John (Word Biblical Themes) 9780310115113, 9780849900244, 0310115116

Table of contents :
CONTENTS
PREFACE
1 INTERPRETING THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
2 THE WORD MADE FLESH
3 THE SIGNS OF JESUS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE
4 JESUS AND THE JEWISH FESTIVALS
5 JESUS AND HIS OWN: THE UPPER ROOM DISCOURSES
6 THE GLORIFICATION OF JESUS
NOTES
INDEX OF SCRIPTURES

Citation preview

WORD BIBLICAL THEMES

General Editor

David A. Hubbard O ld Testament Editor

John D. W. Watts »New Testament Editor

Ralph P. Martin

WORD BIBLICAL THEMES John GEORGE R. BEASLEY-MURRAY

ZONDERVAN ACADEMI C

ZONDERVAN ACADEMIC John Copyright © 1989 by Word, Incorporated Requests for information should be addressed to: Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 ISBN 978-0-310-11511-3 (softcover) Library of Congress Cataloging-­in-­Publication Data Beasley-­Murray, George R. John: George R. Beasley-­Murray. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-849-90024-4 1. Bible N.T. John—­Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. John. II. Series. BS2615.2.B385 1989 266’.507-dc1989-5299 Scripture quotations in this volume from the book of John, unless otherwise identified, are from the author’s translation in John, Volume 36, of the World Biblical Commentary, copyrighted 1987 by Word, Incorporated. See the Index for abbreviations for the other versions used in this volume. Any internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—­electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—­except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 /LSC/ 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To P. H. Warwick Bailey my first pastor, through whom I learned o f C hrist

CONTENTS

Foreword Preface 1. Interpreting the G ospel o f Joh n A uthorship Purpose Jesus after the flesh — after the Spirit 2. T h e W ord M ade Flesh “T h e W ord” in ancient times C h rist— the W ord C h rist— the M ediator T h e only So n T h e “I am ” sayings 3. T h e Signs o f Jesus and T heir Significance T h e water into wine Two healings T h e feeding o f the multitude and walking on the sea T h e healing o f the m an b o m blind T h e raising o f Lazarus vii

ix xi 1 4 7 13 19 22 25 28 34 40 45 47 52 56 61 65 Contents

4. Jesus and the Jewish Festivals T h e Passover Festival T h e Festival o f W eeks T he Festival o f Tabernacles T he Festival o f the Dedication 5. Jesus and H is Own: T he U pper R oom D iscourses T he footwashing and prophecy o f betrayal T h e departure and return o f Jesus Jesus, the True V ine T h e opposition o f the world to the church T h e ministry o f the Spirit and the joy o f the disciples T he prayer o f consecration 6. T h e Glorification o f Jesus Notes Index of Scriptures

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69 71 76 78 82 87 88 90 93 94 95 97 101 111 113

viii

FOREW ORD

Already G eorge Beasley-Murray ’s John in the Word Bibli­ cal Commentary series has been hailed as a monumental study o f the “spiritual G ospel.” Scholars and students are discovering fresh insights and penetrating observations on this central New Testament book. N ot all readers today, however, are interested in the minutiae o f the academic de­ bate on the fourth G ospel. Rather, they are looking for guidance on the leading themes o f John as material for pulpit messages, Bible-class themes, and practical daily living. This book in the continuing series o f Word Biblical Themes is designed expressly for a general audience, especially busy pastors and preachers and layfolk who want to be informed by the most reliable teachers o f the church. Dr. Beasley-Murray brings to his assignment a wealth o f past experience— as minister o f a local congregation for many years, then seminary principal in charge o f the famed Spur­ geon’s College in London, and later professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. N ow retired from these key posts, he still is active in ix

Foreword

preaching and teaching. H e is eminently qualified to offer this study o n Joh n which distills and puts into succinct form the massive research o f his larger commentary. Dr. BeasleyM urray w orks with an eye always on his audience which will appreciate his easy style and helpful approach to this G ospel. N o one can fail to profit from his latest work. Department of Biblical Studies The University of Sheffield

JO H N

Ralph P. M artin New Testament Editor Word Biblical Themes, Word Biblical Commentary

X

PREFACE

Anyone who is concerned to gain an understanding o f the Christian faith will pay special attention to the four G ospels, in the endeavor to learn something sure about Jesus. T his has been true o f the present writer. O n reflection, how­ ever, he realizes that the G ospel o f John has occupied a unique place in his thinking, his life, his preaching, and his teaching. In his experience theological students find this book to be o f unparalleled interest, including even its com ­ plex background, which throws a flood o f light on the story it records. People in the churches are similarly fascinated when the unsuspected depths o f the G ospel are uncovered and explained to them. John's G ospel is the preacher's G ospel par excellence. It is therefore the more regrettable that preaching and teaching about this G ospel often remains on a superficial level and ignores much that lies waiting to be discovered and proclaimed. T his little book is intended to be a kind o f mini­ handbook to the profoundest book o f the Bible, to help preachers and teachers to grasp its message and worthily to xi

Preface

make it known. H opefully it may stimulate some to resort to the great commentaries that have been written on the G ospel, and so lead to the satisfaction o f attaining a fuller understanding o f the so-called “spiritual G ospel.” Chapter 5, on the U pper R oom Discourses o f Jesus, reproduces the substance o f an article which appeared in the Review and Expositor, volume 85,1968, pp. 473-83; the writer expresses his gratitude to the editor for permission to utilize it. George R. Beasley-Murray

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1

INTERPRETING THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

Ever since the church realized that it possesses not one G ospel but four it has come to see that the G ospel o f Joh n is “different.” Som ething about its presentation o f Jesus m arks it o ff from the others, and makes it unique. A great deal o f discussion about this difference has taken place in m odem times. It used to be said that whereas Matthew, M ark, and Luke gave the bare facts o f the story o f Jesus, Joh n gave us the facts plus interpretation. We now know that that is an overstatement. Each o f the first three evangelists had his own understanding o f Jesus, and each wrote up his account in order that the light o f C h rist might shed its maximum illumination upon the circumstances o f the churches he knew. T hose m en had profound insight into the life and teaching o f Jesus and the revelation o f G o d that he brought. Yet everyone who has considered the matter agrees that these observations apply to the fourth evangelist and his G ospel in a very special way. O ne has only to pick up the book and read its opening sentences to realize what a unique slant the evangelist gives to the familiar story o f Jesus. There is 1

Interpreting the Gospel of John

something paradoxical about the introduction to this G ospel (1:1-18). It is written in the simplest language possible. In­ deed, the first five verses are not only in “basic G reek,” to coin an expression in imitation o f “basic English”; a beginner who has taken only his first steps in learning the language can make out those sentences. A nd yet the significance o f its ut­ terances about Jesus is nothing less than breathtaking. T h e Prologue plumbs the depths and scales the heights o f the doctrine o f C hrist beyond anything written in the Bible. It unveils the central place o f the So n o f G o d in revelation, in creation, and in redemption; and it relates all this not only to the record o f G o d ’s revelation in the O ld Testament but also to the religions and philosophies o f the ancient world from primeval times to the fashionable thought o f the evange­ list’s day. O ne o f the greatest teachers o f the early church, C lem ent o f Alexandria, who was acquainted with the thought o f the world o f the second century o f our era, wrote about this book: “John, perceiving that the bodily facts had been made plain in the gospel, being urged by his friends and inspired by the Spirit, com posed a spiritual gospel.” 1 It will be observed that in that statement there is no consciousness o f opposition between the “spiritual G ospel” and the earlier G ospels. T h e so-called M uratorian Canon, a report on the books o f the New Testament com posed in the period o f C lem ent’s ministry, elaborates what Clem ent said o f the fourth G ospel, and then adds: A lthough various points are taught in the several books o f the gospels, yet it m akes n o difference to the faith o f believers, since all things in all o f them are declared by one suprem e Spirit. T hat is a perceptive statement. T h e differences between the accounts o f Jesus in the synoptic G ospels and that in Joh n are

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acknowledged, but the four accounts are seen to be comple­ mentary, and the varied interpretations are ascribed to the operation o f the “one supreme Spirit.” O nce more, this aspect o f the composition o f the G ospels is especially apparent in John, which has more to say about the work o f the Holy Spirit in the church than any o f the other Gospels; and this G ospel specifically relates that work o f the Spirit to the understanding o f the words and deeds o f Jesus. We think, for example, o f the statement o f Jesus to the disciples in the U pper R oom : “I have spoken these things while remaining with you; but the Counselor, the H oly Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and will remind you o f everything that I have said to you” (John 14:25,26). T he Spirit, then, has the dual task o f bringing to remembrance what Jesus has said and o f instruct­ ing the disciples as to its meaning. T h at is precisely what we have in this “spiritual G ospel”— reminiscence o f the w orks and words o f Jesus as interpreted by the Spirit. O u r major task, accordingly, is to seek to interpret by the Spirit this interpretation o f Jesus from the Spirit. A ll other issues in the investigation o f the G ospel are subordinate to this supreme concern. It is well to recognize this at the outset, for in any case there is a great deal o f uncertainty about many matters which people like to know about a book, for exam­ ple, who wrote it, when it was written, where and for whom it was written, and the like. In particular, endless argument has taken place over the identity o f the author o f John. Books and articles have been devoted to it, sometimes with a ve­ hemence suggesting that the validity and authority o f the message o f the book stand or fall with its traditional ascrip­ tion o f authorship to the apostle John. In reality, this G ospel, like the others, is anonymous; it w ould be preposterous to commit ourselves to the view that the authority o f o ur four G ospels depends on the accuracy o f the ascription o f their authorship by churches in the

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Interpreting the Gospel of John

second century. T h e truth o f their message depends on their connection with Jesus and the guidance o f the H oly Spirit given both to those who handed on the facts and their meaning and the evangelists themselves. In the case o f our G ospel there is clear indication o f the activity o f the Spirit alike in maintaining, understanding, and declaring the story o f Jesus, and this the church has thankfully recognized through the ages.

