Intertextuality Pair

Acts 1:16 → Isaiah 51:16

Allusion

Later text

Acts 1:16BSB

"Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit foretold through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus.

Earlier text

Isaiah 51:16BSB

I have put My words in your mouth, and covered you with the shadow of My hand, to establish the heavens, to found the earth, and to say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’”
+ 2 more earlier texts

Earlier text

Jeremiah 1:9BSB

Then the LORD reached out His hand, touched my mouth, and said to me: "Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.

Earlier text

Zechariah 8:9BSB

This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Let your hands be strong, you who now hear these words spoken by the prophets who were present when the foundations were laid to rebuild the temple, the house of the LORD of Hosts.
Walk the Square · a single-voice walk of this pair around the Clowney square13:47

Significance

Peter grounds the replacement of Judas in the conviction that “the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit foretold through the mouth of David” (Acts 1:16). That formula rests on the Old Testament’s own witness to inspiration: the LORD tells His servant, “I have put My words in your mouth” (Isaiah 51:16; cf. Jeremiah 1:9; Zechariah 8:9) — the prophet speaks not his own message but the very words God places there. Peter reads David’s psalms the same way: they are the Spirit’s speech, and therefore carry the authority of God’s own prediction, binding even upon events Peter now witnesses. This dual authorship — the Spirit foretelling through a human mouth — is the hermeneutical foundation of the whole apostolic use of the Old Testament, and it terminates in Christ, of whom “all the Scriptures” testify (Luke 24:27): the same Spirit who spoke through David now vindicates the crucified and risen Lord those Scriptures foretold.

Found via
Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament (1866)
Reference Type
Allusion
Connection Method(s)
Promise-Fulfillment

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