NT Text: Acts 18:6
OT Source(s):
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Analogy + Redemptive-Historical Progression
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."