Authorship We have said that the fourth G ospel is anonymous. There is no m ention o f the author’s name, in contrast to Paul’s writings or the book o f Revelation (Rev 1:1, 4, 9). T here is, however, an additional chapter, written after the G ospel had been brought to its com pletion (at 20:30, 31), in which a statement as to the source o f the G ospel is made. A fter recounting the Easter conversation o f Jesus with Peter a reference is made to “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” and then it is affirmed: “T his is the disciple who bears witness about these things and who wrote these things, and we know that his witness is true” (21:24). T he statement calls forth two observations. First, the disci­ ple’s name is not stated, nor is it given anywhere else in the Gospel: we shall return to this issue shortly. Secondly, the natural inference from the assertion is that the writer is speak­ ing o f “the disciple whom Jesus loved” as someone other than himself, exactly as in 19:35: “T he man who saw this has borne witness to it— and his witness is authentic, and he knows that he tells the truth— that you, too, may believe.” In both pas­ sages the disciple is cited as an independent witness whose testimony is authentic; but in this passage the distinction be­ tween writer and disciple is emphasized: “We who know the man know that he is a reliable witness.” W hen, therefore, it is stated that the beloved disciple “wrote” these things, it must

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mean that he wrote down his witness. T h at is the point o f emphasis in the sentence. A nd although the writer does not explicitly say so, he certainly implies that the written testi­ mony o f the beloved disciple is the source and the authority o f what is written in this Gospel. T his is confirmed by the way the author speaks about the m an who stands behind this G ospel. H e calls him “the disci­ ple whom Jesus loved.” Since it is made clear that Jesus loved all his disciples (cf. 13:1, 2; 15:12-15) the expression m ust mean “the disciple whom Jesus especially loved.” There was an affinity between Jesus and this man beyond that between Jesus and the rest o f the disciples. T he first occasion when the expression is used is peculiarly instructive. Jesus had declared that one o f the disciples was to betray him; Peter therefore made signs to “the disciple whom Jesus loved” to ask who it was, for the Beloved Disciple was “close to the breast o f Jesus” (13:23). T h e expression is literally “in the bosom o f Jesus.” T h is physical position was possible because Jesus and the disciple group were reclining round the low table, with el­ bow s on cushions, according to the custom o f celebrating the Passover. T h e Beloved Disciple was reclining next to Jesus, and as host, Jesus was slightly forward. T h e disciple had but to turn toward Jesus and his head would then have been on his chest, and a whispered conversation could take place. But the expression “in the bosom o f” has a counterpart in the Prologue. It is written, “G o d no one has ever seen. T he only Son, by nature G od, who is ever close to the Father’s heart, has brought knowledge o f him” (1:18). T he expression “close to the heart o f . . . ” is the same as in 13:24, “in the bosom o f . . . ,” i.e., in closest intimacy with the Father. T he evan­ gelist evidently wished to convey the thought that just as Jesus was and is in closest fellowship with the Father, and therefore has been able to reveal G o d as none other before or since him, so the disciple whom Jesus loved was in closest intimacy with Jesus and has been able to reveal the truth he brought as no

5

Interpreting the Gospel of John

other person could. W hereas it is perfectly understandable that one who knew that disciple well should so speak about him, it would be incomprehensible for the disciple himself to describe him self in this way and imply such a comparison with the rest o f the disciples. W ho then was the favored disciple? Irenaeus, bishop o f Lyons in the last quarter o f the second century, named him as the apostle John (“John, the disciple o f the Lord, who leaned on his breast, also published the gospel while living in Ephe­ sus in A sia”).2 It is perfectly possible that the identification is correct. T hat would mean that the apostle Joh n was the au­ thority behind the G ospel that has so long borne his name. B u t there are difficulties about this. Various things said about the apostle Joh n in the early tradition are unlikely to be true, as, for example, when he is said to have written the G ospel after the death o f the emperor Dom itian (i.e., after the year A.D. 98 and after his release from Patmos, when he pursued an active ministry in the churches o f A sia Minor). T h e apostle in the years A.D. 100 and later w ould have been about a hundred years old! T h e beloved disciple was cer­ tainly a friend of Peter. If, as is likely, he was “the other disciple” with Peter, m entioned in 18:15, 16 (cf. the use o f that expression in 20:2, 3, 5, 8), then he was also a friend of C aiaph as, the high priest. T h at is explicitly stated in verses 18:15, 16. A n d that was how he was know n to the woman who kept the gate o f the high priest’s courtyard (18:15f). H e will then have been a member o f the highpriestly circle o f Jerusalem. T hat explains how it is that this G ospel gives so much information about the ministry o f Jesus in Jerusalem and Judea, o f which the other G ospels know nothing, and in particular how he knew so much about the trial o f Jesus before Pilate. T h e G ospel is written from the viewpoint o f a resident o f Judea (probably o f Jeru­ salem) in contrast with the synoptic G ospels, which convey the witness o f followers o f Jesus in Galilee.

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We cannot pretend to be able to solve this issue. T h e Christians for whom the G ospel was written would have know n the beloved disciple so well, they did not need telling w ho he was. We m ust be satisfied to know that he was privileged to be exceptionally close to Jesus, and therefore exceptionally well acquainted with the thought o f Jesus. H e was enabled by the Spirit not only to grasp what he heard and saw but to pass on to the churches that understanding o f Jesus; and the Lord gave him a disciple o f like mind, similarly illuminated by the Spirit, who was led to set down in writing for all subsequent generations the knowledge o f him which is life eternal (17:3).

Purpose T his leads on to the purpose o f the fourth G ospel. T h e evangelist him self has stated it in the intended conclusion, namely 20:30, 31: “N ow there were many other signs that Jesus did in the presence o f his disciples that are not recorded in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the S o n o f G od, and that through believing you may have life in his nam e.” It is possible to interpret these w ords in tw o ways: the G ospel was written that people who have not come to faith in Jesus as the C h rist and So n o f G o d may do so, and thereby gain the life o f the kingdom o f G od; or, the G ospel was written that those who believe in Jesus may have their faith deep­ ened, and grasp more fully its truth and its implications. Thereby they should experience in fuller measure the life o f the kingdom now and be assured o f possessing its fullness in the coming age. T h e curious thing is that there is a difference o f spelling o f the verb “believe” in our earliest manuscripts, one form favoring the form er interpretation and the other the latter. We cannot be certain which reading is right, b ut in any case

7

Interpreting the Gospel of John

either reading can be understood in either way! Irrespective o f that conundrum, the nature o f the G ospel itself suggests that there is no need to settle for an either/or here. T he G ospel has both an evangelistic thrust and a deeply instruc­ tive quality. It has power to awaken faith and to confirm faith, and was surely intended for use in m ission to those outside the churches and for building up those inside them. With regard to the latter purpose, the churches for which the evangelist wrote needed guidance in dealing with various groups o f religious people with whom they rubbed shoul­ ders. Som e o f these were in sympathy with the gospel, and som e far from it. There are some ambiguous references to Joh n the Baptist in the G ospel, which speak appreciatively o f Joh n ’s unique role as witness to Jesus and at the same time emphasize his secondary place to Jesus regarding the revela­ tion and salvation o f G od. T his is seen with special clarity in Joh n 1:6-9 and in 3:25-30. T hese passages may well have in view the contemporary followers o f Joh n the Baptist, who claimed that John was the Light o f m en and the R edeem er from G o d (these claims were actually made in later years by the Mandaeans, som e o f whom exist to this day). T h e evan­ gelist deals gently and tactfully with this issue, in view o f the honor in which Joh n was held by Jesus and by the church after him. It is likely that John also had his eyes on the “G nostics,” whose name means “the people who know.” Their views swept the nearer O rient in the second century, but it is evi­ dent that they were spreading in the first century also. T he system was syncretistic, a mishmash o f religion and philoso­ phy, at the root o f which was a dualistic view o f reality. They believed that all that is material is evil and that only what is spirit is good, a view congenial to the Eastern mind, and which has sometimes infected Christianity. Carried to its ex­ treme this doctrine effectively divides G od from the world, which in any case he could not have created, since (on this

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view) it is evil. It similarly makes the Incarnation o f the Son o f G o d impossible, for he could not have adopted a material body; and it further changed redemption to deliverance from the material world rather than from sin. But there were different degrees o f approximation to this kind o f teaching. T he paradoxical thing is that many Gnostics were drawn to the G ospel o f John. T he first commentary on the G ospel known to us was written by Basilides, a G n os­ tic!— and it became the instrument in the hands o f the church to oppose Gnosticism in the second century. T he truth is that many o f the Gnostics were not far from the kingdom o f G od, to use an expression o f Jesus (Mark 12:34), as we now know from the Nag Hammadi collection o f G nostic works recently discovered in Egypt. It is likely that the evangelist was acquainted with more than one sort o f G nostic, and that he wrote with a view to helping those that were “not far o ff” to see in the Christian gospel that which they really sought, and at the same time to combat the errors o f those who were leading members o f the church astray. T h e former would have been in m ind as he wrote the Prologue, with the great confession o f 1:14 (“the W ord became flesh . . .”!) and its climax in 1:18. T h e same motive is discerned in his description o f the death o f Jesus and what happened when a soldier thrust a spear into the body o f Jesus (19:32-35); his true humanity and real death were alike attested in that event. T h ose who stumble at Jesus and cause others to do so are m irrored in 6:60-69, a passage that finds an echo in 1 Joh n 2:18-20; the corrections o f the G nostics in the G ospel are calculated to ensure that true believers do not follow their example. M ore important than either o f these two groups, attention is consistently paid to the Jews among whom Jesus minis­ tered, with Jews o f the synagogues o f the evangelist’s day in mind in particular. T he opposition o f Jewish leaders is high­ lighted throughout the Gospel. Indeed, the evangelist has an

