Moses is remembered for 'all the signs and wonders' the LORD sent him to do. Stephen, 'full of grace and power, performed great wonders and signs' (6:8), continuing the Moses-and-prophet pattern Acts assigns to its Spirit-filled witnesses. Recurs as a fixed Lukan idiom; coherent with the broader Moses framing of the trial.

in all the signs and the wonders, which Yahweh sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land,


'I will multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt' — the foundational Exodus pairing of 'signs and wonders' that Acts 6:8 reuses for Stephen's ministry. Together with Deut 34:11 it locates Stephen in the line of Mosaic authentication by mighty deeds.

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


The law of the blasphemer: one who blasphemes the Name is brought before the assembly, witnesses are involved, and the offender is stoned outside the camp. Stephen is charged with 'blasphemous words' (6:11, 6:13) and will be stoned (ch. 7). Little verbal borrowing, but the legal-typological frame — blasphemy accusation issuing in stoning — is precisely this statute, which the trial scene self-consciously invokes.

The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name, and cursed; and they brought him to Moses. His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. They put him in custody, until Yahweh’s will should be declared to them. Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Bring out of the camp him who cursed; and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. You shall speak to the children of Israel, […]


'You shall not blaspheme God, nor curse a ruler of your people.' This is among the texts grounding the very category of the blasphemy charge leveled against Stephen ('blasphemous words against Moses and God,' 6:11). Background to the legal accusation rather than a quoted source.

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


'Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things I do not know.' The 'false witnesses' suborned against Stephen (6:13) reprise the lament-psalm motif of the righteous sufferer assailed by lying accusers. Thematic coherence strong within Luke's righteous-martyr portrait; verbal contact moderate.

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


'False witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence.' Reinforces the same psalmic pattern as Ps 35:11 — the persecuted righteous one surrounded by perjurers — directly mirrored in the false witnesses set up against Stephen.

Don’t deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen up against me, such as breathe out cruelty.


Torah's procedure for the 'malicious witness' who testifies falsely against another. The deliberate suborning of 'false witnesses' (6:13) is an inversion of this very law — the council perverts the witness-procedure Deuteronomy designed to protect the innocent. Legal-thematic resonance.

If an unrighteous witness rises up against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days; and the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother; then you shall do to him as he had thought to do to his brother. So you shall remove […]


The Decalogue's prohibition 'you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.' The engineering of false testimony against Stephen is a flat violation of this command — diffuse background rather than a cited text, but part of the false-witness cluster.

“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.


Jeremiah prophesies that the LORD will make the temple 'like Shiloh' and the city a desolation; priests, prophets, and people seize him, demand his death, and put him on trial for speaking against 'this place.' Acts 6:13-14 charges Stephen with saying Jesus 'will destroy this place' — the prophet-on-trial-for-predicting-the-temple's-fall pattern is strikingly congruent. Little verbal borrowing, strong typological satisfaction.

then I will make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth. The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in Yahweh’s house. When Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that Yahweh had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, “You shall surely die.” Why have you prophesied in Yahweh’s name, saying, This […]


'I will do to the house that is called by my name... as I did to Shiloh' — Jeremiah's temple sermon announcing the sanctuary's destruction. The accusation that Stephen said Jesus 'will destroy this holy place' echoes this prophetic threat against the temple, situating Stephen among prophets who relativized the sanctuary's permanence.

therefore will I do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.


Stephen opens by calling God 'the God of glory'; the phrase recalls the Psalter's thundering 'God of glory,' lending the divine epiphany to Abraham a cultic-theophanic register from the outset.

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


'Get out of your land, and from your relatives, and come into a land which I will show you' reproduces the LXX call of Abram almost verbatim — the foundational migration command anchoring the whole speech's theme of God on the move, not bound to one place.

Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Get out of your country, and from your relatives, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.


The geography — Mesopotamia, the land of the Chaldeans, settling in Haran before reaching Canaan — tracks Terah's migration from Ur of the Chaldees to Haran exactly; Stephen knows the itinerary.

Terah took Abram his son, Lot the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife. They went from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan. They came to Haran and lived there.


'When his father was dead, God moved him into this land' presupposes Terah's death at Haran; Stephen harmonizes the chronology around the patriarch's burial there.

The days of Terah were two hundred five years. Terah died in Haran.


Abram's actual departure from Haran into Canaan, the land 'where you are now living,' fulfills the v.3 command and supplies the narrative motion of vv.4.

So Abram went, as Yahweh had spoken to him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran. Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother’s son, all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls whom they had gotten in Haran, and they went to go into the land of Canaan. Into the land of Canaan they came.


The promise to give the land 'to him for a possession, and to his seed after him' echoes the first land-grant oath at Shechem 'unto thy seed will I give this land.'

Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your seed.” He built an altar there to Yahweh, who appeared to him.


The land given 'for a possession' to Abraham and his seed reproduces the everlasting-possession formula of the covenant chapter, reinforcing that the gift was promissory, not yet realized.

I will give to you, and to your seed after you, the land where you are traveling, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. I will be their God.”


'No inheritance... not so much as to set his foot on' echoes the idiom of 'not so much as a foot breadth' of land — Stephen sharpens the paradox that the promised land yielded Abraham not a single footstep of soil.

Don’t contend with them; for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on; because I have given Mount Seir to Esau for a possession.


'His seed would live as aliens in a strange land, and they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years' is a near-verbatim citation of the covenant-of-the-pieces prophecy of the Egyptian sojourn.

He said to Abram, “Know for sure that your seed will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years.


'I will judge the nation to which they will be in bondage, and after that will they come out' continues the same Genesis 15 oracle of judgment on the enslaving nation and the exodus.

I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great wealth,


'And serve me in this place' grafts the burning-bush promise ('ye shall serve God upon this mountain') onto the Genesis 15 prophecy, fusing the two great promises of worship after deliverance.

He said, “Certainly I will be with you. This will be the token to you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”


'He gave him the covenant of circumcision' directly invokes the Genesis 17 institution of circumcision as the sign of the covenant.

This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your seed after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised.


Abraham 'circumcised him the eighth day' — Isaac circumcised at eight days old fulfills the eighth-day command and is narrated at Isaac's birth.

Abraham circumcised his son, Isaac, when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.


'Isaac became the father of Jacob' compresses the generations of Genesis, naming the birth of Jacob to Isaac.

After that, his brother came out, and his hand had hold on Esau’s heel. He was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.


'Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs' alludes to the roster of Jacob's twelve sons, the eponymous ancestors of the tribes.

The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. The sons of Bilhah (Rachel’s handmaid): Dan and Naphtali. The sons of Zilpah (Leah’s handmaid): Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram.


'The patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph' echoes 'his brethren envied him,' the seed of the betrayal — and a deliberate prototype of the present rejection of Jesus.

His brothers envied him, but his father kept this saying in mind.


'Sold him into Egypt' reproduces the brothers selling Joseph to the traders bound for Egypt.

Midianites who were merchants passed by, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. They brought Joseph into Egypt.


'God was with him' echoes the refrain 'the LORD was with Joseph' that frames his Egyptian career.

Yahweh was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man. He was in the house of his master the Egyptian.


Joseph given 'favor and wisdom before Pharaoh' and made 'governor over Egypt and all his house' summarizes Pharaoh's elevation of Joseph over all the land of Egypt.

The thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants. Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?” Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Because God has shown you all of this, there is no one so discreet and wise as you. You shall be over my house, and according to your word will all my people be ruled. Only in the throne I will be greater than you.” Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Behold, I […]


Joseph made 'ruler of his house, and lord of all his substance' supplies the same poetic summary of his elevation that Stephen's 'governor over... all his house' tracks.

He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all of his possessions;


'A famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan' echoes the onset of the seven years of dearth that reached every land.

The seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.


'Our fathers found no food' reflects the famine 'in the land of Canaan' that drove Jacob's sons to seek grain.

The sons of Israel came to buy among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.


'When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers the first time' reproduces Jacob's command to his sons to go down and buy corn in Egypt.

Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” He said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there, and buy for us from there, so that we may live, and not die.”


'On the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers' echoes the great recognition scene, 'I am Joseph.'

Then Joseph couldn’t control himself before all those who stood before him, and he cried, “Cause everyone to go out from me!” No one else stood with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brothers.


'Joseph's race was revealed to Pharaoh' echoes the report that reached Pharaoh's house that Joseph's brethren had come.

The report of it was heard in Pharaoh’s house, saying, “Joseph’s brothers have come.” It pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants.


Joseph 'summoned Jacob, his father, and all his relatives' reproduces Joseph's message bidding his father come down to him in Egypt.

Hurry, and go up to my father, and tell him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says, “God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me. Don’t wait. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you will be near to me, you, your children, your children’s children, your flocks, your herds, and all that you have.


'Seventy-five souls' follows the Septuagint total of Jacob's household (LXX adds Joseph's grandsons), distinguishing Stephen's source-text from the Hebrew 'seventy.'

The sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two souls. All the souls of the house of Jacob, who came into Egypt, were seventy.


The numbering of the household that went down into Egypt (Hebrew 'threescore and ten') is the recurring census tradition Stephen draws on, here in its LXX seventy-five form.

Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now Yahweh your God has made you as the stars of the sky for multitude.


'Jacob went down into Egypt' reproduces the migration of Jacob and all his seed into Egypt.

Jacob rose up from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. They took their livestock, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt—Jacob, and all his seed with him,


'And he died' echoes Jacob yielding up the ghost and being gathered to his people.

When Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the spirit, and was gathered to his people.


'Himself and our fathers' died echoes 'Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation,' marking the end of the patriarchal era.

Joseph died, as did all his brothers, and all that generation.


'The tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver' alludes to Abraham's purchase of the field of Machpelah for a burial place — though Stephen telescopes it with the Shechem plot.

Abraham listened to Ephron. Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in the audience of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the current merchants’ standard. So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all of its borders, were deeded


The plot 'from the children of Hamor of Shechem' reproduces Jacob's purchase of a parcel at Shechem from the sons of Hamor — Stephen conflates the two patriarchal land purchases.

He bought the parcel of ground where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred pieces of money.


'Brought back to Shechem' echoes the burial of Joseph's bones in the parcel of ground at Shechem that Jacob bought from Hamor's sons — the source that explains Stephen's Shechem detail.

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


'The people grew and multiplied in Egypt' reproduces 'the children of Israel were fruitful... and multiplied,' the population explosion that triggers oppression.

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


'As the time of the promise came close which God had sworn to Abraham' loops back to the four-hundred-year covenant prophecy now reaching its term.

He said to Abram, “Know for sure that your seed will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years. I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great wealth,


'He increased his people greatly' offers the poetic counterpart to Israel's multiplication in Egypt.

He increased his people greatly, and made them stronger than their adversaries.


'There arose a different king, who didn't know Joseph' is a near-verbatim rendering of 'there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.'

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who didn’t know Joseph.


'Took advantage of our race, and mistreated our fathers' echoes Pharaoh's policy to 'deal wisely' and afflict Israel with burdens.

Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it happen that when any war breaks out, they also join themselves to our enemies, and fight against us, and escape out of the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses.


'Forced them to throw out their babies, so that they wouldn't stay alive' reproduces Pharaoh's edict to cast every newborn son into the river.

Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “You shall cast every son who is born into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”


Moses 'was exceedingly handsome... nourished three months in his father's house' closely follows 'she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.'

The woman conceived, and bore a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.


'When he was thrown out' alludes to the mother placing the infant in the ark among the reeds when she could no longer hide him.

When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar and with pitch. She put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank.


'Pharaoh's daughter took him up' reproduces the princess discovering and taking the child from the river.

Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe at the river. Her maidens walked along by the riverside. She saw the basket among the reeds, and sent her handmaid to get it.


'Reared him as her own son' echoes 'he became her son' when Moses was brought to Pharaoh's daughter.

The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”


'Mighty in his words and works' stands in pointed tension with Moses' own self-description as 'slow of speech'; the haggadic praise of Moses' eloquence amplifies the biblical figure.

Moses said to Yahweh, “O Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before now, nor since you have spoken to your servant; for I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.”


'Instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians' presupposes the proverbial 'wisdom of Egypt' that Israel's later tradition both admired and relativized.

Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt.


Moses, grown, going out 'to visit his brothers, the children of Israel,' reproduces 'Moses... went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens.'

In those days, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his brothers, and looked at their burdens. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his brothers.


Seeing the wrong and 'striking the Egyptian' reproduces Moses smiting the Egyptian and hiding him in the sand.

He looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no one, he killed the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.


'The day following, he appeared to them as they fought' and urged peace reproduces Moses finding two Hebrews striving on the second day.

He went out the second day, and behold, two men of the Hebrews were fighting with each other. He said to him who did the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow?”


'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' is a near-verbatim citation of the rebuffing Hebrew's words — the rejection-of-the-deliverer motif Stephen weaponizes.

He said, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you plan to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?” Moses was afraid, and said, “Surely this thing is known.”


'Moses fled at this saying, and became a stranger in the land of Midian' reproduces Moses fleeing Pharaoh and dwelling in Midian.

Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and lived in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.


Moses becoming 'the father of two sons' in Midian echoes his marriage to Zipporah and the birth of Gershom (the 'stranger in a strange land').

Moses was content to dwell with the man. He gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter. She bore a son, and he named him Gershom, for he said, “I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land.”


'An angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush' reproduces the angel of the LORD in the flame of fire out of the midst of the bush at Horeb.

Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to God’s mountain, to Horeb. Yahweh’s angel appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.


'Moses... wondered at the sight. As he came close to see' echoes Moses turning aside to see the great sight of the unconsumed bush.

Moses said, “I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.”


'A voice of the Lord came to him' reproduces God calling to Moses out of the midst of the bush.

When Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said, “Moses! Moses!” He said, “Here I am.”


'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob' is a verbatim citation; 'Moses trembled, and dared not look' reproduces 'Moses hid his face.'

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


'Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground' is a near-verbatim citation — the holy-ground saying that anchors Stephen's argument that God is not confined to the temple.

He said, “Don’t come close. Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place you are standing on is holy ground.”


'I have surely seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt, and have heard their groaning. I have come down to deliver them' closely follows the LORD's declaration that he has seen the affliction and come down to deliver.

Yahweh said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.


'Now come, I will send you into Egypt' reproduces 'Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh.'

Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”


'Heard their groaning' echoes 'God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant,' tying the deliverance to the Abrahamic promise.

God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.


'Who made you a ruler and a judge?' is repeated from the Hebrew's taunt, now turned into the structural refrain of Israel rejecting the very deliverer God appoints.


