dated by 'the feast of unleavened bread, which is called the Passover,' directly invoking the institution of Passover and Unleavened Bread in Exodus 12. The framing controls the whole chapter's typology (the lamb, the meal, the deliverance), giving high volume and thematic coherence as Luke maps Jesus' death onto Israel's foundational redemption.

Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, “This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household; and if the household is too little for a lamb, then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take one […]


Deuteronomy's Passover/Unleavened-Bread regulations supply the calendrical language ('the feast of unleavened bread... the Passover') Luke uses to set the scene. Coherent with Luke's interest in Jerusalem-centered, temple-regulated feast observance, though the volume is lower than Exodus 12.

Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to Yahweh your God; for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you out of Egypt by night. You shall sacrifice the Passover to Yahweh your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which Yahweh shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there. You shall eat no leavened bread with it. You shall eat unleavened bread with it seven days, even the bread of affliction; for you came out of the land of Egypt […]


Satan entering Judas and his secret bargain to betray begins the betrayal-by-an-intimate motif that crystallizes at 22:21 in clear dependence on Psalm 41:9. Here the echo is anticipatory and faint, marked low until the table scene makes it explicit.

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


'Satan entered into Judas' personifies the accuser/adversary who, in Job 1-2 and Zechariah 3, acts against the faithful with divine permission. The figure of ha-satan as an agent moving human actors gives availability and coherence with Luke's wider Satan theme (cf. 22:31), though the lexical link is thin.

Now on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan also came among them. Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil.” Then Satan […]


Judas being 'glad' to receive money for handing over the shepherd-figure resonates with Zechariah's thirty pieces of silver weighed out for the rejected shepherd. Luke lacks the price detail (unlike Matthew), so the echo is faint and contested, carried mainly by the betrayal-for-silver motif.

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.


'The day of unleavened bread came, on which the Passover must be sacrificed' and the command to 'prepare the Passover' directly enact Exodus 12's prescription for slaughtering and eating the lamb. High volume and recurrence within Luke 22 make Exodus 12 the controlling subtext for the meal Jesus is about to transform.


The detail that the Passover is eaten in a furnished room with prepared provisions echoes the Exodus stipulation to eat the roasted lamb with unleavened bread that night. Coherent with the meal's redemptive typology, though the lexical contact is general.

They shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs.


Deuteronomy requires the Passover to be eaten at the place the LORD chooses (Jerusalem), not in private towns; Jesus' insistence on preparing the meal inside the city aligns with this centralization. The coherence with Luke's Jerusalem focus supports a medium-confidence allusion.

You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates, which Yahweh your God gives you; but at the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell in, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at evening, at the going down of the sun, at the season that you came out of Egypt. You shall roast and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God chooses. In the morning you shall return to your tents.


The Last Supper is staged as a Passover meal ('I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you'), so the sacrificed lamb of Exodus 12 stands behind the bread-and-cup words. High volume and coherence: Jesus reinterprets the paschal elements around his own body and blood-deliverance.


'This cup is the new covenant in my blood' depends on Moses' covenant ratification, 'Behold the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you,' sprinkled to seal Israel to God. Strong verbal and conceptual contact (blood + covenant) makes this a primary subtext for the cup-word.

Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Look, this is the blood of the covenant, which Yahweh has made with you concerning all these words.”


The phrase 'the new covenant in my blood' explicitly takes up Jeremiah's promise of a 'new covenant' that the LORD will make with Israel. The adjective 'new' (kainos) keys directly to Jeremiah 31:31, the only OT text promising a covenant so named, giving high volume and distinctiveness.

Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Yahweh. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put my law in […]


'My blood, which is poured out for you' echoes the Servant who 'poured out his soul to death' and bore the sin of many. The vicarious 'for you/for many' sense coheres with Isaiah 53's substitutionary suffering, a Servant text Luke cites explicitly at 22:37.

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.


'By the blood of the covenant I have set your prisoners free' supplies a prophetic combination of covenant-blood and liberation that resonates with Jesus' cup-word. Recurrence of the 'blood of the covenant' phrase (also Exodus 24:8) supports a medium-confidence echo.

As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I have set free your prisoners from the pit in which is no water.


'This is my body which is given for you' coheres with the Servant whose life is made 'an offering for sin,' framing Jesus' self-gift as sacrificial. The 'given for' language overlaps the Servant's self-offering, reinforcing the Isaianic atonement subtext of the meal.

Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Yahweh shall prosper in his hand.


The 'cup of salvation' lifted with thanksgiving in the Passover Hallel (Ps 116, sung at the meal) may stand behind Jesus' cup of blessing. Availability is strong (Hallel liturgy), but the lexical link is indirect, so the echo is faint.

I will take the cup of salvation, and call on Yahweh’s name.


'Do this in memory of me' transposes the Passover's standing command, 'this day shall be a memorial,' onto the new rite. The memorial (zikkaron) logic of the feast is coherently redirected to Jesus, supporting a deliberate allusion.

This day shall be to you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast to Yahweh: throughout your generations you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.


'The hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table' draws on 'my own familiar friend... who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.' The shared image of betrayal by a table companion gives strong volume and coherence as a Davidic/righteous-sufferer prototype Luke applies to Judas.


The betrayal by a close companion who shared sweet fellowship ('we took counsel together, and walked to the house of God') reinforces the table-betrayal motif alongside Psalm 41:9. Recurrence of the intimate-betrayer theme in the Psalter supports a medium-confidence echo.

For it was not an enemy who insulted me, then I could have endured it. Neither was it he who hated me who raised himself up against me, then I would have hidden myself from him. But it was you, a man like me, my companion, and my familiar friend. We took sweet fellowship together. We walked in God’s house with company.


'The Son of Man indeed goes, as it has been determined' coheres with Daniel's apocalyptic sense of decreed events ('what is determined shall be done'). The vocabulary of divine determination is faint and could derive from broader Jewish providence-language, so it is marked low.

After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One shall be cut off, and shall have nothing: and the people of the prince who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and its end shall be with a flood, and even to the end shall be war; desolations are determined. He shall make a firm covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease; and on the wing of abominations shall come one who […]


Jesus' conferral of a kingdom and a heavenly banquet table draws on the Son of Man receiving dominion and an everlasting kingdom in Daniel 7. The 'I confer on you a kingdom' language coheres with the Danielic transfer of rule, given Luke's repeated Son-of-Man framing in this chapter.

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. There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.


'You will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel' echoes 'the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom' and possess it forever. The reign-of-the-saints motif undergirds the apostles' eschatological enthronement, a recurring Danielic theme in Luke 22.

But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.


Daniel 7:22's 'judgment was given to the saints of the Most High' supplies the specific note of the saints exercising judgment that Luke renders as the Twelve 'judging the twelve tribes of Israel.' The verbal contact ('judging' + 'saints reign') strengthens the allusion.

until the ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.


'Thrones for judgment' set in Jerusalem for 'the tribes of the LORD' resonates with the apostles' thrones judging the twelve tribes. The combination of thrones + tribes + judgment in a single Psalm gives a coherent and reasonably distinctive subtext.

where the tribes go up, even Yah’s tribes, according to an ordinance for Israel, to give thanks to Yahweh’s name. For there are set thrones for judgment, the thrones of David’s house.


'The twelve tribes of Israel' as a fixed totality derives from the Jacob/twelve-sons tradition formalized in Genesis 49. This supplies the conceptual backdrop for the restored Israel the Twelve will govern, though it is a stock phrase rather than a pointed citation.

All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them and blessed them. He blessed everyone according to his blessing.


Jesus' contrast with kings of the nations who 'lord it over' may echo Samuel's warning about the oppressive ways of kings who 'take' from the people. The critique-of-domineering-rulers theme is coherent but generic, so the echo is faint.

He said, “This will be the way of the king who shall reign over you: he will take your sons, and appoint them to him, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and they shall run before his chariots; and he will appoint them to him for captains of thousands, and captains of fifties; and he will assign some to plow his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be […]


Eating and drinking 'at my table in my Kingdom' resonates with Isaiah's eschatological feast on the mountain for all peoples. The messianic-banquet image is available and coherent, though the lexical link is loose.

In this mountain, Yahweh of Armies will make all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of choice wines, of fat things full of marrow, of well refined choice wines.


'Satan asked... that he might sift you as wheat' draws on Amos's image of Israel shaken 'as grain is shaken in a sieve.' The distinctive sifting-in-a-sieve metaphor for testing God's people gives a coherent and fairly specific OT prototype for Peter's trial.

“For, behold, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations, as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet not the least kernel will fall on the earth.


