Later text
Acts 18:6BSB
But when they opposed and insulted him, he shook out his garments and told them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
Intertextuality Pair
Acts 18:6 → Ezekiel 33:1-9
Allusion
Earlier text
Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, speak to your people and tell them: ‘Suppose I bring the sword against a land, and the people of that land choose a man from among them, appointing him as their watchman, and he sees the sword coming against that land and blows the ram’s horn to warn the people. Then if anyone hears the sound of the horn but fails to heed the warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. Since he heard the sound of the horn but failed to heed the warning, his blood will be on his own head. If he had heeded the warning, he would have saved his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and fails to blow the horn to warn the people, and the sword comes and takes away a life, then that one will be taken away in his iniquity, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.’ As for you, O son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word from My mouth and give them the warning from Me. If I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ but you do not speak out to dissuade him from his way, then that wicked man will die in his iniquity, yet I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you warn the wicked man to turn from his way, and he does not turn from it, he will die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your life.
Significance
Paul's declaration "Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it" (to haima hymōn epi tēn kephalēn hymōn; katharos egō) employs the watchman-guilt-transference language of Ezek 33:1-9. In Ezekiel's watchman parable, if the watchman sounds the alarm and the people do not listen, "his blood will be on his own head" (damo berosho yihye) — the watchman is "innocent" (naqah). Paul's use of this exact formula confirms that he understands his missionary preaching as fulfilling the watchman's commission: having proclaimed the gospel to the Corinthian Jews and been met with opposition and blasphemy, the responsibility has transferred to those who rejected the warning. The same logic appears in Acts 20:26-27 where Paul tells the Ephesian elders "I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God."
- Found via
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
- Reference Type
- Allusion
- Connection Method(s)
- Analogy + Redemptive-Historical Progression