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Interpreting the Gospel of John

odd habit o f speaking about “the Jew s” when he really has in mind the Jewish opponents o f Jesus, not the people (see e.g., 2:18, 20; 4:15, 16, 18; note the interchangeability o f “the Jew s” and “the Pharisees” in 9 :1 3 ,1 6 ,1 8 , 22; in the narrative “the Jew s” primarily denote the Jewish leaders generally, as can be seen in 18:28—31, 38-40; 19:7,12,15). T h is would be more understandable if the evangelist had been a Gentile Christian, but there is no doubt that he was a Jew whose whole outlook is rooted in Judaism, and that he wrote in order that Jews and Gentiles should be converted. In 7:11,12 he tells how “the Jews,” i.e., the people who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast o f Tabernacles, talked about Jesus, but did so quietly “for fear o f ‘the Jew s’”! A n d many o f “the Jew s” believed in Jesus at that feast (7:31; 8:31)! T he notion that is gaining currency todày, that the fourth G ospel is anti-Semitic, is quite mistaken. It is due to a failure to observe the various ways in which the author uses the term “the Jew s,” and also to not recognizing that the evangelist is at pains to show how the message and m ission o f Jesus is firmly set in the context o f Israel’s faith, hope, and promise. Quite certainly the frequent attention to the hostile Jewish leaders in this G ospel, the grounds o f their opposition to Jesus, and his answers to them have in view the experience o f the churches for which he wrote; history was being repeated, in that the hostility shown to Jesus was now being directed to his followers. They needed to understand their own situation and how to cope with it in light o f what Jesus said and did when faced with similar opposition. Observe, moreover, that this concern o f the evangelist was not solely from a negative point o f view— i.e., to enable Christians to defend them­ selves against Jewish propaganda. H e also wished to rectify the misunderstandings o f his Jewish contemporaries. H e wrote to help them see in Jesus the fulfillment o f the revela­ tion o f G o d in the O ld Testament and the fulfillment o f the high points o f their worship, especially as expressed in the

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great feasts o f the Passover, Tabernacles, and Dedication. In short, he wrote to enable Jews to see in Jesus their M essiah, possessing a significance and stature greater even than the O ld Testament had made known. A ll this presupposes that the churches for which the evangelist wrote had among them a large proportion o f Jew s who were concerned to maintain their relationships with the synagogues. If the G ospel represents the witness o f the beloved disciple it was probably formulated in Palestine, where m ost Christian congregations will have been entirely Jewish, and their members will have continued to w orship in local synagogues as well as in their own Christian assemblies. Jewish Christians will have endeavored to continue these relationships even when, after the Jewish war with R om e, A.D. 66-70, they migrated to areas Outside the H oly Land, notably to adjacent Syria and to A sia M inor. We learn from the A cts o f the A po stles o f the hostility experienced by young Christians in the entire M editerranean area, not only o f their expulsions from synagogues, but o f accusations be­ fore Gentile authorities (cf. A cts 13:50; 14:1-7, 19; 17:4-9, 13; 18:12-17). T h is situation became exacerbated rather than being di­ m inished in the latter part o f the first century. A fter the destruction o f Jerusalem and its temple the Pharisees gained complete ascendancy over the Jewish people, and they refor­ mulated Judaism in long consultations extending over many years in Jamnia. A t some point in that period the deep opposi­ tion to Christians found expression in the Jewish daily prayers known as the Eighteen Benedictions, o f which the twelfth was modified to read: For apostates let there be no hope, and the dom inion o f arrogance [=Rom e] do thou speedily root out in our days; and let the Nazarenes [=Christians] and heretics perish as in a moment, let them be blotted out o f the 11

Interpreting the Gospel of John

book o f the living and let them not be written with the righteous. Blessed art thou, O Lord, w ho hum blest the arrogant.3 W hether that prayer had included the reference to the “Nazarenes” prior to the publication o f our G ospel we have no means o f knowing (we know who did it— Samuel the Small at the request o f Rabbi Gamaliel, Berakoth 28b— but we do not know the date o f its happening). T hat formulation o f the prayer, however, brought to a head a long process o f opposition to the Christian church, and above all, o f course, to Jewish Christians. It illustrates the attitude which the latter had to endure in areas o f Jewish domination. W ith all this in mind we read with quickened insight the controversies recorded in John 5, 7-9, the decision o f the Sanhedrin to bring about the death o f Jesus (11:45-54), and the warnings o f Jesus in 15:18-16:4. In pointing out this interest in the Jews we m ust not underestimate the importance o f the world o f nations to the evangelist. If the Jewish background o f the gospel is unm is­ takable, the awareness o f the outer world and concern for its peoples to learn o f the only Savior o f the world is equally evident. T h e Prologue relates the revelation o f G od in C hrist to the whole creation and to the whole o f humanity (“[All] that has come into being had its life in him, and the life was the light o f men; . . . T his was the authentic life, which enlightens every man by his coming into the w orld” 1:4, 9). T h e summary o f the gospel in John 3:16, probably a confessional statement well know n among the churches, makes it plain that the gospel is for every man, woman, and child in the world. S o also the death and resurrection o f Jesus has in view the redemption o f all hum ankind, even as that dual event witnessed the exaltation o f Jesus as Lord and Savior o f the world (see especially 12:31, 32). T h e fourth G ospel m akes it abundantly plain that the gospel proclaimed

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by Jesus, and which he is, takes into its scope the whole wide world, and there is no other Savior than he (4:42).

Jesus after the flesh — after the Spirit We have left to the last what is perhaps the m ost im por­ tant element in the interpretation o f Jesus by the evangelist. T h e evangelist’s desire to relate the story o f Jesus to the situation o f the churches in his day led him to an unusual procedure: in his account of the works an d words of Jesus he set the historical ministry of Jesus in Ju dea an d Galilee in indissoluble relation to the ministry of the risen Lord in the world of his day. T he observation has been made by more than one writer that when Luke wrote an account o f the origins o f the Christian church he did it in tw o volumes: volume 1, the story o f Jesus at work with his disciples among the Jews in Palestine; volume 2, the story o f the risen C h rist at work through his disciples among the nations o f the world. By contrast the fourth evangelist wrote one book to cover both concerns, so that Jesus after the flesh and Jesus after the Spirit are presented together in a single perspective. T h is brings with it the corollary that the relations o f Jesu s with his people during his m inistry are continuous with the relations o f the L o rd with his church after Easter. T h e m ission o f Jesus to his people and the m ission o f the risen L o rd to the w orld are one. In both he is the focal point o f both faith and opposition in the w orld, and his disciples are inextricably b oun d u p with Jesu s in his destiny. W ith him they experience the pow ers o f the kingdom o f G o d which he brought, the opposition o f the w orld to the preaching o f his gospel, and also the positive response o f many to that same gospel. T h is last feature happily is know n by the disciples in greater m easure than Jesu s him ­ self knew, in accordance with his ow n statem ent (14:12-14). T h is was the consequence o f his dying and rising for the 13

Interpreting the Gospel of John

w orld’s deliverance (12:31-32), and theirs was to be the privilege o f reaping the harvest he had sow n (12:23-24; cf. 4:37, 38). J. Louis M artyn sought to illustrate what is involved in the presentation o f Jesus in his ministry and Jesus after his resur­ rection by adducing the idea o f a drama played out on a twolevel stage, whereon the tw o sets o f actors simultaneously work out a single plot. C . H . D odd had already observed that the story o f the Samaritan woman in chapter 4 is presented as a play in which one set o f actors (Jesus, the disciples, the woman) is in the foreground and another group (the villagers, and the woman, who goes from one group to the other) stand at the back o f the stage. M artyn saw in the narrative o f the healing o f the blind man in John 9 an ideal test case for his analogy: the first seven verses describe a typical “sign” per­ form ed by Jesus; the rest o f the chapter tells what happens when a blind m an’s eyes are opened to G o d and the world, not alone by Jesus but by a Christian preacher, who did the same kind o f thing in the name o f Jesus. M artyn suggests that the tw o sections are not rigidly divided between past and present; rather, the whole narrative participates in the twolevel drama.4 T h e analogy is not to be pressed, but it is not difficult to see in the experience o f the blind man healed by Jesus, and the man’s encounters with his neighbors, his parents, and the Pharisaic leaders. It is a picture o f what many a Jew whose eyes were opened through the Light o f the W orld (9:5) experi­ enced in the time o f the church. T h e story was doubtless written to enable this parallel to be grasped. T h e English commentator Sir Edwyn H oskyns expressed the same kind o f understanding as M artyn, but without the image o f the twostory stage. Com paring the story o f the healing o f the para­ lytic at Bethesda in chapter 5 with that o f the man b o m blind he wrote:

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By a natural and unconscious symbolism the traditional narratives o f his [Jesus’] miraculous actions were related in such a way as to identify the converts with those who had originally been healed, and the later opponents o f Christianity with the original opponents o f Jesus. T he earlier narratives tended to become more and more clearly symbolical o f the later experiences o f the C h ris­ tians, the original history providing the framework within which reference was made to contemporary his­ tory, and the materials out o f which narratives and dis­ courses could be constructed.5 T h is accords with the passage to which we have already drawn attention, Joh n 14:12, 13: the w orks o f Jesus in his ministry are to be continued by his disciples after his death, and greater things will be done by them, since Jesus will be with the Father. “Jesus with the Father,” however, means not his absence, but his occupying the place o f power and glory, so that w hen the disciples pray in his name he will act. They becom e the agents o f the risen L ord for doing “greater things,” for in the resurrection era and the presence o f the Spirit the spiritual realities signified by the “signs” become available to people. They may, for example, receive bread o f life, not simply bread that perishes (ch 6), and the life o f the eternal king­ dom o f G od , o f which recovery from sickness or even resur­ rection from the grave are but reflections. T h e narratives in which these things are described are like mirrors, in which the readers in Jo h n ’s day can see their own experiences o f the L o rd ’s dealings with them and the consequences o f these events in the society o f their day. W hat we have pointed out with regard to the narratives o f the G ospel applies also to the teaching. T he French writer Xavier Léon-D ufour drew attention to the symbolism o f

15

Interpreting the Gospel of John

Joh n in this connection. H e pointed o u t that the presenta­ tion o f Jesus to the w orld outside Palestine entailed a transi­ tion from the cultural setting in which Jesus lived to that o f the churches in Jo h n ’s time and place. T h is involved changes in the significance o f the sym bolism in the differ­ ent settings. For example, am ong the Jew s bread is symbolic o f heavenly food, and heavenly food is thought o f in term s o f the Law; am ong C hristians (including Jewish-Christians) it becom es linked o n another level with the bread and wine o f the L o rd ’s Supper. These differing levels o f symbolism are both discernible in chapter 6, the former in verses 30-33, the latter in 51-58; yet they are not confined to those verses nor are they to be viewed as belonging exclusively to tw o different eras. O n the contrary, both are linked with the sign o f the feeding o f the multitude and are intertwined in the discourse. For this rea­ son Léon-D ufour urges that as John sought to unite the past and the present o f Jesus we should not contrast the two differ­ ent interpretations but seek a unified one and try to discover the relationship between the present reality o f the Spirit and the times past o f Jesus among his people. T his entails respect­ ing the distinctiveness and the due significance o f each context. T h e teaching o f Jesus recorded by the evangelist has to be related both to the setting o f Jesus am ong the Jews o f his time and to that o f his followers in their time. “I f we end up failing to recognize all this,” said Léon-D ufour, “it is be­ cause we allow ourselves to be dazzled by the light o f Easter.” To do that could result in the obliteration o f the roots o f o ur faith in w hat to ok place once for all through Jesus in the time o f Pontius Pilate in Israel. A ccordingly we m ust take seriously that the evangelist in the G ospel has brought alive the past o f Jesu s by showing its relevance for the present. H e has both projected the past o f Jesus into the

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present and enabled the present to be understood in light o f that past. Reflection on this issue will lead us to recognize that the key to this insight o f the evangelist is the doctrine o f the Holy Spirit. H e it is who teaches the disciples and calls to mind the words and works o f Jesus. H e acts as the agent o f the risen Lord, preserving the memory o f Jesus in the flesh and inter­ preting his words and deeds as he makes them live again in the experience o f his people. T his is not simply a case o f reminding people o f one who lived some time ago, and o f making his words “live” through a vivid repetition o f them. T h e Lord is present among his people, continuing to unfold his revelation through the Spirit. T his is clearly stated in John 16:12-15: I have many things to say to you, but you cannot en­ dure them now; but when he, the Spirit o f truth, comes, he will guide you in the entire truth; he will not speak on his own authority, but he will speak all that he hears, and he will disclose to you the things that are coming. T h e fullness o f truth into which the Spirit guides, ac­ cordingly, is the w ord that Jesus earlier spoke and continues to speak as the risen L o rd in an unbroken process o f in­ struction. T his the evangelist clearly understood. N o w on­ der, then, that he could describe in the same breath what the L ord did and said in the days o f his flesh and what he is doing and saying from the right hand o f G od. H e was acting on the truth o f what a contem porary o f his said: “Jesus C h rist is the same yesterday and today and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8 RSV)! In this witness to C hrist, as F. M ussner pointed out, tw o time horizons merge, that o f Jesus in Palestine and that o f Jesus in glory. T h e incarnate L ord who

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acted and spoke in the pow er o f the Spirit am ong his people speaks from heaven by the same Spirit to the evangelist. S o it com es about that “the evangelist becom es the inspired m outhpiece o f the glorified C hrist; he lends him his tongue, so that the C h rist speaks to the C hristian com m unity in Jo h n ’s very own language.”6 To grasp this feature o f the G ospel should lead the preacher, teacher, and church member who wishes to bear witness to the L ord to do the same, namely to lend his or her tongue to the risen Lord, and by the Spirit’s aid to let him speak that revelation o f his in the language o f today.

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2

THE WORD MADE FLESH

For m odem Western man, who has lost the key to the idiom o f the Word, the Prologue to the fourth G ospel is an enigma. People o f the nearer Orient and those o f the Mediter­ ranean area, who first contemplated this composition, will have been fascinated by it, and would have been lured on to read further about this unheard-of news o f the Word made flesh. U nlike the introductions to the other G ospels, the Pro­ logue to Joh n ’s G ospel is a complete composition. W hile written for the G ospel, it could conceivably be detached from it and serve as a catechetical statement as to who Jesus is. There is no evidence that it ever circulated on its own, but an increasing num ber o f scholars believe that the Prologue was based on a hymn that was in use prior to the writing o f the G ospel. It is noteworthy that the greatest affirmations in the New Testament letters as to the identity o f Jesus and his deeds are expressed in hymns to the praise o f Christ. I speak, o f course, o f notably Philippians 2:6-11, Colossians 1:15-20, 1 Tim othy 3:16, to say nothing o f the many snatches o f hymns in the book o f Revelation. 19

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T he poetic structure within the Prologue is clearest in verses 1-5, 10 -12b, 14, 16, and 18. T he statement about John the Baptist in verses 6 -8 will have been inserted by the evangelist, probably because in his time there were followers o f Joh n who declared that he was the Light that brings salva­ tion. T h e evangelist counters this by affirming that Joh n was sent by G o d to be a witness to the one and only Light o f the world. Verse 9 is uncertain; it would follow on verse 5 well, and closely link verses 1-5 to 10—12b; moreover, its thought o f the W ord as the light that illuminates every man contin­ ues that o f verses 4-5. O n the other hand, the assertion that Joh n the Baptist is not the Light, but was sent to bear witness to the Light, is well followed by the statement that the W ord is the au ­ thentic Light that illuminates all hum ankind. We m ust ac­ knowledge the uncertainty o f the origin o f the sentence. It is clear, however, that verse 16 follows directly on that o f verse 14, that verse 15 is written in the same strain as verses 6-8, and that verse 17 provides comment on verse 16. T he hymn o f the Word o f G o d may therefore have read as follows: In the beginning was the Word, and the W ord was with G od, and the W ord was G od. T his was in the beginning with G od. Everything came into existence through him, and apart from him not a thing came into being. W hat has come into being had its life in him, and the life was the light o f men; and the light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it. (This was the authentic light, which enlightens every person by his coming into the world.) H e was in the world,

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and the world came into existence through him, and the world did not know him. H e came to his own domain and his own people did not accept him. B ut to all who did accept him, he gave authority to become G o d ’s children. A n d the W ord became flesh, and pitched his tent among us, and we gazed on his glory, glory such as belongs to the only Son from the Father, full o f grace and truth. For a share o f his fullness we all received, even grace upon grace. G o d no one has ever seen. T h e only Son, by nature G od, who is ever close to the Father’s heart, he has brought knowledge o f him. If it be asked why the evangelist utilized a hymn to intro­ duce his G ospel the answer must be that it perfectly expressed his theology concerning Jesus. A nd indeed not simply his own, but that o f the churches he served. It has been pointed out that while verses 1-5 and 10-12 are stated in the third person, verses 14 and 16 are in the first person plural— the language o f confession. T he idea has been mooted that verse 14 is a confessional response o f believers to the utterances regarding the Word that have preceded, and that for a very important reason: the declarations concerning the Word in the earlier part o f the poem were common in the ancient world, but Christians alone can affirm verse 14, with its affir­ mation o f the incarnation o f the Word. T his introduction to the gospel has been aptly likened to an overture to an opera. T he function o f an overture is to prepare the hearers for the musical drama that follows and, not infrequently, themes and songs which occur in the opera 21

