'concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sake' (v.28) draws on Deuteronomy's election theology: 'because the LORD loved you... and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers.' The love-of-Israel-for-the-fathers'-sake is the Deuteronomic ground Paul invokes.

Yahweh didn’t set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples: but because Yahweh loves you, and because he desires to keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, Yahweh has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.


'The LORD had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them' directly undergirds v.28's 'beloved for the fathers' sake' and v.29's irrevocable calling. Pairs with Deut 7:7-8 as the election-of-the-patriarchs source.

Only Yahweh had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples, as at this day.


'The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable' (v.29) coheres with Balaam's oracle that God 'is not a man, that he should lie... has he said, and will he not do it?'—the unchangeableness of God's word toward Israel. Faint thematic support.

God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?


Verbatim quotation (v.34): 'For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has been his counselor?' from Isa 40:13 LXX ('who has known the mind of the LORD, and who has been his counselor that he might instruct him?'). Caps the doxology on the unsearchability of God's wisdom.

Who has directed the Spirit of Yahweh, or has taught him as his counselor?


Quotation (v.35): 'Or who has first given to him, and it will be repaid to him again?' rendering Job 41:11 ('who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under heaven is mine'). Paul follows a Hebrew-leaning form (the LXX differs), asserting God's unindebted sovereignty.

Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the heavens is mine.


'How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out' (v.33) borrows Isaiah's 'my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways... as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways.' The inscrutable 'ways' of God is the shared figure, and Isa 40-55 supplies the doxology's whole register.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” says Yahweh. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.


'Who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number' resonates with v.33's 'unsearchable judgments... past tracing out.' Coheres with the Job-framed doxology that closes with the Job 41:11 citation.

who does great things that can’t be fathomed, marvelous things without number;


'Who does great things past finding out, yes, marvelous things without number' parallels v.33's untraceable ways of God. Faint reinforcement of the Joban wisdom backdrop to the doxology.

He does great things past finding out; yes, marvelous things without number.


'Have you heard the secret counsel of God?'—the rhetorical challenge to anyone claiming to be God's counselor—anticipates v.34's 'who has been his counselor?' alongside the primary Isa 40:13 quotation.

Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?


'For what man can know the counsel of God? Or who can conceive what the Lord wills?' (deuterocanonical) closely parallels v.34's question and likely stands in the same wisdom-doxology stream Paul draws on; some see it as a mediating source for the Isa 40:13 citation.

For what man will know the counsel of God? Or who will conceive what the Lord willeth?


'Who has stood in the council of the LORD, that he should perceive and hear his word?' faintly underlies v.34's 'who has been his counselor?'—the prophetic topos of no human admittance to the divine council.

For who has stood in the council of Yahweh, that he should perceive and hear his word? who has marked my word, and heard it?


"Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God" reuses the technical cultic vocabulary of the burnt offering, which must be presented/brought 'acceptable before the LORD' (LXX dekton). Paul figurally transposes the Levitical offering from animal victim to the embodied self.

“‘If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without defect. He shall offer it at the door of the Tent of Meeting, that he may be accepted before Yahweh. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.


The Psalm's claim that God does not delight in animal sacrifice but in 'a broken spirit' anticipates Paul's redefinition of true worship (logike latreia) as the offering of the whole self rather than the slain victim.

For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.


'To obey is better than sacrifice' belongs to the prophetic stream that internalizes and ethicizes cult; Paul's 'reasonable/spiritual service' redirects sacrifice toward obedient self-presentation in the same key.

Samuel said, “Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of Yahweh? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.


'I desire mercy and not sacrifice' is part of the prophetic critique that grounds Paul's reframing of worship as embodied, merciful obedience rather than ritual offering.

For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.


Micah's rhetorical rejection of burnt offerings in favor of doing justice and walking humbly parallels Paul's contrast between cultic sacrifice and 'living sacrifice' as the true service God requires.

How shall I come before Yahweh, and bow myself before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams? With tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my disobedience? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?


The promise of a 'new heart and a new spirit' stands behind 'be transformed by the renewing of your mind'; the eschatological interior renewal of the prophets is here applied to the believing community.

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.


The new-covenant law written on the heart/mind (LXX dianoia) coheres with the 'renewing of the mind' that enables one to discern God's will; faint verbal contact via mind/heart-renewal.

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:


Discerning and doing 'the good and acceptable and perfect will of God' echoes Deuteronomy's insistence that God's commandment is knowable and doable, internalized in heart and mouth — a theme Paul invokes nearby in Romans 10.

For this commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you or too distant. 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?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do […]


'Not to think of himself more highly than he ought' draws on the wisdom warning 'Be not wise in your own eyes'; the same maxim returns explicitly at 12:16, framing the pericope's call to sober self-estimation.

Don’t be wise in your own eyes. Fear Yahweh, and depart from evil.


'Do you see a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope for a fool' supplies the proverbial backdrop for Paul's exhortation against inflated self-regard ('think reasonably').

Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.


Sirach's wisdom that 'pride is hateful before the Lord and before men' is a Second Temple parallel to Paul's call not to over-rate oneself but to measure by the faith God apportions.

Pride is hateful before the Lord and before men; And in the judgement of both will unrighteousness err.


12:19 cites with the formula 'it is written': 'Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.' The wording reflects the Song of Moses (with a form closer to the Targum/Hebrew than LXX), making divine retribution the ground for renouncing personal revenge.

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


12:20 quotes nearly verbatim: 'If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing so you will heap coals of fire on his head.' Paul takes over the LXX wisdom saying whole as the positive counterpart to renounced vengeance.

If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink: for you will heap coals of fire on his head, and Yahweh will reward you.


'You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge... you shall love your neighbor' is the holiness-code substratum of the whole love-section: 'let love be without hypocrisy,' 'do not avenge yourselves,' and the love of brothers all draw on this command Paul elsewhere makes the summary of the law (13:9).

“‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.


'Abhor that which is evil; cling to that which is good' (12:9) closely renders the prophetic imperative 'Hate evil and love good'; the antithetical evil/good pairing matches Amos's covenant ethics.

Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”


'Depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it' underlies both 'abhor evil... cling to good' (12:9) and 'be at peace with all men' (12:18); the twin evil-shunning and peace-pursuing maxims are reflected together.

Depart from evil, and do good. seek peace, and pursue it.


'You who love the LORD, hate evil' offers a further scriptural pairing of love and abhorrence of evil behind 12:9.

You who love Yahweh, hate evil. He preserves the souls of his saints. He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.


'Do not be wise in your own conceits' (12:16) reproduces 'Be not wise in your own eyes' (LXX), the same proverb that grounded 12:3; here it caps the call to humble association with the lowly.


'Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes' reinforces the prophetic condemnation of self-conceit that Paul forbids in 12:16.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!


'Do not say, I will repay evil; wait for the LORD and he will save you' is the wisdom source for 'Repay no one evil for evil' (12:17) joined to leaving wrath to God (12:19) — the Proverb already links non-retaliation with reliance on divine vindication.

Don’t say, “I will pay back evil.” Wait for Yahweh, and he will save you.


'Do not say, I will do to him as he has done to me; I will pay the man back for what he has done' directly parallels the prohibition of returning evil for evil in 12:17.

Don’t say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will render to the man according to his work.”


'Respect what is honorable in the sight of all men' (12:17) echoes 'find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man' (LXX Prov 3:4), the wisdom ideal of conduct visibly good before others.

So you will find favor, and good understanding in the sight of God and man.


'God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble' undergirds 'associate with the humble; do not be high-minded' (12:16); the humility motif is the same wisdom orientation James and 1 Peter also draw from this verse.

Surely he mocks the mockers, but he gives grace to the humble.

The Lord resists the proud; but he gives grace to the humble.


'Do not fail those who weep, but mourn with those who mourn' is a strikingly close Second Temple parallel to 'weep with those who weep' (12:15); a wisdom maxim of empathetic solidarity rather than a quotation.

Be not lacking to those who weep; And mourn with those who mourn.


'Did I not weep for him whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the poor?' anticipates the compassionate mourning-with-the-mourner of 12:15.

Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy?


The psalmist's mourning and prayer for his persecutors ('I afflicted myself... I went about as one who laments for his mother') parallels both 'weep with those who weep' (12:15) and 'bless those who persecute you' (12:14).