Moses sent 'by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush' loops back to the angel in the burning bush as God's commissioning agent.

Yahweh’s angel appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.


'Having worked wonders and signs in Egypt' echoes the LORD multiplying signs and wonders in the land of Egypt through Moses.

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


Wonders 'in the Red Sea' alludes to the parting of the sea at the exodus.

Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Yahweh caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.


'In the wilderness for forty years' echoes the forty years of wandering decreed for the rebellious generation.

Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies are consumed in the wilderness.


'The Lord our God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me' is a verbatim citation of the prophet-like-Moses promise — the christological hinge of the speech.

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


'In the assembly in the wilderness... on Mount Sinai' alludes to Israel gathered at the foot of Sinai when God spoke.

Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the lower part of the mountain.


'Living oracles' (logia zonta) echoes Moses' claim that the law 'is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life' — the Torah as the word of life.

For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it.”


Fathers who 'turned back in their hearts to Egypt' reproduces the wilderness murmuring, 'Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.'

Why does Yahweh bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be captured or killed! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return into Egypt?” They said one to another, “Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.”


'Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses... we don't know what has become of him' is a near-verbatim citation of the people's demand to Aaron.

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.”


'They made a calf... and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands' reproduces the golden-calf apostasy with its offerings and revelry.

He received what they handed him, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molten calf; and they said, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation, and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to Yahweh.” They rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to […]


'Rejoiced in the works of their hands' echoes 'they made a calf in Horeb... and changed their glory into the similitude of an ox,' the Psalter's indictment of idolatry.

They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped a molten image. Thus they exchanged their glory for an image of a bull that eats grass.


'Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?' is a direct citation of Amos following the Septuagint.

“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel?

Have ye offered to me victims and sacrifices, O house of Israel, forty years in the wilderness?


'You took up the tabernacle of Moloch, the star of your god Rephan... I will carry you away beyond Babylon' cites Amos in its LXX form (Rephan for Hebrew Kiyyun; 'Babylon' for 'Damascus'), turning the exile threat against the temple establishment.

You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves. Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus,” says Yahweh, whose name is the God of Armies.


God giving them up 'to serve the army of the sky' echoes the warning against worshipping the host of heaven — the sun, moon, and stars.

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


Sacrifice 'to the army of the sky' resonates with Jeremiah's denunciation of offerings to the queen of heaven and the host of heaven, the prophetic critique of false worship Stephen invokes.

The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.


'The tabernacle of Moloch' resonates with the Levitical prohibition against passing one's seed through the fire to Molech.

“‘You shall not give any of your children to sacrifice to Molech; neither shall you profane the name of your God. I am Yahweh.


The tabernacle made 'according to the pattern that he had seen' cites the command to Moses to make all things after the pattern shown him in the mount.

See that you make them after their pattern, which has been shown to you on the mountain.


'The tabernacle of the testimony' echoes the standard Pentateuchal designation 'tabernacle of the testimony' for the wilderness sanctuary.

but appoint the Levites over the Tabernacle of the Testimony, and over all its furnishings, and over all that belongs to it. They shall carry the tabernacle, and all its furnishings; and they shall take care of it, and shall encamp around it.


'Brought in with Joshua when they entered into the possession of the nations' alludes to Israel crossing Jordan under Joshua to take the land.

When the people moved from their tents to pass over the Jordan, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant being before the people, and when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark had dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the time of harvest), the waters which came down from above stood, and rose up in one heap, a great way off, at Adam, the city that is beside […]


'The nations, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers' echoes the conquest formula that the LORD drove out great nations before Israel.

“For Yahweh has driven great and strong nations out from before you. But as for you, no man has stood before you to this day.


David 'asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob' alludes to David's wish to build a house for the ark, the occasion of Nathan's oracle.

When the king lived in his house, and Yahweh had given him rest from all his enemies all around, the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within curtains.”


'A habitation for the God of Jacob' closely follows the Psalmist's vow to 'find out a place... an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.'

until I find out a place for Yahweh, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.”


David's desire to house the ark is also recounted in Chronicles, the parallel tradition behind Stephen's compressed summary.

When David lived in his house, David said to Nathan the prophet, “Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of Yahweh is under curtains.”


'But Solomon built him a house' reproduces Solomon's construction of the temple, the climax Stephen immediately relativizes.

In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build Yahweh’s house.


'The Most High doesn't dwell in temples made with hands' echoes Solomon's own dedicatory confession, 'the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house?'

But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can’t contain you; how much less this house that I have built!


'Heaven is my throne, and the earth a footstool for my feet. What kind of house will you build me?' is a verbatim citation of Isaiah's oracle against confining God to a temple.

Thus says Yahweh, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: what kind of house will you build to me? and what place shall be my rest?


'Didn't my hand make all these things?' continues the Isaiah 66 citation ('all those things hath mine hand made'), grounding the anti-temple argument in the Creator's transcendence.

For all these things has my hand made, and so all these things came to be,” says Yahweh: “but to this man will I look, even to him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.


'You stiff-necked' applies God's own characterization of Israel ('thou art a stiffnecked people') to Stephen's hearers — the post-golden-calf indictment turned on the council.

Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go up into your midst for one moment, I would consume you. Therefore now take off your jewelry from you, that I may know what to do to you.’”


'Stiff-necked' echoes the repeated Deuteronomic refrain 'thou art a stiffnecked people,' Moses' summary verdict on the wilderness generation.

Know therefore, that Yahweh your God doesn’t give you this good land to possess for your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people.


'Uncircumcised in heart' reproduces the Holiness Code's 'if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled,' the metaphor of inner unfaithfulness.

I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity;


'Uncircumcised in... ears' echoes Jeremiah's 'their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken' — deaf to the prophetic word.

To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can’t listen. Behold, Yahweh’s word has become a reproach to them. They have no delight in it.


'You always resist the Holy Spirit' echoes 'they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit' — the rare OT 'Holy Spirit' language Stephen deploys against the present generation.

But they rebelled, and grieved his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he himself fought against them.


'Which of the prophets didn't your fathers persecute?' echoes the chronicler's verdict that they 'mocked the messengers of God... and misused his prophets,' the canonical summary of prophet-killing.

but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh arose against his people, until there was no remedy.


'They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One' echoes Elijah's complaint that Israel 'slain thy prophets with the sword.'

He said, “I have been very jealous for Yahweh, the God of Armies; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”


'The Righteous One' (ho dikaios) typologically draws on the Servant whom God calls 'my righteous servant,' read as the suffering Messiah.

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


'You received the law as it was ordained by angels' draws on the LXX of Moses' blessing ('on his right hand... angels with him'), the tradition of angelic mediation of the Sinai law.

He said, “Yahweh came from Sinai, and rose from Seir to them. He shone from Mount Paran. He came from the ten thousands of holy ones. At his right hand was a fiery law for them.


Stephen 'saw the glory of God' in opened heaven echoes Ezekiel's vision of 'the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD,' the prophetic theophany pattern.

As the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. This was the appearance of the likeness of Yahweh’s glory. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one that spoke.


Seeing 'Jesus standing on the right hand of God' draws on the enthronement oracle 'Sit thou at my right hand,' the supreme OT proof-text of exaltation — strikingly with Jesus standing rather than seated.

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


'The Son of Man standing at the right hand of God' fuses Daniel's vision of 'one like the Son of man' coming with the clouds with the right-hand enthronement.