The Word M ade Flesh

are anticipated in the overture. It is no accident that many motifs within the Prologue occur in the G ospel itself. Am ong such we may mention the preexistence o f the So n o f G od (cf. 1:30; 17:5), his function as the Light o f the world and its life (8:12; 11:25), the gift o f the “only S o n ” in incarnation and in death for the world (3:16), the manifestation o f his glory (2:11; 12:23; 13:31), the unbelief o f the world in face o f it (12:41; 16:8-11), the faith o f those attracted by it (12:31,32; 17:6-19), and m ost striking o f all, the conclusion o f the G ospel with the confession o f Thom as, “My Lord and my G od !” followed by the stated purpose o f the G ospel that readers may come to a like faith in Jesus (20:28, 30, 31). A. Loisy wrote, “T h e theology o f the incarnation is the key o f the entire book, and it dominates it from the first line to the last.” 1 N ot only did Sir Edwyn H oskyns agree with that judgment; he went even further: “T h e figure o f Jesus as the embodiment o f the glory o f the W ord o f G o d controls the whole matter o f the Christian religion."2 “ T he W ord” in an cien t tim es T he opening phrase o f the Prologue points to the fact that affirmations about the W ord o f G o d had been at home in the ancient world for a millennium and more: “In the beginning was the Word . . . .” We recall the first sentence o f the Bible: “In the beginning G od created . . . .” T he association was inevitable for Jews, for they used to name the books o f the Bible by their first word; Genesis, therefore, was known as “In the beginning.” It was as if John wrote, “In that begin­ ning o f which Genesis speaks the Word was already there when G o d created the universe, and it was through him that G o d performed his creative w orks.” T he thought, however, was equally familiar to Israel’s neighbors, including the m ost distinguished o f them, who in turn held sway over the Jews. T he Assyrians and BabyloniJO H N

22

ans in early times com posed hymns about the W ord o f G od, in which the W ord appears as a quasiphysical power o f cos­ mic proportions. It is described as “the exalted powerful W ord . . . unfathomable and incomprehensible, closed up, m ysterious.” W hile the W ord is com pared with a raging storm or a bursting dam, or a net that catches all and from which none can escape, the hymns also speak o f the W ord’s beneficent and life-giving activity in creation. In Egypt the W ord was thought o f as a heavenly divine substance, flow ing out o f the m outh o f (the) god. Ptah was declared to be the creator o f the world, and his instrum ent o f creation was “the m outh which named all things,” i.e., the Word. Significantly in these ancient texts the creative W ord is associated with Wisdom. Thoth, the Egyptian Hermes, is ac­ knowledged to be the W ord and the god o f Wisdom. S o also the Ras Sham ra texts link the word and the wisdom o f El (i.e., God): “T hy Word, O El, is wisdom; wise art thou eternally.” T h at same connection is maintained in a whole series o f texts in the O ld Testament and early Jewish writings in their ac­ counts o f creation and G o d ’s maintenance o f the universe. In Proverbs 8:22-31 it is wisdom which was with G o d “from the beginning, before the world began,” and was pres­ ent as “the craftsman at his side” when creation was formed. T h e B ook o f W isdom 9:1, 2 sets W ord and W isdom in parallelism in the work o f creation: O G o d o f our Fathers . . . who made all things by your W ord and by your W isdom form ed man . . . Yet m ore remarkably, W ord and W isdom became linked with the Law (Torah, as the Jews called it). In the W isdom o f Jesus Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus) a description o f W isdom con­ cludes with the words, “A ll this is the covenant b ook o f the M ost High, the Law which M oses enacted to be the heritage 23

The Word M ade Flesh

o f the assemblies o f Jacob.” T h is identification o f Law with W isdom led to the (to us!) extraordinary notion that the Law was G o d ’s means o f creation. T he expression “in the begin­ ning” in Hebrew is a single word, and it can as well be rendered, “by the beginning.” O ne rabbinic commentator, favoring the latter meaning, drew the conclusion: “T he be­ ginning is nothing other than the Torah,” citing as evidence Proverbs 8:22. H ence G enesis 1:1 means that the Law was G o d ’s instrument in the creation o f all things. So, in Judaism Word, W isdom, and Law became interchangeable terms. From the ancient nearer O rient the concept o f the Word passed into the learning o f Greece and Rom e. Augustine, in a fam ous passage o f his Confessions, related how he pro­ cured “certain books o f the Platonists” and read in them m ost o f what is stated o f the W ord in the Prologue. But there were others besides the “Platonists” who so wrote o f the W ord (the Logos). Heraclitus in the sixth century B.C. described the W ord as “the omnipresent wisdom by which all things are guided”; he identified it with the word o f G od received by the prophets and regarded the W ord as virtually an equivalent for G od. T h e Stoics regarded the W ord as the com m on law o f nature, the soul o f the universe, maintaining its unity. Philo, the Jew o f Alexandria, a contemporary o f Jesus who sought to mediate the Jewish faith to the literary world o f his day, wrote m uch about the Word. H e spoke o f the W ord as the agent o f creation and the medium o f G o d ’s government o f the world. It is the M ediator, the H igh Priest through whom the world comes to G od, and even the A d ­ vocate (Paraclete) for the forgiveness o f sins. H e stated that for the mass o f people G od is unknowable, bu t the ordinary folk can know him in and through the Word. T h e W ord is the perfect M an, the M an o f G enesis 1, made in the image o f G od, as distinct from the m an o f G enesis 2, made o f the dust o f the earth. H e is the Father’s “eldest S o n ,” his “Firstborn.” There is no ground for believing that Philo’s writings were

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know n at first hand to the fourth evangelist; the two writers rather reflect the com m on thinking that was in circulation in their day. T he same has to be said o f the similarities between Joh n ’s writing and the works o f the Gnostics. In the dualistic thought o f this widespread movement the W ord was the M e­ diator between G od and the world. Through him the tran­ scendent G o d was able to create this lower material world, and because o f him m en and women may understand that they belong to G od and his world. S o the G nostics viewed the Word as the Redeem er who came in hum an form into the lower world to lead hum ankind back into the higher world o f G od. They called him the “second G o d ,” the So n o f G od, the Only Son, the Image o f G od, the Man.

Christ— the Word T h is b rief review suffices to show that the W ord o f G o d was an ancient and international concept, with connota­ tions buried deep in the cultures o f the Eastern and W est­ ern world. T here was, however, one factor in the use o f this term that decisively m odified its meaning for Christians: they commonly used it to denote the gospel o f C hrist, that is, the W ord o f G o d spoken through C h rist and about Christ. O nce it was grasped that the W ord o f G o d for the world is C hrist, the incarnate, crucified, and exalted Lord, the em ployment o f the term “the W ord” as an inclusive, descriptive title was inevitable; and in turn that invested the term with a unique meaning, and made possible a bridge to the religions and philosophies o f the ancient world. T. Bom an suggested that the effect produced by the use o f “the W ord” in the Prologue should be com pared with the ringing o f many bells in people’s hearing (see his exposition, Hebrew Thought Compared with Greek, 58-69).3 Certainly n o state­ m ent in the Prologue w ould have roused the interest o f 25

The Word M ade Flesh

pagan readers m ore than the astonishing assertion, “A n d the W ord became flesh. ” T his leads to an interesting question: in light o f the m ove­ ment o f the Prologue from the activity o f the W ord in C re ­ ation to the announcem ent o f the W ord made flesh, at what point in the passage do we begin to read o f the w ork o f the earthly Christ? T here is difference o f opinion about this. Som e see Jesus in his ministry as early as verses 4 and 5; others p u t the transition at verse 9; in either case the confes­ sional statement o f verse 14 summarizes the revelation o f the W ord in the historical Jesus just described, as though the evangelist meant “an d so the W ord became flesh . . . A n important question immediately arises. T h e Christian, indeed, can hardly avoid seeing in verses 10-12 a reference to the rejection o f Jesus by the majority o f his own people and the acceptance o f the gospel in the wider world, and similarly in verse 13 the ministry o f the Spirit after Pentecost. Never­ theless, there can be no doubt that the entire description o f verses 1-13 w ould have made perfect sense to non-Christian people o f all nationalities who knew about the Word. They acknowledged the W ord as G o d ’s means o f creation, as the source o f life, and the light o f all humankind, not least in view o f the relation o f Word and Wisdom. Such people were aware o f the darkness o f this world, the ignorance among many o f the W ord and its Wisdom, and even hostility to and rejection o f the Light. There is a persistent strain in the ancient poetry o f W isdom that depicts her as descending from heaven to find a place o f welcome on earth, but unable to find any. Enoch 42:2 is a late example o f this: W isdom went forth to make her dwelling am ong the children o f men, and found no dwelling place; W isdom returned to her place, and took her seat among the angels.