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I afflicted my soul with fasting. My prayer returned into my own bosom. I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother.


The command to love the resident alien 'as yourself' grounds the welcome of strangers behind 'given to hospitality' (12:13) within the same holiness-code love ethic that governs the pericope.

The stranger who lives as a foreigner with you shall be to you as the native-born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you lived as foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.


Abraham's hospitality to the three visitors is the paradigm narrative of welcome that informs the early-Christian virtue 'given to hospitality' (12:13).

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 greater you are, the more you must humble yourself... what is committed to you, attend to in humility' parallels 'do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble' (12:16) as Second Temple humility instruction.

The greater you are, humble yourself the more, And you will find favor before the Lord. For great is the potency of the Lord, And he is glorified of those who are lowly.


'O LORD, God of vengeance' confirms that retribution belongs to God alone — the theological premise of 12:19 that Paul anchors in Deuteronomy 32:35; possible secondary resonance.

Yahweh, you God to whom vengeance belongs, you God to whom vengeance belongs, shine out.


David's refusal to harm Saul — 'May the LORD avenge me on you, but my hand shall not be against you' — is a narrative enactment of leaving vengeance to God and not repaying evil for evil (12:17, 19).

May Yahweh judge between me and you, and may Yahweh avenge me of you; but my hand shall not be on you.


Paul's axiom 'there is no authority except from God, and those who exist are ordained by God' restates Daniel's hymn that God 'changes the times and the seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings.' Strong thematic and conceptual borrowing: the establishment and deposing of rulers is God's act, the theological ground for v.1.

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


'The Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will' (cf. 4:25, 4:32) is the Danielic doctrine that earthly dominion is conferred by God, directly underwriting 'ordained by God' and 'a servant of God.'

The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones; to the intent that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will, and sets up over it the lowest of men.


Wisdom declares 'By me kings reign, and rulers decree justice; by me princes rule.' The claim that legitimate rule derives from God and exists to commend the good (v.3) closely tracks this sapiential formula.

By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me princes rule; nobles, and all the righteous rulers of the earth.


Address to rulers: 'your dominion was given you from the Lord, and your sovereignty from the Most High, who will search out your works.' This Second Temple text gives the nearest verbal-conceptual parallel to vv.1-4 (authority delegated by God; rulers accountable as God's ministers). Many read Romans 13 as engaging precisely this Hellenistic-Jewish political theology.

Hear therefore, you kings, and understand; Learn, you judges of the ends of the earth: Give ear, you that have dominion over much people, And make your boast in multitudes of nations. Because your dominion was given you from the Lord, And your sovereignty from the Most High; Who will search out your works, And will make inquisition of your counsels:


Rulers are called 'servants/ministers of his kingdom' who will be judged for failing to govern rightly — parallel to Paul's repeated 'servant of God' (diakonos/leitourgos, vv.4,6) and the threat of wrath upon wrongdoers.

Because being officers of his kingdom you did not judge aright, Neither kept you law, nor walked after the counsel of God. Awfully and swiftly will he come upon you; Because a stern judgement befalleth those who are in high place:


'The government of the earth is in the hand of the Lord, and over it he will raise up the right leader for the time' — Ben Sira's statement that political authority and its incumbents are God-appointed coheres tightly with vv.1-2.

In the hand of the Lord is the authority of the earth; And in due time he will raise up over it one that is profitable.


God: 'I have made the earth... and I give it to whomever it seems right to me. Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar... my servant.' A pagan king is called God's 'servant' and his rule is divinely ordained — striking precedent for calling the (Roman) ruler 'a servant of God' (vv.4,6).

I have made the earth, the men and the animals that are on the surface of the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm; and I give it to whom it seems right to me. Now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the animals of the field also have I given him to serve him.


'Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you... and pray to the LORD on its behalf' — the exilic posture of submission to and cooperation with a foreign government anticipates Paul's counsel of subjection, taxes, and honor (vv.5-7).

Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to Yahweh for it; for in its peace you shall have peace.


'My son, fear the LORD and the king' pairs reverence for God with honor due the ruler — directly behind the closing exhortation to render 'respect to whom respect, honor to whom honor' (v.7).

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


'Keep the king's command... whoever keeps a command will not experience harm' — wisdom on prudent obedience to royal authority parallels Paul's 'be in subjection... do good and you will have praise' (vv.3-5).

I say, “Keep the king’s command!” because of the oath to God. Don’t be hasty to go out of his presence. Don’t persist in an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him, for the king’s word is supreme. Who can say to him, “What are you doing?” Whoever keeps the commandment shall not come to harm, and his wise heart will know the time and procedure.


'You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people' — Torah pairs honoring God with not dishonoring the civil authority, an antecedent to 'he who resists the authority withstands the ordinance of God' (v.2) and 'honor to whom honor' (v.7).

“You shall not blaspheme God, nor curse a ruler of your people.


'Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed' — the foundational warrant for human authority to execute lethal justice stands behind 'he does not bear the sword in vain... an avenger for wrath' (v.4).

Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his own image.


'It is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another' — God's sovereignty over the rise and fall of rulers undergirds 'those who exist are ordained by God' (v.1).

But God is the judge. He puts down one, and lifts up another.


David's doxology: 'Yours is the kingdom, O LORD... power and might are in your hand.' The conviction that all rule belongs to and flows from God is the broader scriptural matrix for vv.1-2.

Yours, Yahweh, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty! For all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, Yahweh, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all; and in your hand is power and might; and it is in your hand to make great, and to give strength to all.


God names the Persian Cyrus 'his anointed' and uses a pagan emperor as instrument of his purposes — a figural precedent for treating the Roman magistrate as 'God's servant' (vv.4,6) without the ruler's knowledge of God.

Thus says Yahweh to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him, and strip kings of their armor; to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut:


Verbatim citation of the second-table Decalogue commandments: 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not covet.' Paul lists adultery before murder, following the Septuagint order of Deuteronomy 5 (and Exodus 20 LXX manuscripts).

“You shall not murder. “You shall not commit adultery. “You shall not steal. “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”


The Deuteronomic recension of the same commandments; the LXX of Deuteronomy 5 places adultery before murder, matching Paul's sequence in v.9, so this is the likely proximate text.

“You shall not murder. “You shall not commit adultery. “You shall not steal. “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”


Explicit verbatim quotation: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' which Paul names as the saying in which all the commandments are 'summed up.' The interpretive move (love of neighbor as the epitome of the law) recurs in Romans (cf. 13:10) and Galatians 5:14.

“‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.


v.10 'Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law' continues to expound the same Levitical command, drawing out its negative corollary as the substance of all the prohibitions just cited.


'He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head' — the divine-warrior imagery of donning protective armor underlies 'put on the armor of light' (v.12) and 'put on the Lord Jesus Christ' (v.14). Paul develops this same Isaianic armor motif at Ephesians 6 and 1 Thessalonians 5:8.

He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle.


'He will put on righteousness as a breastplate, and wear impartial justice as a helmet' — this Second Temple reworking of Isaiah 59:17 stands in the same stream feeding Paul's 'put on the armor of light' (v.12).

He will put on righteousness as a breastplate, And will array himself with judgement unfeigned as with a helmet; He will take holiness as an invincible shield,


'Arise, shine, for your light has come... darkness shall cover the earth... but the LORD will arise upon you' — the dawning of eschatological light dispelling darkness parallels 'the night is far gone, the day is near' and the light/darkness antithesis of vv.12-13.

“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.


'Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments' — combines the summons to wake and the imperative to 'put on,' both present in Paul's 'awaken out of sleep' (v.11) and 'put on the armor of light' / 'put on the Lord Jesus Christ' (vv.12,14).

Awake, awake, put on your strength, Zion; put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.


'Rouse yourself, rouse yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem' — the prophetic call to awaken to the hour of salvation parallels 'it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep' (v.11).

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


'The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light' — the night-to-day, darkness-to-light reversal of vv.12-13 resonates with this classic salvation-light oracle.

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.


'He has clothed me with the garments of salvation... as a bridegroom decks himself' — the salvific 'putting on' of clothing as a figure for new status anticipates 'put on the Lord Jesus Christ' (v.14).

I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.


'The sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings' — the dawning day of salvation coheres with 'the day is near' (v.12) and the nearness of salvation (v.11).

But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out, and leap like calves of the stall.


'Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust' — eschatological awakening from sleep/death as a figure of salvation faintly parallels 'awaken out of sleep' (v.11).

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


Those who 'rebel against the light' and work evil under cover of night/darkness anticipate 'the works of darkness' (v.12) contrasted with walking properly 'as in the day' (v.13).

“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 […]


'Be not among drunkards... for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty' — sapiential warning against carousing and drunkenness behind 'not in reveling and drunkenness' (v.13).

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


Woe to those who 'run after strong drink... till wine inflames them' — prophetic censure of revelry and drunkenness parallels the vice-list of v.13.

Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; who stay late into the night, until wine inflames them!


Paul's explicit formula-citation in 14:11 ('it is written, As I live, says the Lord, to me every knee will bow, every tongue will confess to God') quotes Isaiah 45:23 LXX. In Isaiah the universal bowing and swearing/confessing is rendered to YHWH alone as the only God and Savior; Paul deploys it to ground the certainty of universal accountability at the divine judgment seat. The same verse recurs at Philippians 2:10-11, showing Pauline thematic recurrence.

I have sworn by myself, the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and will not return, that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath.


The introductory divine-oath formula 'As I live, says the Lord' (zōn egō legei kyrios) prefixed to the Isaiah 45 quotation is not in Isaiah 45:23 itself; it is the LXX oath formula 'as I live' (ζῶ ἐγώ) characteristic of Numbers 14:21,28 and Ezekiel. Paul (or his Vorlage) conflates the oath formula with the Isaiah quotation to heighten its solemnity as a guarantee of universal judgment.

but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with Yahweh’s glory;


An alternative/complementary source for the prefixed oath 'As I live, says the Lord': Isaiah 49:18 ('As I live, says the LORD') stands within the same section of Isaiah as 45:23, making it a plausible internal-Isaianic source for the conflated formula rather than the Numbers/Ezekiel oath stock.

Lift up your eyes all around, and see: all these gather themselves together, and come to you. As I live,” says Yahweh, “you shall surely clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament, and dress yourself with them, like a bride.


Ezekiel is the densest concentration of the 'As I live, says the Lord' oath (Ezekiel 5:11; 14:16; 16:48; 33:11, etc.). The recurrence of the formula there may stand behind the LXX phrasing Paul attaches to the Isaiah citation; faint and not pointed to a single verse.

Therefore as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore will I also diminish you; neither shall my eye spare, and I also will have no pity.


The 'weak' eating only vegetables (lachana, 14:2) recalls the original Edenic vegetarian diet granted to humanity (Genesis 1:29, every seed-bearing plant for food). The contrast of vegetable-only vs. eating-all-things may evoke the pre-Noahic dietary order; thematic and faint, not verbal.

God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food.


The position that 'one has faith to eat all things' (panta phagein, 14:2) echoes the post-flood Noahic grant: 'Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; as the green plants I gave you everything' (Genesis 9:3). Paul's 'all things are clean' (14:14,20) presupposes this universal grant of food over against later dietary restriction.

Every moving thing that lives will be food for you. As I gave you the green herb, I have given everything to you.


The clean/unclean food dispute underlying 14:1-12 (and explicit in 14:14,20, 'nothing is unclean of itself... all things indeed are clean') directly engages the Levitical purity code distinguishing clean from unclean animals (Leviticus 11; cf. Deuteronomy 14). The 'weak' likely keep these distinctions; Paul's verdict that nothing is koinon in itself overturns the categorical force of Leviticus 11 for those in Christ.

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 […]


Deuteronomy's parallel dietary legislation ('You shall not eat any abominable thing') reinforces the Levitical clean/unclean backdrop to the eating dispute. The 'weak in faith' who eat only vegetables may be observing scruples derived from this Torah food law (and/or avoiding marketplace meat of uncertain provenance).

You shall not eat any abominable thing. These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the chamois. Every animal that parts the hoof, and has the hoof cloven in two and chews the cud, among the animals, that may you eat. Nevertheless these you shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of those who have the hoof cloven: the camel, the hare, and the […]


Daniel and his companions refuse the king's rich food and wine, eating only vegetables (LXX lachana / ospria) and water to avoid defilement (Daniel 1:12,16). This is the closest Scriptural antecedent to a diaspora Jew eating 'only vegetables' (14:2) out of purity scruple in a Gentile environment, providing a likely model for the 'weak.'

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king’s dainties, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God made Daniel to find kindness and compassion in the sight of the prince of the eunuchs. The prince of the eunuchs said to Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who has appointed your food and your drink: for why should he see your faces worse […]


Paul's axiom 'none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself... we are the Lord's' (14:7-8) reflects the creational logic that life is a gift wholly owed to its Giver (cf. Genesis 2:7, the breath of life from God). Faint thematic resonance of creaturely belonging rather than verbal borrowing.

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.


'We are the Lord's' (tou kyriou esmen, 14:8) echoes the creational ownership confessed in Psalm 24:1 ('The earth is the LORD's and its fullness'), which Paul cites elsewhere at 1 Corinthians 10:26 in a closely parallel food-and-conscience argument. The lordship grounding here is conceptually linked though not quoted.

The earth is Yahweh’s, with its fullness; the world, and those who dwell therein.


'Each one of us will give account of himself to God' (14:12) coheres with the Wisdom expectation that 'God will bring every deed into judgment' (Ecclesiastes 12:14). Thematic accountability before the divine Judge; faint and conceptual.

For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.


The motif of individual rendering of account to God who judges (14:10,12) resonates with Psalm 62:12 ('you will render to each according to his work'), a verse Paul invokes for judgment-according-to-works at Romans 2:6. The shared judgment-recompense logic links the chapters.

Also to you, Lord, belongs loving kindness, for you reward every man according to his work.


'We will all stand before the judgment seat of God/Christ' (14:10) carries the prophetic Day-of-the-LORD note of standing before the dread Judge (cf. Joel 2:11, 'who can endure it?'), reframed by Paul christologically. Very faint thematic echo.

Yahweh thunders his voice before his army; for his forces are very great; for he is strong who obeys his command; for the day of Yahweh is great and very awesome, and who can endure it?


Paul's declaration 'nothing is unclean of itself... all things indeed are clean' (14:14,20) directly engages and relativizes the Levitical clean/unclean food code (Leviticus 11). The very term koinon ('common/unclean') is the purity vocabulary of the dietary law; Paul affirms the law's categories exist only for the one who reckons a thing unclean.


'All things indeed are clean' (panta kathara, 14:20) restates the universal Noahic food grant (Genesis 9:3, everything that lives given as food). Paul grounds Christian liberty regarding food in the creation/Noahic order that precedes and outranks the Levitical restriction.


The command not to 'put a stumbling block in his brother's way' (proskomma, 14:13) draws on the Holiness Code prohibition: 'You shall not put a stumbling block before the blind' (Leviticus 19:14 LXX, proskomma / skandalon). Paul transposes the literal physical stumbling-block into the moral injury of causing a fellow believer to fall.

“‘You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind; but you shall fear your God. I am Yahweh.


'If your brother is grieved because of food, you walk no longer in love' (14:15) applies the love-of-neighbor command (Leviticus 19:18) that Paul has just made the fulfillment of the law in 13:8-10. The 'brother' (adelphos) language and the priority of love over one's own right enact Leviticus 19:18 directly.

“‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.


'Don't let your good be slandered/blasphemed' (mē blasphēmeisthō, 14:16) echoes the prophetic concern that God's name/people be 'blasphemed among the nations' (Isaiah 52:5 LXX), a verse Paul cites at Romans 2:24. The fear that the gospel-given 'good' becomes an occasion of blasphemy reuses this prophetic anxiety.

“Now therefore, what do I do here,” says Yahweh, “seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them mock,” says Yahweh, “and my name continually all the day is blasphemed.


'Let us follow after things which make for peace' (ta tēs eirēnēs diōkōmen, 14:19) closely echoes Psalm 34:14 LXX ('seek peace and pursue it,' zētēson eirēnēn kai diōxon autēn). The verb 'pursue' (diōkō) with 'peace' as object is the distinctive shared phrasing.

Depart from evil, and do good. seek peace, and pursue it.


