Jonah's 'three days and three nights' in the fish is invoked elsewhere in the Gospel tradition as the sign of resurrection (the 'sign of Jonah'), and stands behind the third-day pattern Luke repeats here. The link is typological rather than verbal in Luke 24, so confidence is low and the connection is contested.

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


'On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes' (the Aqedah) was read in early Jewish and Christian tradition as a deliverance-on-the-third-day pattern, the deliverance of the bound son. As a faint contributor to the rabbinic/Christian web of 'third day' rescue texts it may color Luke's formula, though there is no verbal contact. Contested and low volume.

On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place far off.


'Be ready for the third day, for on the third day the LORD will come down' supplies another 'third day' theophany-and-covenant text feeding the Jewish pattern of decisive divine action on the third day. Its contribution to Luke's resurrection formula is figural and faint, lacking verbal correspondence. Marked contested.

and be ready against the third day; for on the third day Yahweh will come down in the sight of all the people on Mount Sinai.


Luke dates the resurrection to 'the first day of the week' (mia tōn sabbatōn), and early Christian reading saw new-creation overtones in the resurrection on the day light was first made. The echo is figural and depends on canonical placement rather than wording, so confidence is low and it is contested.

God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first day.


The angels recall Jesus' words that 'the Son of Man must be delivered up... and the third day rise again.' The Son of Man title and his vindication/exaltation derive from Daniel 7, where the one like a son of man is brought before the Ancient of Days and given dominion. The vindication-after-suffering motif coheres with Luke's whole 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.


The risen Jesus joins the travelers unrecognized and is pressed to stay and share a meal, recalling the LORD/angels appearing to Abraham as a wayfarer who is welcomed with hospitality and food. The pattern of unrecognized divine visitor received with hospitality is a Scriptural type Luke evokes, though there is no verbal quotation. Contested, low volume.

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


The angel Raphael travels incognito with Tobias as an unrecognized companion whose true identity is disclosed only at the end (Tob 12). The Emmaus narrative's structure of a hidden divine guide on a journey parallels Tobit's traveling-angel motif, a recognizable Second-Temple type. Faint and structural rather than verbal, hence low and contested.

He went to seek a man, and found Raphael who was an angel; and he didn’t know it. He said to him, “Can I go with you to Rages of Media? Do you know those places well?” The angel said to him, “I will go with you. I know the way well. I have lodged with our brother Gabael.” Tobias said to him, “Wait for me, and I will tell my father.” He said to him, “Go, and don’t wait. And he went in and said to his father, “Behold, I have found someone who will go with […]


Jesus' rebuke that the Christ 'had to suffer these things and enter into his glory' presupposes the Suffering Servant who is 'despised and rejected' yet afterward exalted (Isa 52:13; 53:11-12). Luke roots the necessity (dei) of messianic suffering in the Servant Songs, which he cites explicitly elsewhere (Lk 22:37). Coherence with the chapter's exegetical climax is strong.

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.


The motif of the righteous one who suffers grievously and is then vindicated, which Jesus expounds 'beginning from Moses and all the prophets,' draws on the Passion psalm Luke uses in the crucifixion scene. The suffering-and-glory pattern of Psalm 22 (lament turning to praise/vindication) is a primary text in the Scriptural 'things concerning himself.' Coherence high.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning? My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer; in the night season, and am not silent. But you are holy, you who inhabit the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted, and you delivered them. They cried to you, and were delivered. They trusted in you, and were not disappointed. But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of […]


'Enter into his glory' echoes the enthronement of the one like a son of man who is given glory and dominion before the Ancient of Days. Luke pairs suffering with glorification, and Daniel 7 supplies the vindicated-and-glorified figure central to his messianic reading. Recurrence across the chapter supports it.

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.


The travelers describe Jesus as 'a prophet mighty in deed and word,' and the exposition 'beginning from Moses' invokes the prophet-like-Moses whom God would raise up and to whom Israel must listen. Luke elsewhere applies this text to Jesus (Acts 3:22; 7:37), making it a likely component of the Mosaic witness here. Coherence and recurrence support medium confidence.

Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from your midst, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him.


The report that the chief priests 'delivered him up to be condemned to death' resonates with the Servant who was 'led like a lamb to the slaughter' and handed over. As part of the Servant subtext Jesus is about to expound, it colors the travelers' summary, though without quotation. Low and somewhat contested.

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.


The hope that Jesus 'would redeem Israel' sits within the Servant's mission to restore and redeem Israel before he is given as a light to the nations. Luke's redemption-of-Israel language (cf. Lk 1:68; 2:38) draws on Deutero-Isaiah's restoration vocabulary. Faint here, hence low.

Thus says Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall worship; because of Yahweh who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”


'Their eyes were opened, and they recognized him' deliberately inverts 'the eyes of both were opened' in Eden, where opened eyes brought shame and exile; here opened eyes at the breaking of bread bring recognition of the risen Lord. The verbal correspondence (eyes opened) plus reversal is a coherent Lukan new-creation motif. Volume is moderate; the allusion is widely recognized.

Their eyes were opened, and they both knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made coverings for themselves.


The shared meal at which the divine guest is recognized recalls the LORD/angels eating with Abraham at Mamre, where hospitality discloses the visitor's identity. The Emmaus meal as the locus of revelation parallels the Mamre table-fellowship type. Structural and faint, so low and contested.

He took butter, milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them. He stood by them under the tree, and they ate.


The breaking of bread that opens their eyes carries Passover/Eucharistic overtones, the meal at which deliverance is remembered and made present. Given Luke's Passover framing of the Last Supper, the Emmaus bread figurally recalls the Passover bread of redemption. Typological rather than verbal, hence low and contested.

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


Elisha's prayer that the servant's eyes be opened to see the unseen heavenly reality offers a parallel for the divinely granted opening of eyes to perceive the risen Christ. The motif of God opening human eyes to spiritual sight is a recurring OT pattern Luke taps. Faint and contested.

Elisha prayed, and said, “Yahweh, please open his eyes, that he may see.” Yahweh opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha.


Jesus 'vanished out of their sight' faintly echoes the sudden removal of righteous figures who are 'taken' by God (Enoch 'was not, for God took him'). As a marker of a translated/heavenly figure no longer subject to ordinary presence, it anticipates the ascension. Very faint, contested.

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


Raphael's disclosure, 'I appeared to you, but I did not eat or drink; it was a vision that you saw,' frames the Second-Temple assumption that angelic/spirit visitants only seem to eat. Luke counters precisely this by having the risen Jesus eat real food to prove he is 'not a spirit' but has flesh and bones, engaging Tobit's category. Coherence and availability are strong.

All these days I appeared to you. I didn’t eat or drink, but you all saw a vision.


Jesus eating broiled fish before them to prove corporeal reality parallels the angels who 'ate' before Abraham at Mamre, the locus classicus for heavenly visitors sharing human food. Luke uses the eating motif as physical proof against the disciples' supposition of a spirit. Recurrence of the 'divine visitor eats' type supports it.


The disciples suppose they see a disembodied 'spirit' (pneuma), reflecting a current view that the righteous dead exist as souls 'in the hand of God.' Luke's insistence on flesh and bones engages and corrects such a discarnate-soul expectation. Conceptual and faint, so low and contested.

But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, And no torment will touch them.


'In my flesh I shall see God' anticipates an embodied vindication beyond death that resonates with Luke's emphasis on the risen Jesus' flesh and bones. As a faint OT witness to bodily hope it may color the scene, but there is no verbal contact. Contested, low.

After my skin is destroyed, then in my flesh shall I see God,


That repentance and forgiveness be proclaimed 'to all the nations' fulfills the Psalter's vision that 'all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD,' part of the Writings (psalmoi) Jesus names as bearing witness to him. Luke roots the universal mission in the Psalms he has just cited. Coherence with the tripartite-canon statement supports it.

All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to Yahweh. All the relatives of the nations shall worship before you.


The Servant given 'as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth' is the programmatic text behind 'repentance and remission of sins... to all the nations.' Luke quotes Isa 49:6 explicitly at Acts 13:47 and alludes to it at Acts 1:8, making it the key prophetic warrant for the worldwide mission launched here. Volume and recurrence are high.