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W hereas Jews typically maintained that they, and they alone, made a hom e for W isdom, i.e., in the Law given them by G o d (Ben Sira 24:6-8), the evangelist implies that people o f other nations made a place for the W ord in their lives, to w hom also G o d graciously ministered. In this he was not alone am ong members o f his race who pondered the issue. In the book entitled T h e W isdom o f Solom on, chapter 7, there is an unusual description o f W isdom, clearly akin to G reek thinking, wherein the following occurs: She is the brightness that streams from everlasting light, the flawless m irror o f the active power o f G o d and the image o f his goodness. She is but one, yet can do everything; herself unchanging, she m akes all things new; age after age she enters into holy souls, and makes them G o d ’s friends and prophets, for nothing is ac­ ceptable to G o d but the m an w ho m akes his hom e with wisdom . . . . She spans the world in power from end to end, and orders all things benignly (7:26-8:1). T his activity o f W isdom assuredly is not confined within Is­ rael’s borders! S o also the Prologue is consciously worded with a view to taking into account the universal ministry o f the W ord in the world, who is not alone the source o f all life but also the source o f the world’s “light” (it is “the authentic light that enlightens every person,” v 9). T his life and light has been operative among hum ankind from the dawn o f time, with varied responses from people (w 10-12), until at length the ministry o f the W ord came to its climax in a ministry in the flesh. Since the W ord is always the same in character, it is assumed that his service in the flesh was conducted in the same manner as that in the ages prior to his incarnation. However, in the earthly ministry the grace and truth o f the W ord was unambiguously revealed so that what was partially know n came to be luminously plain. 27

The Word M ade Flesh

C . H. D odd accordingly suggested that the whole passage from verse 4 is at once “an account o f the relations o f the Logos (the Word) with the world, and an account o f the min­ istry o f Jesus Christ, which in every essential particular repro­ duces those relations.”4 T his is especially clear with regard to verses 4-13, with which we were concerned; the description o f the activity o f the W ord in that passage holds good both o f the preincam ate and the incarnate Word, even if the language is more especially suitable to the latter. From this understand­ ing o f the Prologue D odd advanced to a further conclusion regarding the relation o f the Prologue to the whole Gospel. H e stated: We might put it thus: the Prologue is an account o f the life o f Jesus under the form o f a description o f the eter­ nal Logos (Word) in its relations with the world and with man, and the rest o f the gospel an account o f the Logos (Word) under the form o f a record o f the life o f Jesus. A nd the proposition ‘the W ord became flesh ’ binds the two together.5 T h at is profound insight into the nature o f the G ospel and its presentation o f Jesus, and I believe it to be a right inter­ pretation.

Christ — the Mediator It is evident that the dom inant concept o f the W ord in the Prologue is that o f M ediator: he is M ediator in creation (w l- 4 a , 10), in revelation (w 4b, 5, 18), and in salva­ tion (w 12, 13, 16). T h e opening statem ent m akes plain the ground o n which the W ord can fulfill such a role by defining his relation to G od . T h e evangelist has very care­ fully chosen his w ords, and we m ust as carefully consider them.

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T h e W ord was “in the beginning.” N ote the difference between “was” in this clause and “came to b e ” in verse 3, used in relation to the creation o f the world. T he latter statement declares that all things “came into existence” through him, whereas the force o f verse 1 is that “in the beginning he was there, with G o d ,” o r even, as some render it, “he always was with G o d .” T h e intent o f the opening statement is to make clear the existence o f the W ord before all time. Bultm ann rightly observed, “T h e beginning is not the first member o f a tem poral succession, but lies before all time and therefore before all w orlds.”6 In that unimaginable eternity before all time the W ord was “with G o d .” T h at is, he was “in the fellowship o f G o d ” (cf. 17:5, and 1 Joh n 1:2, 3). T h e expression conveys the thought o f the ineffable union o f the W ord with G od, which later in the G ospel is spoken o f in term s o f m utual indwelling o f the Father and the So n (cf. 14:10). T he final clause o f this opening sentence runs, “and the Word was G o d .” H e was “with G o d ” and “was G o d ”— at once distinction and identification! But is identification really meant? It is well known that whereas in the preceding clause the evangelist writes, “the W ord was with G o d ” (Greek ho theos, with the defining definite article), in this succeeding clause he writes, “and the W ord was theos, ” without the defi­ nite article. A difference o f expression is being made, but with what intent? Not, assuredly, in order to say, “the W ord was a god, ” as the Jehovah’s W itnesses maintain, citing cer­ tain Christian scholars in support (including J. Becker, au­ thor o f the m ost recent G erm an commentary on the G ospel at the time o f writing this work). Becker, o f course, is aware that the evangelist is using an earlier hymn to the Word, and he proceeds on the assumption that the language is originally that o f a pre-Christian author. We have already seen that the hymn expresses an under­ standing o f the W ord widespread in the ancient world. N o

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doubt religious devotees o f ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylo­ nia, and m ore recent Greece and R om e could have con­ fessed their faith in the W ord as “a god,” but not Christian believers in the one G o d o f the Bible, least o f all the evange­ list who wrote this sentence. H e is showing how this ancient faith in the W ord o f G o d comes to its true fulfillment in the So n o f G od, incarnate in Jesus. It is admittedly conceivable that the evangelist wished to say that Jesus was divine, using theos as a kind o f adjective. B ut there is an adjective in G reek that m eans precisely that, theios, which occurs twice in 2 Peter 1— o f the “divine pow er” (v 3) and o f the “divine nature” (v 4). If that is what was in the evangelist’s m ind he could have said so plainly. In reality what was in his mind is likely to have been in that direction, but more emphatic: “T he W ord was theos” means “the W ord was God in his nature. ” T hat is in harmony with the thought o f the W ord as M ediator o f creation, o f revela­ tion, and o f salvation, who before all time was in the fellow­ ship o f G od, and therefore one with G od. It is noteworthy that in the confession made by T hom as to Jesus (20:28) there is no limitation in expressing the unity o f Jesus with G o d as he cries, “M y Lord and my G od!” (in G reek ho kurios mou kai ho theos mou). T h is understanding o f John 1:1c is well con­ veyed by the NEB: “what G od was, the W ord was.” A fter the reaffirmation o f the truth o f verse 1 in verse 2, the function o f the W ord in the world as the life and the light o f all hum anity is declared. In view o f the dual relation o f verses 4-13 to the W ord before and after his incarnation in Jesus, we are to understand the bestowal o f life and light in verses 4 and 5 as including the life and light which come to man in both creation and new creation (viewing new birth in 3:3-8 as participating by the Spirit in the new creation). T h e same dual application holds good o f verses 9-13, al­ though verses 12c and 13 are peculiarly expressive o f the Christian experience o f regeneration by the Spirit.

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A ll the affirmations o f the Prologue from its beginning to verse 13 move to the climactic utterance in verse 14: “T h e W ord became flesh .” To all w ho shared the traditions o f the ancient O riental world about the W ord the statem ent is all b u t incredible. If it had said that the W ord descended from heaven to live within a hum an body for a while, that w ould have still been surprising, but at least it w ould have been com prehensible— stories o f the gods visiting the world in hum an likeness were n o t uncom m on (cf. A cts 14:11!). A n d for any w ho looked on this sphere as a lower world, unw or­ thy o f the divine, G o d and flesh are antitheses that can never be united. B u t that is precisely what is here affirmed: T h e unbridgeable gulf was crossed, and the W ord became flesh! T h e assertion banishes any shade o f D ocetism from authentic Christian faith. T h e W ord o f G o d became a real man, not a seeming one! A n d so the W ord “pitched his tent” among us (Greek eskenosen, form ing the noun skene, a tent). T h e old English term “tabernacled” points to what is in mind, namely the presence o f G o d with his people in the wilderness wander­ ings o f the Exodus. T h e pillar o f cloud by day and o f fire by night, which guided the Jews from Egypt to the prom ised land (Exod 13:21, 22), was a sign o f the presence o f G o d with his people; it rested on the “tent o f meeting” (Exod 33:7-11), and at the consecration o f the tabernacle it filled it with its glory (Exod 40:34-38). T h e Jews noticed that the G reek term for tent, skene, had the same consonants as the Hebrew sekina, the presence o f G o d which often manifested itself am ong m en in a show o f glory. It was actually said by one Jewish teacher that the consecration o f the tabernacle was the first day o f the Shekinah’s existence in the universe— a pardonable exag­ geration which nevertheless indicates the special connection between the glorious presence o f G o d in the m idst o f his people and the tabernacle during the wilderness wanderings. 31

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Accordingly the statement in verse 14, “he pitched his tent among us and we gazed on his glory,” is deeply evocative. O n the one hand it recalls the revelation o f G o d ’s presence with his people in the Exodus, and on the other it points to the fulfillment o f the Jewish hope o f a second Exodus, when G o d would deliver his people through the “second R e ­ deemer” (M oses being the first) for the salvation o f the king­ dom o f G o d (cf. Jer 31:31-33; Ezek 20:33-44; H os 2:14-23). W hen the Word “pitched his tent” and revealed his glory, the process o f redemption began. T he glory became visible in his total activity— in the “signs” o f his ministry (cf. 2:11), in his “lifting u p ” on the cross (12:23; cf. 19:35,36), and in the Easter resurrection (20:24-29). It was a glory such as could be revealed solely in “the only Son from the Father,” i.e., in G od’s only Son. T he term translated “only” (monogenes) means literally “the only one (monos) o f its kind (genos).” In the G reek Bible, it often is used to render the Hebrew w ord yahid, used o f an “only” or “beloved” child; b u t yahid is also trans­ lated by the term agapetos, “beloved.” A clear example o f the meaning o f the w ord is seen in Judg 11:34: Jephthah’s daugh­ ter is said to be “his only child (yahid); beside her he had neither son nor daughter.” T h e G reek Bible translates yahid in that passage in a tw ofold manner, monogenes . . . agapetos, i.e., “his only and beloved child.” In G en 22, where Isaac is three times stated to be A braham ’s yahid (w 2, 12, 16) the G reek Bible uses agapetos, “beloved” child; interestingly, H eb 11:17 w hen citing this story, uses monogenes, “only,” with reference to Isaac! It is evident that in our G ospel monogenes, which is used solely o f Jesus, has the simple meaning o f G o d ’s only Son. T he additional term “begotten,” which som e still wish to use, is not contained in the word itself. If, as som e think,

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there is in verse 14 any reminiscence o f the term in 1:13, “begotten o f G o d ” (a quite different word) the parallel would be to the begetting o f Jesus as a man, without hum an father, not to the generation o f the So n from the Father. But verse 14 is likely to have been form ed as an independent confes­ sional statement, and therefore is to be understood without reference to verse 13. T h e glory o f the W ord-become-flesh was “full o f grace and truth”— the latter is a pregnant and significant phrase, for it represents a frequent expression in the O ld Testament to describe the covenant mercies o f G od. A good example occurs in the revelation o f the glory o f G od to M oses, when the name o f G o d is proclaimed, con­ cluding with the description “abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (RSV). Surprisingly, perhaps, the term “grace” occurs only in this paragraph in the fourth G ospel (w 14-17), but the emphatic nature o f these statements shows their im­ portance to the evangelist. H e is here confessing, with the whole church o f G od, the nature o f the glory o f G od mani­ fest in Jesus the incarnate Word: It is full o f the steadfast love that pours itself out on the needy and undeserving. T he point is underlined in verse 16: from him we have received “grace upon grace,” i.e., inexhaustible grace, replacing grace received by fresh grace bestowed, a d infinitum! “Truth,” in the context o f the covenant faithfulness o f G o d in the O ld Testament, represents firmness and stability, therefore steadfastness and trustworthiness regarding the promises o f G od. Such com­ mitment o f G o d to his covenant love reaches its perfect ex­ pression in the “tabernacling” o f his only So n among men in order to bring to pass the reiterated promise o f salvation. W hen the W ord became flesh the kingdom o f grace and glory among mankind was assured. “We gazed on his glory . . . full o f grace and truth” is the testimony o f those who saw it in action in the world.

