What the Scripture Links Reveal
New, published 19 October 2026. What else is new
The Scripture Links page holds 2,500 connections between verses, each one found by comparing the Hebrew and Greek texts themselves. How We Cross-Reference Scripture explains the method. This study reads the results as a whole and asks what they show: which passages the Bible returns to most, how its writers handled the words they quoted, and where the best-known connections leave no mark in the wording at all.
In one sentence: read as a whole, the links show the New Testament writers returning again and again to a handful of passages about the Son at God's right hand, the covenant made new and the neighbour to be loved, quoting them in the Greek their readers knew and sometimes from the Hebrew behind it, while a few of the most important connections in Scripture are carried by meaning and fulfilment and leave no trace in shared words, so the links point you to the text and leave the reading to you.
Key Takeaways
(This section follows the Key Takeaways format — see that page for what each part is for.)
Lessons about Jesus
- The verse quoted from the most books is the one Jesus called the second commandment. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18, ESV) is linked from six books: Matthew, Mark, Luke, Romans, Galatians and James. Jesus set it beside the Shema (Mark 12:29-31), and His apostles kept it there.
- Next comes the verse about where He is now. Psalm 110:1, "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool" (ESV), is linked from five books. Jesus quoted it Himself (Matthew 22:44), and the apostles built on it.
- His cry from the cross stays in His own language. "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" (Matthew 27:46, ESV) quotes Psalm 22:1 in the words Jesus spoke, so no Greek text can match it.
Memory verses
✝️ Luke 24:27 (ESV)
27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Be Transformed
- Think. Your Bible quotes itself constantly, and the New Testament writers read the Old with Christ at the centre (Luke 24:27).
- Attitude. Hold a translation with gratitude. The apostles quoted the Greek Old Testament their hearers read, and God used it.
- Do. Pick one verse from the most-quoted list below this week, read every place that quotes it, and write down what each writer used it to say about Jesus. Then pray what you wrote back to Him, as the One who "interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27, ESV).
Prayer
Father, You spoke to our fathers by the prophets at many times and in many ways, and in these last days You have spoken to us by Your Son Jesus. Thank You that Your word holds together from Moses to the Revelation, and that it all points to Him. Open our eyes as You opened the eyes of the disciples on the Emmaus road, so that we see Him in every part of it and trust Him with all of it.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
Study outline
- Where the numbers come from. Five kinds of link, and the rules that make one strong.
- What exists. The most-quoted verses and chapter, the book that quotes most densely, a saying with eight echoes, a psalm that may carry Paul's words, what "allusion" usually turns out to be, and the Old Testament quoting itself.
- Gaps that were the method's. Short quotations, a phrase of everyday words, a psalm missed by one letter, and quotations that follow the Hebrew.
- What does not exist. Eight letters with no strong link, Revelation, the cry from the cross, Jude's Enoch, and the links nobody measured.
- What readers connect. The cross-references people vote for most, and why none of them share a word.
- What the links show about God. The Word that holds together, and the One it is about.
Where the numbers come from
Every link belongs to one of five kinds, kept apart because they are different evidence:
| Kind | What is compared | Strong links |
|---|---|---|
| Quotation (Greek) | the Greek New Testament against the Septuagint | 246 |
| Quotation (Hebrew) | the Hebrew Old Testament against itself | 2,054 |
| Quotation (from the Hebrew) | the Greek New Testament against the Hebrew Old Testament, through the Septuagint's own vocabulary | 48 |
| Allusion | rare Greek words shared by a New Testament and a Septuagint verse | 103 |
| Candidate | a 19th-century Hebrew translation of the New Testament against the Hebrew Old Testament | 49 |
A link is strong when one of a small set of rules admits it, and every link records which rule did. For a Greek quotation the rules are: the wording aligns closely (about nine words in order); or the verses share phrases that occur in only one Old Testament verse; or the verse cites Scripture ("it is written") and shares such a phrase. A Hebrew parallel is matched on the words' dictionary forms, so spelling and prefixes do not hide it. Each rule was tested against two answer keys that have nothing to do with the method, the WEB translators' quotation footnotes and unfoldingWord's Translation Notes, and against independent cross-references for precision. The database holds another 5,161 weaker Greek matches that no rule admits, and this study names them where they explain an absence. Each count below is recorded with the query that produces it, so it can be re-checked.
