Intertextuality Pair

Acts 3:14 → Judges 13:7

Allusion

Later text

Acts 3:14BSB

You rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you.

Earlier text

Judges 13:7BSB

But he said to me, ‘Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son. Now, therefore, do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb until the day of his death.’”
+ 3 more earlier texts

Earlier text

Isaiah 53:11BSB

After the anguish of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities.

Earlier text

Zechariah 9:9BSB

Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Earlier text

Psalms 16:10BSB

For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay.

Significance

The crowd, Peter charges, “disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released” (Acts 3:14). The title “the Holy One” gathers a stream of Old Testament consecration: the Nazirite set apart as “holy to God from the womb” (Judges 13:7, of Samson), the Servant called “the Righteous One” who justifies many (Isaiah 53:11), and David’s confidence that God would not let His “Holy One see decay” (Psalm 16:10). Jesus is the reality these anticipate — not merely a man consecrated to God but the one who is Holy and Righteous in His very being, wholly given over to the Father’s will. The tragic irony Peter exposes is that the people exchanged the Holy One for a murderer, preferring death to life. Yet the rejected Holy One is the risen Author of life (3:15), and His holiness is not a barrier but the ground of the forgiveness now offered: only the truly Holy One could bear the sins of the unholy and give them a share in His righteousness.

Found via
John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1763)
Reference Type
Allusion
Connection Method(s)
Typology + Longitudinal Theme

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