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The only Son T he final statement o f the Prologue echoes its opening utterance. U nfortunately we cannot be sure o f the original wording o f the second clause. Either we are to read “the only So n (by nature) G o d ” (monogenes theos) or “the only So n o f G o d ” (monogenes huios); the earliest m anuscripts o f the G ospel support the former, many others the latter reading. M ost textual critics accept the former reading on the ground o f the superior authority o f manuscripts and its greater diffi­ culty. In addition, this reading makes the link with the first sentence o f the Prologue more evident. T h e last clause o f verse 1, “the W ord was G o d ,” we interpreted as “the W ord was God in his nature ”; that is almost verbally the same as our rendering o f verse 18b, “the only Son, by nature God. ” T h e only So n is said to be “ever close to the Father’s heart” (literally “in the bosom o f the Father”); that is a more pic­ turesque and emphatic way o f saying, “the W ord was with God, ” which we interpreted as “in the fellowship o f G o d .” T h e fundamental thought o f verse 18, accordingly, is the same as that o f verse 1, bu t it has a particular nuance, in that it is concerned with the revelation brought by the Word. A contrast is being made with claims to revelations o f G od made by other religious leaders. “N obody has ever seen G o d ” includes all visionaries o f all religions, including those o f Israel. Manifestly it does not affirm that n o one has ever caught a glimpse o f G od, not when the writer is a Jew who know s his O ld Testament! Curiously, however, it is almost certain that the m an whom the Jews regarded as the closest to G o d in all time is consciously included in the affirmation, namely M oses. T h e evangelist has already referred to him in the previous sentence; as he pens verse 18 from an earlier com position he could not help thinking about M oses. Exod 33:18ff. tells how M oses asked to see the glory o f G od. T his was denied him, since “m an shall n ot see G o d and live.” B u t

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he was put in a cleft o f the rock as the L ord passed by, the hand o f G o d covering his face, and M oses was allowed to see G o d ’s back. That, and no more! A n d from that partial vision o f G o d proceeded the Law, in the eyes o f the Jew the m ost sacred part o f the revelation o f G o d in the O ld Testament. By contrast, the only Son, by nature G od, is “close to the Father’s heart.” T he primary reference is to his fellowship with the Father in his incarnate life; but it includes the relation to the Father o f the preincam ate existence o f the Word, and also that which he continues to know in his post-Easter existence (17:5). Accordingly the “exposition” o f G o d that he has given in the flesh, and ratified in the resur­ rection, is superior to all declarations o f G o d in time and is to be viewed as a “final” revelation. We observed earlier that the theology o f the Prologue is the key to the entire G ospel. T h at was primarily intended with regard to the presentation and interpretation o f Jesus in the G ospel. It is noteworthy that in the crucial statement as to the Incarnation o f the W ord, the glory revealed in him is de­ scribed as “such as belongs to the only Son from the Father. ” T h e glory o f the W ord was the glory o f the only Son. S o also the conclusion o f the Prologue affirms that the ultimate revelation o f the Father has been given through “the only Son, by nature G o d .” T he Son, like the W ord, discloses G o d because he is one with G od. T h at theme runs through the G ospel to its conclusion. T h e conclusion rams it hom e (20:24-31)! W hereas, however, the W ord as a title does not appear after the Prologue, “the S o n ” (or “S o n o f G o d ”) is the m ost characteristic term for Jesus in the G ospel. O ne o f the interesting features o f recent biblical studies is awareness o f the importance o f the concept “S o n o f G o d ” within Israel. M ost commonly it was applied to the nation in its relation to G o d as his adopted son (in E xod 4:2 2 ,2 3 Israel is referred to as G o d ’s firstborn son, in contrast to Pharaoh’s

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firstborn). In 2 Sam 7:14 it is made know n to David that his descendants will be as G o d ’s son. T he thought is developed in Ps 2:7 and 89:26, 27; the king on the day o f his coronation becom es G o d ’s adopted son. Naturally this led to the thought o f the M essiah as son o f G o d in virtue o f his repre­ sentative capacity, and his function as G o d ’s king, an idea developed by the Q um ran sectaries. We see this reflected in the high priest’s question to Jesus at his trial: “A re you the M essiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” T h at is a typical Jewish m ode o f expression, with its avoidance o f the name o f G od and the title So n o f G o d as designating the Messiah. It is important to observe that this level o f meaning given to “So n o f G o d ” appears in the account o f the disciples’ earliest reactions to Jesus in the fourth Gospel. They are introduced within the circle o f John the Baptist’s followers. They hear John’s testimony to Jesus, “Look, there is the Lam b of God! ” (That title is an apocalyptic designation for the Messiah, which we shall consider later in our reflections on the death o f Jesus.) It prompts Andrew and another disciple to spend a night with Jesus; on return he tells his brother, “We have found the Messiah! ” Nathanael, on being brought to Jesus by Philip, is overcome by the knowledge Jesus displays o f him and he cries, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel! ” In this setting these titles ascribed to Jesus are syn­ onymous. T he G ospel will show the development o f the disci­ ples’ comprehension o f Jesus and the deeper significance that these terms receive through their application to Jesus. A stage in that development o f understanding is recorded in the evangelist’s account o f the aftermath o f the feeding o f the multitude, Joh n 6. T h e excitement generated by that event led a crowd to try to com pel Jesus to becom e king (6:14, 15); their enthusiasm melted away on hearing Jesus expound his m ission in term s o f giving bread o f life to the world, and many o f his adherents left him on that day (6:6066). W hen Jesus asked the Twelve if they, too, wished to go

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o ff Peter replied, “Lord, to whom are we to go? You have words o f eternal life. A n d we have come to believe and to know that you are the H oly O ne o f G o d ” (6:68, 69). T here is no alternative to Jesus! T he apostle’s answer reveals that the early enthusiastic expressions o f faith have given place to more mature belief and a deeper knowledge o f Jesus. They have come to see in Jesus “the H oly O ne o f G o d .” In this context the expression is likely to be a synonym for Messiah. There is a closely parallel statement o f Jesus himself in 10:36, where he makes reference to his being “consecrated and sent into the world,” i.e., to bring to hum ankind the saving sovereignty o f G od. B ut the expression inevitably re­ calls the common name for G od in the O ld Testament, “the Holy O ne o f Israel.” T he implication o f the title is that Jesus shares the holiness and therefore the nature o f him whom Israel confesses as the Holy O ne. T h at com ports with the word o f Jesus already cited, that the Father has consecrated and sent him into the world for his service. There is accord­ ingly ground for Bultm ann’s comment on Peter’s confession o f Jesus: “H e stands over against the world simply as the O ne who comes from that other world and belongs to G o d .”7 T his brings us back to the connection between the So n and the W ord in the Prologue. There we see the “only S o n ” (monogenes) as one with the Father in the eternal ages, sent by the Father to reveal him (v 18) and to redeem m an­ kind (v 14). T hese concepts appear again and again in the body o f the G ospel. In the fam ous text, Joh n 3:16: “G od so loved the world that he gave his only Son . . . ” the giving o f the So n includes giving for incarnation and giving in death for the life o f the world. T h e immediately following sentence (3:17) comprehends both ideas in the simple word “sent”: “For G o d did not send the So n into the world in order to condem n the world, but that the world might be saved through him .” Joh n 3:18 contemplates the effects o f the m ission o f the So n in salvation and condemnation, 37