'Satan asked to have you' precisely mirrors the heavenly-court scene where the accuser requests permission to test Job, and God grants it within limits. The structure (Satan demands, God permits, the faithful is tested but not destroyed) maps closely onto Job 1-2, giving strong coherence.

Now on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan also came among them. Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil.” Then Satan […]


The second Job council, where Satan again seeks and is granted leave to afflict, reinforces the permitted-testing pattern behind Jesus' intercession for Peter ('I prayed for you, that your faith wouldn't fail'). Recurrence of the accuser-demands motif strengthens the allusion.

Again, on the day when the God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan came also among them to present himself before Yahweh. Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and […]


Satan standing to accuse Joshua the high priest, with the LORD rebuking him, parallels Jesus' protective intercession against Satan's demand for Peter. The accuser-versus-advocate dynamic coheres well with the scene's logic.

He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before Yahweh’s angel, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary. Yahweh said to Satan, “Yahweh rebuke you, Satan! Yes, Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn’t this a burning stick plucked out of the fire?”


Jesus explicitly cites 'He was counted with transgressors' (kai meta anomon elogisthe) as Scripture that 'must still be fulfilled in me.' This is a formal, marked quotation of Isaiah 53:12, the clearest OT citation in the chapter, with maximal volume.

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.


The surrounding Servant context ('by his knowledge shall the righteous one justify many') reinforces that Jesus reads his impending death through the whole fourth Servant Song, not just the cited line. Recurrence of Isaiah 53 across 22:20 and 22:37 supports the wider echo.

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.


'Remove this cup from me' draws on the prophetic 'cup' of God's wrath/judgment, which in Psalm 75:8 the LORD makes the wicked drink to the dregs. The cup as a vessel of divine judgment to be drained gives a coherent OT background for Jesus' prayer.

For in the hand of Yahweh there is a cup, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours it out. Indeed the wicked of the earth drink and drink it to its very dregs.


Jerusalem having drunk 'the cup of his wrath... the cup of staggering' supplies the wrath-cup imagery behind Jesus' petition. Coherent with the Gethsemane cup as the suffering Jesus is asked to drink, with reasonable verbal distinctiveness ('cup').

Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem, that have drunk at the hand of Yahweh the cup of his wrath; you have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.


The LORD's promise to take 'the cup of staggering' out of Jerusalem's hand resonates inversely: Jesus asks the cup be removed yet drinks it. Recurrence of the cup-of-wrath motif across Isaiah 51 strengthens the allusion cluster.

Thus says your Lord Yahweh, and your God who pleads the cause of his people, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath; you shall no more drink it again:


The 'cup of the wine of wrath' that the nations must drink and stagger reinforces the OT 'cup' as judgment that Jesus invokes. The widespread prophetic recurrence of this image supports its presence behind the Gethsemane cup.

For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to me: take this cup of the wine of wrath at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. They shall drink, and reel back and forth, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.


'An angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him' echoes the angel who twice strengthens the despairing Elijah with food for his journey. The angelic-strengthening-of-a-suffering-prophet motif is a coherent and fairly specific prototype.

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 […]


The heavenly figure who touches and strengthens the exhausted, fearful Daniel ('be strong... and he strengthened me') parallels the angel strengthening Jesus in agony. The vocabulary of an angelic visitor imparting strength to one overwhelmed supports the allusion.

Then there touched me again one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me. He said, “Greatly beloved man, don’t be afraid: peace be to you, be strong, yes, be strong.” When he spoke to me, I was strengthened, and said, “Let my lord speak; for you have strengthened me.”


Jesus' agony and sorrow-unto-prayer resonate with the lament 'why are you cast down, O my soul,' a Davidic distress prototype. Coherent with Luke's righteous-sufferer portrayal, though lexically diffuse and so marked low.

Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence. My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.


Judas, 'one of the twelve,' approaching to kiss Jesus consummates the familiar-friend betrayal already keyed to Psalm 41:9 at 22:21. The recurrence within the chapter strengthens reading the kiss through the table-companion-betrayer subtext.

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


Joab's treacherous kiss and greeting before killing Amasa supplies a biblical type of the murderous kiss of a feigned friend. The image of betrayal-by-kiss makes this a coherent, fairly specific prototype for Judas.

Joab said to Amasa, “Is it well with you, my brother?” Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab’s hand. So he struck him with it in the body, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and didn’t strike him again; and he died. Joab and Abishai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of Bichri.


'His mouth was smoother than butter, but war was in his heart' captures the hypocrisy of an intimate's deadly greeting that fits Judas's kiss. The echo is thematic rather than verbal, so it is marked low.