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


'The witnesses placed their garments' and the stoning reflect the Deuteronomic execution law that 'the hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death.'

The hand of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall remove the evil from your midst.


Stoning Stephen after the charge of blasphemy against the temple and God reflects the law that 'he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD... all the congregation shall certainly stone him.'

He who blasphemes Yahweh’s name, he shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him. The foreigner as well as the native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.


'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!' reworks the Psalmist's 'into thine hand I commit my spirit,' the prayer of the dying righteous now addressed to Jesus.

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


The 'devout men' who 'lamented greatly' over Stephen recall the formulaic 'great and very sore lamentation' of the patriarchs over the dead (mourning for Jacob at the threshing floor of Atad). Volume rests on the doubled mourning vocabulary; thematic coherence is moderate (burial of a righteous man with public lament). The link is generic Septuagintal funerary idiom rather than a targeted citation.

They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and severe lamentation. He mourned for his father seven days. When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians.” Therefore its name was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.


Great public lamentation over a slain righteous one parallels the mourning over Josiah, where 'all Judah and Jerusalem mourned' and laments were established. Thematic coherence (a community grieving the death of a faithful figure) is present; verbal volume is faint. Plausibility is low since no distinctive wording is shared.

So his servants took him out of the chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day; and they made them an ordinance in Israel: and behold, they are written in the lamentations.


The believers 'scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria' evokes the covenantal scattering language ('I will scatter you among the nations'), here ironically reversed so that dispersion becomes the engine of mission. The scattering motif recurs across Deuteronomy and the Prophets, lending thematic recurrence; but Luke gives it a salvific rather than punitive sense, weakening the direct correspondence.

I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you. Your land will be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.


Philip's healings—'many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed'—enact the eschatological restoration promised in Isaiah, where 'the lame man shall leap as a hart.' Volume is moderate (shared 'lame' healing imagery), recurrence is strong across Isaiah and Luke-Acts as a sign of the inbreaking kingdom, and thematic coherence is high: the signs authenticate the proclamation of the Christ. The link is conceptual rather than a quotation.

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


Philip 'proclaimed' the Christ and the multitudes responded with 'great joy,' echoing the herald who publishes good tidings of peace and salvation. Thematic coherence (good news bringing joy to a city) is present; verbal volume is low and mediated through Luke's general euangelizo vocabulary.

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


The evangelization of 'the city of Samaria' figurally reverses the region's origin as a syncretistic resettlement after the Assyrian exile, where transplanted peoples 'feared the LORD and served their own gods.' No verbal borrowing; the coherence is historical-typological—the place of compromised worship now receives the pure word with joy.

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


Simon's practice of 'sorcery' that 'amazed the people of Samaria' stands against the Torah's explicit ban on the diviner, soothsayer, enchanter, and sorcerer. Thematic coherence is strong (forbidden magic confronted by the true word of God), and the sorcery vocabulary recurs in the prophetic polemic; volume is conceptual rather than lexical.

There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices sorcery, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer.


Simon's long-standing 'sorceries' by which he held the people in thrall recall the impotent 'multitude of thy sorceries' and 'enchantments' of Babylon, which cannot save before the power of God. Recurrence of the sorcery-versus-God contrast is notable; verbal volume is faint and the correspondence is thematic.

but these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood; in their full measure shall they come on you, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments. For you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, No one sees me; your wisdom and your knowledge, it has perverted you, and you have said in your heart, I am, and there is no one else besides me. Therefore evil will come on […]


Simon, the magician overawed by genuine 'signs and great miracles,' loosely typifies Pharaoh's sorcerers whose arts are outmatched by the signs of God. Thematic coherence (true wonders eclipsing magic) is moderate; there is no shared wording, so the link is a faint figural resonance.

Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers. They also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same thing with their enchantments.


The Samaritans' reception of the Holy Spirit through the apostles' prayer and laying on of hands extends the outpouring of the Spirit 'upon all flesh' programmatic for Acts. Recurrence within Luke-Acts (cited at Pentecost) is strong; here the volume is faint—no direct verbal contact—so the connection is a thematic continuation rather than a fresh allusion.

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


The apostles 'laid their hands on them' and they received the Spirit, recalling the commissioning gesture by which Moses laid hands on Spirit-filled Joshua. Thematic coherence (laying on of hands conveying authority and Spirit) is moderate; the rite is widely attested in the Torah, so volume and distinctiveness are low.

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


Peter's diagnosis that Simon is 'in the gall of bitterness' draws directly on the Deuteronomic warning against the apostate heart that is 'a root that beareth gall and wormwood.' Volume is high (the distinctive 'gall'/bitterness collocation), thematic coherence is exact (a covenant member whose heart turns from God), giving a strong verbal allusion.

lest there should be among you man, woman, family, or tribe whose heart turns away this day from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that produces bitter poison;


Peter says Simon is in the 'bondage of iniquity'—literally a 'bond' or 'chain'—echoing Isaiah's call to 'loose the bands of wickedness' and undo every yoke. Volume is moderate (the bond-of-wickedness phrase), and thematic coherence is strong: sin as binding fetters from which one must repent. The correspondence is verbal-conceptual.

“Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?


Peter's verdict that Simon's 'heart isn't right before God' resonates with the Psalm's indictment that Israel's 'heart was not right with him.' The 'heart not right' idiom is distinctive enough to register; recurrence of the motif across the Psalter is broad, lowering specificity. Volume is moderate, coherence high.

For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.


Simon has 'neither part nor lot in this matter,' echoing the inheritance language denying the outsider a 'part nor inheritance' among the covenant people. The 'part nor lot/inheritance' formula recurs widely (cf. the Levites' portion), giving thematic recurrence; here it pronounces exclusion for one whose heart is corrupt.

You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you, and your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you.


The 'gall of bitterness' image may also draw on Lamentations' '(he) hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood,' reinforcing the gall-and-wormwood pairing behind Peter's words. Listed as a secondary witness to the same idiom; verbal volume overlaps with the primary Deuteronomy allusion.

He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood.


The Ethiopian 'eunuch' brought into the people of God figurally fulfills Isaiah's promise that the eunuch who keeps covenant will be given 'a name better than of sons and of daughters' within God's house. The correspondence is typological with strong thematic coherence (an excluded class welcomed); fittingly, the eunuch is reading the very scroll of Isaiah. Verbal volume is low, but the structural irony is pointed and the placement makes the allusion deliberate.

Neither let the foreigner, who has joined himself to Yahweh, speak, saying, “Yahweh will surely separate me from his people”; neither let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” For thus says Yahweh, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and hold fast my covenant: to them I will give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, […]


The eunuch's prior exclusion is defined by the Torah's ruling that one 'wounded in the stones' shall not 'enter into the congregation of the LORD.' Luke's account quietly overturns this barrier; the coherence is high as the legal foil against which the eunuch's incorporation is read. No verbal borrowing, so the link is typological/figural.

He who is emasculated by crushing or cutting shall not enter into Yahweh’s assembly.


An Ethiopian official coming to worship and returning home a believer answers the psalm's vision that 'Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.' Thematic coherence is strong (Ethiopia turning to the true God) and the motif recurs in prophetic universalism; verbal volume is modest, making this a probable thematic allusion.

Princes shall come out of Egypt. Ethiopia shall hurry to stretch out her hands to God.


