For this commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you or too distant. It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do […]
⛓ Read Deuteronomy 30 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.
Allusion1
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
Moses insists the commandment is 'not too hard... but very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.' James's demand to be doers and not merely hearers of the word reflects the deuteronomic insistence that the word is given to be done.
Medium confidenceEcho4
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
Abraham's verdict that those who will not hear Moses will not be persuaded even by a resurrection coheres with Deuteronomy's insistence that the word is not far off in heaven or beyond reach but near, in mouth and heart, so no extraordinary sign is needed. The sufficiency and nearness of the revealed word grounds the saying.
Medium confidenceMoses insists the commandment is 'not far off... but very near you, in your mouth and in your heart,' a nearness-not-distant idiom that resonates with 'the Kingdom of God is among/within you' rather than 'here' or 'there.' Suggestive but contested.
Low confidence2:14-15 Gentiles 'a law to themselves' with the law's work 'in their hearts' faintly recalls Deut 30:11-14, 'the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it' — the nearness/internality of the commandment (Paul quotes this at 10:6-8), here generalized to conscience.
Low confidenceDiscerning and doing 'the good and acceptable and perfect will of God' echoes Deuteronomy's insistence that God's commandment is knowable and doable, internalized in heart and mouth — a theme Paul invokes nearby in Romans 10.
Low confidence