For I am Yahweh your God. Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am holy: neither shall you defile yourselves with any kind of creeping thing that moves on the earth. For I am Yahweh who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.
⛓ Read Leviticus 11 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.
Formula-marked citation ('because it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy'). Leviticus 11:44-45 supplies the holiness ground anchored in the exodus ('I am the LORD who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God'), matching Peter's redemption framing. Highest volume—explicit quotation.
High confidenceAllusion1
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
Paul's call to 'perfect holiness' (cleansing from defilement) draws on the Holiness Code's central formula 'be holy, for I am holy,' which grounds Israel's purity in God's holiness. Coherence is strong with Paul's preceding temple-of-God argument (6:16-18), and the cleansing-for-holiness logic matches Leviticus directly. Volume is moderate since Paul does not quote, but the conceptual fusion of cleansing and consecration is distinctly Levitical.
Medium confidenceEcho1
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
'Sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints' echoes the Holiness Code refrain 'be holy, for I am holy,' in which Israel's status as God's set-apart people is grounded in God's own holiness. Recurrence is strong across Leviticus 19-20, and the thematic coherence of consecration as gift-and-summons fits Paul's idiom of being made holy in Christ.
Medium confidence