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 6:7 → Exodus 1:7

Echo

Later text

Acts 6:7BSB

So the word of God continued to spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem grew rapidly, and a great number of priests became obedient to the faith.

Earlier text

Exodus 1:7BSB

but the Israelites were fruitful and increased rapidly; they multiplied and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.

Significance

Luke's recurring refrain — "the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem multiplied greatly" — is cast in the language of Exodus 1:7, where Israel in Egypt "was fruitful and multiplied and grew exceedingly... so that the land was filled with them," itself an outworking of the creation blessing to "be fruitful and multiply" (Gen 1:28). The same God who caused His people to multiply under Pharaoh's oppression now multiplies them under the Sanhedrin's threats. Christ-terminus: the agent of this growth is named — it is "the word of God" that spreads, and the people multiply as its fruit. The Redeemer's kingdom advances not by human power but as the gospel of the risen Christ runs and increases, gathering even "a great many of the priests" into obedience to the faith.

Found via: G.K. Beale & D.A. Carson, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
Reference Type: Echo
Connection Method(s): Redemptive-Historical Progression