Four of the five kinds cross the testaments: 446 links run from the New Testament to the Old. The other 2,054 are the Old Testament quoting itself.
What exists
The most-quoted verses
Five Old Testament verses are each linked from four or more New Testament books:
| Verse | Quoted in | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| Leviticus 19:18 | Matthew 19:19 and 22:39, Mark 12:31, Luke 10:27, Romans 13:9, Galatians 5:14, James 2:8 | love your neighbour as yourself |
| Psalm 110:1 | Matthew 22:44, Mark 12:36, Luke 20:42-43, Acts 2:34-35, Hebrews 1:13 | the LORD tells "my Lord" to sit at His right hand |
| Psalm 118:26 | Matthew 21:9 and 23:39, Mark 11:9, Luke 13:35, John 12:13 | blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord |
| Psalm 118:22 | Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10, Luke 20:17, 1 Peter 2:7 | the rejected stone becomes the cornerstone |
| Genesis 2:24 | Matthew 19:5, Mark 10:7-8, 1 Corinthians 6:16, Ephesians 5:31 | the two become one flesh |
Jesus quotes all five in the Gospels. Two are about how His people are to live, love of neighbour and the one flesh of marriage, and three are about Him. Psalm 118 supplies two of the five: the crowd sang its blessing as He entered Jerusalem, and He took its rejected stone as His own. Psalm 110:1 is the verse Jesus used to ask how the Messiah could be David's son and David's Lord at once (Matthew 22:41-45), and the apostles kept returning to it to say where He is now: seated at the Father's right hand. The Septuagint numbers these psalms 117 and 109, and the links record both numbers.
The most-quoted chapter
The single most-linked chapter is Jeremiah 31, the new covenant, with sixteen links. Hebrews quotes its promise at length twice (Hebrews 8:8-12; 10:16-17), and Matthew 2:18 quotes its Rachel weeping for her children. The count needs both numbering systems to see it: the Septuagint places these verses in its chapter 38. Psalm 118 follows with fourteen, Psalm 110 with thirteen, and Genesis 11 with twelve, the last for a different reason: Luke's genealogy shares its names (see Allusions are usually lists).
The book that quotes most densely
Measured against its length, Hebrews leans on the Old Testament more than any other book:
| Book | Strong links | Verses | Per 100 verses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hebrews | 65 | 303 | 21.5 |
| Romans | 57 | 430 | 13.3 |
| 1 Peter | 11 | 105 | 10.5 |
| Acts | 78 | 1,002 | 7.8 |
| Matthew | 70 | 1,068 | 6.6 |
Nearly half of Hebrews' links run to the Psalms, and thirteen more to Jeremiah. Psalm 95 ("Today, if you hear his voice") is quoted in seven verses across Hebrews 3 and 4. The letter argues from the Old Testament line by line, which is what you would expect of a book written to show Jewish believers that Jesus is the priest and sacrifice their Scriptures promised.
One saying, eight echoes
Mark 12:30, Jesus' answer to the question of the greatest commandment, links to eight different verses of Deuteronomy. One of them is the Shema itself (Deuteronomy 6:5). The other seven are places where Moses repeats the same phrase, "with all your heart and with all your soul" (Deuteronomy 4:29; 10:12; 11:13; 13:3; 30:2, 6, 10). The method finds what Jesus' first hearers would have heard: the command He chose is the refrain of the whole book.
A psalm that may carry Paul's words
Romans 3:13 matches the Greek of Psalm 13:3, which is the Septuagint's numbering of Psalm 14:3, with an alignment of 30. That is a strong match, and no cross-reference list records it. The reason shows when you read the two texts side by side.
