Later text
Acts 7:8BSB
Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
Intertextuality Pair
Acts 7:8 → Genesis 21:1-5
Allusion
Earlier text
Now the LORD attended to Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what He had promised. So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised. And Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore to him. When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
+ 1 more earlier text
Earlier text
This is the account of Abraham’s son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac, and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean. Later, Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD heard his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived. But the children inside her struggled with each other, and she said, "Why is this happening to me?" So Rebekah went to inquire of the LORD, and He declared to her: "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger." When her time came to give birth, there were indeed twins in her womb. The first one came out red, covered with hair like a fur coat; so they named him Esau. After this, his brother came out grasping Esau's heel; so he was named Jacob. And Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.
Significance
Stephen carries the covenant line forward: "Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs" (Acts 7:8; Genesis 21:1-5). The promised seed arrives on schedule — Isaac, the child of promise born to the barren by God's power, then Jacob, then the twelve. The genealogy is theology: God narrows and preserves the elect line by which the blessing will come to all nations. Isaac, the miraculously given son, is the located type of the greater Son given not by human strength but by God (Romans 9:7-9; Galatians 4:23), through whom the covenant funnels to its one grain and then widens without limit to all who belong to Christ, Abraham's true seed (Galatians 3:16, 29).
- Found via
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
- Reference Type
- Allusion
- Connection Method(s)
- Promise-Fulfillment