Intertextuality Pair

Romans 4:25 → Isaiah 53:5

Allusion

Later text

Romans 4:25BSB

He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification.

Earlier text

Isaiah 53:5BSB

But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
+ 1 more earlier text

Earlier text

Isaiah 53:12BSB

Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He has poured out His life unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors. Yet He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
Walk the Square · a single-voice walk of this pair around the Clowney square14:07

Significance

Paul's terse formula — "He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification" — echoes the LXX of Isaiah 53. The verb "delivered over" (paredothē) matches the LXX of Isaiah 53:12 ("the Lord delivered him up for our sins," paredothē dia tas hamartias hēmōn), and "for our trespasses" (dia ta paraptōmata hēmōn) reproduces the Servant Song's substitutionary "for our transgressions" (53:5, dia tas anomias hēmōn). Paul is likely citing a pre-Pauline confessional couplet already shaped by Isaiah 53, making the verse a witness that the earliest church read Jesus' death and resurrection through the Servant. The two lines distribute the Servant's work across cross and vindication: the "delivering up" answers Isaiah 53:5-12's substitutionary suffering, and "raised for our justification" answers 53:11 ("by His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many"). The telos is not a transactional ledger but the believer's standing before God: the same Servant who was handed over for our sins was vindicated so that his justification becomes ours, so that Christ crucified-and-risen is beheld as the ground of a peace with God that no moral effort could secure.

Found via
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type
Allusion
Connection Method(s)
Promise-Fulfillment

▸ The Suffering Servant

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