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


'Beginning at Jerusalem' enacts the eschatological pattern whereby 'out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem,' the nations streaming to and the word streaming from Zion. Luke reverses the centripetal pilgrimage into a centrifugal mission from Jerusalem. Coherence is strong.

Many peoples shall go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For out of Zion the law shall go out, and Yahweh’s word from Jerusalem.


Micah's parallel oracle that 'the word of the LORD' goes forth 'from Jerusalem' to instruct the nations reinforces the Jerusalem-origin of the universal proclamation. The doubled prophetic witness (with Isa 2:3) strengthens the case that Luke draws on the Zion-mission tradition. Recurrence supports medium.

Many nations will go and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the law will go out of Zion, and Yahweh’s word from Jerusalem;


The herald who proclaims good news of salvation from Zion underlies Luke's commissioning of witnesses to preach forgiveness beginning at Jerusalem. Luke's vocabulary of proclaiming (kēryssō) good news echoes the Isaianic herald, a text central to his mission theology. Coherence good.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”


'Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved... in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape' underwrites repentance/forgiveness proclaimed 'in his name' beginning from Jerusalem. Luke cites Joel 2 at Pentecost (Acts 2:21), making it a strong intertext for the commission. Recurrence in Luke-Acts supports it.

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


'I send out the promise of my Father on you... until you are clothed with power from on high' anticipates Joel's outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh, which Luke fulfills explicitly at Pentecost (Acts 2:17, quoting Joel). The Spirit as the Father's promise is the bridge from Luke 24 to Acts. Volume and recurrence are high.

“It will happen afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions.


'Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high' supplies the very phrase 'power from on high' (ex hypsous) for the promised Spirit-endowment. Luke's 'clothed with power from on high' draws on this Isaianic image of the Spirit poured out to renew. Verbal contact ('from on high') gives medium-strong confidence.

Until the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is considered a forest.


'I will pour my Spirit upon your descendants' reinforces the promised-Spirit theme of being clothed with power, an OT pattern of the Spirit poured out as gift and blessing. Together with Joel and Isa 32 it forms the cluster behind the Father's promise. Recurrence within the cluster supports it.

For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit on your seed, and my blessing on your offspring:


'Clothed with power' (enedysasthe) recalls the idiom that the Spirit of the LORD 'clothed itself with' Gideon, the standard OT metaphor for divine empowerment of a chosen agent. Luke's clothing-with-power language may draw on this Spirit-clothing idiom. Faint verbal idiom, hence low and contested.

But the Spirit of Yahweh came on Gideon; and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered together after him.


'All things written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms... must be fulfilled' names the threefold Hebrew canon (Torah, Prophets, Writings), and the Law of Moses as a written witness placed beside the ark to testify is the Torah pole of that witness. Luke frames the whole of Scripture, beginning with Moses' written law, as testifying to Christ. Coherence with the canon formula supports it.

When Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, saying, “Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of Yahweh your God, that it may be there for a witness against you.


The prologue to Sirach repeatedly names 'the Law and the Prophets and the others/the rest of the books,' the earliest explicit witness to the tripartite division of Hebrew Scripture that Luke 24:44 presupposes ('law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms'). It supplies the Second-Temple canonical framework, not a content-quotation. Availability and coherence support medium.

[source text not in the World English Bible]


Jesus 'lifted up his hands and blessed them' as he departs reproduces the climactic scene of Simon the high priest who 'lifted up his hands over the whole congregation... to pronounce the blessing of the LORD,' after which the people worship. Luke casts the ascending Jesus as the great high priest performing the Aaronic benediction. Volume, coherence, and the worship response all align strongly.

Then he went down, and lifted up his hands Over the whole congregation of the children of Israel, To give blessing to the Lord with his lips, And to glory in his name. And he bowed himself down in worship the second time, To declare the blessing from the Most High. And now bless you the God of all, Which everywhere does great things, Which exalts our days from the womb, And deals with us according to his mercy.


'Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, and came down' is the priestly prototype for Jesus' parting gesture of lifted hands and blessing. The lifting-hands-to-bless is the defining act of the Aaronic priesthood, which Luke transfers to the ascending Christ. Verbal and gestural correspondence is high.

Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people, and blessed them; and he came down from offering the sin offering, and the burnt offering, and the peace offerings.


The Aaronic blessing ('The LORD bless you and keep you...') is the content of the priestly benediction Jesus enacts with lifted hands. Luke evokes the priest putting the divine name on the people as the risen Christ blesses them at his departure. Coherence with the Lev/Sirach cluster supports it.

“Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘This is how you shall bless the children of Israel.’ You shall tell them, ‘Yahweh bless you, and keep you. Yahweh make his face to shine on you, and be gracious to you. Yahweh lift up his face toward you, and give you peace.’ “So they shall put my name on the children of Israel; and I will bless them.”


Jesus 'was carried up into heaven' while his disciples watch, closely paralleling Elijah taken up into heaven before Elisha, whose witnessing disciple then receives a double portion of his spirit. Luke's ascension-then-Spirit sequence is modeled on the Elijah-Elisha succession, and Luke uses Elijah typology throughout. Volume and coherence are high.

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


Elisha's request to inherit Elijah's spirit, granted 'if you see me taken,' parallels the disciples who witness Jesus' ascent and then await the promised Spirit. Luke ties the seeing of the departure to the bestowal of the Spirit, mirroring the Elijah-Elisha transfer. Recurrence with the prior verse supports medium.

When they had gone over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.” Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be on me.” He said, “You have asked a hard thing. If you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so.”


'God has gone up with a shout' supplies the enthronement-ascent motif of God ascending to his throne amid praise, fitting the disciples who 'worshiped him and returned... with great joy, praising God.' Luke's ascension-to-worship sequence draws on the Zion enthronement psalms. Coherence with the joyful praise response supports it.

God has gone up with a shout, Yahweh with the sound of a trumpet.


The 'gates lift up your heads' entry of the King of glory was read in early tradition as the ascent of the exalted Lord into the heavenly sanctuary, paralleling Jesus carried up into heaven. Faint and traditional rather than verbal in Luke, so low and contested.

Lift up your heads, you gates! Be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory will come in. Who is the King of glory? Yahweh strong and mighty, Yahweh mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, you gates; yes, lift them up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory will come in. Who is this King of glory? Yahweh of Armies is the King of glory! Selah.


Enoch who 'walked with God, and was not, for God took him' is an OT type of the righteous one assumed into heaven, contributing to the assumption pattern Luke narrates. As one of the canonical assumption figures (with Elijah) it faintly informs the ascension. Low, contested.

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


The ascent into heaven and the disciples' worship enact the giving of dominion and the service/worship of all peoples to the one like a son of man who comes with the clouds before the Ancient of Days. Luke's exalted Christ receiving worship realizes the Danielic enthronement. Coherence with the Son of Man framing of the chapter supports it.

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.


After Aaron's blessing the glory of the LORD appears and the people fall down/worship; Luke's sequence of priestly blessing followed by worship in the temple mirrors this Levitical pattern of blessing-then-glory-then-worship. Structural echo reinforcing the priestly reading, so low and supportive.

Moses and Aaron went into the Tent of Meeting, and came out, and blessed the people: and Yahweh’s glory appeared to all the people. Fire came out from before Yahweh, and consumed the burnt offering and the fat upon the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted, and fell on their faces.


John opens with the exact phrase 'In the beginning' (en archē), the LXX incipit of Genesis 1:1, signaling a deliberate re-narration of creation. Volume is maximal (verbatim phrase in the most marked position of the Gospel) and recurrence strong (creation language saturates vv.1-5). Thematic coherence is total: John reads the Genesis creation through the lens of the Word as agent.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.


Creation 'by the word' ('Let there be light') is recast as creation 'through him,' the Logos (v.3). The Genesis pattern of God speaking the world into being is the conceptual substrate for 'all things were made through him.' High thematic coherence between divine speech-act and the personified Word.

God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.


'By the word of the LORD the heavens were made' is the clearest OT text crediting creation to God's spoken word, the Jewish exegetical bridge from Genesis to a creative Logos. Strong thematic coherence with v.3 ('all things were made through him') and availability secure in Second-Temple liturgy.

