Later text
Now about brotherly love, you do not need anyone to write to you, because you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.
Intertextuality Pair
1 Thessalonians 4:9 → Isaiah 54:13
Allusion
Earlier text
Isaiah 54:13BSB
Then all your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will be their prosperity.
+ 3 more earlier texts
Earlier text
"But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people. No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more."
Earlier text
Isaiah 2:3BSB
And many peoples will come and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways so that we may walk in His paths." For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
Earlier text
Micah 4:1-3BSB
In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and the peoples will stream to it. And many nations will come and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths." For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. Then He will judge between many peoples and arbitrate for strong nations far and wide. Then they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor will they train anymore for war.
Significance
Paul's use, or perhaps even invention, of the term theodidaktos is almost certainly an allusion to Isaiah 54:13 LXX: "And I will cause all your sons to be taught of God [didaktous theou]," referring to a time when God will live so intimately with his people through his Spirit that they will no longer have to be taught by human intermediaries, but rather will be "taught of God." This idea of divine instruction as an eschatological blessing enjoyed by God's covenant people is found elsewhere in prophetic writings—Jeremiah portrays the new covenant as a period when God's people will not need others to teach them the law but will know it innately, for God will write it on their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33-34), while Isaiah envisions a future age when all the nations will stream to Mount Zion so that "[God] may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths" (Isaiah 2:3). That this eschatological blessing was still anticipated in NT times is clear from Jesus' citation of Isaiah 54:13 in John 6:45 to show that "all will be taught by God [didaktoi theou]" in the messianic age, and probably also lies behind the statement in 1 John 2:27 that "you have no need for anyone to teach you." Paul's use of theodidaktos is highly significant—his allusion to Isaiah 54:13 or to the anticipation of divine instruction as an eschatological blessing, so soon after his clear allusion in 4:8 to Ezekiel's description of the gift of God's Spirit, suggests that Paul views the Thessalonians' practice of philadelphia ("mutual love") as an eschatological blessing of God's covenant people. Though this blessing was originally intended for Israel, Paul believes that it extends to the predominantly Gentile believers at Thessalonica, further supporting that Paul's exhortations in 4:1-12 are rooted in his conviction that the Gentile Christians at Thessalonica are included in the renewed Israel, the eschatological people of God who enjoy both the blessings and the challenges of that privileged relationship.
- Found via
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
- Reference Type
- Allusion
- Connection Method(s)
- Promise-Fulfillment
Linked Mentions 1