His mouth was smooth as butter, but his heart was war. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.


'This is your hour, and the power of darkness' resonates faintly with OT contrasts of God uncovering deep darkness; the darkness/light dualism is broadly available in the Psalms and Job. The link is thematic and weak.

He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death.


Peter's threefold denial, like Judas's betrayal, plays on the failure of an intimate companion, the broader righteous-sufferer-abandoned motif behind Psalm 41:9. The connection is thematic and faint, marked low.


The righteous sufferer shunned and denied by acquaintances ('I am... a reproach... my acquaintances are afraid of me') resonates with Jesus abandoned even by Peter. Luke draws elsewhere on Psalm 31 for the passion, lending some availability, but the link here is diffuse.

Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors, A fear to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me. I am forgotten from their hearts like a dead man. I am like broken pottery. For I have heard the slander of many, terror on every side, while they conspire together against me, they plot to take away my life.


'Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered' undergirds the scattering/failure of the disciples that Peter's denial dramatizes. Luke lacks the explicit shepherd citation (unlike Mark/Matthew), so the echo is faint and contested.

“Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is close to me,” says Yahweh of Armies. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; and I will turn my hand against the little ones.


The mocking, beating, and striking of the blindfolded Jesus enacts the Servant who gave 'my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I did not hide my face from shame and spitting.' The cluster of striking + insult + the Servant's non-resistance gives strong coherence.

I gave my back to the strikers, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair; I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting.


'They will strike the ruler/judge of Israel on the cheek with a rod' supplies a prophetic image of the ruler humiliated by blows that fits the soldiers striking Jesus' face. The smiting-of-the-ruler motif coheres with the mockery scene.

Now you shall gather yourself in troops, daughter of troops. He has laid siege against us. They will strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek.


'Despised and rejected... and we esteemed him not' resonates with the men insulting and reviling Jesus. Given Isaiah 53's explicit citation at 22:37, the wider Servant context plausibly colors the mockery as well.

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.


'Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him; let him be filled with insults' echoes the patient endurance of blows and reproach that Jesus exemplifies. The link is thematic and secondary to Isaiah 50:6, so it is marked low.

Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled full with reproach.


'From now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God' takes up 'Sit at my right hand,' the LORD's enthronement of David's lord. The session-at-the-right-hand language is a near-verbatim appropriation of Psalm 110:1, the most cited OT verse in the NT, with high volume.

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


The title 'the Son of Man' combined with exaltation before the council fuses Psalm 110 with Daniel 7's 'one like a son of man' coming with the clouds to receive dominion. This Daniel-Psalm 110 conflation is recurrent in the passion tradition and coheres with Luke's Son-of-Man Christology.

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. There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.


'Let your hand be on the man of your right hand, the son of man whom you made strong' loosely joins 'son of man' with the right-hand of God's favor. The verbal overlap is suggestive but thin, so it is marked low and contested.

Let your hand be on the man of your right hand, on the son of man whom you made strong for yourself.


The council's question 'Are you then the Son of God?' resonates with the royal decree 'You are my Son,' the Davidic sonship Luke applies to Jesus elsewhere. The divine-sonship background is available, though here the link is conceptual rather than cited.

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


Jesus brought before Pilate and accused, answering only the laconic 'So you say.' Luke is sounding the Servant who 'opened not his mouth' before his accusers; the reticence theme recurs through the whole trial sequence (vv. 9, 14). Volume is modest here but coherence with the Servant pattern is high.

He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is mute, so he didn’t open his mouth.


Rulers and the 'whole company' rise up and accuse the one charged with being 'a king,' the Lord's anointed. Acts 4:25-27 explicitly reads Psalm 2 onto exactly this Lukan scene (Herod, Pilate, peoples of Israel gathered against the Christ), confirming the availability and the author's own intertextual habit.

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,


'Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things I know not' — the righteous sufferer falsely accused of crimes (here perverting the nation, forbidding tribute). A stock element of the lament-psalm pattern Luke weaves; faint individually but coherent with the cluster.

Unrighteous witnesses rise up. They ask me about things that I don’t know about.


Before Herod Jesus 'gave no answers' though questioned with many words — the clearest Lukan instance of the Servant who, 'as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.' Volume (verbal silence under interrogation) and coherence with the Passion-Servant reading are both strong.


