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.

New to a term? The Glossary explains every abbreviation and term on the site in plain words.

Intertextuality Pair

Philemon 1:16 → Leviticus 25:39-43

Echo

Later text

Philemon 16BSB

Open the passage to read it in full.

Earlier text

Leviticus 25:39-43BSB

If a countryman among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, then you must not force him into slave labor. Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee. Then he and his children are to be released, and he may return to his clan and to the property of his fathers. Because the Israelites are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, they are not to be sold as slaves. You are not to rule over them harshly, but you shall fear your God.

Walk the Square · a single-voice walk of this pair around the Clowney square14:00

Significance

Leviticus 25:39-43 commands Israelites not to treat fellow Hebrews who become indentured servants as slaves, but as hired workers and sojourners, because "they are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt." The rationale is redemptive-historical: since God redeemed Israel from slavery, they must not enslave their brothers. Paul applies this principle christologically—since Christ has redeemed both Philemon and Onesimus from sin's bondage, they are now brothers in the Lord, making continued enslavement incompatible with gospel reality. The hermeneutical move is analogical: as Leviticus grounded brotherhood in Exodus redemption, Paul grounds it in Christ's greater redemption. This demonstrates how the gospel transforms social relationships by creating a new family identity that transcends former status distinctions (Galatians 3:28).

Found via: G.K. Beale & D.A. Carson, _Commentary on the NT Use of the OT_
Reference Type: Echo
Connection Method(s): Analogy

Linked Mentions 1

Trajectory Tables 1

Year of Jubilee (Ultimate Redemption) Trajectory Table