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 9:9 → Deuteronomy 25:4

Quotation

Later text

1 Corinthians 9:9BSB

For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned?

Earlier text

Deuteronomy 25:4BSB

Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.

Walk the Square · a single-voice walk of this pair around the Clowney square8:02

Significance

Deuteronomy 25:4 protects working animals' right to eat while laboring. Paul asks rhetorically "Is it for oxen that God is concerned?" then answers: this was written "for our sake" - referring to gospel ministers. This hermeneutical approach sees OT law as containing principles that apply beyond literal meaning. If God cares that animals receive sustenance from their labor, how much more should human gospel workers? Paul's method reveals his conviction that all Scripture teaches principles applicable to the church, not merely regulations for Israel. This text also shows Paul's eschatological hermeneutic: OT law was always "for us" (the church), written in anticipation of the new covenant community.

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