The Hebrew of Psalm 14:3, followed by the ESV, has one line:
✝️ Psalm 14:3 (ESV)
3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
Brenton's Septuagint, the Greek text the links use, continues past that line with six more: τάφος ἀνεῳγμένος ὁ λάρυγξ αὐτῶν ("their throat is an open grave") and on through "there is no fear of God before their eyes." Those are the lines Paul strings together in Romans 3:13-18. Paul drew the first of them from Psalm 5:9, Psalm 140:3 and Psalm 10:7 (the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible on Romans 3:13-14), and the rest from Isaiah 59:7-8 and Psalm 36:1. In this Greek psalm they arrive already assembled.
What the data shows is settled: one Greek text of Psalm 14 contains Paul's catena and the Hebrew does not. Why is contested. The usual explanation is that Christian copyists, knowing Romans, filled out the psalm from it. The other is that Paul knew a Greek psalm already expanded this way. The links cannot decide between them, and a study quoting Psalm 14 from the Greek should say which text it is reading.
Allusions are usually lists
The allusion class links verses that share several rare Greek words. Read through, most of its 103 links turn out to be lists:
- Genealogies. 32 come from the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 sharing names with Genesis 4, 5, 10 and 11, Ruth 4 and 1 Chronicles 1-2. Luke 3:35 alone is linked eleven times.
- Places. Acts 2:10 (the nations at Pentecost) and Acts 21:1 and 27:5 (Paul's sea routes) share place names with the list of cities in 1 Maccabees 15:23.
- Precious things. The foundation stones of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:19-20) share their gems with the covering of the king of Tyre in Eden (Ezekiel 28:13). The cargo of Babylon (Revelation 18:13) shares its spices with the garden of the Song (Song of Songs 4:14), and so does Mary's nard at Bethany (John 12:3).
So the allusion class finds lists more than echoes. That makes it most useful exactly where a list carries meaning: a genealogy that runs back to Adam, or a city whose foundations repeat the jewels of Eden.
The class is also the only one that reaches the deuterocanon. Of its 103 links, 19 run to books such as Wisdom, Sirach and the Maccabees. They are all shared vocabulary, so they show which words a New Testament writer shared with those books and say nothing about the books' authority. Paul at the Areopagus (Acts 17:29) and Wisdom 13:10's mockery of idols of gold and silver is the clearest.
The Old Testament quoting itself
The 2,054 Hebrew links are the largest group, and the histories account for much of it: 1 Kings with 2 Chronicles (217), 1 Kings with 2 Kings (196), 2 Kings with itself (147). The histories of Israel were written more than once, and the links trace the shared material: Isaiah 36-39 inside 2 Kings 18-20, Jeremiah 52 inside 2 Kings 24-25, Psalm 18 inside 2 Samuel 22, Micah's mountain of the LORD inside Isaiah 2.
Four findings stand out.
The tabernacle, commanded and built. The pair with the most links of all is Exodus with itself: 220. 181 of them join Exodus 25-31, where God gives Moses the pattern of the tabernacle, to Exodus 35-40, where Bezalel and the people make it. The second half repeats the first almost word for word, curtain by curtain and clasp by clasp. God had said "Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle... so you shall make it" (Exodus 25:9, ESV), and the text records that they did, in the same words.
One in nine points to a book we do not have. 229 of the 2,054 links join verses built on the same formula:
✝️ 2 Kings 23:28 (ESV)
28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
The verses most often linked in the whole Old Testament are these closing notes on a king's reign, and the source they cite is lost. The "Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah" is the royal record the writer of Kings used. It is a different work from the biblical 1 and 2 Chronicles, which were written after the exile and end with Cyrus's decree. The links find a formula repeated, which is a textual fact, and it shows the writer of Kings pointing his readers to his sources again and again.
Chronicles ends where Ezra begins. 2 Chronicles 36:22-23 and Ezra 1:1-3 align at 39 and 41 on their surface wording, more than twice the threshold. They are the same decree of Cyrus. In the order of most printed Hebrew Bibles, the one the Talmud lists (b. Bava Batra 14b), Chronicles is the last book, so the Hebrew Bible closes on the decree's final words: "Let him go up" (2 Chronicles 36:23, ESV).
