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Isaiah 42:6

The New Testament’s use of Isaiah

4 places · 2 kinds of echo

The source

“I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and make you a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations;

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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.

Allusion3

A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.

Acts 26:19-23

'Light both to these people and to the Gentiles' echoes 'I will give you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles' — the Servant as light to both Israel and the nations, exactly Paul's twofold audience.

High confidence
Luke 2:25-35

The Servant given 'as a light to the nations' (and a covenant to the people) directly informs Simeon's 'light for revelation to the nations.' The doublet with Isaiah 49:6 supplies recurrence; the universal-light-of-salvation theme coheres exactly with Luke's program of salvation reaching the Gentiles.

High confidence
Matt 5:13-16

The Servant given 'as a light to the nations'; reinforces the light-to-the-world commission.

Medium confidence

Echo1

A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.

Acts 13:42-52

'A light for the Gentiles' also stands in the first Servant Song ('I will give you... for a light to the nations'), reinforcing the light-to-the-nations commission Paul cites. Recurrence with Isa 49:6.

Medium confidence
Elsewhere in Isaiah 42
Isaiah 42:1 12Isaiah 42:6-7 4Isaiah 42:7 11Isaiah 42:18 2Isaiah 42:19 2