Later text
John 20:22BSB
When He had said this, He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
Intertextuality Pair
Allusion
Later text
John 20:22BSB
When He had said this, He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
Earlier text
Genesis 2:7BSB
Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
Earlier text
Then he stretched himself out over the child three times and cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, please let this boy’s life return to him!”
Earlier text
Ezekiel 37:9BSB
Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and tell the breath that this is what the Lord GOD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, so that they may live!”
Jesus' act of breathing on disciples and saying "Receive the Holy Spirit" in 20:22 best understood as symbolic promise of impending gift of Spirit, not actual giving of it fifty days later at Pentecost (cf. Acts 2; see Carson). Theological antecedent clearly is Genesis 2:7, where LXX has exact same verb form as in John 20:22 (see also 1 Kings 17:21; Ezekiel 37:9; Wisdom of Solomon 15:11). There in Genesis God breathes his Spirit into Adam at creation, constituting him as living being. Analogously, in instance of "new creation" theme (Morris; Barrett; Brown; Keener), Jesus' breathing on disciples constitutes them as new messianic community in anticipation of outpouring of Spirit subsequent to his ascension.