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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 7:42-43 → Amos 5:25-27

Quotation

Later text

Acts 7:42-43BSB

But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You have taken along the tabernacle of Molech and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’

Earlier text

Amos 5:25-27BSB

Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You have taken along Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, the idols you made for yourselves. Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is the God of Hosts.

Walk the Square · a single-voice walk of this pair around the Clowney square8:53

Significance

Stephen quotes Amos 5:25-27 (following the LXX text form, which reads "Babylon" instead of the MT's "Damascus") to demonstrate that Israel's idolatry was not an isolated incident but a persistent pattern extending from the wilderness period through the prophetic era. The introductory formula is implicit in the flow of Stephen's argument. Amos's rhetorical question — "Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?" — indicts Israel for offering worship to false gods (Molek, Rephan) even during the wilderness period. Stephen uses this quotation to advance his argument about Israel's consistent rejection of God's purposes, climaxing in their rejection of the Righteous One (Acts 7:52). The connection operates through redemptive-historical progression (tracing the pattern of idolatry through Israel's history) and contrast (Israel's unfaithfulness highlights the need for something greater than the old covenant arrangements).

Found via: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Direct Quotation
Connection Method(s): Redemptive-Historical Progression + Contrast

Hermeneutical Notes

NT Use Pattern: Ironic / Inverted — Stephen turns Amos's indictment of Israel's wilderness idolatry back on the present temple establishment — the prophetic critique reread as judgment on the very religious institution that has put Stephen on trial.