The Hyperlinked Bible
Intertextuality Pair
Quotation
Later text
The words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written: ‘After this I will return and rebuild the fallen tent of David. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, so that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does these things that have been known for ages.’
Earlier text
Amos 9:11-12BSB
"In that day I will restore the fallen tent of David. I will repair its gaps, restore its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear My name," declares the LORD, who will do this.
Earlier text
But after I have uprooted them, I will once again have compassion on them and return each one to his inheritance and to his land.
Earlier text
"On that day many nations will join themselves to the LORD, and they will become My people. I will dwell among you, and you will know that the LORD of Hosts has sent Me to you.
Although the quotation that follows 15:15 is essentially from Amos 9:11-12, James refers to "the words of the prophets" — a plural that most likely gestures at the Book of the Twelve as one collection, and gathers to Amos the converging restoration-and-nations promises of Jeremiah 12:15 and Zechariah 2:11. The citation does the decisive work at the Jerusalem Council: the question on the floor is whether Gentile believers must be circumcised, and James settles it not by a new revelation but by an old oracle. "After this I will return and rebuild the fallen tent of David… so that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name." The rebuilt Davidic shelter is the mechanism of Gentile inclusion: the nations come in under a restored Davidic king, exactly as promised, so the Gentile mission is the fulfilment of the covenant rather than a departure from it.
For the remnant trajectory this is the strongest possible attestation of the Gentile-remnant facet — an apostle naming the fulfilment out loud. It does not, however, originate that facet. Amos had already lexicalized it: the remnant-noun שְׁאֵרִית (H7611) stands in the Hebrew of Amos 9:12 itself. James cites a facet the prophet had written, centuries before Luke recorded the council.
NT Use Pattern: Alternate Textual — James's argument for Gentile inclusion requires the LXX reading "that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord" rather than the MT "that they may possess the remnant of Edom." The argument fails on the MT; the apostolic decision rides on the alternate text-form.