The covenant renewed repeats the covenant given. Among Exodus's self-links, the festival laws of Exodus 23 come back word for word in Exodus 34, after the golden calf, when God writes the covenant again on new tablets.
The Dead Sea Scrolls
148 links carry a reading from the Dead Sea Scrolls where a scroll differs from the Masoretic Hebrew at the quoted verse. 105 of them are Isaiah, because the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaᵃ) preserves the whole book. When a quotation lands on Isaiah, the scroll reading is usually there to compare.
Gaps that were the method's
The first version of this study, with 1,114 links, listed absences that looked like facts about
Scripture. Testing them showed that several were facts about the method, and the method changed (the
research is recorded in the repository, docs/dev/link-detection-research.md). Each change shows
what kind of evidence a link is.
Short quotations are often the famous ones. James 2:8 ("You shall love your neighbor as yourself"), Romans 1:17 ("The righteous shall live by faith"), and Jesus' answers to the tempter (Matthew 4:7, 10) are short. They aligned at 11 to 15, under a line set at 18, so they sat in the database unshown. Each is introduced as Scripture, "as it is written", and each shares a phrase that occurs in only one Old Testament verse. That pairing is now a rule, and it holds: of the links it admits on its own, 83% are confirmed by independent cross-references.
A phrase of everyday words can be unique. Jesus' defence in John 10:34 quotes Psalm 82:6:
✝️ John 10:34 (ESV)
34 Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I said, you are gods'?"
The shared Greek, ἐγὼ εἶπα θεοί ἐστε, is four of the commonest words in the language. No measure of rarity sees them. As a phrase, though, they occur in one Septuagint verse, and that uniqueness is the evidence, the same reasoning a plagiarism checker uses. The same rule finds Mark 14:62's "coming with the clouds of heaven" from Daniel 7:13 (Matthew's version, 26:64, paraphrases further and is still missed), and Paul's "this will turn out for my deliverance" (Philippians 1:19), which is the Septuagint of Job 13:16 word for word, though the ESV, translating the Hebrew, renders Job's line "This will be my salvation."
Bethlehem is found. Matthew 2:6 now links to Micah 5:2.
✝️ Micah 5:2 (ESV)
2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
✝️ Matthew 2:6 (ESV)
6 "'And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.'"
The verses share a phrase found nowhere else, and Matthew introduces it as what "is written by the prophet" (Matthew 2:5, ESV). The change Matthew makes is still the point: Micah says Bethlehem is "too little", and Matthew, quoting the chief priests and scribes, says it is "by no means least", because the ruler has now come from it. The closing line, "who will shepherd my people Israel", comes from 2 Samuel 5:2, where God says it of David.
A psalm copied almost exactly. 1 Chronicles 16:8-36 is the song David appointed when the ark came to Jerusalem, built from Psalm 105:1-15, Psalm 96 and Psalm 106. Its first verse is word for word Psalm 105:1:
✝️ 1 Chronicles 16:8 (ESV)
8 Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!
On the surface the two scored 12, because one word is spelled with a vowel letter and one without (עֲלִילֹתָיו in Chronicles, עֲלִילוֹתָיו in the psalm). Matched on the words' dictionary forms, the song now links to its psalms 25 times, and Obadiah's oracle against Edom to Jeremiah 49, and Psalm 108 to Psalm 57, come back the same way. Borrowed passages also come in runs, verse after verse, so a weaker match whose neighbours match too counts as part of the borrowing. Of 266 verses in sixteen well-known parallels, the links now find 211, against 68 before.
Some quotations follow the Hebrew. Where the Septuagint reads differently from the Hebrew, a Greek-to-Greek method cannot see a New Testament writer who translated the Hebrew afresh. A new class reads the Greek against the Hebrew through a vocabulary learned from the Septuagint translators' own choices, and only in verses that cite Scripture. It finds 48 links, 88% confirmed independently. Among them:
✝️ 1 Corinthians 15:54 (ESV)
54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory."
