How to read this page

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

Acts 10:2 → Psalms 115:11

Echo

Later text

Acts 10:2BSB

He and all his household were devout and God-fearing. He gave generously to the people and prayed to God regularly.

Earlier text

Psalms 115:11BSB

You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD! He is their help and shield.

Walk the Square · a single-voice walk of this pair around the Clowney square13:59

Significance

Cornelius is introduced as one who was "devout and God-fearing... he gave generously to the people and prayed to God regularly" (Acts 10:2) — the portrait of the righteous God-fearer drawn from Israel's own psalms, which summon, "You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD! He is their help and shield" (Psalms 115:11). His piety, though that of an uncircumcised Gentile, answers the ideal the Old Testament held out to all who would revere the God of Israel. Luke frames him this way to show that God's welcome of the nations is no innovation against Scripture but its flowering: the devout Gentile who fears God and prays is already being drawn toward the Christ who is "Lord of all" (Acts 10:36), and his prayers ascend as a memorial offering before God (Acts 10:4). The connection is analogical — Cornelius embodies a reverence the Scriptures long commended — and it prepares the reader for the gospel's reach beyond Israel.

Found via: G.K. Beale and D.A. Carson, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
Reference Type: Echo
Connection Method(s): Analogy