The build-up vs. tear-down language ('build one another up,' 14:19; 'don't overthrow God's work,' 14:20, katalye) resonates with the Jeremianic commission to 'pluck up and break down... to build and to plant' (Jeremiah 1:10). The oikodomē/kataluō opposition is a recurring prophetic idiom for God's constructive work among his people.

Behold, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”


'The Kingdom of God is... righteousness, peace, and joy' (14:17) coheres with the prophetic vision that 'the work of righteousness shall be peace' (Isaiah 32:17), where dikaiosynē and eirēnē are paired as the fruit of the Spirit poured out (32:15). Thematic resonance of the Spirit-wrought eschatological order.

The work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.


The triad 'peace and joy' as marks of the inbreaking Kingdom (14:17) faintly echoes the Isaianic new-exodus promise 'you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace' (Isaiah 55:12), where joy and peace characterize redeemed life under God's reign. Faint thematic.

For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break out before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands.


'It is good not to eat meat, drink wine...' (14:21) — the renunciation of wine for the sake of another — has a faint sapiential backdrop in wisdom warnings about wine (Proverbs 23:31, 'do not look at wine when it is red'). Here, however, abstinence is for the brother's sake, not self-discipline; the link is thematic and weak.

Don’t look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.


Ben Sira's measured counsel on wine and food at table (Sirach 31:25-31), weighing one's conduct for the sake of fellow diners, offers a Second Temple sapiential parallel to Paul's 'it is good not to eat meat or drink wine' where another stumbles (14:21). Conceptual, not verbal.

Show not yourself valiant in wine; For wine has destroyed many. The furnace proves the temper of steel by dipping; So does wine prove hearts in the quarreling of the proud. 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: Wine drunk largely is bitterness of soul, With […]


The blessing 'Happy is he who doesn't judge himself in that which he approves' (14:22) faintly resonates with the Qoheleth beatitude on eating one's bread and drinking one's wine with a clear conscience before God (Ecclesiastes 9:7, 'God has already approved your works'). Thematic resonance of approved, untroubled enjoyment.

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


The doxological coda (14:23 long ending in WEB) celebrating 'the only wise God' (monō sophō theō) coheres with the Wisdom of Solomon's portrait of God's singular wisdom governing all (Wisdom of Solomon 12:18-19, cf. 7:24-27). Faint and tied to a textually disputed doxology often printed at 16:25-27.

But you, being sovereign over your strength, judge in gentleness, And with great forbearance do you govern us; For the power is your whenever you have the will. But you did teach your people by such works as these, How that the righteous must be a lover of men; And you did make your sons to be of good hope, Because you give repentance when men have sinned.


Verbatim, formula-introduced ('as it is written'): 'The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me' = LXX Psalm 68:10b. Paul reads the psalm's righteous sufferer as Christ, with 'you' = God; the reproaches aimed at God land on Christ, grounding the call not to please oneself. High volume (exact wording) and strong recurrence in early Christian passion exegesis.

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


Beyond the verbatim citation, Paul reads the whole psalm typologically: the persecuted righteous one of Psalm 69 prefigures Christ. The same psalm is mined elsewhere in the NT passion narrative (zeal for your house, gall and vinegar) and by Paul at Romans 11:9-10, marking it a recurring messianic testimonium.


'Sing to your name'/glorify-with-one-mouth language (15:6) and the catena's Gentile-praise theme that follows resonates with the Psalter's call to sing a new song before the nations; faint and thematic, anticipatory of the 15:9-12 chain.

Sing to Yahweh a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand, and his holy arm, have worked salvation for him.


15:8: Christ became a servant of the circumcision 'to confirm the promises given to the fathers.' The patriarchal promises (Genesis 12:3; 17:4-7; 22:18) — that in Abraham all nations would be blessed — are the substrate; the Gentile-inclusion catena is presented as their fulfillment. Conceptual allusion rather than verbal.

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


15:8-9 pairs 'truth of God' (to the circumcision) with 'mercy' (to the Gentiles). The truth/mercy (emeth/chesed) word-pair toward the fathers echoes covenantal formulae like Micah 7:20 and Psalm 98:3; faint and diffuse.

You will give truth to Jacob, and mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.


First link of the catena (15:9), formula-introduced ('As it is written'): 'I will give praise to you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name' = LXX Psalm 17:50. The Davidic king praises God among the nations; Paul reads the messianic David as drawing Gentiles into doxology. Verbatim agreement with LXX.

Therefore I will give thanks to you, Yahweh, among the nations, and will sing praises to your name.


Parallel form of the same citation (15:9): 2 Samuel 22:50 = Psalm 18:49 are the doublet of David's victory song. The Davidic frame is load-bearing for Paul's catena — Christ as the Davidic Messiah whose praise extends to the Gentiles (cf. 15:12, root of Jesse). Given its own entry because the doublet reinforces the Davidic key of the whole chain.


Second link (15:10), formula-introduced ('Again he says'): 'Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.' Follows the longer LXX/Qumran (4QDeut) text of the Song of Moses, where the nations are summoned to rejoice WITH Israel — exactly the with-his-people inclusion Paul needs. High volume; the Song of Moses is a recurring witness to the nations' destiny.

Rejoice, you nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will take vengeance on his adversaries, and will make atonement for his land and for his people.

Rejoice, ye heavens, with him, and let all the angels of God worship him; rejoice ye Gentiles, with his people, and let all the sons of God strengthen themselves in him; for he will avenge the blood of his sons, and he will render vengeance, and recompense justice to his enemies, and will reward them that hate him; and the Lord shall purge the land of his people.


Third link (15:11), formula-introduced ('Again'): 'Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Let all the peoples praise him' = LXX Psalm 116:1. The shortest psalm, an unambiguous summons to the Gentiles to praise YHWH; verbatim LXX. Caps the doxological progression of the chain (praise among / rejoice with / praise by the Gentiles).

Praise Yahweh, all you nations! Extol him, all you peoples!


Fourth link and climax (15:12), formula-introduced ('Again, Isaiah says'): 'There will be the root of Jesse, he who arises to rule over the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles will hope' = LXX Isaiah 11:10. The LXX ('rule over' and 'hope in') diverges from the MT ('stand as a banner... seek') and Paul follows the LXX, which supplies both Gentile rule and Gentile hope, tying back to 15:13 'God of hope.' Davidic-messianic capstone of the catena.

It will happen in that day that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who stands as a banner of the peoples; and his resting place will be glorious.


The 'root of Jesse' image (15:12) draws on the opening of the same oracle, Isaiah 11:1 (a shoot from the stump of Jesse, a branch from his roots). The whole shoot-of-Jesse messianic complex stands behind the quotation; verbal overlap in 'root/Jesse' makes it a strong allusion supporting the citation.

A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit.


15:13 'the God of HOPE fill you... that you may abound in HOPE' verbally picks up the catchword from the just-cited Isaiah 11:10 LXX ('in him the Gentiles will hope'). Paul's benediction is keyed to the final quotation, knitting citation and prayer together — a deliberate gezerah-shawah on 'hope.'


15:16: Paul is a 'leitourgos'/priest of the gospel 'that the offering up of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, sanctified.' Strong conceptual and lexical borrowing from Isaiah 66:19-20, where survivors are sent to the nations and the nations are brought 'as an offering to the LORD' to Jerusalem. Paul casts his Gentile mission as the eschatological priestly presentation of the nations.

They shall bring all your brothers out of all the nations for an offering to Yahweh, on horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and on mules, and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says Yahweh, as the children of Israel bring their offering in a clean vessel into Yahweh’s house.


The 'acceptable offering' of/among the Gentiles (15:16) resonates with Malachi 1:11, where a pure offering is made to God's name 'among the nations.' Cultic-offering-among-Gentiles imagery; thematic with some lexical overlap (offering, acceptable, nations).

For from the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same, my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering: for my name is great among the nations,” says Yahweh of Armies.


15:19's geographic sweep ('from Jerusalem... as far as Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel') and the 'signs' motif echo Isaiah 66:19, where God sets a sign and sends survivors to far coastlands/nations that have not heard or seen his glory — a program Paul sees himself enacting. Reinforced by the Isaiah 52:15 citation two verses later.

“I will set a sign among them, and I will send such as escape of them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the islands afar off, who have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations.


15:21, formula-introduced ('as it is written'): 'They will see, to whom no news of him came; they who haven't heard will understand' = LXX Isaiah 52:15. Drawn from the fourth Servant Song; Paul grounds his pioneer policy (not building on another's foundation) in the Servant's mission to those never told. Verbatim LXX.

so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they understand.


