Luke 24:47 to Isaiah 49:6

NT Text: Luke 24:47

OT Source(s):

• Isaiah 49:6 ("I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth")

Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Reference Type: Allusion

Connection Method(s): Promise-Fulfillment + Longitudinal Theme

Anchor Text: Isa 49:1-6 — A Light to the Nations

Significance: The risen Jesus' final commission — "repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed to all nations (panta ta ethnē), beginning in Jerusalem" (Luke 24:47) — carries forward the Isaiah 49:6 Servant mandate that Simeon had cited at Jesus' birth (Luke 2:32). The bookending of Luke's Gospel with Isaiah 49:6 is deliberate: at the beginning, Simeon announces that this child will be "a light for revelation to the Gentiles"; at the end, Jesus himself commissions the proclamation to all nations. The Servant's mission to bring Yahweh's salvation "to the ends of the earth" (ʿad-qĕṣēh hāʾāreṣ) is now inaugurated through the resurrection witnesses. Acts 13:47 makes the Isaiah 49:6 citation explicit when Paul and Barnabas appeal to it as the scriptural warrant for Gentile mission. Luke-Acts is structured around the progressive fulfillment of the Isaianic Servant commission from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).