Paul's line renders Isaiah 25:8, "He will swallow up death forever" (ESV), where the Septuagint reads differently. The same class joins "I will strike the shepherd" (Matthew 26:31) to Zechariah 13:7.
What does not exist
Eight letters with no strong link
1 Thessalonians, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, 1, 2 and 3 John, and Jude have no strong link to the Old Testament. These letters allude more than they quote, or quote rarely. Jude's one explicit quotation is the next case.
Jude and Enoch
Jude 14-15 quotes a prophecy of Enoch: "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all" (ESV). The words are found in 1 Enoch 1:9. That book is not among the texts the links are computed from, so the quotation cannot appear. An absence in the links can be an absence in the database.
Revelation
Revelation is soaked in the Old Testament: its throne room, its beasts, its city and its river all come from Ezekiel, Daniel, Isaiah and Zechariah. It has three strong Greek links, and the clearest is Revelation 2:27's "rule them with a rod of iron" from Psalm 2:9. The rest of its links are shared rare words: Gog and Magog (Revelation 20:8; Ezekiel 38:2), the gems, the spices.
That fits what readers of Revelation have long observed. John never introduces a passage with "as it is written". He takes the Old Testament's images and words and rewrites them into his vision. Revelation is the most Old Testament book in the New Testament and the one a word-matching method finds hardest.
Ten Old Testament books the New Testament never strongly reaches
Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Kings, Ezra, Nehemiah, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Obadiah, Nahum and Zephaniah have no strong link from the New Testament. For some, that matches what scholars find: Ecclesiastes is not quoted in the New Testament.
Daniel's "abomination of desolation" is still missing. Jesus names Daniel when He speaks of "the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel" (Matthew 24:15, ESV). The shared Greek, τὸ βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως, is three or four words in a form that varies between Daniel's verses, so no rule admits it. The research found it by matching shared concepts, and it is a candidate for the next round.
The cry from the cross
✝️ Matthew 27:46 (ESV)
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Matthew gives Jesus' words as He spoke them, in Hebrew and Aramaic, written out in Greek letters, and then translates them. A Greek method has nothing to match, and the Hebrew method only reads verses that cite Scripture by formula. The most solemn quotation in the Gospels is invisible to the method, and the reason is that the evangelist kept the sound of the Lord's own voice.
The links nobody measured
There are no links from one New Testament book to another. None was computed. The Synoptic Gospels' shared wording, 2 Peter's use of Jude, and 1 Timothy 5:18 quoting "The laborer deserves his wages" from Luke 10:7 are all outside the data. Paul in 1 Timothy 5:18 calls a saying in Luke "Scripture" alongside Deuteronomy, so a New Testament to New Testament class would show something the current links cannot. Joel 3:16 and Amos 1:2 ("The LORD roars from Zion") are also still unlinked; that parallel is a single short line.
What readers connect
Alongside the derived links, the page shows traditional cross-references, ranked by how many people voted for them on OpenBible.info. Of 2,640 verses with such a cross-reference, 2,234 have no derived link at all.
The most-voted ones are revealing. The top of the list joins Romans 8:29 to Ephesians 1:5 (1,268 votes), Isaiah 44:3 to Joel 2:28, Philippians 4:13 to Isaiah 41:10, and John 3:16 to Romans 5:8. They are well-loved verses joined to other well-loved verses on the same theme. None of them shares a quoted phrase. Readers connect Scripture by what it promises, and the word-matching method connects it by what it repeats. Both are real, and they answer different questions. The traditional list is the better guide to a theme; the derived links are the better guide to what a writer was actually quoting. Where unfoldingWord's Translation Notes name a quotation the derived links do not show, the page shows that too, marked as the editors' judgement.
What the links show about God
God speaks one word through many writers. "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets" (Hebrews 1:1, ESV). The 2,054 links inside the Old Testament show that word handed on: Kings into Chronicles, Kings into Isaiah and Jeremiah, the tabernacle commanded and then built in the same words, Cyrus's decree closing one book and opening the next. This shows that God preserves His word across centuries and writers, and you can read it trusting that its parts belong together.