The eunuch as a worshiper coming 'from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia' to bring offering echoes Zephaniah's promise that 'from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants... shall bring mine offering.' Recurrence with Psalm 68 strengthens the Ethiopia-to-Zion theme; volume is faint and the link is conceptual.

From beyond the rivers of Cush, my worshipers, even the daughter of my dispersed people, will bring my offering.


A high official of a southern queen ('Candace, queen of the Ethiopians,' steward of her treasure) journeying toward Jerusalem loosely recalls the Queen of Sheba's pilgrimage with her treasures to hear wisdom. Thematic coherence (foreign royalty seeking the God of Israel) is moderate; correspondence is associative, not verbal.

When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning Yahweh’s name, she came to prove him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bore spices, and very much gold, and precious stones; and when she had come to Solomon, she talked with him of all that was in her heart.


The scroll the eunuch reads is quoted verbatim from the Septuagint of the Suffering Servant: 'He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; as a lamb before his shearer is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away...' Volume is maximal (sustained, explicit citation), and Philip's exposition makes the christological coherence the hinge of the pericope. This is the chapter's flagship quotation.

He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is mute, so he didn’t open his mouth. He was taken away by oppression and judgment; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people?


After the baptism 'the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away,' echoing the Elijah tradition in which 'the Spirit of the LORD shall carry thee whither I know not.' Volume is strong on the distinctive 'Spirit of the LORD carrying off' a prophet, recurrence within the Elijah/Elisha cycle is notable, and thematic coherence (a Spirit-driven prophetic figure transported) is high.

It will happen, as soon as I am gone from you, that the Spirit of Yahweh will carry you I don’t know where; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he can’t find you, he will kill me. But I, your servant, have feared Yahweh from my youth.


Philip's sudden removal also recalls the sons of the prophets' fear that 'the Spirit of the LORD hath taken up [Elijah], and cast him upon some mountain.' Reinforces the Elijah-typology behind Philip's translation; volume and coherence parallel the 1 Kings 18 link, the two together making the prophetic-rapture allusion firm.

They said to him, “See now, there are with your servants fifty strong men. Please let them go and seek your master. Perhaps the Spirit of Yahweh has taken him up, and put him on some mountain, or into some valley. He said, “You shall not send them.”


The Spirit 'lifting up' and bearing away the prophet matches Ezekiel's experience that 'the Spirit took me up, and... carried me away.' Recurrence of Spirit-transport language across the prophets strengthens the motif; verbal volume here is moderate, the link best classed as a supporting echo to the Elijah allusions.

Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be Yahweh’s glory from his place. I heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, even the noise of a great rushing. So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and the hand of Yahweh was strong on me.


Daniel alone perceives the vision while the men with him do not see it but flee in terror; he then falls to the ground. Acts 9:7's companions 'stood speechless, hearing the sound but seeing no one' is the same selective-perception convention attached to an overwhelming theophany, with the seer prostrate. Volume and thematic coherence are strong; the divergence (companions hear vs. do not see) is exactly the kind of variation Luke replays in his retellings (cf. ch. 22, 26).

I, Daniel, alone saw the vision; for the men who were with me didn’t see the vision; but a great quaking fell on them, and they fled to hide themselves. So I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me; for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength. Yet heard I the voice of his words; and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I fallen into a deep sleep on my face, with my face […]


The appearance of the glory of the LORD as radiant brightness causes Ezekiel to fall on his face and hear a voice speaking. Saul's 'light from the sky,' falling to the earth, and a speaking voice replays the Kavod-theophany sequence. High thematic coherence with the prophetic call pattern; verbal volume is moderate (light/glory, fell, voice).

As the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. This was the appearance of the likeness of Yahweh’s glory. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one that spoke.


After Ezekiel falls, the voice commands 'Son of man, stand on your feet... I send you to the people.' Saul is told to 'rise up, and enter into the city,' the same fall-then-rise-and-go commissioning rhythm. Coherence with the immediately following sending to the nations is strong; verbal borrowing modest.

He said to me, Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you. The Spirit entered into me when he spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard him who spoke to me. He said to me, Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me even to this very day.


'Moses, Moses' — the doubled-vocative call from a blazing divine manifestation, answered before commission. 'Saul, Saul' matches the convention. Recurrence is strong across the OT call type-scenes (Gen 22:11; 46:2; 1 Sam 3:10), which strengthens rather than dilutes the echo.

When Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said, “Moses! Moses!” He said, “Here I am.”


The throne-vision call of Isaiah — overwhelmed prophet confronted by divine glory, then sent — is the archetype Luke draws Saul's commissioning into. Little verbal overlap, but the type-scene logic (theophany → unworthiness → sending) is the figural frame; coherence high, volume low.

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 foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was […]


Jeremiah is appointed 'a prophet to the nations' before birth; the Damascus call culminates (v.15) in Saul as the chosen vessel 'before the nations.' The conversion proper carries this only faintly; the nations-prophet resonance lands more in vv.10-19. Low volume here.

“Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you. Before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”


A dread/darkness falls upon Abram at a covenant theophany; Saul is plunged into three days of darkness. Faint, contested — the motif of incapacitating darkness accompanying divine encounter, but no verbal contact.

When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him.


The LORD calls 'Ananias!' in a vision and he answers 'Behold, it's me, Lord' — the Samuel night-call type-scene, where the named summons is met with hinneni ('Here I am'). High coherence with the prophetic-vision call form; the responsive formula is the load-bearing parallel.

Yahweh called Samuel; and he said, “Here I am.” He ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am; for you called me.” He said, “I didn’t call; lie down again.” He went and lay down. Yahweh called yet again, “Samuel!” Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am; for you called me.” He answered, “I didn’t call, my son; lie down again.” Now Samuel didn’t yet know Yahweh, neither was Yahweh’s word yet revealed to him. Yahweh called Samuel again the third time. He […]


The Servant is named from the womb to be 'a light to the nations,' and kings shall see (49:7). The Lord's word that Saul is 'my chosen vessel to bear my name before the nations and kings, and the children of Israel' fuses the Servant's mission to nations + kings + Israel. Strong thematic coherence; Luke is casting Saul in the Isaianic Servant role.

Listen, islands, to me; and listen, you peoples, from far: Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name: and he has made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand, he has hidden me: and he has made me a polished shaft; in his quiver has he kept me close: and he said to me, “You are my servant; Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength […]


Tobit's blindness is healed when the white films/scales peel from the corners of his eyes and he recovers his sight. 'Something like scales fell from his eyes, and he received his sight' is strikingly close in image and vocabulary (the scaling-off of a film). Deuterocanonical; high volume on the distinctive scales-from-eyes motif.

and took hold of his father. He rubbed the gall on his father’s eyes, saying, “Cheer up, my father.” When his eyes began to hurt, he rubbed them. Then the white films scaled away from the corners of his eyes; and he saw his son, and fell upon his neck.


Elisha prays and the LORD strikes the Aramean army with blindness, leads them into Damascus, then prays again that their eyes be opened and they see. Saul is struck blind, led by the hand into Damascus, and his eyes opened there. The Damascus setting plus blinding/opening-of-eyes makes this more than coincidental; medium for moderate verbal contact.