By Yahweh’s word, the heavens were made; all their army by the breath of his mouth.


Personified Wisdom, 'with' God 'in the beginning' as the agent/craftsman of creation, is the primary background for the Word who 'was with God' and through whom all things were made. Recurrence of the with-God-at-creation motif and high thematic coherence; widely recognized as John's Wisdom-Christology source.

“Yahweh possessed me in the beginning of his work, before his deeds of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth existed. When there were no depths, I was born, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was born; while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the beginning of the dust of the world. When he established the heavens, I was […]


Wisdom as the 'breath of the power of God,' a pure effulgence of glory, an unspotted mirror, and the light surpassing all light underwrites John's identification of the Word with life and light (vv.4-5). Availability secure (deuterocanonical, first century) and strong thematic coherence with the light/glory motifs of the Prologue.

For she that is the architect of all things taught me, even wisdom. For there is in her a spirit quick of understanding, holy, Alone in kind, manifold, Subtil, freely moving, Clear in utterance, unpolluted, Distinct, unharmed, Loving what is good, keen, unhindered, Beneficent, loving toward man, Stedfast, sure, free from care, All-powerful, all-surveying, And penetrating through all spirits That are quick of understanding, pure, most subtle: For wisdom is […]


'O God... who made all things by your word, and by your wisdom formed man' explicitly pairs word and wisdom as co-agents of creation, the exact fusion John performs on the Logos. Medium confidence because it is conceptual parallel rather than verbal, but thematic coherence with v.3 is high.

O God of the fathers, and Lord who keep your mercy, Who made all things by your word; And by your wisdom you formedst man, That he should have dominion over the creatures that were made by you,


Wisdom's self-praise, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High and present from the beginning, is a key model for the pre-existent Word. Sirach 24 is the most sustained Wisdom-tabernacle hymn and is recurrent across the Prologue (see also v.14). High thematic coherence.

Wisdom will praise herself, And will glory in the midst of her people. In the congregation of the Most High will she open her mouth, And glory in the presence of his power. I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, And covered the earth as a mist. I lived in high places, And my throne is in the pillar of the cloud. Alone I compassed the circuit of heaven, And walked in the depth of the abyss. In the waves of the sea, and in all the earth, And in every […]


The darkness over the deep before the first light is evoked by 'the light shines in the darkness' (v.5). The creation-from-darkness sequence reinforces the Genesis 1 framing; medium confidence as the verbal contact is thematic (light/darkness) rather than lexical.

The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.


'For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light' fuses life and light as divine gifts, exactly the pairing of v.4 ('in him was life, and the life was the light of men'). Thematic coherence is high; flagged medium for absence of verbal borrowing.

For with you is the spring of life. In your light shall we see light.


'The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light' offers the light-shining-in-darkness topos. Low confidence and somewhat contested: the motif is broad and could derive from several light texts, but it coheres with the Prologue's darkness-versus-light contest.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who lived in the land of the shadow of death, on them the light has shined.


'Whoever finds me finds life' links personified Wisdom directly to life, supporting the life-in-the-Word claim of v.4. Faint and contested, but coherent with the broader Wisdom substrate already established.

For whoever finds me, finds life, and will obtain favor from Yahweh.


'Behold, I send my messenger' frames John as the divinely sent forerunner ('there came a man, sent from God'). The sending-of-the-messenger motif is the standard prophetic preparation pattern and coheres with John's witness role; medium because the verbal link is conceptual.

“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.


'A light to the nations' resonates with 'the true light that enlightens everyone' (v.9), the universal scope of illumination. Low confidence: the universalizing of light is a shared Isaianic theme rather than a direct quotation.

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


'The LORD is my light and my salvation' supplies the divine-light identification that the Prologue transfers to the Logos. Faint and contested; included for recurrence of the light-as-God motif.

Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?


Wisdom seeks a resting place among the nations and is given Israel as her inheritance; the motif of the agent of creation coming to her own people who variously receive or reject her underlies vv.10-11. Thematic coherence with the Wisdom-rejection pattern is strong; medium for lack of verbal contact.

With all these I sought rest; And in whose inheritance shall I lodge? Then the Creator of all things gave me a commandment; And he that created me made my tabernacle to rest, And said, Let your tabernacle be in Jacob, And your inheritance in Israel. He created me from the beginning before the world; And to the end I will not fail. In the holy tabernacle I ministered before him; And so was I established in Sion. In the beloved city likewise he gave me […]


Wisdom calls but is not received ('I called and you refused'), the rejection-of-Wisdom topos behind 'his own didn't receive him' (v.11). The motif of the personified divine agent spurned by her people coheres tightly with John's tragic note.

Because I have called, and you have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no one has paid attention; but you have ignored all my counsel, and wanted none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your disaster. I will mock when calamity overtakes you; when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when your disaster comes on like a whirlwind; when distress and anguish come on you. Then will they call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, […]


Wisdom finds no dwelling place among humans and returns to heaven, the most pointed Second-Temple parallel to the Word coming to his own and being rejected (vv.10-11). Pseudepigraphal but genuinely warranted here: the Wisdom-withdrawal pattern matches John's reversal closely. Contested as to direct dependence.

[source text not in the World English Bible]


'You are the children of the LORD your God' supplies the divine-sonship category recast as the 'right to become God's children' (v.12). Low confidence; the sonship-of-God-people motif is broad across the OT.

You are the children of Yahweh your God. You shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.


'The God who gave you birth' offers a God-as-begetter image behind 'born... of God' (v.13). Faint and contested, but coheres with the divine-generation language that replaces ordinary descent.

Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth.


'You are children of the living God,' the promise of new divine sonship to those who were not a people, resonates with becoming God's children by birth from God (vv.12-13). Low confidence; thematic rather than verbal.

Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can’t be measured nor numbered; and it will come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’


'The Word became flesh and lived (eskēnōsen, 'tabernacled') among us' deliberately evokes the sanctuary that God commanded so he might 'dwell among them.' The tabernacle-pitching verb is the load-bearing figural cue: the incarnate Word is the new tent of meeting. High volume and thematic coherence.

Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all of its furniture, even so you shall make it.


The glory of the LORD filling the tabernacle is the template for 'we saw his glory' (v.14): the indwelling Word manifests the kabod that once filled the tent. The tabernacle-plus-glory pairing makes the figural reading near-certain. High coherence and recurrence with the Sinai cycle.

Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and Yahweh’s glory filled the tabernacle. Moses wasn’t able to enter into the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud stayed on it, and Yahweh’s glory filled the tabernacle.


'Full of grace and truth' renders the LXX/Hebrew formula 'abounding in steadfast love (hesed) and faithfulness ('emet)' from God's self-revelation to Moses. This is the densest verbal-conceptual borrowing of the Prologue's climax (vv.14,17). Very high thematic coherence: the glory Israel saw at Sinai is now seen in the Word.

Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth,


Moses' request to see God's glory, granted only as a passing of God's goodness while his face remains unseen, undergirds both 'we saw his glory' and 'no one has seen God at any time' (vv.14,18). The contrast (Moses denied the face; the Son makes God known) is structured directly on this scene.

He said, “Please show me your glory.” He said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim Yahweh’s name before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” He said, “You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live.” Yahweh also said, “Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand on the rock. It will happen, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of […]


'No one has seen God at any time' (v.18) closely restates 'you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.' High volume and a near-citation level of verbal coherence; the Son's making-God-known answers the Sinai limitation.

He said, “You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live.”


Wisdom is commanded to 'pitch her tent (kataskēnōson) in Jacob,' the closest Second-Temple antecedent to the Word tabernacling among us (v.14). The tent-pitching verb plus the creation-agent identity makes Sirach 24 a primary source for the whole Prologue. High coherence and recurrence.

Then the Creator of all things gave me a commandment; And he that created me made my tabernacle to rest, And said, Let your tabernacle be in Jacob, And your inheritance in Israel.


'The law was given through Moses' (v.17) refers to the Sinai giving of the tablets 'written with the finger of God.' The Moses-law / Christ-grace antithesis is built on the Sinai law-giving as its foil. Secure availability and strong thematic coherence.

He gave to Moses, when he finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, stone tablets, written with God’s finger.


