You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain.
⛓ Read Deuteronomy 25 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Quotation2
A formal citation — high verbal volume, often introduced by a saying-formula.
Paul cites the law of Moses verbatim with a citation formula, 'You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain' (v.9, LXX ou phimoseis boun aloonta), as scriptural warrant for the worker's right to support. An unambiguous, high-volume quotation, then daringly reapplied ('Is it for the oxen that God cares, or for our sake?') to apostolic maintenance.
High confidencePaul cites verbatim, 'You shall not muzzle the ox when it treads out the grain,' introduced as 'the Scripture says,' to justify material support for laboring elders. The Torah's provision for the working animal becomes the warrant for compensating those who labor in word and teaching.
High confidenceEcho1
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
The right of the agricultural laborer to a share of the produce echoes the ox-treading-grain principle Paul elsewhere applies to ministry support. Faint but thematically continuous with the farmer image.
Low confidence