Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against Yahweh, and against his Anointed, saying,
⛓ Read Psalm 2 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.
Verses 25-26 quote Psalm 2:1-2 verbatim (LXX), 'Why did the nations rage... the kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ,' explicitly attributed to David and then applied in vv.27-28 to Herod, Pilate, Gentiles and Israel arrayed against the anointed Jesus. Maximal Volume, high Recurrence (Ps 2 is a core messianic testimonium), high coherence.
High confidenceAllusion1
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
Rulers and the 'whole company' rise up and accuse the one charged with being 'a king,' the Lord's anointed. Acts 4:25-27 explicitly reads Psalm 2 onto exactly this Lukan scene (Herod, Pilate, peoples of Israel gathered against the Christ), confirming the availability and the author's own intertextual habit.
Medium confidenceEcho1
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
The charge that Paul proclaims 'another king, Jesus' resonates with the psalm's rulers raging against the LORD and his Anointed; Luke elsewhere cites Psalm 2, so recurrence supports a faint background, though no quotation is made here.
Low confidence