Moses' face shining with reflected glory after seeing God contrasts with the Son who is himself the glory and declares the Father (vv.14,18). The Sinai-radiance scene reinforces the Moses-versus-Word comparison; medium for absence of direct verbal borrowing here.

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


At Horeb Israel heard a voice but 'saw no form,' the unseen-God theme behind v.18. The motif of God unseen yet now declared by the Son coheres with John's Sinai contrast; medium confidence.

Yahweh spoke to you out of the midst of the fire: you heard the voice of words, but you saw no form; you only heard a voice.


Wisdom beside God as the delighting child/craftsman supports 'the one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father' (v.18), the intimate, eternal closeness of the agent to God. Coheres with the Wisdom substrate established in the opening; medium.

then I was the craftsman by his side. I was a delight day by day, always rejoicing before him,


Wisdom as the radiance of God's glory and image of his goodness underlies 'we saw his glory' and the Son as the one who makes the unseen God known (vv.14,18). Reinforces the glory/visibility theme; medium for conceptual rather than verbal link.

For she is a breath of the power of God, And a clear effluence of the glory of the Almighty; Therefore can nothing defiled find entrance into her. For she is an effulgence from everlasting light, And an unspotted mirror of the working of God, And an image of his goodness.


The 'grace and truth' (hesed-we-emet) divine-attribute formula recurs in Moses' intercession, strengthening recurrence of the Exodus 34:6 source behind v.14/17. Listed low because Exodus 34:6 is the primary locus; this is a secondary witness.

‘Yahweh is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.’


'Steadfast love and faithfulness meet together' pairs hesed and 'emet, the same word-pair behind 'grace and truth.' Faint and contested as a direct source, but evidences the recurrence of the formula in Israel's vocabulary.

Mercy and truth meet together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.


John explicitly quotes 'I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord' (v.23) with the formula 'as Isaiah the prophet said.' This is a formal citation: maximal volume and an attributed source. Thematic coherence with John's preparatory role is exact.

The voice of one who calls out, “Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God.


The priests' question 'Are you Elijah?' (v.21) invokes the promise that God will send Elijah before the great day of the LORD. The expectation is directly named, so the allusion is secure; John's denial plays against this eschatological script. High coherence.

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


'Are you the prophet?' (v.21) draws on Moses' promise that God would raise up 'a prophet like me,' a fixed eschatological category in Second-Temple Judaism. The interrogation triad (Christ/Elijah/the prophet) is built on this expectation. High availability and coherence.

Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from your midst, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him.


The messenger sent to prepare the way before the Lord stands behind both the Elijah question and the way-preparation quotation of v.23. Recurrence with Mal 4:5 strengthens the Elijah-forerunner background; medium since Isaiah 40 carries the explicit citation.

“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.


Elijah's wilderness/garb profile underlies why John is asked whether he is Elijah (v.21). Faint here (John's Gospel omits the camel-hair description) but coheres with the Elijah typology; low and somewhat contested in John specifically.

They answered him, “He was a hairy man, and wearing a leather belt around his waist.” He said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”


'Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world' (v.29) reads Jesus through the Passover lamb whose blood delivers Israel. John's later Passover chronology (Jesus dying as the lambs are slain, no bones broken) confirms this figural channel. High volume and thematic coherence.

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 according to the number of the souls; according to what everyone can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without defect, a male a year old. You […]


The Servant 'led like a lamb to the slaughter' who bears the sin of many is the strongest source for a sin-bearing Lamb (v.29), since the Passover lamb is not explicitly sin-removing. The combination of lamb imagery with sin-bearing points decisively to the Servant Song. High coherence.

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.


'God will provide himself the lamb' (the Aqedah) supplies a God-provided sacrificial lamb that became central in Second-Temple atonement reflection, coherent with 'the Lamb of God' (the lamb God provides). Medium because the verbal link is the divine-provision phrase rather than direct quotation.

Abraham said, “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they both went together.


'The Spirit of the LORD shall rest on him' undergirds the Spirit 'descending and remaining on him' (vv.32-33); the abiding (not transient) anointing marks the messianic endowment. High thematic coherence with the messianic identification that follows.

The Spirit of Yahweh will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh.


'My chosen, on whom I have put my Spirit' fuses the Servant with the Spirit-resting/abiding motif of vv.32-34, and 'Son of God' (v.34, with a known variant 'chosen one') strengthens the Servant link. High coherence between Spirit-endowed Servant and the baptismal attestation.

“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.


The Spirit hovering over the waters at creation, evoked by the Spirit descending over the baptismal waters as a dove (v.32), ties the Spirit-baptism to a new-creation motif consonant with the Prologue's Genesis framing. Medium: the dove-over-water image is the figural cue.

The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.


Noah's dove returning over the receding flood-waters offers a dove-over-water image often linked to the baptismal dove (v.32) and to new creation after judgment. Low and contested as a deliberate source, but recurrent in early Jewish-Christian dove symbolism.

He himself sent out a dove to see if the waters were abated from the surface of the ground, but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him into the ship, for the waters were on the surface of the whole earth. He put out his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ship. He waited yet another seven days; and again he sent the dove out of the ship. The dove came back to him at evening and, behold, in her mouth was a freshly […]


The daily Tamid lamb offered morning and evening provides another sacrificial-lamb backdrop for 'the Lamb of God' (v.29) alongside Passover and Isaiah 53. Low confidence; included for recurrence of cultic lamb imagery available to John.

“Now this is that which you shall offer on the altar: two lambs a year old day by day continually. The one lamb you shall offer in the morning; and the other lamb you shall offer at evening: and with the one lamb a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour mixed with the fourth part of a hin of beaten oil, and the fourth part of a hin of wine for a drink offering. The other lamb you shall offer at evening, and shall do to it according to the meal offering of […]


'I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter' echoes the innocent-victim lamb of v.29, reinforcing the Isaiah 53 sense. Faint and contested as an independent source but a genuine OT lamb-as-victim parallel.

But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter; and I didn’t know that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.


The repeated 'Behold, the Lamb of God' (v.36) re-applies the same Servant-lamb identification, the recurrence of which (vv.29,36) strengthens the Isaiah 53 reading under Hays' recurrence criterion. Medium as it is a restatement of the v.29 source.


Jesus' renaming of Simon to Cephas/Peter (v.42) follows the OT pattern of God renaming at covenant calling (Abram to Abraham). The name-change-as-vocation motif coheres with the call narrative; low because no single text is quoted.

Neither will your name any more be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.


Jacob renamed Israel after the encounter at the Jabbok is a second instance of the divine-renaming pattern behind Simon to Cephas (v.42), and anticipates the Jacob/Israel motifs that culminate in v.51. Low and contested as a direct source.

He said, “Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed.”


'You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man' (v.51) is an explicit re-reading of Jacob's ladder, with the verbs 'ascending and descending' lifted from the dream. John relocates the ladder onto the Son of Man, who becomes the bridge between heaven and earth. Maximal figural volume and coherence.

He dreamed. Behold, a stairway set upon the earth, and its top reached to heaven. Behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it.


Philip's 'him of whom Moses in the law... wrote' (v.45) identifies Jesus as the prophet-like-Moses, the figure promised in Moses' words. Secure availability and high coherence with the messianic-fulfillment claim that frames the disciple-gathering.

I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you. I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him.


'An Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit' (v.47) plays on Jacob, of whom Isaac said 'your brother came with deceit'; Nathanael is the true Israel without the guile that named Jacob. The Jacob contrast prepares directly for the Jacob's-ladder saying of v.51. Strong figural coherence and recurrence.

He said, “Your brother came with deceit, and has taken away your blessing.”


'Every man under his vine and under his fig tree' is the eschatological-peace idiom evoked by Nathanael 'under the fig tree' (v.48), suggesting a pious Israelite awaiting the messianic age, possibly studying Torah. Medium: the fig-tree setting is the cue, common to several peace texts.

But they will sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and no one will make them afraid: For the mouth of Yahweh of Armies has spoken.


'You will invite one another under the vine and under the fig tree,' the messianic-day promise, reinforces the 'under the fig tree' setting of v.48 as a sign of the dawning messianic peace Nathanael recognizes in his confession. Medium, recurrent with Micah 4:4.

