“You shall not blaspheme God, nor curse a ruler of your people.
⛓ Read Exodus 22 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.
Quotation1
A formal citation — high verbal volume, often introduced by a saying-formula.
Paul's explicit 'for it is written' citation, 'You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people,' is a near-verbatim quotation of Exod 22:28 (LXX 22:27, 'a ruler of your people you shall not curse'). High Volume (formula + verbatim match) and high Thematic Coherence (Paul submits to the Torah he is accused of violating). Recurrence: the same verse underlies Eccl 10:20. Plausible and historically apt for a Pharisee.
High confidenceEcho3
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
'You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people' — Torah pairs honoring God with not dishonoring the civil authority, an antecedent to 'he who resists the authority withstands the ordinance of God' (v.2) and 'honor to whom honor' (v.7).
Medium confidence'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.
Low confidenceThe officer's rebuke 'Do you answer the high priest like that?' invokes the Torah prohibition against reviling a ruler of the people, ironically applied to silence the true Lord. Faint and contested; the link is the legal premise behind the officer's charge rather than a quotation.
Low confidence