Acts 4:12 to Psalms 146:3

OT Source(s):

Psalms 146:3 ("Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save")

Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Reference Type: Allusion

Connection Method(s): Contrast + Redemptive-Historical Progression

Significance: Peter's declaration "Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12) stands in contrast to and fulfillment of Ps 146:3's warning: "Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save [ein bo teshu'ah]." The verbal parallel is explicit — both texts turn on the question of who can save (yeshua'/sōtēria): Ps 146:3 denies that human rulers can save, directing trust instead to Yahweh who "executes justice for the oppressed" (146:7) and "sets prisoners free" (146:7). Acts 4:12 resolves the Psalm's tension by locating the saving name not in Yahweh abstractly but in the specific person of Jesus — the name "given among men" by which salvation comes. The immediately preceding citation of Ps 118:22 (Acts 4:11) confirms the apostolic practice of reading the psalms as a Christological whole.