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

2 Corinthians 4:6 → Genesis 1:3

Allusion

Later text

2 Corinthians 4:6BSB

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Earlier text

Genesis 1:3BSB

And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

+ 2 more earlier texts

Earlier text

Genesis 1:2BSB

Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Earlier text

Isaiah 9:2BSB

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.

Walk the Square · a single-voice walk of this pair around the Clowney square10:19

Significance

Paul adapts Genesis 1:3's creation language to describe spiritual illumination in conversion. Just as God spoke light into primordial darkness, he now shines light into human hearts, revealing his glory in Christ's face. This is corporate new creation - God creating a new people through the gospel's illuminating power. Paul's Damascus road experience likely informs this language, where blinding light revealed Christ. The christological reading is unmistakable: Christ's face is where God's glory is supremely revealed, surpassing Moses whose reflected glory faded. This new creation theme connects directly to 5:17's explicit declaration.

Found via: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Longitudinal Theme + Redemptive-Historical Progression

Linked Mentions 3

Trajectory Tables 3