Elisha prayed, and said, “Yahweh, please open his eyes, that he may see.” Yahweh opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha. When they came down to him, Elisha prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Please strike this people with blindness.” He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. Elisha said to them, “This is not the way, neither is this the city. Follow me, […]


Ananias's hesitant objection ('Lord, I have heard... how much evil he did') and the Lord's overriding 'Go your way, for he is my chosen vessel' replays the prophetic objection-and-reassurance pattern (Jer 1:6 'Ah, Lord'; cf. Exod 3:11; 4:1). Coherence high with the call form; verbal volume modest.

Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Behold, I don’t know how to speak; for I am a child.” But Yahweh said to me, “Don’t say, ‘I am a child;’ for to whoever I shall send you, you shall go, and whatever I shall command you, you shall speak. Don’t be afraid because of them; for I am with you to deliver you,” says Yahweh.


The 'chosen vessel' image may draw on the potter-and-clay vessel that God refashions to his purpose. Faint and contested — Luke's skeuos eklogēs evokes the vessel-of-election idea but without verbal anchoring to the potter oracle specifically.

The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he was making a work on the wheels. When the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, House of Israel, can’t I do with you as […]


Those plotting to kill watch the gates day and night, but Saul's disciples 'let him down through the wall, lowering him in a basket' by night — exactly as Michal lets David down through a window so he can escape the men watching the house to kill him. The conjunction of murderous watch + nocturnal lowering-down escape is the strongest single parallel.

So Michal let David down through the window. He went, fled, and escaped.


Rahab lets the spies down by a rope through her window because her house was built into the city wall. 'Let him down through the wall' matches the lowering-through-the-wall escape motif precisely; high volume on the wall + lowering imagery.

Then she let them down by a cord through the window; for her house was on the side of the wall, and she lived on the wall.


The psalm (titled to David's escape while enemies 'watched the house to kill him') pleads for deliverance from those who lie in wait. The 'watched the gates day and night to kill him' language resonates with the persecuted-righteous-one motif. Low volume, contested.

Deliver me from my enemies, my God. Set me on high from those who rise up against me. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity. Save me from the bloodthirsty men. For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty gather themselves together against me, not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, Yahweh.


The summary that the churches were 'walking in the fear of the Lord' and were built up draws on the wisdom idiom of life ordered by the fear of the LORD. Diffuse stock biblical phrase; low volume, no single source.

The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.


Peter's command to the bedridden Aeneas, 'Get up and make your bed,' reverses the prophetic word that one will not 'come down from the bed' to which he has gone up. Faint thematic inversion of the bed-of-affliction motif from the Elijah cycle; low and contested.

Now therefore thus says Yahweh, “You shall not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but shall surely die.”’” Elijah departed.


The healing of the paralytic so that he immediately rises belongs to the prophetic vision of the lame leaping when God restores his people; 'all who lived at Lydda... turned to the Lord' fits the restoration-and-return frame. Low volume, no verbal borrowing.

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


Elisha enters the room where the dead child lies, puts everyone out, prays, and the child opens her/his eyes. 'Peter sent them all out, and knelt down and prayed... he said, Tabitha, get up! She opened her eyes' matches the sequence point-for-point: privacy, prayer, command, the opening of the eyes. Highest-volume parallel in the pericope.

When Elisha had come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid on his bed. He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to Yahweh. He went up, and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, and his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. He stretched himself on him; and the flesh of the child grew warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house once back and forth; and went up, and stretched himself on him. Then […]


Elijah raises the widow's son, who is laid in the upper room (loft) where the prophet prays; the result is faith ('now I know'). Tabitha is laid in an upper room, surrounded by widows, raised through Peter's prayer, and 'many believed.' Strong coherence: upper room + widow context + prayer + resurrection + resulting belief.

After these things, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so severe, that there was no breath left in him. She said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, you man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to memory, and to kill my son!” He said to her, “Give me your son.” He took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into the room where he stayed, and laid him on his own bed. He cried to Yahweh, and said, […]


Beyond the resuscitation itself, the Shunammite cycle frames the dead one laid in a prepared upper chamber and messengers sent urgently to fetch the man of God ('do not slacken your riding'); Joppa's disciples 'sent two men... imploring him not to delay.' The send-for-the-prophet-without-delay motif reinforces the Elisha typology.

It fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman; and she persuaded him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread. She said to her husband, “See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God, that passes by us continually. Please let us make a little room on the wall. Let us set for him there a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp stand. It shall be, when he comes to us, that he […]


Cornelius's prayers and alms 'have gone up for a memorial before God' closely matches Raphael's words that he presented Tobit's and Sarah's prayers as a memorial before the Holy One. Volume is strong (the technical idea of an angel presenting a God-fearer's prayers/alms as a 'memorial' before God) and the satisfaction is high, since Cornelius is precisely the pious almsgiver Tobit holds up as model.

And now, when you prayed, and Sarah your daughter-in-law, I brought the memorial of your prayer before the Holy One. When you buried the dead, I was with you likewise.


The 'memorial' (azkarah) language — the portion of the offering that ascends as a pleasing memorial 'before the LORD' — supplies the cultic background for prayers and alms 'going up for a memorial before God,' reframing Cornelius's piety as an acceptable sacrifice. Thematic coherence is high; verbal volume moderate.

He shall bring it to Aaron’s sons, the priests; and he shall take his handful of its fine flour, and of its oil, with all its frankincense; and the priest shall burn its memorial on the altar, an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.


Ben Sira teaches that the offering of the righteous and the gift of alms ascend and are remembered before the Most High; the same sapiential link between generous almsgiving and acceptance/memory before God informs the portrait of Cornelius. Plausible given the Septuagintal-Jewish piety setting.

The offering of the righteous makes the altar fat; And the sweet savor thereof is before the Most High. The sacrifice of a righteous man is acceptable; And the memorial thereof shall not be forgotten. Glorify the Lord with a good eye, And stint not the first fruits of your hands. In every gift show a cheerful countenance, And dedicate your tithe with gladness.


Cornelius prays at the ninth hour (the hour of the evening sacrifice); the psalm's 'let my prayer be set forth as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice' frames prayer ascending at the sacrificial hour, coherent with prayers that 'have gone up' before God.

Let my prayer be set before you like incense; the lifting up of my hands like the evening sacrifice.


Daniel prays and an angel (Gabriel) comes to him 'at the time of the evening offering'; Cornelius prays at the ninth hour and an angel of God appears. The pattern of angelic visitation at the hour of prayer/sacrifice is figurally echoed.

While I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before Yahweh my God for the holy mountain of my God; yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening offering.


The angel addressing 'Cornelius!' and his fearful 'What is it, Lord?' faintly echoes the OT pattern of God/angel calling a name and the human responding (Abraham, Samuel). Low volume; offered maximally.

Yahweh’s angel called to him out of the sky, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” He said, “Here I am.”


The God-fearer who 'has given to the poor' whose righteousness endures matches the devout, alms-giving, God-fearing Cornelius. Thematic only, no verbal borrowing.

He has dispersed, he has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted with honor.


The sheet contains 'all kinds of four-footed animals, wild animals, reptiles, and birds' — exactly the taxonomic categories of Leviticus 11's clean/unclean legislation — and Peter's refusal ('common or unclean') invokes its core distinction. The command 'kill and eat' and the verdict 'what God has cleansed' directly engage and overturn this law. Volume, recurrence, and coherence all high.

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


The Deuteronomic restatement of the food laws (clean/unclean beasts, birds, swarming things; 'you shall not eat any abomination') is the parallel legislative source for Peter's scruple about eating the unclean. High coherence; included alongside Leviticus 11 as the second pillar of the dietary code.

