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 5:17 → Isaiah 43:18-19

Allusion

Later text

2 Corinthians 5:17BSB

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!

Earlier text

Isaiah 43:18-19BSB

“Do not call to mind the former things; pay no attention to the things of old. Behold, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.

+ 2 more earlier texts

Earlier text

Isaiah 65:17BSB

For behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.

Earlier text

Isaiah 66:22BSB

"For just as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, will endure before Me," declares the LORD, "so your descendants and your name will endure.

Significance

Paul echoes Isaiah's restoration-from-exile prophecies using key terms "old," "behold," and "new" from Isaiah 43:18-19 and 65:17. What Isaiah envisioned as Israel's return from Babylonian exile, Paul declares fulfilled in Christ's death and resurrection. This is corporate new creation - not merely individual transformation but the formation of the eschatological people of God. When Paul applies Israel's restoration promises to Gentile Christians, he affirms that those "in Christ" constitute true Israel experiencing Isaiah's promised renewal. The pattern is clear: original creation, fall and exile, new creation in Christ, awaiting final cosmic renewal. This connects to 4:6's creative illumination - God's light-speaking act is new creation.

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

Linked Mentions 3

Trajectory Tables 3