'I am like a deaf man who does not hear, like a mute who does not open his mouth' — the righteous sufferer's deliberate silence before mockers. Reinforces the silence motif alongside Isaiah 53; part of the suffering-psalm matrix Luke deploys.

But I, as a deaf man, don’t hear. I am as a mute man who doesn’t open his mouth. Yes, I am as a man who doesn’t hear, in whose mouth are no reproofs.


Herod with his soldiers 'humiliated him and mocked him,' dressing him in finery as a mock-king. The scorn/mockery of the righteous sufferer ('all who see me mock me') is the Psalm 22 keynote that Luke develops at the cross (vv. 35-37). The Herodian mockery prefigures it.

But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people. All those who see me mock me. They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying,


Herod and Pilate, formerly enemies, become friends 'that very day' — the kings of the earth and rulers taking counsel together against the Lord's anointed. Acts 4:26-27 names both Herod and Pilate explicitly from Psalm 2:1-2, making this Luke's own reading.

The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against Yahweh, and against his Anointed, saying,


Pilate three times declares the innocent ('no basis for a charge,' 'nothing worthy of death') yet hands him over — the 'righteous Servant' (Isa 53:11 LXX 'the just one') condemned with the guilty. Luke's triple innocence verdict frames Jesus as the blameless sufferer.

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.


'He delivered Jesus up to their will' — 'the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all' / 'was delivered up' (LXX paradidomi). The handing-over verb knits the narrative to the Servant who is given up for the people; faint at the lexical level in WEB but strong in the Greek tradition.

All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.


The crowd choosing between two: Barabbas released and Jesus condemned has been read figurally against the Day of Atonement pairing of the goat for the Lord (slain) and the goat released (Azazel/scapegoat). The pairing is structurally suggestive but Luke gives no textual signal; offered as a contested figural reading.

He shall take the two goats, and set them before Yahweh at the door of the Tent of Meeting. Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats; one lot for Yahweh, and the other lot for the scapegoat. Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for Yahweh, and offer him for a sin offering. But the goat, on which the lot fell for the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before Yahweh, to make atonement for him, to send him away for the scapegoat into the […]


A murderer and insurrectionist (Barabbas) is preferred while the innocent is condemned, anticipating Jesus 'numbered with the transgressors.' The substitution of the guilty for the just resonates with the Servant's vicarious place; faint here, fuller at v. 33.

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.


The condemned bears the wood of his own death — Isaac 'carried the wood for the burnt offering' as Simon carries the cross 'after Jesus.' The Aqedah typology (beloved son, the wood laid on him) is an old figural reading; Luke gives no explicit marker, so it is offered low and contested.

Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. He took in his hand the fire and the knife. They both went together.


Simon compelled to 'carry' (bastazo/airo) the cross faintly mirrors the Servant who 'bore our griefs and carried our sorrows' — the burden-bearing motif. The verbal link is thin and the literal scene is about Roman compulsion; offered as a faint echo.

Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.


'They will begin to tell the mountains, Fall on us, and the hills, Cover us' reproduces Hosea 10:8 ('they shall say to the mountains, Cover us, and to the hills, Fall on us') almost verbatim — a near-quotation of judgment on Israel transferred to Jerusalem's coming destruction. Highest volume in the pericope.

The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle will come up on their altars. They will tell the mountains, “Cover us!” and the hills, “Fall on us!”


'Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed' inverts the Isaianic 'Sing, O barren one' — but more directly draws on the prophetic topos that in days of judgment childlessness becomes a mercy. Coherent with Luke's Jerusalem-doom oracle; the barren-woman language is availably scriptural.

“Sing, barren, you who didn’t bear; break out into singing, and cry aloud, you who did not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife,” says Yahweh.


'If they do these things in the green tree, what will be done in the dry?' draws on Ezekiel's fire that 'devours every green tree and every dry tree' — judgment that spares neither. The green/dry wood proverb is rooted in this prophetic imagery of indiscriminate burning; coherence is strong.

and tell the forest of the South, Hear Yahweh’s word: Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree in you, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burnt thereby.


The 'daughters of Jerusalem' wailing and the call to mourn echo Jeremiah's summons to the mourning-women over a doomed Jerusalem ('teach your daughters wailing'). Thematically apt for Luke's lament oracle; verbal contact is modest.