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 […]


Peter's 'Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean' verbally mirrors Ezekiel's protest 'I have never defiled myself... neither has anything abominable/unclean come into my mouth.' Distinctive shared form (prophet's emphatic refusal of unclean food to a divine command). High volume.

Then I said, Ah Lord Yahweh! behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.


The gathering of every kind of beast, creeping thing, and bird (the ark inventory by 'kinds') is faintly echoed in the sheet's comprehensive menagerie 'of the earth' descending from heaven. Figural, low volume.

Of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ship, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, of the livestock after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort will come to you, to keep them alive.


The creation categories — beasts, creeping things, birds — underlie the threefold listing in the vision; the divine pronouncement that all is now clean recalls the original 'very good' creation. Thematic/figural only.

God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good. God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds […]


The Spirit speaking to Peter and directing him to 'arise, get down, and go... for I have sent them' faintly parallels the prophetic pattern of the Spirit entering and commanding the prophet to go. Low volume; no distinctive wording.

Then the Spirit entered into me, and set me on my feet; and he spoke with me, and said to me, Go, shut yourself inside your house.


Cornelius recounts that during his fast at the ninth hour 'a man stood before me in bright clothing' — the angelophany described as a man in dazzling/bright garments matches Daniel's vision of a man clothed in shining apparel appearing during a period of fasting and prayer. Coherent verbal and situational overlap.

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


Cornelius falls at Peter's feet to worship and Peter raises him: 'Stand up! I myself am also a man' — the refusal-of-veneration scene echoes Raphael's correction of Tobit and Tobias, redirecting worship from the messenger to God. Here transposed to a human apostle. Thematic coherence high.

And they were both troubled, and fell upon their faces; for they were afraid. And he said to them, “Don’t be afraid. You will all have peace; but bless God forever. For I came not of any favor of my own, but by the will of your God. Therefore bless him forever. All these days I appeared to you. I didn’t eat or drink, but you all saw a vision. Now give God thanks, because I ascend to him that sent me. Write in a book all the things which have been done.” […]


Peter's 'it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with one of another nation, but God has shown me not to call any man unholy or unclean' transfers the clean/unclean categories of the dietary law (and its boundary-keeping function) to persons; recurrence of the Levitical theme from 10:9-16 within the chapter.


Cornelius's 'I was fasting until this hour, and at the ninth hour I prayed' echoes Daniel's seeking God 'by prayer and supplications, with fasting' as the disposition that precedes angelic revelation. Faint.

I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and petitions, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.


'God doesn't show favoritism' (ou prosopolemptes) directly restates the Deuteronomic confession that God 'regards not persons (does not lift the face) nor takes a bribe.' Distinctive theological formula; the basis for the whole Gentile-inclusion argument. High volume and coherence.

For Yahweh your God, he is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn’t respect persons, nor takes reward.


Jehoshaphat's charge that 'with the LORD our God there is no iniquity, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts' is a second locus of the 'no partiality' formula informing v34. Recurrence strengthens the allusion.

Now therefore let the fear of Yahweh be on you. Take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with Yahweh our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of bribes.”


'Preaching good news of peace' (euangelizomenos eirenen) reproduces the herald who 'publishes peace, brings good tidings' on the mountains. The gospel-of-peace formula in v36 is drawn from this servant-song herald text. High volume.

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


'Peace, peace, to him that is far off, and to him that is near' undergirds the proclamation of peace now extended to the far-off Gentiles in Cornelius's house; coherent with the chapter's inclusion theme.

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


'Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace' is a parallel herald-of-peace text reinforcing the Isaianic background of v36.

Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, Judah! Perform your vows, for the wicked one will no more pass through you. He is utterly cut off.


'The word which he sent to the children of Israel' faintly echoes 'he sent his word and healed them,' apt given the immediate reference to Jesus 'healing all who were oppressed.' Low volume.

He sends his word, and heals them, and delivers them from their graves.


'God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good' reflects 'the Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me' to bring good news and release. The Spirit-anointing summary of Jesus' ministry draws on this servant text. High coherence.

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

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


'My chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him' supports v38's portrait of the Spirit-endowed servant and v41's 'witnesses chosen before by God.' Thematic coherence high; verbal moderate.

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


'Whom they also killed, hanging him on a tree' (kremasantes epi xylou) deliberately invokes the law that a man 'hanged on a tree' is accursed of God and must be taken down. The xylon language is the distinctive Deuteronomic marker. High volume.

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


'God raised him up the third day' resonates with 'on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.' A recurrent NT third-day intertext; figural/typological with moderate verbal touch.

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


Jesus 'appointed by God as the Judge of the living and the dead' echoes the title 'Judge of all the earth.' Thematic.

Be it far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”


'He comes to judge the earth... the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity' undergirds the designation of the risen one as eschatological Judge in v42.

Let them sing before Yahweh, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.


'Everyone who believes in him will receive remission of sins' to which 'all the prophets testify' echoes the new-covenant promise 'I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more,' the prophetic witness to forgiveness Peter invokes. Coherent.

and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh; for they shall all know me, from their least to their greatest, says Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.


'The people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity' is among the prophetic texts of forgiveness that 'all the prophets testify' to in v43. Faint, offered maximally.

The inhabitant won’t say, “I am sick.” The people who dwell therein will be forgiven their iniquity.


'The gift of the Holy Spirit was also poured out on the Gentiles' fulfills 'I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh' — the same Joel oracle already cited at Pentecost (recurrence within Acts), now extended to 'all flesh' inclusive of Gentiles. High coherence; the pouring-out language is distinctive.

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


'I will pour my Spirit upon your seed' provides a parallel outpouring-of-the-Spirit promise reinforcing the Joel intertext behind v45. Moderate verbal overlap.

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


'I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel' is a further prophetic pour-out text in the background of the Spirit falling on the hearers. Faint.

neither will I hide my face any more from them; for I have poured out my Spirit on the house of Israel, says the Lord Yahweh.


'Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high' contributes to the prophetic expectation of the Spirit's outpouring realized here on the Gentiles.

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


The Gentiles 'speaking in other languages and magnifying God' figurally reverses Babel's scattering of tongues, with diverse speech now uniting in praise. Typological, no verbal borrowing.

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


The vision's core conflict — a divine command to 'kill and eat' four-footed animals, creeping things, and birds, and Peter's refusal because 'nothing unholy or unclean has ever entered into my mouth' — directly engages the Levitical taxonomy of clean and unclean creatures. Volume is high (the whole pericope turns on these dietary categories); recurrence is strong (the sister account in Acts 10 and the parallel here); thematic coherence is high. The narrative reads the Levitical food law figurally, the abolition of the clean/unclean boundary dramatizing the inclusion of Gentiles.

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


The Deuteronomic restatement of the clean/unclean animal law stands behind Peter's scruple alongside Leviticus 11. Lower volume than Leviticus (no distinctive verbal pickup unique to Deuteronomy), but the same legal substrate the vision overturns.

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 […]


Peter's protest, 'Not so, Lord, for nothing unholy or unclean has ever entered into my mouth,' closely echoes Ezekiel's own protest at the command to eat defiling food: 'I have not eaten of that which dies of itself... neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.' The verbal and situational parallel (prophet objecting to a divine eating-command on grounds of lifelong purity) is striking; this is a strong allusion, perhaps the model for Peter's words.