By citing Isaiah 52:15 Paul reads his own apostolic mission figurally through the Suffering Servant: the Servant who startles many nations and whose report reaches those who had not heard becomes the template for the apostle to the Gentiles. Typological extension of the quotation into the broader Servant Song.

Behold, my servant shall deal wisely, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. Like as many were astonished at you (his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men), so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they understand. Who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of […]


15:25-27: the Gentile churches share their 'fleshly things' with Jerusalem because they partook of its 'spiritual things' — the collection. This evokes the prophetic vision of the nations bringing their wealth to Zion (Isaiah 60:5-6, 11; 66:12). Faint, thematic; Paul nowhere cites it, but the eschatological pilgrimage-of-the-nations pattern underlies the collection.

Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall thrill and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. The multitude of camels shall cover you, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praises of Yahweh.


15:33 'the God of peace be with you all' draws on the Old Testament benedictory peace formula (Aaronic blessing, Numbers 6:26; cf. Judges 6:24 'the LORD is peace'). A liturgical echo rather than a citation; faint and formulaic.

Yahweh lift up his face toward you, and give you peace.’


Epaenetus is called 'the first fruits (aparche) of Achaia.' The metaphor draws on the cultic offering of firstfruits — the first and best of the harvest consecrated to God (Exodus 23:19; Deuteronomy 26:1-11). The link is purely conceptual reuse of an offering-term as a name for the first convert; no verbal borrowing, so faint and disputed.

The first of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of Yahweh your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.


'The God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet' (16:20) alludes to the protoevangelium: 'he shall bruise/crush your head' addressed to the serpent. The verb (crush/bruise) plus the bodily image (head/feet, enemy trodden underfoot) reactivates Genesis 3:15, with Satan now read as the serpent and the church as the seed of the woman who treads him down. Strong verbal and figural coherence; Paul universalizes the promised victory.

I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”


The image of the enemy placed 'under your feet' overlaps with the subjugation language of Psalm 8:6 ('you have put all things under his feet'), which Paul uses elsewhere for Christ's triumph. Here the dominant source is Genesis 3:15; the 'under feet' phrasing is at most a secondary, disputed resonance.

You make him ruler over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet:


The dividers' 'smooth and flattering speech' that 'deceive the hearts of the innocent' (16:18) echoes the wisdom/psalmic indictment of smooth, flattering lips that deceive (Psalm 12:2-3; cf. Proverbs 26:28). Thematic and partly verbal but a common topos, so contested.

Everyone lies to his neighbor. They speak with flattering lips, and with a double heart. May Yahweh cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that boasts,


The deceivers who beguile 'the hearts of the innocent' with smooth speech (16:18) typologically recall the serpent who deceived by crafty words — a figure reinforced two verses later by the explicit Genesis 3:15 allusion (16:20). The serpent-as-deceiver framing is suggestive but disputed as an intended echo here.

Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, but not the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t surely […]


The address to those 'sanctified... called to be saints' transfers Israel's vocation as a 'holy nation' set apart for God to the Corinthian assembly. The lexical pairing of calling and holiness coheres thematically with the Sinai constitution of a consecrated people; the volume is modest because Paul cites no formula, but the figural availability of Exodus 19 to a Jewish reader is high.

and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”


'Sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints' echoes the Holiness Code refrain 'be holy, for I am holy,' in which Israel's status as God's set-apart people is grounded in God's own holiness. Recurrence is strong across Leviticus 19-20, and the thematic coherence of consecration as gift-and-summons fits Paul's idiom of being made holy in Christ.

For I am Yahweh your God. Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am holy: neither shall you defile yourselves with any kind of creeping thing that moves on the earth. For I am Yahweh who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.


The phrase 'called holy' (kalein hagion) for the eschatological remnant in Zion resonates with 'called to be saints.' The verbal link is suggestive in the LXX, but the volume is faint and the motif is widely diffused, so it is offered only as a contested resonance.

It will happen, that he who is left in Zion, and he who remains in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem;


'All who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place' reworks Joel's 'everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved,' transferring the divine Name to Jesus. Volume is high (distinctive idiom 'call on the name'), recurrence strong in Paul (Rom 10:13), and the eschatological-salvation theme coheres tightly with the surrounding 'day of the Lord' language.

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.


The idiom 'call on the name of the LORD' first appears at the dawn of worship in Genesis 4:26 and runs through the patriarchal narratives (Gen 12:8; 13:4). It supplies the deep semantic background for Paul's phrase, though Joel is the proximate and more specific source.

A son was also born to Seth, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on Yahweh’s name.


The cultic act of 'calling on the name of the LORD' in the thanksgiving psalter underlies the worship-language of 'all who call on the name.' Recurrence within the Psalms is notable, but the volume here is faint relative to the Joel allusion that controls the phrase.

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


Zephaniah's promise that the nations will 'call on the name of the LORD' with one accord matches Paul's universalizing 'in every place, both theirs and ours.' The thematic coherence of an ingathered people invoking the Name is good, but the verbal contact is light and the motif overlaps with Joel.

For then I will purify the lips of the peoples, that they may all call on Yahweh’s name, to serve him shoulder to shoulder.


The repeated 'day of our Lord Jesus Christ' (v.8) draws on the prophetic 'day of the LORD' tradition, of which Amos is the classic warning text. Thematic coherence is strong: Paul reframes the eschatological day as the point of vindication 'blameless,' and the recurrence of yom YHWH across the prophets gives the motif high availability.

“Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why do you long for the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light.


'The day of our Lord' as the eschatological revelation aligns with Joel's 'great and terrible day of the LORD,' the same chapter Paul has just drawn on in v.2. The internal recurrence (Joel within the immediate context) strengthens the case for a Joel-shaped horizon, though the phrase is generic enough to be merely traditional.

The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.


Zephaniah's 'great day of the LORD is near' is among the most concentrated 'day of the LORD' oracles and feeds the same prophetic reservoir behind v.8. The volume is low because Paul names no specific feature of Zephaniah's day, but the motif's availability is high.

The great day of Yahweh is near. It is near, and hurries greatly, the voice of the day of Yahweh. The mighty man cries there bitterly.


'Who can stand when he appears?'—the day that tests and refines—coheres with Paul's hope that the Corinthians be 'confirmed... blameless in the day.' The forensic-purgative coloring of being found unblamable resonates, but the connection is thematic rather than verbal.

“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;


'God is faithful, through whom you were called' (v.9) echoes the covenant formula that 'the LORD your God is the faithful God who keeps covenant.' Volume is good on the distinctive predicate 'faithful' applied to God as the guarantor of a calling, and the covenant-keeping theme coheres with Paul's assurance of preservation to the end.

Know therefore that Yahweh your God himself is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with them who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations,


The Song of Moses names God 'faithful (pistos) and without iniquity,' a likely LXX source for Paul's 'God is faithful.' Recurrence of the divine epithet pistos in Deuteronomy supports availability, though the phrase had become a settled liturgical commonplace.

The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he.


Paul's plea that they be 'perfected together in the same mind and the same judgment,' against 'contentions,' faintly recalls Moses' appointment of wise leaders to adjudicate strife among a quarreling people. The thematic coherence (concord versus faction) is reasonable, but verbal contact is slight and the appeal to unity is a general topos.

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


'How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity' supplies a scriptural ideal of fraternal concord behind Paul's exhortation that 'brothers' avoid divisions. The resonance is thematic and the term 'brothers' is shared, but the volume is faint and the motif diffuse.

See how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together in unity!


Verse 19 quotes with formula ('it is written') Isaiah 29:14 LXX: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart/bring to nothing.' Volume is maximal (verbatim citation), and the thematic coherence is exact: God's overturning of human sagacity is the engine of Paul's whole cross-versus-wisdom argument.

therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden.”


'Where is the wise?' (v.20) recalls the taunt against Egypt's counselors: 'Where then are your wise men?... let them tell.' The interrogative form mocking discredited sages is distinctive, and recurrence within Isaiah's wisdom-polemic strengthens coherence with Paul's rhetorical questions about the wise of this age.

The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish. The counsel of the wisest counselors of Pharaoh has become stupid. How do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?” Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you now; and let them know what Yahweh of Armies has purposed concerning Egypt.