Thus says Yahweh of Armies, Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come: and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters. For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we ruined! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings. Yet hear […]


Mourning by the inhabitants of Jerusalem 'family by family' over the one they pierced may color the weeping daughters of Jerusalem. The link is thematic (Jerusalem's mourning) rather than verbal; offered faintly.

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. In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. The land will mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of […]

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. In that day the lamentation in Jerusalem shall be very great, as the mourning for the pomegranate grove cut down in the plain. And the land shall lament in separate families, the […]


The 'daughter of Jerusalem' weeping over the city's ruin, with infants and sucklings fainting, supplies the lament-over-Zion register Luke evokes. Lamentations is the canonical genre-source for Jerusalem-grief; contact is atmospheric.

My eyes do fail with tears, my heart is troubled; My liver is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, Because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city.


People hiding 'in the caves of the rocks' from the terror of the Lord in the day of judgment parallels the cry to mountains and hills; a possible secondary source alongside Hosea 10:8 for the day-of-wrath flight motif.

Men shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily.


Crucified between 'two criminals' fulfills 'he was numbered with the transgressors' (Isa 53:12), a verse Luke quotes explicitly at 22:37 and here enacts narratively. The 'forgive them' intercession likewise renders the Servant who 'made intercession for the transgressors.' Both Servant clauses converge on this scene with high volume and recurrence.


'Dividing his garments among them, they cast lots' directly enacts Psalm 22:18, 'they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.' Verbal correspondence is exact; this is the most secure Psalm-22 echo in the chapter.

They divide my garments among them. They cast lots for my clothing.


'Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing' embodies the Servant who 'bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.' The dying intercession for the executioners is the narrative form of Isaiah 53:12's final clause; high coherence within Luke's Servant Christology.


'In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer' colors the dying intercession 'forgive them.' The righteous sufferer who prays for his persecutors is a psalm topos; faint verbal contact, coherent with the lament cluster.

In return for my love, they are my adversaries; but I am in prayer.


Joseph forgiving brothers who 'did not know' the good God intended frames the 'they know not what they do' ignorance-forgiveness pattern. A thematic Second-Temple resonance (cf. Acts 3:17 'you acted in ignorance'); offered low.

‘You shall tell Joseph, “Now please forgive the disobedience of your brothers, and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ Now, please forgive the disobedience of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also went and fell down before his face; and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.” Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God […]


Forgiveness for those who 'know not what they do' aligns with the Torah category of unintentional/inadvertent sin (sins of ignorance) which is atoneable. Luke may be invoking the legal distinction that makes intercession fitting; faint but available.

“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:


The rulers scoff 'He saved others; let him save himself, if this is the Christ' — a close rendering of Psalm 22:8, 'He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him, let him rescue him, for he delights in him,' framed by 22:7's mocking head-shakers. Volume and recurrence (Luke's sustained Ps 22 use) make this high.

But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people. All those who see me mock me. They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying, “He trusts in Yahweh; let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, since he delights in him.”


The soldiers 'offering him vinegar' enacts Psalm 69:21, 'for my thirst they gave me vinegar (sour wine) to drink' — the mocking drink of the righteous sufferer. Direct lexical correspondence (oxos); a core Passion-psalm fulfillment.

They also gave me gall for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.


'Let us see if his words are true... if the righteous man is God's son, he will help him and deliver him' — the wicked taunting the righteous one to prove divine sonship maps precisely onto 'if this is the Christ of God, his chosen one... save yourself.' Deuterocanonical and demonstrably available, this taunt-of-the-righteous text is a strong source for the mockery's logic.

Let us see if his words be true, And let us try what shall befall in the ending of his life. For if the righteous man is God’s son, he will uphold him, And he will deliver him out of the hand of his adversaries. With outrage and torture let us put him to the test, That we may learn his gentleness, And may prove his patience under wrong. Let us condemn him to a shameful death; For he will be visited according to his words.


'the Christ of God, his chosen one' (ho eklektos) echoes Isaiah 42:1, 'my chosen, in whom my soul delights,' the Servant designation Luke favors (cf. the transfiguration 'my Chosen'). The title brings the Servant frame into the mockery scene.

“Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delights— I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations.


God's anointed rejected and scorned ('you have renounced... cast off your anointed') resonates with the mocking of the Christ/chosen one. A royal-lament background to the messianic mockery; faint verbal contact.

But you have rejected and spurned. You have been angry with your anointed. You have renounced the covenant of your servant. You have defiled his crown in the dust.


