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.

New to a term? The Glossary explains every abbreviation and term on the site in plain words.

Intertextuality Pair

Matthew 5:33 → Numbers 30:2

Allusion

Later text

Matthew 5:33BSB

Again, you have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’

Earlier text

Numbers 30:2BSB

If a man makes a vow to the LORD or swears an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word; he must do everything he has promised.

Significance

Numbers 30:2 states: "If a man vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth." This text, alongside Leviticus 19:12, underlies Jesus's summary in Matthew 5:33 of the OT teaching on oaths: "you shall not break your oath, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn." Numbers 30 emphasizes the binding character of vows made to the LORD — once uttered, they must be fulfilled (lo yachel devaro). Jesus cites this principle not to endorse the oath-system but to move beyond it entirely: his authoritative "but I say to you" calls disciples to a simplicity and integrity of speech that makes the vow-and-fulfillment system unnecessary. The kingdom community should not need covenantal reinforcements for truthful speech because their communication itself is to be transparent and unconditional.

Found via: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Redemptive-Historical Progression + Analogy