The Scriptures are about His Son and His people. The verses quoted most are Psalm 110:1, the Son seated at the Father's right hand, and Leviticus 19:18, the love He commands. The chapter reached most is the new covenant of Jeremiah 31. The book that quotes most densely, Hebrews, uses them to show Jesus as the King and Priest the Scriptures promised. Jesus Himself opened the Scriptures this way on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:27). The links make visible, in numbers, the shape He gave them.
God's word is not bound to one language. Most of the New Testament's quotations follow the Greek Septuagint, a translation, and the apostles used it to preach Christ to people who read Greek. Others render the Hebrew afresh, as Paul did with "Death is swallowed up in victory." God spoke His word in Hebrew and was content for it to be heard in Greek. So you may read your Bible in your own language and know that you hold His word.
What the wording cannot show, God still fulfils. The cry from the cross and the Son of Man coming on the clouds in Matthew's paraphrase leave little or no trace in shared words. Their connections are carried by history and fulfilment: the psalm prayed on the cross, the claim the high priest understood at once. A method can count words. Seeing that the One the Scriptures promised has come is the work of the Holy Spirit opening the eyes of the reader, and you can ask Him for it.
Discussion questions
- The language. Matthew writes Jesus' cry from the cross in the Hebrew and Aramaic He spoke before translating it (Matthew 27:46). Why might Matthew have kept the original words?
- The text in its context. Micah calls Bethlehem "too little" and Matthew says it is "by no means least" (Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:6). What has happened between the two to change the description?
- Christ. Psalm 110:1 is quoted in five New Testament books. Read Matthew 22:41-45 and Hebrews 1:13. What does each writer use the verse to say about Jesus?
- The hard part. One Greek text of Psalm 14 contains lines Paul quotes in Romans 3. How should a reader handle a verse whose wording differs between the Hebrew and the Greek?
- Be transformed. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" is quoted in more New Testament books than any other Old Testament verse (Leviticus 19:18). Who is the neighbour you find hardest to love this week, and what would loving them as yourself look like?
Group study sheet for a 40-minute group: two A4 sheets, or one with the guided path
The point, the passage, the questions and the response, from this study. Print on both sides of two A4 sheets, flipping on the long edge. While this block is open, printing the page prints the sheet; close it to print the study.
What the Scripture Links Reveal
Luke 24:27The point read as a whole, the links show the New Testament writers returning again and again to a handful of passages about the Son at God's right hand, the covenant made new and the neighbour to be loved, quoting them in the Greek their readers knew and sometimes from the Hebrew behind it, while a few of the most important connections in Scripture are carried by meaning and fulfilment and leave no trace in shared words, so the links point you to the text and leave the reading to you.
Ask: what comes to mind when you hear What the Scripture Links Reveal
? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.
Luke 24:27 27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was written in all the Scriptures about Himself.
Also read:
What the Scripture Links Reveal
- Where the numbers come from. Five kinds of link, and the rules that make one strong.
- What exists. The most-quoted verses and chapter, the book that quotes most densely, a saying with eight echoes, a psalm that may carry Paul's words, what "allusion" usually turns out to be, and the Old Testament quoting itself.
- Gaps that were the method's. Short quotations, a phrase of everyday words, a psalm missed by one letter, and quotations that follow the Hebrew.
- What does not exist. Eight letters with no strong link, Revelation, the cry from the cross, Jude's Enoch, and the links nobody measured.
- What readers connect. The cross-references people vote for most, and why none of them share a word.
- What the links show about God. The Word that holds together, and the One it is about.
What the Scripture Links Reveal
1Christ. Psalm 110:1 is quoted in five New Testament books. Read Matthew 22:41-45 and Hebrews 1:13. What does each writer use the verse to say about Jesus?
2The hard part. One Greek text of Psalm 14 contains lines Paul quotes in Romans 3. How should a reader handle a verse whose wording differs between the Hebrew and the Greek?
3The text in its context. Micah calls Bethlehem "too little" and Matthew says it is "by no means least" (Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:6). What has happened between the two to change the description?
