Intertextuality Pair

Mark 3:4 → Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Echo

Later text

Mark 3:4BSB

And He asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” But they were silent.

Earlier text

Deuteronomy 30:15-20BSB

See, I have set before you today life and goodness, as well as death and disaster. For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you today that you will surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, and that you may love the LORD your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
Walk the Square · a single-voice walk of this pair around the Clowney square14:06

Significance

Jesus' question echoes Deuteronomy's covenant choice between life and death. The irony is sharp: religious leaders plot Jesus' death (3:6) on the Sabbath while condemning him for bringing life. Jesus reframes the Sabbath issue—it's not about ritual minutiae but covenant faithfulness. Will they choose life (healing) or death (plotting murder)? Their hardness of heart (3:5) mirrors Israel's covenant unfaithfulness.

Found via
G.K. Beale, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (2007) — TOSK's Mark 3:4 entry does not carry Deuteronomy 30:15-20, and neither Matthew Henry's nor John Gill's commentary on Mark 3:4 references it.
Reference Type
Echo
Connection Method(s)
Analogy

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