You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances; which if a man does, he shall live in them. I am Yahweh.
⛓ Read Leviticus 18 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.
Quotation2
A formal citation — high verbal volume, often introduced by a saying-formula.
'The man who does them will live by them' cites Lev 18:5 (LXX), set in deliberate antithesis to Hab 2:4. Paul reuses the same text at Romans 10:5, establishing recurrence; it embodies the law's do-and-live principle he contrasts with faith. High volume.
High confidenceFormula-cited: 'Moses writes about the righteousness of the law' introduces 'The one who does them will live by them' — a near-verbatim quotation of Leviticus 18:5 ('which if a man do, he shall live in them'). Paul makes it the voice of law-righteousness over against faith-righteousness. Also quoted at Galatians 3:12; high recurrence in Paul.
High confidenceAllusion4
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
'The commandment, which was for life' (7:10) alludes to the Torah promise that the one who does the statutes 'shall live by them'; Paul cites Leviticus 18:5 explicitly elsewhere (Rom 10:5; Gal 3:12), confirming this as the 'life' the commandment promised.
High confidence'If there had been a law given which could make alive' (v.21) replays the do-and-live principle of Lev 18:5 cited in v.12, now denied as a means of life. The intra-chapter recurrence of the life-by-law motif makes the allusion coherent though not re-quoted.
Medium confidenceDo this, and you will live echoes the Levitical promise that the one who keeps God's statutes shall live by them, framing eternal life as covenant obedience. The do-them-and-live formula is distinctive enough to register as an allusion.
Medium confidence2:13 'the doers of the law will be justified' echoes the Torah principle 'the person who does them shall live by them' — the do-and-live logic (which Paul cites directly at 10:5; Gal 3:12) standing behind 'doers' over 'hearers.'
Medium confidenceEcho3
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
Leviticus' promise that the one who keeps the commandments 'shall live by them' undergirds the link between commandment-keeping and inheriting eternal life that frames the dialogue. This was the standard Second-Temple text connecting Torah obedience and life. Coherent though not quoted.
Medium confidence'Keep the commandments' to 'enter into life' echoes Leviticus 18:5, 'which if a man do, he shall live in them'; the Torah principle of life-by-obedience the young man invokes.
Medium confidenceThe demand to 'do the whole law' resonates with the Levitical maxim that the one who does these statutes shall live by them, which Paul cites at 3:12. Volume is moderate but the verbal contact here is thematic rather than lexical.
Low confidence