Later text
Luke 7:50BSB
And Jesus told the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Intertextuality Pair
Luke 7:50 → 2 Kings 5:19
Echo
Earlier text
2 Kings 5:19BSB
“Go in peace,” said Elisha. But after Naaman had traveled a short distance,
+ 1 more earlier text
Earlier text
2 Kings 5:14BSB
So Naaman went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored and became like that of a little child, and he was clean.
Significance
The verbal contact here is exact and can be stated without overreach. Jesus dismisses the woman who has washed his feet with "πορεύου εἰς εἰρήνην" — go in peace — and 2 Kings 5:19 LXX has Elisha dismiss Naaman with the identical three words, πορεύου εἰς εἰρήνην. Luke uses the same formula again at 8:48 to the woman with the hemorrhage. The phrase is not, however, unique to the Naaman narrative: it is a stock Septuagintal farewell, recurring at Judges 18:6, 1 Samuel 1:17, 1 Samuel 20:42, and 2 Samuel 15:9. That is why the Reference Type here is Echo rather than Allusion. Luke is speaking fluent Septuagint Greek, not pointing at one verse.
- Found via
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
- Reference Type
- Echo
- Connection Method(s)
- Analogy + Longitudinal Theme
What raises this above a formula is the situation the formula closes. In both scenes an outsider with a disqualifying condition has come to a man of God, has been restored without performing anything except trust, and is sent away with peace pronounced over him rather than a warning attached. Naaman is a Gentile commander and a leper — twice excluded — and he is not merely healed but sent home with his flesh "like that of a little child," carrying dirt from Israel so he can worship Yahweh in Damascus. The woman in Luke 7 is a notorious sinner in a Pharisee's dining room, and everyone present knows it; Simon's whole objection is that a prophet would know what kind of woman is touching him. She is sent away not with a rebuke but with a pronouncement.
The method is Analogy — as God dealt then with the excluded outsider, so God deals now through Jesus — set inside the canon-wide Longitudinal Theme of sovereign grace crossing the boundary to those the covenant community had written off. Typology is not warranted: 2 Kings 5 makes no pattern-claim, and no New Testament text reads Naaman as a type of Christ or of the forgiven sinner.
The escalation, though, sits in a single word Elisha never said. Elisha dismissed Naaman with peace on the far side of a cleansing he had commanded and God had granted. Jesus says something more: "Your sins are forgiven... your faith has saved you; go in peace." Elisha could send a man home clean; the men at the table ask the right question when they say, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" The formula is borrowed. The authority behind it is not. What makes this text sweet rather than merely tidy is that the peace pronounced over her is not a wish for her journey but a verdict on her standing, spoken by the One who had the right to speak it and who would shortly pay for it.
Linked Mentions 1