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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 Timothy 4:17 → Psalm 22:21

Allusion

Later text

2 Timothy 4:17BSB

But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message would be fully proclaimed, and all the Gentiles would hear it. So I was delivered from the mouth of the lion.

Earlier text

Psalm 22:21BSB

Save me from the mouth of the lion; at the horns of the wild oxen You have answered me!

+ 3 more earlier texts

Earlier text

Daniel 6:22BSB

My God sent His angel and shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, for I was found innocent in His sight, and I have done no wrong against you, O king.”

Earlier text

1 Samuel 17:37BSB

David added, “The LORD, who delivered me from the claws of the lion and the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” “Go,” said Saul, “and may the LORD be with you.”

Earlier text

Psalm 7:2BSB

or they will shred my soul like a lion and tear me to pieces with no one to rescue me.

Significance

Paul's phrase "I was rescued from the lion's mouth" employs vivid OT deliverance imagery with multiple layers of meaning. Most directly, it echoes Psalm 22:21, the messianic psalm of the suffering righteous one whom God vindicates, creating christological resonance as Paul shares in Christ's sufferings and deliverance. Additionally, it evokes Daniel 6:22 where God sent his angel to shut the lions' mouths, delivering his faithful servant from unjust execution—establishing a typological pattern of God rescuing his servants from seemingly certain death when they remain faithful. Whether Paul faced literal threat of execution by wild beasts (damnatio ad bestias) or uses "lion's mouth" metaphorically for mortal danger in his legal proceedings, the OT imagery transforms his personal experience into a salvation history pattern. The hermeneutical move connects Paul's deliverance to the broader narrative of God's faithfulness to his servants throughout redemptive history, from David facing lions and bears (1 Sam. 17:37), through Daniel's miraculous rescue, to the suffering and vindication of the Messiah (Psalm 22), now extending to the apostle's own near-death experience. This provides pastoral encouragement for Timothy: the same God who rescued his servants throughout history will preserve his people through persecution and trial, even when facing the lion's mouth of Roman imperial power.

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

▸ Psalm 22 — My God My God Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me

Linked Mentions 1

Anchor Texts 1

Psalm 22 — My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me

2 Timothy 4:17 → Psalm 22:21

Significance

Related Anchor-Text Networks