Intertextuality Pair

Acts 17:26 → Job 38:8-11

Allusion

Later text

Acts 17:26BSB

From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands.

Earlier text

Job 38:8-11BSB

Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket, when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors, and I declared: ‘You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop’?
+ 3 more earlier texts

Earlier text

Deuteronomy 32:8BSB

When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.

Earlier text

Jeremiah 32:26BSB

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

Earlier text

Daniel 2:36-45BSB

This was the dream; now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given sovereignty, power, strength, and glory. Wherever the sons of men or beasts of the field or birds of the air dwell, He has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold. But after you, there will arise another kingdom, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule the whole earth. Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; for iron shatters and crushes all things, and like iron that crushes all things, it will shatter and crush all the others. And just as you saw that the feet and toes were made partly of fired clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom, yet some of the strength of iron will be in it—just as you saw the iron mixed with clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with clay, so the peoples will mix with one another, but will not hold together any more than iron mixes with clay. In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will shatter all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself stand forever. And just as you saw a stone being cut out of the mountain without human hands, and it shattered the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold, so the great God has told the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy."

Significance

Paul teaches that God "made every nation of men" from one man, "that they should inhabit the whole earth," and "determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands" (Acts 17:26). The claim gathers up the OT's account of the nations springing from Adam (Genesis 10) and God's sovereign apportioning of their times and territories — as when he "set the boundaries of the peoples" (Deuteronomy 32:8) and shut in the sea with his decree, "You may come this far, but no farther" (Job 38:11). The Creator who bounds the chaos-waters likewise bounds the history of nations; nothing in the rise and fall of peoples escapes his ordering hand. This universal sovereignty serves a redemptive end, for God fixed the times and places "that they would seek Him" (Acts 17:27), and has now set the day when he will judge the world by the risen Man (Acts 17:31) — creation's boundaries drawn all along toward the gospel's reach.

Found via
G.K. Beale & D.A. Carson (eds.), Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (2007)
Reference Type
Allusion
Connection Method(s)
Redemptive-Historical Progression

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