In that day,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘you will invite every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree.’”


Nathanael's confession 'you are the Son of God! You are King of Israel!' (v.49) draws on the royal coronation oracle naming the Davidic king God's son. Strong coherence between Son-of-God and King titles; medium for the conceptual rather than verbal link.

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


The remnant of Israel 'shall do no injustice and speak no lies; nor shall a deceitful tongue be found' supplies the no-deceit ideal of the true Israelite applied to Nathanael (v.47). Coheres with the genuine-Israel motif; medium.

The remnant of Israel will not do iniquity, nor speak lies, neither will a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, for they will feed and lie down, and no one will make them afraid.”


'Blessed is the man... in whose spirit there is no deceit' offers the no-guile ideal behind 'in whom is no deceit' (v.47). Low and contested as a direct source but a genuine parallel to the guileless-Israelite commendation.

Blessed is the man to whom Yahweh doesn’t impute iniquity, in whose spirit there is no deceit.


The title 'Son of Man' coming with heaven (v.51) draws on the heavenly one 'like a son of man' who approaches the Ancient of Days. John fuses the Danielic Son of Man with the Jacob's-ladder vision; medium because the borrowing is the title and the opened-heaven setting rather than a quotation.

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.


Jacob's 'this is the gate of heaven' at Bethel undergirds 'heaven opened' (v.51), reinforcing the Bethel-ladder figural reading where the Son of Man is the locus of access to heaven. Medium, recurrent with Genesis 28:12.

He was afraid, and said, “How dreadful is this place! This is none other than God’s house, and this is the gate of heaven.”


'The heavens were opened and I saw visions of God' supplies the opened-heaven apocalyptic idiom of v.51. Low confidence: a standard visionary formula rather than a specific source, but coherent with the heavenly disclosure promised.

Now in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.


The eschatological promise that the mountains shall drip sweet wine and the hills flow with it stands behind Cana's superabundance (six jars of 20-30 gallons each become the best wine). Coherence is high: John frames the sign as the dawn of the messianic age in which the prophets' image of overflowing wine is realized. Availability and Recurrence of the wine-of-the-age topos across the prophets strengthen the echo.

“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the one treading grapes him who sows seed; and sweet wine will drip from the mountains, and flow from the hills. I will bring my people Israel back from captivity, and they will rebuild the ruined cities, and inhabit them; and they will plant vineyards, and drink wine from them. They shall also make gardens, and eat their fruit.


Joel's day-of-the-Lord vision of mountains dripping with new wine belongs to the same prophetic abundance-of-wine cluster that informs Cana. The figural logic is that Jesus' first sign inaugurates that promised day. Coherence with John's 'his hour' / eschatological framing supports the reading though the verbal contact is thematic not lexical.

It will happen in that day, that the mountains will drop down sweet wine, the hills will flow with milk, all the brooks of Judah will flow with waters, and a fountain will flow out from Yahweh’s house, and will water the valley of Shittim.


Isaiah's eschatological banquet on Zion of rich food and well-aged wines for all peoples is the messianic-feast type that Cana's wedding banquet enacts. Volume is moderate (banquet + choice wine); Coherence is strong since the ruler praises the 'good wine kept until now,' echoing the aged-wine motif. The wedding setting reinforces the feast typology.

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.


Jeremiah's restoration oracle promises radiance over the LORD's goodness, the grain, the wine, and the oil, with mourning turned to joy. The new-covenant abundance (same chapter as the new covenant) coheres with John's inaugural sign of joy and wine. The contact is thematic and the echo faint.

They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow to the goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.


Jacob's blessing of Judah, who 'washes his garments in wine' with eyes darker than wine, is a classic messianic-Davidic prophecy of wine-abundance attached to the coming ruler from Judah. Second-Temple readers (cf. Targums) read this messianically, so Availability is strong. Cana's prodigal wine figurally fulfills the Shiloh oracle's vinous excess.

Binding his foal to the vine, his donkey’s colt to the choice vine; he has washed his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. His eyes will be red with wine, his teeth white with milk.


The Song's wedding/erotic imagery of wine ('your love is better than wine,' the bridegroom and bride) supplies a nuptial-wine matrix that John's wedding sign may evoke, especially given the bridegroom motif. Volume is diffuse and the echo is faint and contested, but Coherence with John's broader bridegroom Christology (cf. 3:29) supports listing it.

I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Friends Eat, friends! Drink, yes, drink abundantly, beloved. Beloved


Isaiah names restored Zion 'married' (Beulah) and depicts God rejoicing over her as a bridegroom over a bride. The Cana wedding, where the bridegroom motif surfaces and Jesus implicitly assumes the true bridegroom's role, figurally enacts this nuptial covenant imagery. Coherence with John's bridegroom Christology strengthens the link.

You shall no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall your land any more be termed Desolate: but you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for Yahweh delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons shall marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you.


Hosea's promise that the LORD will betroth Israel to himself forever in righteousness and faithfulness is foundational to the YHWH-as-bridegroom typology activated at a wedding where Jesus quietly occupies the bridegroom's place. Availability and Recurrence of the divine-marriage theme support a figural echo. Hosea 2:21-22 also pairs betrothal with abundance of grain, wine, and oil.

I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in loving kindness, and in compassion. I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know Yahweh.


John explicitly notes the six stone jars were set 'after the Jews' way of purifying'; the Levitical purity code (clean/unclean, washings) is the institution being named. Volume is high (direct reference to the purification system) and Coherence is strong: Jesus transforms the water of ritual purification into the wine of the new age, signaling supersession of the old cleansing rites.

Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘These are the living things which you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth. Whatever parts the hoof, and is cloven-footed, and chews the cud among the animals, that you may eat. “‘Nevertheless these you shall not eat of those that chew the cud, or of those who part the hoof: the camel, because he chews the cud but doesn’t have a parted hoof, he is […]


The water of purification / red-heifer lustration ordinance is part of the specific 'purifying' system John references with the stone jars (stone vessels in particular resisted impurity per Second-Temple halakhah). Coherence supports it: the water-for-cleansing motif is precisely what Jesus repurposes. Slightly lower volume than Leviticus since John's phrase is general.

Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, “This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded. Tell the children of Israel to bring you a red heifer without spot, in which is no defect, and which was never yoked. You shall give her to Eleazar the priest, and he shall bring her outside of the camp, and one shall kill her before his face. Eleazar the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle her blood toward the front of the […]


The first Mosaic sign turned water into blood; John's first sign turns water into wine, a possible deliberate Moses/Jesus typological inversion (curse vs. joy). Coherence with John's broader Moses Christology (1:17) gives it some weight, but the contrast is subtle and the echo contested.

Thus says Yahweh, “In this you shall know that I am Yahweh. Behold, I will strike with the rod that is in my hand on the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. The fish that are in the river shall die, and the river shall become foul; and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink water from the river.”’” Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your rod, and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their […]


The sapiential exhortation to drink wine with a merry heart as God's gift frames wine as a sign of divine favor and joy, the affective register of Cana's abundance. Volume is low and the link diffuse; listed as a faint wisdom-tradition resonance.

Go your way—eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.


Ben Sira's praise of wine as gladness of heart 'created from the beginning for joy,' drunk in season, supplies a deuterocanonical wisdom backdrop to Cana's celebratory wine. Availability is solid (Second-Temple sapiential text); the echo is thematic and faint.

Wine is as good as life to men, If you drink it in its measure: What life is there to a man that is without wine? And it has been created to make men glad. Wine drunk in season and to satisfy Is joy of heart, and gladness of soul:


John 2:1 'on the third day' may complete John's opening week (day-counting from 1:29, 35, 43) evoking the seven-day creation framework that the Prologue's 'In the beginning' inaugurates, making Cana a new-creation climax. The echo is structural and contested but coherent with John's deliberate Genesis 1 architecture.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.


'On the third day' as a marker of restoration/raising ('on the third day he will raise us up that we may live before him') may color John's 'third day' at Cana, anticipating resurrection-glory language that returns at 2:19-22. Coherence with the chapter's later three-days-temple saying supports a faint thematic echo.

