Later text
Acts 7:52BSB
Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—
Intertextuality Pair
Acts 7:52 → 1 Kings 19:10
Allusion
Earlier text
“I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of Hosts,” he replied, “but the Israelites have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I am the only one left, and they are seeking my life as well.”
+ 3 more earlier texts
Earlier text
“I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of Hosts,” he replied, “but the Israelites have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I am the only one left, and they are seeking my life as well.”
Earlier text
But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.
Earlier text
Now there was another man prophesying in the name of the LORD, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land the same things that Jeremiah did. King Jehoiakim and all his mighty men and officials heard his words, and the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah found out about it, he fled in fear and went to Egypt. Then King Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt: Elnathan son of Achbor along with some other men. They brought Uriah out of Egypt and took him to King Jehoiakim, who had him put to the sword and his body thrown into the burial place of the common people. Nevertheless, Ahikam son of Shaphan supported Jeremiah, so he was not handed over to the people to be put to death.
Significance
"'Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers'" (Acts 7:52). Stephen gathers the whole history of prophet-rejection — Elijah's complaint that Israel had killed the prophets (1 Kings 19:10) standing for the pattern — and brings it to its terminus: the generation that murdered the Messiah the prophets announced. The rejected-deliverer thread running through Joseph, Moses, and the prophets culminates in the rejection of "the Righteous One," the title itself confessing Jesus' sinless innocence (Acts 3:14; 22:14). Stephen's indictment is also the gospel's offer inverted: the Righteous One they killed is the only righteousness that can save his killers — and Stephen will die praying that this very sin not be held against them (7:60).
- Found via
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
- Reference Type
- Allusion
- Connection Method(s)
- Redemptive-Historical Progression