'Where is the scribe? Where is the one who weighed?' supplies the closest LXX template for Paul's triad 'Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater?' The naming of the 'scribe (grammateus)' is the load-bearing verbal link, and the context of a vanished officialdom after divine deliverance coheres with Paul's point.

Your heart will meditate on the terror. Where is he who counted? Where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers?


Job's hymn declares that God 'leads counselors away stripped and makes fools of judges,' overturning the wisdom of the prudent (cf. Job 12:20, 'he takes away the discernment of the elders'). The thematic coherence with God 'making foolish the wisdom of this world' is strong, and the recurrence of the divine reversal-of-sages motif supports a real echo.

He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools.


'Frustrating the signs of liars and making fools of diviners, turning wise men back and making their knowledge foolish'—this Deutero-Isaiah oracle nearly paraphrases v.20's 'Hasn't God made foolish the wisdom of this world?' The verbal cluster (wise/foolish/knowledge) is dense and the polemic against pretended wisdom coheres tightly.

who frustrates the signs of the liars, and makes diviners mad; who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish;


'The wise men shall be put to shame... they have rejected the word of the LORD, and what wisdom is in them?' parallels Paul's claim that the world's wisdom failed to know God. The shaming of the wise and the linkage of wisdom to receiving God's word cohere, though the verbal contact is moderate.

The wise men are disappointed. They are dismayed and trapped. Behold, they have rejected Yahweh’s word. What kind of wisdom is in them?


'A stumbling block to Jews' (v.23) draws on Isaiah's image of the LORD as 'a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense' to the houses of Israel. Volume is good on the distinctive 'stumbling/offense' lexeme, recurrence is strong in Paul (Rom 9:33), and the irony of God's saving act becoming an obstacle to Israel coheres precisely.

He will be a sanctuary, but for both houses of Israel, he will be a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


The 'tested stone' laid in Zion, paired in Pauline usage with Isaiah 8:14, underlies the 'stumbling block' of v.23 and the foundation-stone motif of the proclaimed Christ. The connection is figural and mediated through Paul's wider stone testimonia rather than directly verbal here.

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


'I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told' offers a scriptural template for God accomplishing salvation through means the wise reject as incredible. The thematic coherence with the cross as God's unbelievable 'good pleasure' is suggestive, but the verbal link is faint.

“Look among the nations, watch, and wonder marvelously; for I am working a work in your days, which you will not believe though it is told you.

Behold, ye despisers, and look, and wonder marvelously, and vanish: for I work a work in your days, which ye will in no wise believe, though a man declare it to you.


Verse 31 quotes with formula ('as it is written') Jeremiah 9:24 LXX: 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.' Volume is maximal, and the surrounding verses (Jer 9:23, 'let not the wise boast in his wisdom, nor the mighty in his might') govern Paul's entire argument that the wise, mighty, and noble have no ground for boasting before God.

Thus says Yahweh, Don’t let the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, don’t let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says Yahweh.


The triad of v.26—'not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble'—directly mirrors Jeremiah 9:23's catalogue 'let not the wise boast in his wisdom, the mighty in his might, the rich in his riches.' The recurrence is structural: Paul builds the catalogue (vv.26-29) precisely to set up the Jeremiah citation in v.31, so the allusion and quotation are a single sustained engagement.

Thus says Yahweh, Don’t let the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, don’t let the rich man glory in his riches;


God reduces Gideon's army 'lest Israel boast... saying, My own hand has saved me'—the paradigm of God choosing weakness so that 'no flesh should boast' (v.29). The thematic coherence is precise (election of the weak to negate human self-glory), and the Gideon narrative supplies a recurrent OT pattern of God shaming the strong through the few.

Yahweh said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’


God's promise to leave 'a people humble and lowly' who take refuge in the LORD's name coheres with God choosing 'the lowly things of the world and the things that are despised.' The remnant of the low and despised as the locus of salvation matches Paul's reversal, and 'name of the LORD' links back to the chapter's calling-language.

But I will leave in your midst an afflicted and poor people, and they will take refuge in Yahweh’s name.


Hannah's song—'the LORD makes poor and rich, brings low and exalts; he raises the poor from the dust... to make them sit with princes'—is the canonical hymn of divine status-reversal underlying vv.27-28. Thematic coherence is high and the motif recurs (cf. Ps 113:7), giving strong availability for Paul's exaltation of the low and lowering of the high.

Yahweh makes poor, and makes rich. He brings low, he also lifts up. He raises up the poor out of the dust. He lifts up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princes, and inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are Yahweh’s. He has set the world on them.


Having quoted Isaiah 29:14 at v.19, Paul continues its logic here: God destroys the wisdom of the wise by choosing the foolish 'to shame the wise.' The recurrence of the same Isaianic oracle across the unit (criterion of recurrence) confirms that the wisdom-reversal of vv.27-28 is still being read through Isaiah 29.


Christ 'made to us... righteousness' (v.30) figurally realizes Jeremiah's messianic Branch named 'The LORD is our righteousness.' The distinctive predication of righteousness to the Davidic deliverer coheres with Paul's compressed christological list, and the title's availability in messianic exegesis supports a deliberate figural reading.

Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name by which he shall be called: Yahweh our righteousness.


Christ 'made to us wisdom from God' (v.30) draws on the personified Wisdom present with God at creation. The wisdom-Christology of vv.24, 30 coheres with the Wisdom tradition, and recurrence in Second-Temple Wisdom literature (Sir 24; Wis 7) makes the identification of Christ with God's Wisdom a well-attested move.

“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 'a breath of the power of God... a pure emanation of his glory' offers the nearest Second-Temple background for Christ as 'the power of God and the wisdom of God' (v.24) 'made to us wisdom from God.' Availability is strong (deuterocanonical Wisdom was current), and the fusion of power and wisdom in a single divine agency coheres precisely.

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.


Sirach's hymn of Wisdom seeking a dwelling among God's people supports the wisdom-Christology of vv.24, 30, where Christ becomes the locus of God's wisdom for believers. The thematic link to personified Wisdom is real, but the verbal volume is faint relative to Proverbs 8 and Wisdom 7.

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 […]


'In the LORD all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory'—pairing justification with glorying/boasting in the LORD—anticipates the v.30-31 link between Christ as righteousness and boasting 'in the Lord.' The conjunction of being made righteous and boasting only in God coheres, though Jeremiah 9 remains the explicit source.

In Yahweh shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.


Paul's self-description 'in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling' (v.3) draws on the stock biblical pairing of fear and trembling, programmatically stated in the Song of the Sea where 'fear and dread' and 'trembling' fall on the nations before God's power. Volume is faint and the idiom is diffuse, but it coheres with Paul's argument that the awe belongs to God's power, not human eloquence. Contested as a specific source.

Terror and dread falls on them. By the greatness of your arm they are as still as a stone— until your people pass over, Yahweh, until the people pass over who you have purchased.


'Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling' supplies the closest devotional sense of Paul's 'fear and much trembling' (v.3) as the proper posture of a servant before God's power. The verbal overlap is real in the Greek (phobos/tromos) but the phrase is formulaic, so the echo is faint and contested against the wider 'fear and trembling' tradition.

Serve Yahweh with fear, and rejoice with trembling.


Paul's refusal of 'lofty speech or wisdom' so that faith rests 'in the power of God' (vv.1,5) extends Jeremiah's oracle that the wise must not boast in wisdom but only in knowing the LORD. The theme is carried over from 1 Corinthians 1:31, giving recurrence, but the link here is thematic rather than verbal and so faint.


Paul's 'God's wisdom in a mystery (mysterion), hidden, foreordained before the ages' (vv.7) is steeped in Daniel's Aramaic hymn praising God 'to whom belong wisdom and might,' who 'reveals deep and hidden things.' Daniel is the Septuagintal seedbed for mysterion as divinely hidden-then-revealed knowledge, giving strong coherence with Paul's whole argument; the cluster of wisdom + mystery + revelation supplies recurrence.

