Allusion: Acts 16:7

"It was as if I had heard a summons from Heaven---as if a visionary messenger, like him of Macedonia, had announced, 'Come over and help us' But I was no apostle,---I could not behold the herald,---I could not receive his call" (409).

In chapter 34, there is a biblical allusion to Acts 16:9. In the novel St. John talks to Jane about how he would like her to accompany him on his mission trip to India. Jane alludes to the verse by comparing herself to the apostle Paul when he receives the message from “him of Macedonia” (409). In the biblical verse, Paul has a vision in which this Macedonian man is calling upon him to come to his homeland and help their people. In Jane Eyre, it is as if St. John has called upon Jane to come and educate the people of this other country in the ways of Christianity through missionary work. Jane then denies her capabilities to receive this message and act on it. She does not see herself as an apostle like Paul or a missionary like St. John.