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

1 John 4:8 → Exodus 34:6-7

Echo

Later text

1 John 4:8BSB

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Earlier text

Exodus 34:6-7BSB

Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: "The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness, maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."

Walk the Square · a single-voice walk of this pair around the Clowney square14:30

Significance

John's declaration "God is love" is the New Covenant distillation of Yahweh's self-revelation at Sinai: "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" (Exod 34:6-7). This is the most-quoted OT passage within the OT itself, appearing in Numbers 14:18, Nehemiah 9:17, Psalms 86:15, 103:8, 145:8, Joel 2:13, Jonah 4:2, and Nahum 1:3. John takes the core attribute — hesed/steadfast love — and elevates it from attribute to ontology: God doesn't merely show love, He is love. This represents the culmination of the OT's progressive revelation of the divine character, now fully disclosed through the sending of the Son (4:9-10).

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

▸ The Attribute Formula

Linked Mentions 1

Anchor Texts 1

Exodus 34:6-7 — The Attribute Formula

1 John 4:8 → Exodus 34:6-7

Significance

Related Anchor-Text Networks