Later text
Acts 14:15BSB
“Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.
Intertextuality Pair
Acts 14:15 → 2 Kings 19:4
Allusion
Earlier text
2 Kings 19:4BSB
Perhaps the LORD your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to defy the living God, and He will rebuke him for the words that the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that still survives.”
+ 3 more earlier texts
Earlier text
Exodus 20:11BSB
For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but on the seventh day He rested. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.
Earlier text
They must no longer offer their sacrifices to the goat demons to which they have prostituted themselves. This will be a permanent statute for them for the generations to come.'
Earlier text
For who of all flesh has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the fire, as we have, and survived?
Significance
Paul and Barnabas turn the Lystrans from lifeless idols to "the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them" (Acts 14:15), pressing into missionary service the OT's own polemical title for Yahweh. "The living God" is the covenant epithet that repeatedly sets the LORD against the mute idols of the nations: Hezekiah appeals to the LORD whom the Assyrian has dared "to defy the living God" (2 Kings 19:4), and Israel crosses the Jordan assured that the living God is in its midst (Joshua 3:10). The ground of the appeal is creation itself, for only the Maker of heaven, earth, and sea is truly alive while idols are nothing. The apostolic gospel completes this OT logic, for the living God has given proof of his life-giving power by raising Jesus from the dead (Acts 17:31) — so that to turn from idols to the living God is to turn to the Father of the risen Christ.
- Found via
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
- Reference Type
- Allusion
- Connection Method(s)
- Longitudinal Theme