Daniel answered, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever; for wisdom and might are his. 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 reveals the deep and secret things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. I thank you, and praise you, you God of my fathers, who have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known […]


'There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries' is arguably the direct conceptual source for Paul's claim that God's once-hidden wisdom is now revealed (vv.7,10). The technical use of mysterion for an eschatological secret disclosed by God is distinctively Danielic, lending high coherence even without verbatim quotation.

but there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has made known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head on your bed, are these:


Wisdom 'foreordained before the ages for our glory' (v.7) evokes the personified Wisdom of Proverbs 8, possessed by the LORD 'at the beginning of his work, before the earth was.' The pre-cosmic, pre-temporal location of God's wisdom is the shared point; Paul transposes the Wisdom tradition christologically, so this is figural as much as verbal.


Paul's hidden divine wisdom destined for the glory of those who love God parallels the Wisdom of Solomon's portrait of Sophia as a pure emanation of God's glory that passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God. The Second-Temple sapiential matrix (availability secure) gives strong coherence; 'for our glory' (v.7) echoes Wisdom's glory-language.

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. And she, being one, has power to do all things; And remaining in herself, reneweth all things: And from generation to generation passing into holy souls She makes men friends of God and […]


The motif of a wisdom present with God before the world, inaccessible to human counsel, undergirds Paul's 'wisdom of God in a mystery' that none of the rulers knew (vv.7-8). Wisdom 9 also feeds 2:16 below, giving recurrence across the chapter and strengthening the case for Paul's reliance on this prayer of Solomon.

And with you is wisdom, which knows your works, And was present when you were making the world, And which understands what is pleasing in your eyes, And what is right according to your commandments. Send her forth out of the holy heavens, And from the throne of your glory bid her come, That being present with me she may toil with me, And that I may learn what is well-pleasing before you. For she knows all things and has understanding thereof, And in my […]


'They would not have crucified the Lord of glory' (v.8) most plausibly draws its title from the repeated 'the King of glory... the LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory.' The transfer of a divine glory-title to the crucified Christ is figural and striking; volume rests on the rare phrase 'of glory' applied to the Lord.

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.


'The God of glory thunders' offers an alternative scriptural source for Paul's 'Lord of glory' (v.8), part of the same Psalter glory-theophany vocabulary as Psalm 24. The link is faint and overlaps with the stronger Psalm 24 candidate.

Yahweh’s voice is on the waters. The God of glory thunders, even Yahweh on many waters.


Isaiah's vision of the LORD high and lifted up, his glory filling the earth, lies behind the 'Lord of glory' title (v.8) as a theophanic background; rulers who 'did not know' the glory recall Isaiah's commission to a people who see but do not perceive. The connection is thematic and contested against the more verbally exact Psalm 24.

In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew. One called to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!”


The explicit citation formula 'as it is written' introduces v.9, 'what no eye has seen, nor ear heard...what God has prepared for those who love him,' which most closely matches Isaiah 64:4 (LXX: God acts for those who wait/love him; eye has not seen a God besides you). This is the controlling source-text, though Paul's wording is conflate and not verbatim with any extant version.

For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen a God besides you, who works for him who waits for him.


'Nor did it enter into the heart of man' (v.9) closely matches Isaiah 65:17 LXX, 'the former things shall not be remembered nor come up into the heart,' suggesting Paul conflated Isaiah 64:4 with the new-creation oracle of Isaiah 65. The shared 'heart' idiom and eschatological 'what God has prepared' give this a strong claim to be part of the quotation's source matrix.

“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.


Sirach 1:10, 'he supplied wisdom to those who love him,' has been proposed as a partial source for the closing phrase 'for those who love him' (v.9), since this exact clause is absent from Isaiah. The verbal tie is narrow and the dominant source remains Isaianic, so this is a contested supplementary echo.

She is with all flesh according to his gift; And he gave her freely to those who love him.


'The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God' (v.10) coheres with Daniel's 'he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness.' Within the same chapter Paul has already leaned on Daniel 2 for mystery-language (recurrence), so the depths/revelation motif here reinforces that dependence.

he reveals the deep and secret things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.


'The spirit of the man which is in him' knows 'the things of a man' (v.11) draws on Proverbs 20:27, 'the spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the inward parts.' The shared verb 'search' and the human spirit as inner knower make this a strong conceptual source for Paul's analogy between man's spirit and God's Spirit.

The spirit of man is Yahweh’s lamp, searching all his innermost parts.


'The deep things of God' that only the Spirit can search (v.10) directly answers Zophar's challenge, 'Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?' Paul affirms what Job's friends deemed impossible, now made possible by the Spirit; the verbal tie to 'deep things of God' is close.

“Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?


Judith's rebuke, 'you cannot plumb the depth of the human heart...how can you search out God who made all things, or comprehend his mind?' parallels Paul's claim that only the Spirit searches God's depths (vv.10-11) and anticipates 2:16. The Second-Temple availability is secure but the verbal overlap is loose, so the echo is faint.

For you will not find the depth of the heart of man, and you will not perceive the things that he thinks. How will you search out God, who has made all these things, and know his mind, and comprehend his purpose? No, my kindred, don’t provoke the Lord our God to anger!


'The spirit of the man which is in him' (v.11) may glance at Zechariah's description of the LORD who 'forms the spirit of man within him,' grounding the human inner spirit Paul invokes. The link is thematic and faint, overlapping with the stronger Proverbs 20:27 candidate.

An oracle. Yahweh’s word concerning Israel. Yahweh, who stretches out the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him says:


Verse 16 'For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him?' is a direct quotation of Isaiah 40:13 LXX ('Who has known the mind of the LORD, and who has been his counselor that he should instruct him?'). The wording tracks the Septuagint closely; Paul deploys the unanswerable rhetorical question, then stunningly claims 'we have the mind of Christ.'

Who has directed the Spirit of Yahweh, or has taught him as his counselor?


Solomon's prayer, 'For who can know the counsel of God?...who has learned your counsel unless you gave wisdom and sent your Holy Spirit?' undergirds both Paul's contrast of the unspiritual person who cannot receive God's things (v.14) and the Isaiah 40:13 citation (v.16). The pairing of the 'who can know God's mind' question with the gift of the Spirit makes Wisdom 9 a likely mediating source; recurrence with 2:6-9 strengthens it.

For what man will know the counsel of God? Or who will conceive what the Lord willeth? For the thoughts of mortals are timorous, And our plans are prone to fail. For a corruptible body weighs down the soul, And the earthy frame lies heavy on a mind that is full of cares. 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 […]


Eliphaz's taunt, 'Have you listened in the council of God, and do you limit wisdom to yourself?' anticipates the rhetorical thrust of v.16, 'who has known the mind of the Lord?' The motif of inaccessible divine counsel is shared, but the verbal link is to Isaiah rather than Job, so this is a faint, contested background echo.

Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?


'Who has stood in the council of the LORD to see and hear his word?' supplies the same prophetic topos of access to the divine mind that Paul invokes in v.16. The thematic coherence with the 'mind of the Lord' question is real but the controlling text is Isaiah 40:13, so this remains a faint supplementary echo.

For who has stood in the council of Yahweh, that he should perceive and hear his word? who has marked my word, and heard it?


Paul's contrast of milk for 'babies in Christ' versus solid food evokes Isaiah's taunt about teaching knowledge to those weaned from milk and just drawn from the breasts. Both passages use infancy and weaning as a figure for spiritual immaturity and incapacity to receive deeper instruction. Coherence with Paul's pedagogical-maturity theme is strong, and Isaiah 28 is recurrent in this letter's milieu of prophetic critique, though the verbal link rests on the shared milk/infancy metaphor rather than direct citation.

Whom will he teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts?


The Song of Moses likens teaching/doctrine to rain and dew dropping as nourishment, a nutritive metaphor for instruction that may underlie Paul's feeding imagery (milk/meat). The connection is thematic rather than verbal and is faint; Isaiah 28:9 is the stronger weaning parallel. Marked low and contested for the nourishment-as-teaching figure only.

My doctrine will drop as the rain. My speech will condense as the dew, as the misty rain on the tender grass, as the showers on the herb.


Wisdom's invitation to eat her bread and drink her wine frames spiritual instruction as food and drink, resonating faintly with Paul's milk/solid-food pedagogy. Given chapter 3's larger wisdom-versus-folly argument, the sapiential feeding motif coheres, but the link is diffuse and contested.

“Come, eat some of my bread, Drink some of the wine which I have mixed!