'The people stood watching... the rulers scoffed' realizes Psalm 22:7, 'all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me, they wag their heads.' The watching-and-deriding tableau is the psalm's own scene; recurrence with v. 35 mockery is strong.

All those who see me mock me. They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying,


The dialogue with the two criminals continues the 'numbered with the transgressors' enactment; the penitent's confession 'this man has done nothing wrong' restates the Servant's innocence (Isa 53:9 'he had done no violence'). Luke turns the transgressor-companions into witnesses to the just sufferer.

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.


'This man has done nothing wrong' echoes 'he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth' — the criminal's verdict confirms the Servant's blamelessness even among the condemned. Coherent with Luke's innocence motif (vv. 4, 14, 22, 47).

They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death; although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.


'Today you will be with me in Paradise' draws on Isaiah's promise that the LORD will comfort Zion and 'make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden (paradeisos) of the LORD.' The eschatological-Eden 'paradise' is the availably scriptural term Luke uses for restored blessedness.

For Yahweh has comforted Zion; he has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Yahweh; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.


'Paradise' (paradeisos, the LXX word for the Eden garden) frames Jesus' promise as the regained Eden — readmission to the garden and the tree of life forfeited in Genesis 3. The figural Eden-restoration reading is well grounded in the LXX vocabulary; medium because Luke does not cite Genesis directly.

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.


'Eden, the garden of God' (paradeisos in LXX) supplies another availability for the restored-paradise hope. Secondary to the Genesis/Isaiah Eden language; offered as a faint lexical support.

You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, emerald, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and beryl. Gold work of tambourines and of pipes was in you. In the day that you were created they were prepared.


'Remember me when you come into your Kingdom' invokes the bestowal of an everlasting kingdom on one like a son of man (Dan 7:14). The kingdom-coming hope draws on Danielic enthronement language; thematic rather than verbal here.

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. There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.


'Darkness came over the whole land' at midday fulfills Amos 8:9, 'I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in clear day' — Amos' day-of-the-Lord judgment over mourning Israel. The noon-darkness (sixth hour) verbal and temporal match is strong; the surrounding Amos context (mourning as for an only son, v. 10) reinforces it.

It will happen in that day,” says the Lord Yahweh, “that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.


'Darkness over the whole land' recalls the ninth plague, 'thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days,' a darkness 'that may be felt.' The exodus-plague resonance casts the crucifixion as a moment of judgment/new exodus; coherent though Amos is the closer noon-darkness source.

Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.” Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.


'The sun was darkened' echoes Joel's day-of-the-LORD signs, 'the sun and moon are darkened' (Joel 2:10; 3:15), language Luke himself cites in Acts 2:20. Availability is confirmed by Luke's own use; the cosmic-portent register fits the crucifixion's apocalyptic framing.

The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.


'The veil of the temple was torn in two' presupposes the Exodus curtain (katapetasma) that screens the Holy of Holies. The tearing dramatically signifies access/judgment upon the sanctuary; the cultic referent is unambiguously the Tabernacle/Temple veil of Exodus 26.

“You shall make a veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cherubim. The work of the skillful workman shall it be made. You shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold; their hooks shall be of gold, on four sockets of silver. You shall hang up the veil under the clasps, and shall bring the ark of the testimony in there within the veil: and the veil shall separate the holy place from the most holy for you.


'A day of darkness and gloom' as the day of the LORD's wrath supplies further prophetic backing for the noon darkness. Secondary to Amos/Joel; offered as a faint convergent witness.

That day is a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness,


'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit' is a direct quotation of Psalm 31:5, 'into your hand I commit my spirit,' the explicit dying word. Luke makes the righteous sufferer's prayer of trust the climactic utterance, replacing Mark's cry of dereliction; verbatim and unmistakable.

Into your hand I commend my spirit. You redeem me, Yahweh, God of truth.


The whole psalm of the trusting righteous sufferer ('you redeem me, O LORD, faithful God,' surrounded by enemies yet committing himself to God) frames the death-cry beyond the single quoted line. Recurrence of Psalm 31's confidence motif throughout Luke's calm passion supports a wider allusion.

In you, Yahweh, I take refuge. Let me never be disappointed. Deliver me in your righteousness. Bow down your ear to me. Deliver me speedily. Be to me a strong rock, a house of defense to save me. For you are my rock and my fortress, therefore for your name’s sake lead me and guide me. Pluck me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me, for you are my stronghold. Into your hand I commend my spirit. You redeem me, Yahweh, God of truth. I hate those […]


'God of the spirits of all flesh' / the giving-up of spirit may faintly evoke the biblical idiom of the breath/spirit returning to God (cf. Eccl 12:7). Thematic background for the 'breathed his last'; not a specific Lukan target.