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


John 2:17 explicitly cites 'Zeal for your house will eat me up' (gegraptai), a verbatim quotation of Psalm 69:9a. Volume is maximal (formal citation), and Psalm 69 is a major Johannine passion testimony (cf. the vinegar of 19:28-29 from Ps 69:21), giving high Recurrence and Coherence within John's passion typology.

For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.


Zechariah's eschatological vision ends 'there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day' when all vessels in the temple become holy. Jesus' expulsion of the sellers and his 'do not make my Father's house a marketplace' directly enacts this oracle. Volume and Coherence are strong; the day-of-the-LORD purification of the temple is precisely the action depicted.

Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to Yahweh of Armies; and all those who sacrifice will come and take of them, and cook in them. In that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of Yahweh of Armies.


Malachi's prophecy that 'the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple' to purify the sons of Levi like a refiner is enacted as Jesus comes to the temple in judgment. Coherence is strong (sudden coming, purgation of temple commerce/cult) and Recurrence high in the gospels' temple theology. The refining-judgment frame fits the whip and overturning of tables.

“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; and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and […]


Hosea's 'I will drive them out of my house' for their wickedness offers a prophetic precedent for expulsion from God's house, resonating with Jesus throwing the merchants out of the temple. Volume is low and verbal contact partial; listed as a faint judgment-on-the-temple echo.

“All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house! I will love them no more. All their princes are rebels.


Ezekiel's vision of the new, purified eschatological temple (and the life-giving water flowing from it) stands behind Jesus' 'destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it,' interpreted as the temple of his body replacing the building. Coherence is strong with John's temple-replacement Christology; the figural new-temple typology supports a medium-confidence link.

In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was struck, in the same day, the hand of Yahweh was on me, and he brought me there. In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me down on a very high mountain, whereon was as it were the frame of a city on the south. He brought me there; and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance […]


Jeremiah's temple sermon denounces those who make the LORD's house 'a den of robbers'; Jesus' 'do not make my Father's house a marketplace' belongs to the same prophetic critique of commercializing/profaning the temple. The synoptics quote Jer 7:11 directly; John's wording diverges ('marketplace' vs. 'den of robbers') but the underlying allusion is strong.

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.


The Branch who 'shall build the temple of the LORD' may inform John's claim that Jesus will raise the temple in three days, identifying him as the messianic temple-builder. Coherence with the new-temple Christology supports it, but verbal contact is faint and the link contested.

and speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of Armies, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: and he shall grow up out of his place; and he shall build Yahweh’s temple; even he shall build Yahweh’s temple; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule on his throne; and he shall be a priest on his throne; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.


John dates the cleansing to 'the Passover of the Jews' (2:13), invoking the Exodus Passover institution that frames Jesus' whole Jerusalem ministry and ultimately his death as the true paschal lamb (cf. 19:36). Volume is moderate (explicit feast reference) and Coherence high within John's paschal Christology.

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 […]


Nehemiah's zealous cleansing of the temple chambers of Tobiah's goods provides a scriptural model of reforming zeal that purges the temple of intrusion, resonating with Jesus' 'zeal' and his expulsion of the traders. The echo is faint and typological rather than verbal.

and I came to Jerusalem, and understood the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, in preparing him a room in the courts of God’s house. It grieved me severely: therefore I threw all the household stuff of Tobiah out of the room. Then I commanded, and they cleansed the rooms: and there brought I again the vessels of God’s house, with the meal offerings and the frankincense.


'Holiness befits your house, O LORD, forevermore' undergirds the indignation at profaning the Father's house, the principle Jesus enforces. Volume is low and the connection conceptual; included as a faint sanctity-of-the-house resonance.

Your statutes stand firm. Holiness adorns your house, Yahweh, forever more.


'The LORD looks on the heart' while man looks on outward appearance is the classic text for divine knowledge of the inner person, directly behind 'he knew what was in man.' Volume and Coherence are strong: Jesus exercises the uniquely divine prerogative of reading hearts, a Johannine claim to his deity. The conceptual contact is precise.

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


'I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways' ascribes heart-searching to YHWH alone; John applies this to Jesus, who 'knew everyone' and needed no testimony about man. Coherence is high within John's high Christology; the divine heart-searcher motif is the operative background.

I, Yahweh, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.


The psalm's confession that the LORD searches and knows everything, discerning thoughts from afar before a word is spoken, is the paradigmatic statement of omniscient knowledge of persons that John attributes to Jesus. Volume and Coherence are strong; this is a leading text for the divine knowledge Jesus possesses.

Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You perceive my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but, behold, Yahweh, you know it altogether.


Solomon's temple prayer affirms that God alone 'knows the hearts of all the children of mankind.' Set against the temple context just preceding (2:13-22), Jesus' knowledge of all hearts pointedly claims the prerogative Solomon reserved to God alone, reinforcing the divine-knowledge Christology. Coherence with the chapter's temple frame strengthens it.

then hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and render to every man according to all his ways, whose heart you know; (for you, even you only, know the hearts of all the children of men;)


'O LORD of hosts, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind' is another heart-testing formula in the same cluster as 17:10; it reinforces the divine-omniscience background without distinct verbal contact of its own. Listed as a corroborating faint echo.

But, Yahweh of Armies, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, I shall see your vengeance on them; for to you have I revealed my cause.


Ben Sira's praise of the Most High who 'searches out the abyss and the human heart' and from whom no thought is hidden offers a deuterocanonical parallel to Jesus knowing what is in man. Availability is good; the echo is thematic, reinforcing the omniscience motif rather than supplying a direct source.

He searcheth out the deep, and the heart, And he has understanding of their cunning plans: For the Most High knows all knowledge, And he looks into the signs of the world, Declaring the things that are past, and the things that shall be, And revealing the traces of hidden things. No thought escapes him; There is not a word hid from him.


Being 'born of water and spirit' fuses the two halves of Ezekiel's new-covenant oracle: God sprinkles 'clean water' for cleansing and puts a 'new spirit' within. The water-then-spirit sequence and the regeneration theme give high volume and coherence; Jesus' rebuke that 'the teacher of Israel' should know this presumes a known prophetic text.

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them.


The wind that 'blows where it wants to' and the one 'born of the Spirit' echo Ezekiel's valley vision where the ruach/breath comes from the four winds to give life. The Hebrew ruach pun (wind/spirit/breath) underlies both Ezek 37 and John 3:8; high coherence with the new-creation/resurrection motif of new birth.

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


The new-covenant promise of an inward, Spirit-written law ('I will put my law within them') coheres with regeneration 'from above.' Recurrence of new-covenant texts (alongside Ezek 36-37) strengthens the cluster, though John makes no verbal quotation.

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 their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:


The 'water of cleansing' / sprinkling rite for purification may stand behind 'born of water,' especially given v.25's dispute 'about purification.' Faint and contested; the water imagery is more naturally Ezekiel's, but the purification context raises availability.

“For the unclean, they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin offering; and running water shall be poured into a vessel. A clean person shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the persons who were there, and on him who touched the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave. The clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day. On the seventh day, he shall […]


'As you do not know the way of the wind (ruach)... so you do not know the work of God' supplies the exact analogy of 3:8: the unknowable course of the wind/spirit mirrors the mystery of divine begetting in the womb. High coherence and a shared sapiential ruach-pun; verbal volume is moderate.

As you don’t know what is the way of the wind, nor how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child; even so you don’t know the work of God who does all.


The Psalm makes winds God's messengers and 'when you send forth your Spirit (ruach), they are created.' Resonates with wind/Spirit/new-creation in 3:5-8 but is faint and diffuse.

He lays the beams of his rooms in the waters. He makes the clouds his chariot. He walks on the wings of the wind. He makes his messengers winds; his servants flames of fire.


The Spirit/wind (ruach) hovering at creation undergirds 'born of the Spirit' as new creation; coheres with John's creation framing (1:1-3) but verbal contact with ch.3 is faint.

The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.


God breathing the breath of life to make the man a living being stands behind Spirit-begetting as the giving of new life; low volume, drawn in by the ruach/breath cluster of 3:6-8.

