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

Romans 3:4 → Psalm 51:4

Quotation

Later text

Romans 3:4BSB

Certainly not! Let God be true and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that You may be proved right when You speak and victorious when You judge.”

Earlier text

Psalm 51:4BSB

Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be proved right when You speak and blameless when You judge.

Walk the Square · a single-voice walk of this pair around the Clowney square9:37

Significance

Paul quotes Psalm 51:4 (LXX 50:6) in Romans 3:4 to demonstrate that God's righteousness remains unimpeachable even when human unfaithfulness is exposed. David's confession after his sin with Bathsheba acknowledged that God is fully justified (dikaiothēs) in His verdict against sin. Paul deploys this quotation to counter the objection that Israel's unfaithfulness nullifies God's faithfulness — if even David, the greatest king, could confess God's justice in judging sin, then no human unfaithfulness can undermine God's truthfulness. The verbal correspondence follows the LXX closely: "that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you judge" (hopōs an dikaiōthēs en tois logois sou). This grounds Paul's larger argument in Romans 3:1-8 that God's covenant faithfulness does not depend on human performance but on His own righteous character.

Found via: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Direct Quotation
Connection Method(s): Analogy + Longitudinal Theme