NT Text: Acts 4:27-30
OT Source(s):
Source: Joachim Jeremias, "παῖς θεοῦ," TDNT V; Beale & Carson (eds.), Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (2007); Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Promise-Fulfillment
Anchor Text: Isa 52:13-53:12 — The Suffering Servant
Significance: The Jerusalem church's prayer twice names Jesus "Your holy servant" (ton hagion paida sou, 4:27, 30), the same Servant title Peter applied to Jesus at the temple portico (Acts 3:13), and it draws on the Septuagint of the fourth Servant Song, which opens "Behold, my Servant (ho pais mou)" (Isa 52:13). The title is not generic: in Acts it identifies Jesus specifically as the suffering-then-exalted Servant of Isaiah 52:13-53:12, the figure "raised and lifted up and highly exalted" precisely through being "delivered up" (53:12). The prayer presses this Servant theology in two directions — toward the cross (Herod, Pilate, Gentiles, and Israel gathered "against Your holy servant," 4:27, fulfilling the Servant's rejection) and toward the church's mission (signs and wonders done "through the name of Your holy servant Jesus," 4:30, extending the exalted Servant's saving reach). The telos is bold worship under threat: the persecuted believers do not pray for escape but for boldness, because the Servant whose name they bear was himself opposed and then exalted, so that Christ the holy Servant is treasured as the One whose vindicated suffering both authorizes and emboldens their witness.