4The language. Matthew writes Jesus' cry from the cross in the Hebrew and Aramaic He spoke before translating it (Matthew 27:46). Why might Matthew have kept the original words?
What the Scripture Links Reveal
5Be transformed. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" is quoted in more New Testament books than any other Old Testament verse (Leviticus 19:18). Who is the neighbour you find hardest to love this week, and what would loving them as yourself look like?
- Think. Your Bible quotes itself constantly, and the New Testament writers read the Old with Christ at the centre (Luke 24:27).
- Attitude. Hold a translation with gratitude. The apostles quoted the Greek Old Testament their hearers read, and God used it.
- Do. Pick one verse from the most-quoted list below this week, read every place that quotes it, and write down what each writer used it to say about Jesus. Then pray what you wrote back to Him, as the One who "interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27, ESV).
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Luke 24:27 (ESV)Father, You spoke to our fathers by the prophets at many times and in many ways, and in these last days You have spoken to us by Your Son Jesus. Thank You that Your word holds together from Moses to the Revelation, and that it all points to Him. Open our eyes as You opened the eyes of the disciples on the Emmaus road, so that we see Him in every part of it and trust Him with all of it.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
What the Scripture Links Reveal
Luke 24:27Open Ask: what comes to mind when you hear What the Scripture Links Reveal
? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.
Read it aloud Luke 24:27
1Christ. Psalm 110:1 is quoted in five New Testament books. Read Matthew 22:41-45 and Hebrews 1:13. What does each writer use the verse to say about Jesus?
2The hard part. One Greek text of Psalm 14 contains lines Paul quotes in Romans 3. How should a reader handle a verse whose wording differs between the Hebrew and the Greek?
3The text in its context. Micah calls Bethlehem "too little" and Matthew says it is "by no means least" (Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:6). What has happened between the two to change the description?
4The language. Matthew writes Jesus' cry from the cross in the Hebrew and Aramaic He spoke before translating it (Matthew 27:46). Why might Matthew have kept the original words?
5Be transformed. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" is quoted in more New Testament books than any other Old Testament verse (Leviticus 19:18). Who is the neighbour you find hardest to love this week, and what would loving them as yourself look like?
- Think. Your Bible quotes itself constantly, and the New Testament writers read the Old with Christ at the centre (Luke 24:27).
- Attitude. Hold a translation with gratitude. The apostles quoted the Greek Old Testament their hearers read, and God used it.
- Do. Pick one verse from the most-quoted list below this week, read every place that quotes it, and write down what each writer used it to say about Jesus. Then pray what you wrote back to Him, as the One who "interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27, ESV).
What the Scripture Links Reveal
The point read as a whole, the links show the New Testament writers returning again and again to a handful of passages about the Son at God's right hand, the covenant made new and the neighbour to be loved, quoting them in the Greek their readers knew and sometimes from the Hebrew behind it, while a few of the most important connections in Scripture are carried by meaning and fulfilment and leave no trace in shared words, so the links point you to the text and leave the reading to you.
References
- Data: the
scripture_linkstable in this site's reference database, built from the SBL Greek New Testament, Brenton's Septuagint (1851), the Westminster Leningrad Codex, MACULA's Greek and Hebrew lemmas, the Open Scriptures Septuagint lemmas and the Delitzsch Hebrew New Testament; strong links exported todocs/data/scripture-links.json. Method and thresholds: How We Cross-Reference Scripture. - Answer keys and leads: the WEB translators' quotation footnotes, and unfoldingWord's Translation Notes (CC BY-SA 4.0), notes filed under the quotation article.
- Traditional cross-references: OpenBible.info's crowd-voted cross-references (CC BY).
- Study notes: NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Zondervan, 2016), note on Romans 3:13-14, for the sources of Paul's catena.
- Canon order: Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 14b, for Chronicles as the last of the Writings.
- Scripture quotations are from the ESV, with Greek from Brenton's Septuagint and the SBL Greek New Testament, and Hebrew from the Westminster Leningrad Codex.