You turn things upside down! Should the potter be thought to be like clay; that the thing made should say about him who made it, “He didn’t make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding?”
⛓ Read Isaiah 29 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.
v.20 'Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, Why did you make me like this?' echoes Isaiah's rebuke of the clay that questions the potter, 'Shall the thing made say of him who made it, He did not make me?' Paul's potter/clay rebuttal is built on this prophetic protest-against-protest.
High confidenceEcho1
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
'Shall the thing made say of its maker, He did not make me?' frames the made vessel's subordination to its fashioner, the conceptual ground for a vessel cleansing itself for honorable use under the master.
Medium confidence