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


'Who has ascended to heaven and come down? ... What is his name, and his son's name?' is strikingly answered by 3:13 ('No one has ascended... but he who descended, the Son of Man'). High volume of shared ascent/descent language plus the 'son' motif; a recognized wisdom backdrop.

Who has ascended up into heaven, and descended? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has bound the waters in his garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son’s name, if you know?


'Who will ascend to heaven for us to bring it down?' frames revelation as something no human can fetch from heaven; 3:13 inverts this — the Son of Man alone has descended bearing heavenly things. Coherent revelation-from-above theme; moderate verbal contact.

It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?”


'Son of Man' coming with the clouds of heaven supplies the title and the heaven-earth movement that John reworks as descent/ascent. Recurrent Johannine Son-of-Man usage gives coherence, though here the motion is reversed.

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.


'Israel does not know, my people do not understand' may color Jesus' rebuke of 'the teacher of Israel' who does not understand (3:10). Faint thematic echo of Israel's failure to perceive.

The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib; but Israel doesn’t know, my people don’t consider.”


'We can hardly guess at what is on earth... but who has traced out what is in the heavens? Who has learned your counsel unless you have given wisdom and sent your holy spirit?' closely parallels 3:12's earthly-vs-heavenly things and the Spirit-given knowledge of 3:8-11. Strong conceptual coherence (Second-Temple availability).

And hardly do we divine the things that are on earth, And the things that are close at hand we find with labor; But the things that are in the heavens who ever yet traced out? And who ever gained knowledge of your counsel, except you gave wisdom, And sent your holy spirit from on high?


'I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One' immediately precedes the ascent question and reinforces the human inability to grasp heavenly things (3:12); faint, drawn in with v.4.

I have not learned wisdom, neither do I have the knowledge of the Holy One.


The explicit typological centerpiece: 'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.' Direct verbal and figural correspondence — the lifted bronze serpent that the snake-bitten looked to and lived prefigures the crucified Son giving eternal life to those who believe. Maximal volume and coherence.

Yahweh said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole. It shall happen, that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it on the pole. If a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the serpent of brass, he lived.


The Wisdom midrash on Numbers 21 clarifies that 'the one who turned toward it was saved, not by what was seen, but by you, the Savior of all' — exactly John's point that the serpent saves by directing faith beyond itself to God. Strong Second-Temple interpretive parallel, high coherence with 3:15's believing-and-living.

For even when terrible raging of wild beasts came upon your people, And they were perishing by the bites of crooked serpents, Your wrath continued not to the uttermost; But for admonition were they troubled for a short space, Having a token of salvation, To put them in remembrance of the commandment of your law: For he that turned toward it was not saved because of that which was seen, But because of you, the Saviour of all.


The Servant who is 'lifted up (hypsothesetai) and exalted' supplies the double sense of John's hypsoo (crucified/exalted) Son of Man. LXX verbal contact with the lifting-up vocabulary that John deploys here and in 8:28; 12:32-34.

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


Hezekiah's destruction of the bronze serpent (Nehushtan) is part of the object's canonical afterlife and may inform the careful 'not the bronze itself but faith' nuance; faint, supplementary to Num 21.

He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah: and he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for in those days the children of Israel burned incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan.


'God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son' echoes the Aqedah where God says of Isaac 'your son, your only son, whom you love' and credits Abraham who 'did not withhold' him. The LXX agapetos / monogenes-equivalent and the giving of the beloved only son give strong figural volume and coherence.

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


'The light has come into the world' and nations coming to the light coheres with Isaiah's 'Arise, shine, for your light has come.' Recurrent Johannine light-coming-into-the-world motif (cf. 1:9; 8:12); moderate verbal contact.

“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and Yahweh’s glory is risen on you. For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but Yahweh will arise on you, and his glory shall be seen on you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.


The evildoers who 'rebel against the light,' who do their deeds in darkness and for whom 'morning is like deep darkness,' closely parallel 3:19-20: those who do evil hate the light lest their works be exposed. Strong thematic coherence of light/darkness moral exposure.

“These are of those who rebel against the light. They don’t know its ways, nor stay in its paths. The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief. The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye shall see me.’ He disguises his face. In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don’t know the light. For the morning is to all of them like thick […]


'The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light' supplies the light-into-darkness frame of 3:19; faint, part of the broader Isaianic light cluster.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who lived in the land of the shadow of death, on them the light has shined.


'Whoever finds me finds life... all who hate me love death' parallels the believe-and-live / hate-the-light-love-darkness antithesis of 3:16-20 in a wisdom register; faint.

For whoever finds me, finds life, and will obtain favor from Yahweh. But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul. All those who hate me love death.”


The salvific 'looking' that brings life carries over from 3:14-15 into the believing-for-eternal-life of 3:15-16; low independent volume here, recurrence within the pericope cluster.

But for admonition were they troubled for a short space, Having a token of salvation, To put them in remembrance of the commandment of your law: For he that turned toward it was not saved because of that which was seen, But because of you, the Saviour of all.


'Their works were evil' (3:19) faintly recalls the flood-judgment verdict that human deeds were continually evil; low volume, judgment register.

Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.


'The voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride' as the sound of restored joy underlies the Baptist as 'friend of the bridegroom' who rejoices at the bridegroom's voice (3:29). Coherent eschatological-wedding-joy motif; moderate verbal contact via 'voice of the bridegroom.'

the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, Give thanks to Yahweh of Armies, for Yahweh is good, for his loving kindness endures forever; who bring thanksgiving into Yahweh’s house. For I will cause the captivity of the land to return as at the first, says Yahweh.


'As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you' establishes God/Messiah as bridegroom to his people; John casts Jesus as that bridegroom 'who has the bride.' Strong thematic coherence within the OT marriage-of-YHWH typology.

For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons shall marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you.


The bridegroom and his companions/'friends' at the wedding feast resonate with the 'friend of the bridegroom' figure; faint, supplies the nuptial-companion role.

I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Friends Eat, friends! Drink, yes, drink abundantly, beloved. Beloved


YHWH betrothing Israel to himself stands within the marriage typology that makes the messianic-bridegroom image legible; faint background, no verbal contact.

I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in loving kindness, and in compassion. I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know Yahweh.


'A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven' (3:27) coheres with the sapiential/apocalyptic axiom that God gives and removes authority (cf. Dan 2:21,37); faint, conceptual.

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


'He who comes from above/from heaven is above all' recapitulates the ascent/descent and heavenly-origin question of Prov 30:4 already invoked at 3:13; recurrence within the chapter strengthens the link.

Who has ascended up into heaven, and descended? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has bound the waters in his garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son’s name, if you know?


'God gives the Spirit without measure' (3:34) contrasts/develops the Spirit resting on the messianic shoot; Isaiah's lavish Spirit-endowment of the anointed coheres with the immeasurable Spirit on the sent one. Moderate thematic volume.

The Spirit of Yahweh will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh.


'He whom God has sent speaks the words of God' (3:34) echoes the promised prophet-like-Moses in whose mouth God puts his words. Coherent with John's sent-one-speaks-God's-words theme; moderate verbal contact.

I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you. I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him.


'The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand' (3:35) recapitulates the beloved-Son giving of 3:16 / the Aqedah; recurrence within the chapter, low independent volume.


'Given all things into his hand' resonates with the Son of Man given dominion and all peoples serving him; faint, draws on the Danielic enthronement already present at 3:13-14.

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.


The wrath that 'remains' on the one who disobeys the Son (3:36) faintly echoes 'kiss the Son lest he be angry'—submit to the Son or face wrath. Low verbal volume, coherent judgment register.

Give sincere homage to the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish on the way, for his wrath will soon be kindled. Blessed are all those who take refuge in him.


'The one who believes... has life' vs. the disobedient who 'won't see life' faintly mirrors the righteous living by faith over against the unbelieving; faint, conceptual.

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


Sychar lies near the plot of ground at Shechem that Jacob purchased; v5's 'parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph' anchors the scene in this patriarchal land-grant. High Volume (named geography) and Coherence with John's Jacob/Joseph framing.

Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan Aram; and encamped before the city. He bought the parcel of ground where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred pieces of money.


