They hatch adders’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he who eats of their eggs dies; and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.
⛓ Read Isaiah 59 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.
Allusion2
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
"Offspring of vipers" draws on the prophetic image of the wicked hatching adders' eggs (Isaiah 59:5), where viper-brood imagery signals deadly, deceitful evildoers under judgment. Coherence with John's judgment oracle is strong; the serpent-progeny metaphor is distinctly prophetic.
Medium confidenceThe wicked who 'hatch adders' eggs' parallels the 'offspring of vipers' charge (v33), linking venomous brood to deeds of bloodshed (Isa 59:7).
Medium confidenceEcho1
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
'Offspring of vipers' resonates with prophetic snake/viper imagery for the wicked who hatch evil (Isa 59:5 'they hatch adders' eggs'); cf. the deceiving serpent. Faint verbal echo; the insult draws on a recurrent OT image of poisonous, deceitful brood.
Low confidence