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.
⛓ Read Isaiah 35 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.
Allusion4
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
Jesus' answer to John catalogs the eyes of the blind opened, the lame leaping, and the deaf hearing in the precise pattern of Isaiah's vision of God's coming to save. The cluster of signs is verbally and thematically anchored in Isaiah, and Luke arranges them as a deliberate composite of Isaianic salvation oracles. High volume and coherence with Luke's programmatic Isaiah citations.
High confidenceThe healing of a deaf man with a speech impediment, climaxing in 'he makes even the deaf hear and the mute speak,' enacts Isaiah's eschatological promise: 'then the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped... and the tongue of the mute shall sing.' Mark signals the messianic age dawning; volume, recurrence (cf. Isa 29:18; 42:18), and thematic coherence are all high.
High confidence'Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped; the lame man shall leap, and the tongue of the mute sing.' Mt 15:30-31's catalogue of mute speaking, lame walking, blind seeing reproduces Isaiah's portrait of eschatological restoration almost item for item.
High confidencePhilip'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.
Medium confidenceEcho5
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
Jesus 'healing every disease and every sickness' (v.23-24) enacts the Isaianic restoration where 'the eyes of the blind shall be opened... the lame leap'; Matthew elsewhere makes this explicit (11:5). Thematic Coherence with the in-breaking kingdom.
Medium confidenceThe eschatological healing of all the afflicted — the sick made whole — stands behind the summary that the crowds 'were all healed' (v. 16) as a sign of the dawning age of restoration.
Low confidenceThe 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.
Low confidenceThe gathered 'blind, lame, paralyzed' and the command to the lame man to rise and walk echoes Isaiah's promise that in the day of salvation 'the lame shall leap like a deer.' Volume thematic only; Coherence high with the sign's meaning (Jesus as the one who fulfills the healing of the eschaton). Recurrence low within John. Honestly faint.
Low confidenceJesus healing the great multitudes who follow him faintly recalls the eschatological healing of Isaiah's highway-of-the-redeemed; thematic, not verbal.
Low confidence