Intertextuality Pair

Acts 20:33 → 1 Samuel 12:1-5

Allusion

Later text

Acts 20:33BSB

I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing.

Earlier text

1 Samuel 12:1-5BSB

Then Samuel said to all Israel, “I have listened to your voice in all that you have said to me, and I have set over you a king. Now here is the king walking before you, and I am old and gray, and my sons are here with you. I have walked before you from my youth until this day. Here I am. Bear witness against me before the LORD and before His anointed: Whose ox or donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated or oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe and closed my eyes? Tell me, and I will restore it to you.” “You have not wronged us or oppressed us,” they replied, “nor have you taken anything from the hand of man.” Samuel said to them, “The LORD is a witness against you, and His anointed is a witness today, that you have not found anything in my hand.” “He is a witness,” they replied.
Walk the Square · a single-voice walk of this pair around the Clowney square13:43

Significance

In his farewell Paul protests his financial integrity: "I have not coveted anyone's silver or gold or clothing" (Acts 20:33), a self-vindication that closely parallels Samuel's farewell at Israel's turn to monarchy. Samuel calls the people to witness: "Whose ox or donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated or oppressed?" — and they answer that he has taken nothing (1 Samuel 12:3). Both leaders, at the end of their service, stake their ministry's credibility on covetous-free hands, modeling the shepherd who serves the flock rather than fleecing it. The pattern is by analogy — faithful leadership refusing gain — and it points to the Chief Shepherd who, "though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor" (2 Corinthians 8:9), the one truly selfless minister whose example undergirds Paul's own word, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).

Found via
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type
Allusion
Connection Method(s)
Analogy

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