They fell on their faces, and said, “God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation?”


The centurion's verdict 'Certainly this was a righteous man' (dikaios) crowns Luke's Servant-as-righteous-one theme — 'my righteous servant shall make many righteous.' Luke's distinctive dikaios (vs Mark's 'Son of God') points to Isaiah 53:11 LXX; medium-high coherence with the chapter's innocence refrain.

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 vindicated 'righteous man' (dikaios) recalls Wisdom's persecuted just one whom God acknowledges as son. The centurion's confession answers the mockers' Wisdom-styled taunt (v. 35); thematic inclusio rather than quotation.

For if the righteous man is God’s son, he will uphold him, And he will deliver him out of the hand of his adversaries.


'All his acquaintances, and the women... stood at a distance, watching' enacts Psalm 38:11, 'my friends and companions stand aloof from my affliction, and my kinsmen stand far off.' The distant-onlookers detail is a precise lament motif of abandonment; strong verbal/situational match.

My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague. My kinsmen stand far away.


The multitudes 'beating their breasts' over the crucified one resonates with the mourning of Zechariah 12:10-12, 'they shall look on him whom they pierced and mourn.' Luke's repentant breast-beating crowd (cf. 18:13) faintly draws on this Jerusalem-mourning prophecy.

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.


'You have caused my companions to shun me' parallels the acquaintances standing at a distance, doubling Psalm 38:11. A secondary lament witness to the friends-kept-far motif; offered low.

You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape.


Burial by Joseph, a rich council member, in an unused rock-cut tomb realizes Isaiah 53:9, 'they made his grave... with a rich man in his death,' the Servant honored in burial despite dying among criminals. The 'rich and righteous man' and the new tomb make this Luke's enactment of the Servant's burial; high coherence.

They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death; although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.


Taking the body down and burying it the same day, before the Sabbath, observes Deuteronomy 21:22-23, 'his body shall not remain all night... you shall bury him the same day,' lest the land be defiled by one 'hanged on a tree.' The same-day burial urgency is governed by this law; strong availability and coherence.

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.


'On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment' directly invokes the Decalogue Sabbath law, Exodus 20:10 ('you shall not do any work'). Luke's editorial 'according to the commandment' is an explicit appeal to Torah; the rest also frames the third-day timing.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. You shall labor six days, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates;


The Sabbath rest after the finished work of the cross resonates figurally with God resting on the seventh day after creation — the new creation's Sabbath repose before resurrection. A theological-figural reading; Luke signals only the commandment, so it is offered low.

On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work of creation which he had done.


The Deuteronomic form of the Sabbath commandment is an equally available source for 'rested according to the commandment.' Listed alongside Exodus 20 as the alternative Decalogue text Luke's phrase could intend.

“Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as Yahweh your God commanded you. You shall labor six days, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God, in which you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; that your male servant and your female servant may rest as […]


The 'two men in dazzling clothing' at the tomb echo Daniel's angelic figure clothed in linen with a face/body 'like lightning' and 'like the gleam of beryl.' Luke's verb 'astraptousē' (flashing/dazzling) matches the Danielic theophanic vocabulary for angelic interpreters who appear at moments of eschatological revelation. Volume and coherence are strong; Daniel is Luke's apocalyptic template.

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.


The two young men of 'splendid' appearance who appear in the Jerusalem temple to Heliodorus furnish a close Second-Temple parallel to Luke's two men in dazzling clothing. The doubling of radiant angelic figures (cf. also 2 Macc 3:33-34) was a recognizable Hellenistic-Jewish topos for divine vindication and intervention. Availability and coherence support it.

Two other also appeared to him, young men notable in their strength, and beautiful in their glory, and splendid in their apparel, who stood by him on either side, and scourged him unceasingly, inflicting on him many sore stripes.


'The third day rise again' draws on Hosea's 'after two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up,' the most cited prophetic warrant for third-day resurrection in early Christian and rabbinic exegesis. Luke makes the 'third day' a fixed kerygmatic formula (cf. 24:7, 21, 46), and Hosea supplies the schematic Scriptural pattern. Contested as the precise source but high recurrence.

After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before him.