NT Text: Acts 13:33
OT Source(s):
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Direct Quotation
Connection Method(s): Promise-Fulfillment
Anchor Text: Psalm 2 — You Are My Son
Significance: At the climax of his Pisidian Antioch sermon, Paul cites Psalm 2:7 verbatim from the LXX — "You are My Son; today I have become Your Father" — with the NT's most precise citation formula: "as it is written in the second Psalm" (one of the only places the NT cites a psalm by number; the hermeneutical visibility is total). What Paul does with the decree is the sermon's theological engine. God's promise to the fathers "He has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus" (13:32-33) — so the "today" of the begetting-decree is identified as the day of resurrection. Resurrection is thereby read not as mere vindication or resuscitation but as enthronement: the public installation of the Davidic Son in His royal office (cf. Romans 1:4, "declared to be the Son of God in power by His resurrection"). Paul then chains the citation with Isaiah 55:3 ("the holy and sure blessings promised to David," 13:34) and Psalm 16:10 ("You will not let Your Holy One see decay," 13:35), arguing that the Davidic promises require an incorruptible heir — David served his generation, died, and saw decay (13:36); the One God raised did not (13:37). Within apostolic preaching, Psalm 2:7 thus functions as the twin of Psalm 110:1 (Acts 2:34-35): the sonship-decree and the session-oath are the two pillars of exaltation Christology. The doctrine that resurrection is messianic installation — not merely proof of innocence but coronation — derives principally from this single Pauline reading of the psalm.
Prosopological Shift: Speaker stays God; Referent (Davidic king's coronation day → Christ's resurrection day). Paul applies "today I have begotten you" prosopologically as the Father's declaration over the risen Son — the day of resurrection is the day of royal installation. Same words; now-explicit referent; Paul makes the prosopological logic explicit in his Antioch sermon.