Later text
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
Intertextuality Pair
1 Timothy 2:5 → Numbers 24:7
Echo
Earlier text
Numbers 24:7BSB
Water will flow from his buckets, and his seed will have abundant water. His king will be greater than Agag, and his kingdom will be exalted.
+ 3 more earlier texts
Earlier text
17BSB
I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come forth from Jacob, and a scepter will arise from Israel. He will crush the skulls of Moab and strike down all the sons of Sheth.
Earlier text
Isaiah 19:20BSB
It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of Hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the LORD because of their oppressors, He will send them a savior and defender to rescue them.
Earlier text
Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and through him all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
Significance
Paul's designation "the man Christ Jesus" accesses a messianic theme within the LXX that presents the coming deliverer as "a man to rule the nations" (Num. 24:7, 17) and "a man who will save" (Isa. 19:20)—language absent from the Hebrew text. By identifying Christ as the fulfillment of this "man" prophecy, Paul grounds his argument for universal prayer in Christ's role as the one mediator whose humanity makes His saving work applicable to all people. This hermeneutical move transforms OT images of Israel's subjugation of nations into the picture of salvation for the nations through Christ's death, showing how the gospel fulfills and surpasses Israel's earlier role. Paul thus invites the Ephesian church to understand their prayer ministry as participation in God's universal redemptive purposes now realized through "the man" Christ Jesus.
- Found via
- G.K. Beale & D.A. Carson, _Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament_
- Reference Type
- Echo
- Connection Method(s)
- Promise-Fulfillment