How to read this page

An Intertextuality Pair — one connection between two passages, shown as linked verse cards: the Later text and the Earlier text it quotes, alludes to or echoes. The Significance essay explains why the link matters and where it points in Christ.

Reference Type— how explicit the link is: Quotation, Allusion, or Echo
Connection Method(s)— how it carries meaning: e.g. Typology, Promise-Fulfillment, Analogy, Longitudinal Theme
Found via— where the connection was identified, e.g. the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge or an Anchor-Text Network

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Intertextuality Pair

Acts 6:15 → Exodus 34:29-35

Echo

Later text

Acts 6:15BSB

All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

Earlier text

Exodus 34:29-35BSB

And when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was unaware that his face had become radiant from speaking with the LORD. Aaron and all the Israelites looked at Moses, and behold, his face was radiant. And they were afraid to approach him. But Moses called out to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke to them. And after this all the Israelites came near, and Moses commanded them to do everything that the LORD had told him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he would remove the veil until he came out. And when he came out, he would tell the Israelites what he had been commanded, and the Israelites would see that the face of Moses was radiant. So Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.

Walk the Square · a single-voice walk of this pair around the Clowney square13:15

Significance

As the council fixes its eyes on Stephen, "they saw that his face was like the face of an angel." The most famous shining face in Scripture is Moses', which "was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD" (Exod 34:29-35). The glory of God's presence rests visibly on His faithful witness — even as the court prepares to condemn him. This is the very dynamic of the vault's life verse: "beholding the glory of the Lord," Stephen is being "transformed into His image" (2 Cor 3:18), the glory reflected on his face. Christ-terminus: Paul's own comment on Exodus 34 is that the fading, veiled glory on Moses' face gives way to the surpassing, unveiled glory shining "in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor 3–4). Stephen shines because he beholds the exalted Christ (v56); the servant reflects the Master's glory, and the martyr's radiance is a foretaste of the transformation promised to all who behold Him.

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