Jacob's deathbed gift of an extra 'portion' (shekem/Shechem) to Joseph is the explicit referent of v5, where the well stands on land Jacob gave Joseph. Strong verbal-thematic Coherence; the giving-of-portion motif underwrites the woman's later 'our father Jacob who gave us the well.'

Moreover I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.”


Joseph's bones were buried in the parcel at Shechem that Jacob bought, the same patriarchal plot John names. Availability and Coherence are strong; it reinforces the Jacob-Joseph-Shechem matrix even if John cites no text.

They buried the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. They became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.


The classic betrothal type-scene: a man journeys, sits/stops at a well, a woman comes to draw, water is given, she runs to tell her household. v6 'sat down by the well' mirrors Jacob meeting Rachel at the well. High Recurrence (three OT instances) and Volume; the reader primed for betrothal finds a startling inversion.

Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the children of the east. He looked, and behold, a well in the field, and, behold, three flocks of sheep lying there by it. For out of that well they watered the flocks. The stone on the well’s mouth was large. There all the flocks were gathered. They rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again on the well’s mouth in its place. Jacob said to them, “My […]


The Rebekah betrothal scene at the well: servant asks 'give me a drink,' woman draws, kinship and marriage follow. John's scene reuses the well-meeting template down to the request for water (v7). Strong Volume and Recurrence; coheres with the type-scene channel John exploits.

The servant took ten camels, of his master’s camels, and departed, having a variety of good things of his master’s with him. He arose, and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor. He made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at the time of evening, the time that women go out to draw water. He said, “Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham. Behold, I am standing […]


Moses, a stranger in foreign territory (Midian), sits by a well where women come to draw; betrothal to Zipporah follows. As the third betrothal-at-well scene it raises Recurrence, strengthening the type even if the verbal contact with John is looser than Genesis 24/29.

Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and lived in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. The shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. When they came to Reuel, their father, he said, “How is it that you […]


Eliezer's 'Let me drink, I pray thee' to Rebekah at the well is verbally echoed by Jesus' 'Give me a drink' (v7), continuing the betrothal type-scene into the dialogue itself. Volume is moderate (short shared phrase) but Coherence with the well-meeting frame is high.

The servant ran to meet her, and said, “Please give me a drink, a little water from your pitcher.”


Israel forsook the LORD, 'the fountain of living waters,' for broken cisterns; Jesus offers the 'living water' (hydor zon) the woman cannot draw from a deep well. High Volume (rare exact phrase 'living water/fountain of living waters') and Coherence: Jesus is the true fountain over against a cistern that cannot hold.

“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.


Those who forsake the LORD have forsaken 'the fountain of living waters'; the doubled Jeremianic phrase raises Recurrence and makes the divine self-identification as living-water source the most likely source-pool for v10-14.

Yahweh, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be disappointed. Those who depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken Yahweh, the spring of living waters.


On the eschatological day 'living waters shall go out from Jerusalem.' Jesus relocates that eschatological living water into himself given to a Samaritan, fitting John's realized-eschatology and the 'hour comes and now is' just ahead. Moderate Volume, strong thematic Coherence.

It will happen in that day, that living waters will go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the western sea; in summer and in winter will it be.


'With joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation' joins drawing water (the woman's task) to salvation (v22 'salvation is from the Jews'). Coherence is good; the drawing-water verb links the literal and figural planes.

Therefore with joy you will draw water out of the wells of salvation.


'Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters... without money' parallels Jesus' free 'gift of God' (v10) of water that ends thirst (v14). Strong Coherence with John's thirst/gift language; moderate Volume.

“Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.


The blessed will be 'like a spring of water, whose waters fail not' — the interior, never-failing spring matches v14's 'well of water springing up to eternal life.' Coherence high on the perpetual-inner-spring image; Volume modest.

and Yahweh will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in dry places, and make strong your bones; and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters don’t fail.


The redeemed 'shall not hunger nor thirst,' for God leads them by springs of water — paralleling 'never thirst again' (v14). Faint, but coherent with the never-thirst promise.

They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun strike them: for he who has mercy on them will lead them, even by springs of water he will guide them.


The life-giving river flowing from the temple, deepening and bringing life, is a leading source for NT living-water imagery. John makes Jesus the temple-source of the eschatological water; moderate Volume, strong Coherence with the temple/water/life nexus.

He brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward; (for the forefront of the house was toward the east;) and the waters came down from under, from the right side of the house, on the south of the altar. Then he brought me out by the way of the gate northward, and led me round by the way outside to the outer gate, by the way of the gate that looks toward the east; and behold, there ran […]


'With you is the fountain of life' grounds the divine-fountain motif; Jesus' gift becomes 'a well of water springing up to eternal life' (v14). Coherence with the life-fountain image is high; Volume modest.

For with you is the spring of life. In your light shall we see light.


'The wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook' and Proverbs' fountain-of-life sayings supply the sapiential backdrop for water = life/wisdom. Faint verbal contact; contributes to the broader well/fountain field.

The words of a man’s mouth are like deep waters. The fountain of wisdom is like a flowing brook.


The beloved is 'a well of living waters' — a rare exact match to 'living water,' and, given the betrothal type-scene already in play, a thematically apt nuptial overtone. Volume on the phrase is notable but the connection is contested.

a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, flowing streams from Lebanon. Beloved


Isaac's servants find 'a well of springing water' (be'er mayim chayyim) — the same idiom rendered 'well of water springing up' in v14, set again in patriarchal well-digging. Reinforces the patriarchal-well + living-water overlap.

Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.


Wisdom says 'those who drink me will thirst for more'; Jesus inverts it — whoever drinks his water 'will never thirst again' (v14). Likely deliberate contrast with the sapiential tradition; Availability secure as Second-Temple deuterocanon.

They that eat me will yet be hungry; And those who drink me will yet be thirsty.


The Samaritans were resettled foreign peoples who 'feared the LORD and served their own gods'; the woman's 'five husbands' has long been read as a figure for this syncretism (Josephus counts five settler nations/deities). Coherence with John's Samaritan setting is high, though the allegory of the number is debated.

The king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Avva, and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria, and lived in the cities of it. So it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they didn’t fear Yahweh: therefore Yahweh sent lions among them, which killed some of them. Therefore they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The […]


Israel as the adulterous wife pursuing many lovers/baalim supplies the prophetic marriage-and-apostasy grammar behind the husbands motif. Faint and contested, but coherent with reading the woman's marital history as covenantal figure.

Contend with your mother! Contend, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her prostitution from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts; Lest I strip her naked, and make her bare as in the day that she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst. Indeed, on her children I will have no mercy; for they are children of unfaithfulness; For their mother has played […]


The prophet as 'seer' who knows hidden things lies behind the woman's 'I perceive you are a prophet' (v19) after Jesus discloses her secret. Faint lexical contact; supports the prophet-recognition motif.

(In earlier times in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus he said, “Come, and let us go to the seer”; for he who is now called a prophet was before called a Seer.)


The blessing was set on Mount Gerizim, the Samaritan holy mountain the woman means by 'this mountain' (v20). High Volume and Availability: the Gerizim/Jerusalem dispute is the precise OT fault-line John dramatizes.

It shall happen, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you go to possess it, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal.


Six tribes stand on Gerizim to pronounce blessing, grounding the Samaritan claim that 'our fathers worshiped in this mountain.' Coheres with v20; moderate Volume.

“These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you have passed over the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.


Worship is to be at 'the place the LORD shall choose,' the Deuteronomic charter behind the Jewish claim that 'in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship' (v20). High Coherence: Jesus transcends the very 'place' debate this text founds (v21-23).

But to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, you shall seek his habitation, and there you shall come. There you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, your vows, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. There you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and […]


Moses promised a prophet 'like me' who would speak all God commands; the Samaritan Taheb expectation rests here, matching the woman's 'when Messiah comes he will declare to us all things' (v25). High Coherence with Samaritan messianism and Jesus' 'I am he' (v26).

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


'My people shall know my name... that I am he that speaks' supplies the divine 'I am he' (ego eimi ho lalon) Jesus uses in v26, knitting revelation-of-name to direct speech. Volume is strong on the unusual 'he that speaks / I am he' formula.

Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore they shall know in that day that I am he who speaks; behold, it is I.”