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

Revelation 2:14 → Numbers 25:1-2

Allusion

Later text

Revelation 2:14BSB

But I have a few things against you, because some of you hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block before the Israelites so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality.

Earlier text

Numbers 25:1-2BSB

While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab, who invited them to the sacrifices of their gods. The people ate and bowed down to their gods.

+ 1 more earlier text

Earlier text

31:16BSB

“Look, these women caused the sons of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to turn unfaithfully against the LORD at Peor, so that the plague struck the congregation of the LORD.

Walk the Square · a single-voice walk of this pair around the Clowney square13:33

Significance

Balaam functions as paradigmatic false teacher who led Israel into idolatry and sexual immorality at Baal-Peor through his counsel to Balak. Christ applies this negative example to warn against syncretistic compromise with Roman imperial cult practices. Just as Balaam's teaching seduced Israel to eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality, false teachers in Pergamum were leading Christians into similar compromise with paganism. The allusion emphasizes the severity and consequences of doctrinal and moral compromise.

Found via: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Analogy

Linked Mentions 1

Trajectory Tables 1

Spiritual Adultery (Covenant Faithfulness and Idolatry) Trajectory Table