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Psalm 27:12

The New Testament’s use of Psalm

6 places · 2 kinds of echo

The source

Don’t deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen up against me, such as breathe out cruelty.

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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.

Allusion2

A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.

Mark 14:55-59

The council seeking testimony as 'false witnesses rose up against him, breathing out violence' is precisely Mark's scene of those who 'gave false testimony against him.' The volume is strong (pseudomartyres), and the coherence is high: Mark casts Jesus as the persecuted righteous one of the psalms, hemmed in by lying witnesses, confident in God's vindication.

High confidence
Matt 26:57-68

'false witnesses against Jesus' (v59) draws on 'false witnesses have risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty,' the lament of the righteous slandered in court.

Medium confidence

Echo4

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

Acts 6:8-15

'False witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence.' Reinforces the same psalmic pattern as Ps 35:11 — the persecuted righteous one surrounded by perjurers — directly mirrored in the false witnesses set up against Stephen.

Medium confidence
Acts 24:1-9 ?

Tertullus and the elders bring formal, hostile charges against Paul before the governor; the situation of the righteous man delivered up to the will of false, violent accusers echoes the psalmist's cry against 'false witnesses' who 'breathe out cruelty.' Thematically coherent with the Lukan figural pattern of the just sufferer hauled before rulers; verbal volume is low, so echo rather than allusion.

Medium confidence
Acts 25:6-12 ?

'False witnesses have risen against me, breathing out violence.' Reinforces the accused-but-innocent posture of Paul before the tribunal. Contested, low volume.

Low confidence
Matt 27:15-23 ?

'False witnesses have risen against me' and the crowd's clamor for the righteous one's condemnation echo the righteous-sufferer's plea against accusers who breathe out violence.

Low confidence
Elsewhere in Psalm 27
Psalm 27:1 4Psalm 27:1-3 2Psalm 27:2 2Psalm 27:4 4Psalm 27:14 2