Then I said, Ah Lord Yahweh! behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.


The vision's catalogue — 'four-footed animals of the earth, wild animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky' — recalls the ordered creaturely classes gathered to the ark (beasts after their kind, creeping things, fowl). The taxonomic phrasing echoes the Genesis flood inventory of all flesh; thematic coherence is moderate (universal scope of living kinds), volume modest.

Of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ship, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, of the livestock after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort will come to you, to keep them alive.


The triad of earth-beasts, creeping things, and birds also recalls the creation account's enumeration of the living creatures over which humanity is given dominion. A faint echo: the categories are generic and shared with the flood narrative, so attribution to Genesis 1 specifically is weak.

God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good. God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds […]


Peter's report that 'the Holy Spirit fell on them, even as on us at the beginning' frames Gentile Spirit-reception by the same Joel oracle invoked at Pentecost ('I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh'). The 'all flesh' universality of Joel undergirds the argument that the same gift is now given to Gentiles; medium volume, high thematic coherence with the chapter's inclusion theme.


The pairing of cleansing ('What God has cleansed, don't you call unclean') with the gift of the Spirit recalls Ezekiel's promise to sprinkle clean water and put a new Spirit within the people. A figural resonance — purification and Spirit-bestowal joined — rather than a verbal borrowing.

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


Jerusalem's verdict that 'God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life' coheres with Isaiah's vision of foreigners joined to the LORD and gathered to his house. A thematic echo of Gentile incorporation; no verbal link, so confidence is low.

Neither let the foreigner, who has joined himself to Yahweh, speak, saying, “Yahweh will surely separate me from his people”; neither let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” For thus says Yahweh, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and hold fast my covenant: to them I will give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, […]


'The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed' takes up the recurrent Hebrew idiom of the LORD's hand being upon a person for blessing and success, prominent in Ezra ('the good hand of his God upon him'). Recurrence of this idiom across the OT is high (Ezra 7:6, 7:28, 8:18); thematic coherence (divine empowerment of mission) is strong; volume moderate.

For on the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon; and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God on him.


'The hand of the LORD was on Elijah' is another instance of the same idiom of divine enablement. A faint echo contributing to the recurrence of the 'hand of the Lord' motif rather than a specific source.

The hand of Yahweh was on Elijah; and he tucked his cloak into his belt and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.


Barnabas's exhortation 'that with purpose of heart they should remain near to (cleave to) the Lord' echoes the Deuteronomic and Joshuanic charge to 'cleave unto the LORD your God' with the whole heart. Thematic coherence high (covenant loyalty of heart); verbal resonance on cleaving/holding fast; moderate volume.

You shall fear Yahweh your God; you shall serve him; and you shall cling to him, and you shall swear by his name.


Joshua's farewell command to love the LORD, walk in his ways, and 'cleave unto him' with all the heart and soul stands behind the same 'purpose of heart... remain near to the Lord' exhortation. Reinforces the recurrence of the OT cleaving-to-the-Lord formula.

Only take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded you, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, to hold fast to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”


'The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch' may faintly resonate with Isaiah's promise that the LORD's servants 'shall be called by another name.' A contested, low-volume figural echo of the giving of a new name to God's people; no verbal borrowing.

You shall leave your name for a curse to my chosen; and the Lord Yahweh will kill you; and he will call his servants by another name:


Agabus's Spirit-given prediction of 'a great famine all over the world' and the disciples' decision to lay up relief beforehand follows the Joseph pattern: a famine 'over all the face of the earth,' foreknown by divine revelation, met by provident gathering and distribution of food. Thematic coherence is high (prophetic foreknowledge of famine answered by organized relief); the typological link of foresight-then-provision is the strongest of several prophet-and-famine resonances.

The seven years of plenty, that were in the land of Egypt, came to an end. The seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread, and Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph. What he says to you, do.” The famine was over all the surface of the earth. Joseph opened all the store […]


Agabus standing up to declare a coming famine follows the prophet-announces-famine type set by Elijah, who declares the drought and dearth before Ahab. Recurrence of the motif (prophet foretelling famine) is its main support; no verbal borrowing, so figural/echo rather than quotation.

Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the foreigners of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”


Elisha's announcement of a coming famine 'upon the land seven years' is a further instance of the OT prophet-and-famine pattern that Agabus's prophecy continues. A low-volume contributor to recurrence.

Now Elisha had spoken to the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Arise, and go, you and your household, and stay for a while wherever you can; for Yahweh has called for a famine. It shall also come on the land seven years.”


The sending of relief 'to the brothers who lived in Judea' by the hands of Barnabas and Saul faintly recalls Joseph's provision of food and life-preservation for his brothers during the famine. A figural echo of famine relief sent to one's brethren; modest thematic coherence, no verbal link.

Now don’t be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are yet five years, in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance. So now it wasn’t you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord […]


Luke explicitly times the arrest 'during the days of unleavened bread' and intends to bring Peter out 'after the Passover,' anchoring the whole episode in the Exodus 12 festival calendar. The verbal marker (azuma / pascha) is direct, and the placement is deliberate: the coming deliverance of Peter is staged against the festival commemorating Israel's deliverance.

This day shall be to you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast to Yahweh: throughout your generations you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever. “‘Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away yeast out of your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. In the first day there shall be to you a holy convocation, and in the […]


A hostile king 'stretching out his hand' against God's people, killing them, and seeking to suppress the growing community recalls Pharaoh's campaign against Israel. The figural pairing (tyrant vs. people on the eve of Passover) is reinforced by the chapter's later 'grew and multiplied' (cf. Exod 1:7). Thematic coherence is strong though verbal volume is low.

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who didn’t know Joseph. He said to his people, “Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it happen that when any war breaks out, they also join themselves to our enemies, and fight against us, and escape out of the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities […]


'Your hand will find out all your enemies' — the idiom of the royal hand reaching out to seize. Faint lexical resonance with 'stretched out his hands'; offered as a contested possibility for the persecuting-hand motif.

Your hand will find out all of your enemies. Your right hand will find out those who hate you.


The angel's commands — 'Get dressed and put on your sandals... Put on your cloak' — closely mirror the Passover instruction to eat 'with your waist girded, your sandals on your feet,' ready to depart in haste. Given the explicit Passover setting (12:3-4), the verbal volume and thematic coherence make this the keystone allusion: Peter's release is a re-enacted exodus.

This is how you shall eat it: with your belt on your waist, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is Yahweh’s Passover.


'Such as sat in darkness... bound in affliction and iron... he brought them out of darkness, and broke their chains in pieces. He has broken the gates of bronze, and cut the bars of iron asunder.' Striking convergence with the dark cell, the chains falling off, and the iron gate opening. High thematic coherence and notable volume for the prison-deliverance imagery.

Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron, because they rebelled against the words of God, and condemned the counsel of the Most High. Therefore he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down, and there was no one to help. Then they cried to Yahweh in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke away their chains. Let them […]


'My God has sent his angel, and has shut the lions' mouths' parallels Peter's confession, 'the Lord has sent out his angel and delivered me.' Both feature a righteous man condemned by a king, divinely rescued by an angel overnight, with near-identical 'God sent his angel' formula. Recurrence of the angelic-deliverance type is strong.

My God has sent his angel, and has shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not hurt me; because as before him innocence was found in me; and also before you, O king, have I done no hurt.