Paul calls the Corinthians 'God's farming/field,' and the Song of the Vineyard is the paradigmatic OT figure of God's people as a cultivated planting that God tends and from which he expects fruit. The agricultural-people metaphor, with God as the one who ultimately gives growth, coheres with Paul's planting/watering argument. Availability and coherence are strong; the allusion is conceptual, since Paul does not cite the vineyard text directly.

Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in its midst, and also cut out a wine press therein. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my […]


Isaiah names the redeemed 'oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.' Paul's image of the church as God's planting that God himself grows for his glory closely matches this 'planting of the LORD' motif. The shared theology that God, not the human planter, is the agent of growth strengthens coherence; the link is allusive rather than quoted.

to appoint to those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh, that he may be glorified.


Jeremiah's commission pairs the verbs to build and to plant (and to pluck up and break down) as the dual metaphor for God's work through the prophet. Paul fuses exactly these two figures in 3:9 ('God's farming, God's building'), suggesting dependence on the prophetic building-and-planting idiom. The recurrence of this paired metaphor in Jeremiah (1:10; 24:6; 31:28) makes the echo coherent.

Behold, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”


God promises to 'build them and not pull down, plant them and not pluck up,' the same build/plant pairing applied to the restored people. It reinforces the Jeremianic source-pool behind Paul's 'building/farming' fusion in 3:9 but is a secondary witness to the idiom rather than a distinct allusion. Marked low and contested.

For I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.


The psalm depicts Israel as a vine God planted, transplanted, and tends, another instance of the God-as-cultivator/people-as-planting figure standing behind Paul's 'God's farming.' It is a faint, recurrent background witness rather than a specific source, so it is marked low and contested.

You brought a vine out of Egypt. You drove out the nations, and planted it. You cleared the ground for it. It took deep root, and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shadow. Its boughs were like God’s cedars. It sent out its branches to the sea, Its shoots to the River. Why have you broken down its walls, so that all those who pass by the way pluck it? The boar out of the wood ravages it. The wild animals of the field feed on it. Turn […]


Paul as 'wise master builder' lays a foundation that no one can replace, echoing Isaiah's word that God lays in Zion a tested, precious cornerstone as foundation. The foundation-laying imagery and the singular God-given foundation cohere strongly; Isaiah 28:16 is a stock messianic foundation text in early Christian usage. The allusion is conceptual here, more explicitly cited elsewhere in the NT.

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


The Day's fire that 'tests what sort of work each man's work is' draws on Malachi's refiner's fire that purifies and assays metal, separating the genuine from the dross. Paul's gold/silver tested by fire on the Day matches the refiner-and-assayer imagery and the eschatological day of judgment. Coherence with the testing/refining motif is strong.

“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 refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer to Yahweh offerings in righteousness.


Malachi's coming Day burns like an oven and consumes the wicked as stubble, leaving neither root nor branch. Paul's contrast of fire-resistant materials versus 'wood, hay, stubble' burned up on the Day strongly evokes this stubble-consuming day of fire. The shared 'stubble burned on the Day' image makes this a coherent allusion.

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


God brings a third through the fire, refining them as silver and testing them as gold is tested. Paul's 'tested by fire,' with the survivor saved 'but as through fire' (3:15), coheres with Zechariah's image of passing through refining fire and being purified rather than destroyed. The refine-as-silver/test-as-gold language reinforces the metallurgical testing motif.

I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, ‘It is my people;’ and they will say, ‘Yahweh is my God.’”


The crucible for silver and furnace for gold, with the LORD testing hearts, supplies the proverb that God assays human worth by fire. Paul's 'fire itself will test what sort of work each man's work is' applies this assaying principle to deeds at the Day. The shared furnace/testing logic gives medium coherence.

The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but Yahweh tests the hearts.


Daniel's vision of the Ancient of Days with a stream of fire issuing before the throne at judgment may color Paul's 'the Day... revealed in fire.' The link is to the eschatological fire-of-judgment topos rather than a specific verbal borrowing, so it is faint and contested.

I saw until thrones were placed, and one who was ancient of days sat: his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, and its wheels burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came out from before him: thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.


David's gathering of gold, silver, and precious/costly stones for the temple supplies the very building-materials triad Paul ranks as fire-resistant (gold, silver, costly stones). If Paul's 'building' is the temple (3:16-17), the materials catalogue echoes temple-construction lists. Faint and contested, since such triads are commonplace.

Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for the things of gold, and the silver for the things of silver, and the brass for the things of brass, the iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, stones for inlaid work, and of various colors, and all kinds of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance.


God commands a sanctuary 'that I may dwell among them,' the foundational text for the divine indwelling presence. Paul transfers this dwelling to the community: 'you are a temple of God, and God's Spirit lives in you.' The figural relocation of God's tabernacling presence into the church coheres strongly with the dwelling-among-them promise.

Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.


At Solomon's dedication the glory-cloud fills the house so the LORD dwells in it; Solomon builds a house for God to inhabit forever. Paul's claim that God's Spirit dwells in the temple-community figurally re-applies the indwelling glory of the Jerusalem temple. The temple-as-dwelling-of-God theology supplies coherent background.

It came to pass, when the priests had come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled Yahweh’s house, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for Yahweh’s glory filled Yahweh’s house. Then Solomon said, “Yahweh has said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. I have surely built you a house of habitation, a place for you to dwell in forever.”


Ezekiel's restoration promise, 'My dwelling place shall be with them... I will be their God and they shall be my people,' projects God's sanctuary into the eschatological community. Paul's church-as-temple indwelt by the Spirit realizes this promised dwelling-with-the-people, making the allusion coherent with Second-Temple temple-eschatology.

My tent also shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.


Paul's warrant 'for God's temple is holy' draws on the Levitical holiness principle ('You shall be holy, for I the LORD am holy') as applied to sanctuary space. The holiness predicate grounding the warning against defilement coheres with the temple's sanctity, though the link is conceptual and faint.

“Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘You shall be holy; for I, Yahweh your God, am holy.


Ezekiel's vision of abominations defiling the sanctuary, provoking God to depart and judge, parallels Paul's warning that whoever destroys/defiles God's temple, God will destroy. The threat that desecrating the holy place brings divine destruction supplies a thematic echo, marked low and contested.

He said to me, Son of man, do you see what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel do commit here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? But you shall again see yet other great abominations.


Paul cites 'it is written, He has taken the wise in their craftiness,' a near-verbatim quotation of Eliphaz's words in Job 5:13 (the only OT occurrence of this saying). The formula 'for it is written' marks it as explicit Scripture citation. Volume, distinctiveness, and the introductory formula make this a high-confidence quotation; notably Paul follows the Hebrew sense rather than the LXX rendering.

He takes the wise in their own craftiness; the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong.


Paul's 'And again, The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless' quotes Psalm 94:11 (LXX 93:11), with 'the wise' substituted for the psalm's 'man' to fit the wisdom argument. The chained 'and again' citation formula and close verbal correspondence make this a high-confidence quotation. The deliberate adaptation ('the wise' for 'man') is a known Pauline tailoring of the source.

Yahweh knows the thoughts of man, that they are futile.


Isaiah declares that the wisdom of the wise shall perish and the discernment of the discerning be hidden, the prophetic plank already cited at 1 Cor 1:19 and standing behind 'the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.' Its recurrence in the letter's wisdom polemic gives this echo coherence within 3:18-20, reinforcing the divine overturning of human wisdom.

therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden.”


Jeremiah taunts that the wise are put to shame, having rejected the LORD's word, so 'what wisdom is in them?' This coheres with Paul's call to become a fool to be wise and the futility of the wise, but the link is thematic and faint relative to the explicit Job and Psalm citations. Marked low and contested.

The wise men are disappointed. They are dismayed and trapped. Behold, they have rejected Yahweh’s word. What kind of wisdom is in them?


Jeremiah forbids the wise, mighty, and rich to boast, allowing boasting only in knowing the LORD; Paul's 'let no one boast in men' applies this anti-boasting principle (already quoted at 1 Cor 1:31). Its recurrence in the letter and coherence with the wisdom-and-boasting theme support a medium echo, redirecting boasting from human teachers to God.

Thus says Yahweh, Don’t let the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, don’t let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says Yahweh.


Paul's catalogue 'all things are yours... the world... things present, things to come' may evoke the creation mandate of dominion over all things now restored to those who belong to Christ. The link is to the figural inheritance/dominion theme rather than a verbal citation, so it is faint and contested.

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