How to read this page

An Intertextuality Pair — one connection between two passages, shown as linked verse cards: the Later text and the Earlier text it quotes, alludes to or echoes. The Significance essay explains why the link matters and where it points in Christ.

Reference Type— how explicit the link is: Quotation, Allusion, or Echo
Connection Method(s)— how it carries meaning: e.g. Typology, Promise-Fulfillment, Analogy, Longitudinal Theme
Found via— where the connection was identified, e.g. the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge or an Anchor-Text Network

Graph View — tap the constellation icon in the top bar to see this page's connections as a web of light: gold points are passages, and the coloured threads are the connection types. Click any type in the graph's own legend to filter it in or out, and use the expand control for the full-screen night sky.

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Intertextuality Pair

Matthew 15:4b → Exodus 21:17

Quotation

Later text

Matthew 15:4bBSB

For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’

Earlier text

Exodus 21:17BSB

Anyone who curses his father or mother must surely be put to death.

Walk the Square · a single-voice walk of this pair around the Clowney square8:58

Significance

In Matthew 15:4b Jesus quotes Exodus 21:17 (parallel to Leviticus 20:9): "Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death" (mot yumat). This citation is the second of two OT commands Jesus invokes to expose the hypocrisy of the Pharisees' corban tradition. The fifth commandment (Exodus 20:12, cited in 15:4a) positively requires honoring parents; Exodus 21:17 negatively reinforces that requirement with the most severe sanction — death for those who treat parents with contempt. By citing this capital sanction, Jesus demonstrates that God's law regards filial duty as a matter of the highest seriousness, not a technicality to be circumvented by dedicating resources to the temple. The Pharisees' corban practice, which allowed individuals to declare property "dedicated to God" thereby avoiding support of aging parents, directly violated the spirit of this text. Jesus shows that their tradition nullified the word of God rather than interpreting it.

Found via: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Direct Quotation
Connection Method(s): Redemptive-Historical Progression + Contrast