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 8:21 → Psalms 78:37

Echo

Later text

Acts 8:21BSB

You have no part or share in our ministry, because your heart is not right before God.

Earlier text

Psalms 78:37BSB

Their hearts were disloyal to Him, and they were unfaithful to His covenant.

Significance

Peter's diagnosis of Simon Magus — "your heart is not right [he kardia sou ouk estin eutheia] before God" (Acts 8:21) — echoes the language of Ps 78:37's assessment of Israel in the wilderness: "their heart was not steadfast [lo'-nakhon libam] toward Him." Psalm 78 is a historical rehearsal of Israel's pattern of faithless hearts despite God's mighty works — an accusation that fits Simon's situation precisely: he has witnessed the Spirit's powerful works (Acts 8:13-18) yet his desire to purchase the Spirit's gift reveals a heart oriented toward personal power rather than God's glory. The echo positions Simon as recapitulating the wilderness generation's failure to respond rightly to divine manifestation — his "heart not right" is the same covenant unfaithfulness Ps 78:37 condemned in Israel.

Found via: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Echo
Connection Method(s): Analogy + Redemptive-Historical Progression