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

Graph View — tap the constellation icon in the top bar to see this page's connections as a web of light: gold points are passages, and the coloured threads are the connection types. Click any type in the graph's own legend to filter it in or out, and use the expand control for the full-screen night sky.

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Intertextuality Pair

Acts 7:17-18 → Genesis 47:27

Allusion

Later text

Acts 7:17-18BSB

As the time drew near for God to fulfill His promise to Abraham, our people in Egypt increased greatly in number. Then another king, who knew nothing of Joseph, arose over Egypt.

Earlier text

Genesis 47:27BSB

Now the Israelites settled in the land of Egypt, in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and became fruitful and increased greatly in number.

+ 3 more earlier texts

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.

Earlier text

Exodus 1:8BSB

Then a new king, who did not know Joseph, came to power in Egypt.

Earlier text

Exodus 1:10BSB

Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase even more; and if a war breaks out, they may join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country."

Walk the Square · this video walks Acts 7:17-22 as a whole, from Acts 7.20 → Exodus 2.213:57

Significance

As "the time drew near for God to fulfill His promise to Abraham" (Acts 7:17), Israel multiplied in Egypt (Genesis 47:27) — and precisely then "another king, who knew nothing of Joseph, arose over Egypt" (Acts 7:18). Stephen marks the paradox that governs redemptive history: the nearer God's promise draws to fulfillment, the sharper the opposition rises. The very growth that fulfills the pledge to Abraham provokes the bondage from which God will stage the exodus. The pattern points beyond Egypt: God's saving purposes advance through, not around, the hostility of the powers — the deepest instance being the cross, where rulers who "knew nothing" of God's Son accomplished the redemption they meant to prevent (Acts 2:23; 1 Corinthians 2:8).

Found via: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Redemptive-Historical Progression + Promise-Fulfillment