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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

Luke 18:13 → Psalms 51:1

Allusion

Later text

Luke 18:13BSB

But the tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’

Earlier text

Psalms 51:1BSB

For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet came to him after his adultery with Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving devotion; according to Your great compassion, blot out my transgressions.

Significance

The tax collector's prayer — "God, have mercy on me, a sinner!" (ho theos hilasthēti moi tō hamartōlō) — echoes the penitential vocabulary of Psalm 51:1 (ḥonnēnî ʾĕlōhîm kĕ-ḥasdekā, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love"). The Greek hilasthēti specifically evokes the language of propitiation/mercy-seat (hilastērion), suggesting that the tax collector's prayer is not merely a request for sympathy but a plea grounded in the atoning provision of the covenant — what David sought in his deepest contrition. Both David in Psalm 51 and the tax collector stand in the same posture: unable to offer any merit, appealing only to divine grace. Jesus' contrast of this prayer with the Pharisee's self-congratulatory recitation establishes that justification (dedikaiōmenos) comes through such humble penitence alone, anticipating Paul's articulation of imputed righteousness (Romans 3-4).

Found via: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Analogy + Longitudinal Theme