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.

New to a term? The Glossary explains every abbreviation and term on the site in plain words.

Intertextuality Pair

1 Corinthians 14:21 → Isaiah 28:11-12

Quotation

Later text

1 Corinthians 14:21BSB

It is written in the Law: “By strange tongues and foreign lips I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to Me, says the Lord.”

Earlier text

Isaiah 28:11-12BSB

Indeed, with mocking lips and foreign tongues, He will speak to this people to whom He has said: “This is the place of rest, let the weary rest; this is the place of repose.” But they would not listen.

Walk the Square · a single-voice walk of this pair around the Clowney square11:52

Significance

Isaiah 28:11-12 warns that since Israel refused to hear God's clear message through prophets, He would speak through foreign invaders (Assyrians) - a sign of judgment. Paul applies this typologically: tongues function similarly as a sign to unbelievers. When unbelievers enter Christian worship and hear unintelligible tongues, this confirms their outsider status (like Israel hearing foreign languages at conquest). However, if they hear prophecy, God's clear word convicts and converts them (14:24-25). This reveals Paul's hermeneutical sophistication: he doesn't merely quote Scripture but applies its theological pattern (clear word rejected → foreign speech as judgment) to the Corinthian situation. The text also shows Paul's pneumatology: the Spirit's gifts must be used in love for building up, not for self-display.

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