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according to the response o f people; and in 3:19 these issues are expressed in language used o f the W ord o f G o d in the Prologue (1:5, 9-12). T he paragraph 3:31-36 gives another meditation on the sending o f the So n in similar vein as 3:16-21, only the accent in this passage falls on the task o f the S o n to reveal G od. T his is seen especially in verses 31-34. O n the one hand the So n bears testimony to what he has seen and heard (v 32), which includes seeing and hearing in his preincam ate state and in his continuing ministry among his people; on the other hand the Father has given to the So n the Spirit “without measure.” Rabbi A ha stated: T he H oly Spirit who rests on the prophets rests on them only by measure [i.e., in a limited fashion,] (Lev. Rab. 15, 2). To the immeasurable gift o f the Spirit to the So n o f G od corresponds the perfection o f the revelation through him. T h e paragraph ends with the assertion that the Father has placed “all things” in the hands o f the Son, hence the ulti­ mate issues o f salvation and judgment are bound up with faith in him or rejection o f him. T h e theme is further developed in 5:20-29. Just as there is a link between the So n and the W ord o f G od in the G ospel, so there is an even closer link between the So n (of God) and the Son o f Man. T he depiction in Daniel 7 o f one like a son o f man, coming with the clouds o f heaven to receive the kingdom o f G od and rule over it, is determinative for the use o f the title in the synoptic Gospels; in the earthly ministry o f Jesus as the Son o f Man, in his dying and rising and in his coming in glory, he is the instrument o f the king­ dom o f God. Something similar appears in the fourth Gospel. T he first statement concerning the So n o f M an in this G ospel provides a comprehensive preview o f his mediatorial

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work. “You will see heaven standing open, and the angels o f G od going up and coming down to the So n o f M an” (v 51). There is here a reminiscence o f Jacob’s dream, wherein an­ gels ascend and descend on a ladder between heaven and earth. T h e implication is clear: Jesus is the point o f contact between heaven and earth; this the disciples will see through his whole ministry— in the signs he perform s, the w ord he utters, the life that he lives, the death and resurrection that he accomplishes, till the goal o f his labors is attained when he welcomes the redeemed to the Father’s house (14:3). T his affirmation is a summary o f the service o f the So n o f M an for the achievement o f G o d ’s saving purpose for hum ankind. B ut we have just seen that the salvation o f hum ankind is the intention o f the sending o f the S o n o f G od! T his points to an interpenetration o f the w orks o f the S o n o f G o d and the So n o f M an in the fourth G ospel, o f which there are num erous examples. T h e classic statement o f the purpose o f the “giving” o f the only S o n o f G o d in 3:16 is immediately preceded by the first o f the three “lifting u p ” sayings o f the G ospel, viz. 3:14,15: A s M oses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the So n o f M an must be lifted up, in order that everyone who believes may have in him eternal life” (cf. also 8:28; 12:31-32). It is the task o f the Son o f M an to mediate the kingdom o f G o d to the world. In the discourse o f 5:19-29, however, this task is deliv­ ered to the Son by the Father: “T he Father loves the Son, and shows him everything that he him self does” (v 20). So he gives to the So n the power to raise the dead and to exercise judgment. Later on, however, it is affirmed, “H e gave him authority to pass judgment, because he is Son of M a n ” (v 27)! A clearer example o f the identity o f functions o f Jesus as So n 39

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o f G o d and So n o f M an could not be contrived. In reality the works o f the So n o f G od who is Son o f M an are ulti­ mately the w orks o f G o d through him. Accordingly his unity with the Father is emphasized: in term s o f the So n in 10:30 (“I and the Father are O n e,” cf. 10:29), and in term s o f the So n o f M an in 8:28 (“W hen you lift up the So n o f Man, then you will know th a t‘I a m ’ . . . ”).

The “ I am” sayings T h is last utterance naturally leads to a brief consider­ ation o f what are com m only know n as the “I am ” sayings o f Jesus in the fourth G ospel. T h e seven sayings in which Jesus speaks o f him self in various figurative ways, intro­ duced by “I am ,” are am ong the best know n passages o f the G ospel. T hey cry o u t to be preached on! T hey are, in order o f appearance, “I am the bread o f life” (6:35; cf. 41, 48, 51); “I am the Light o f the w orld” (8:12, cf. 9:5); “I am the D oor (or G ate o f the sheep)” (10:7,9); “I am the G o o d Sh eph erd ” (10:11, 14); “I am the resurrection and the life” (11:25); “I am the Way, the Truth, and the life” (14:6); “I am the V in e” (15:1, 5). T h ese affirm ations set forth what Jesus is for the world, though in practice it is believers w ho understand these realities as they experience them. T h e various images describe differing aspects o f his saving w ork, m ore explicitly the life o f the divine sovereignty (the kingdom o f G od) which Jesus brings to the world. Since Jesus possesses the life-giving power o f the Father (5:21) R aym ond Brow n is right in observing, “Jesus is these things to m en because he and the Father are O n e .”8 T here is another group o f sayings in which “I am ” is used absolutely. C ertain o f these serve to identify Jesus, as in 6:20, w hen Jesus com es to his disciples o n the water and says to them , “I am (he), d on ’t be afraid.” A lm ost certainly

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we are intended in this passage to recall the com ing o f G o d to the Israelites in their peril at the R e d Sea (see Psalm 77:14-20). Similarly, w hen Jesus declared to the soldiers w ho came to arrest him in the garden, “I am (he),” his simple self-identification created an elem ent o f divine dread, inasm uch as at least certain o f the soldiers fell to the ground in confusion (18:5, 6). T h e other instances o f the absolute use o f the expression “I am” are yet m ore striking (8:20, 24, 58; 13:19); they recall the unique name o f G o d m ade know n to M oses in the vision at the burning bu sh (Exod 3:14) and certain affirm ations o f G o d in the central chapters o f the book o f Isaiah, notably in 43:10-13, 25; 45:5, 6, 18, 21, 22. T h e first o f these passages is especially instructive: “You are my w itnesses,” says the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior. I declared and saved and proclaimed when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses,” says the Lord. “I am G od, and also henceforth I am He; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I w o rk a n d w h o c a n h in d e r m e?” (RSV) In the first sentence o f this citation the phrase “I am H e” has in Hebrew no verb; literally, it is simply “I . . . H e ” (the Hebrew m ind supplies the verb “am”). In the G reek transla­ tion o f the O ld Testament this is rendered simply “I am ” (ego

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eimi), and that is what our evangelist consistently writes. B u t in Isa 43:10 “I (am) H e ” is an abbreviation o f “I, I am H e, the L o rd ” o f the following verse 11. T here is indeed evidence that among the Jews “I (am) H e ” can appear as a substitute for “I am the Lo rd .” Later in the same chapter, v 25, the language is again noteworthy: “I, I am H e who blots out your transgressions”; in the G reek translation that appears, “I am ‘I A M ,’ who blots out your transgressions.” T h e second “I am ” is viewed as a reminiscence o f the name o f G o d revealed at the Exodus and so understood as a title. T hese associations o f the expression “I am ” were current in the first century o f our era, and were developed even further by the rabbis (on these developments see the inter­ esting discussion in C . H . D od d ’s The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, pp 93-96). T heir appropriation by and for Jesus suggests not so m uch a direct self-identification o f Je­ sus with G o d as a union with G od, by virtue o f which G o d speaks and acts through Jesus as his representative and medi­ ator o f salvation and judgment. We add one final reflection on Jesus in the G ospel o f John: time and again it is made clear by the evangelist that the relation o f Jesus to G o d becom es the great issue before which people divide (e.g., 7:43; 9:16; 10:19, and cf. 3:18-21; 12:31, 32). Perhaps we should not be surprised that this is m ost evident in the passage wherein Jesus uses the absolute “I am” m ost frequently and m ost challengingly (8:20, 24,58). W hereas there were those who were drawn to faith in Jesus then (v 30), the implicit claims in the expression evoked the m ost violent hostility possible (v 59). T h e tw ofold perspec­ tive o f the G ospel reminds us that precisely the same re­ actions occurred in the period when the G ospel was written; the decision for or against Jesus as the So n o f G o d — So n o f M an— W ord o f G o d became the ultimate cause o f the sepa­ ration o f the church and synagogue. It remains so to this day, but extends beyond the Jewish people to the religions and

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ideologies o f this world. Jesus is the touchstone o f the reve­ lation o f G o d and his redem ption o f hum ankind. Before this issue all m en and women are called to the bar o f decision. It is not solved simply by verbal agreement or disagreement with Jesus but by willingness to be committed to the G o d revealed in him. It is the task o f the church so to make him know n that the truth o f the revelation and the power o f the redem ption become lum inously clear— not a stumblingblock, but the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

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3

THE SIGNS OF JESUS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE

It is well know n that seven “signs” o f Jesus are recounted in the G ospel o f Joh n — quite certainly a num ber deliber­ ately chosen, seven being associated by the Jews with perfec­ tion. In the synoptic G ospels the evangelists do not describe the miracles o f Jesus as “signs”; they use rather the ordinary G reek term for miracle, namely dynamis (cf. dynamic, dyna­ mite). T h at term normally means “power,” but it can also have a concrete sense, a “powerful deed.” Conversely the term dynamis does not occur in any sense in the G ospel and Letters o f John. T h e term “sign” has a long history among the Jewish people. In the O ld Testament it is frequently used o f events, both natural and supernatural, that authenticate the m in­ istry and the message o f a prophet. T h e signs announced by Sam uel to Saul confirming the genuineness o f his message from G o d that Saul is to be king, is an interesting example o f natural events serving as signs (1 Sam 10:1-9); the super­ natural actions that M oses is told to perform before the Jewish elders illustrate the latter kind o f signs (Exod 4:1-8,

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29-31). T h e judgm ents o f the L ord on Egypt, perform ed at the word o f M oses, are regularly referred to as “signs and w onders” (Exod 7:13 by anticipation, D eut 6:22 retrospec­ tively). In Jer 32:20 the whole series o f Exodus events, from the departure from Egypt to the entry into the prom ised land, are spoken o f as signs and wonders, and these are said to be continued by G o d throughout the earth “to this day.” Psalm 136 brackets those same events with the wonders o f G o d ’s actions in creation. A n im portant application o f “signs and wonders” is the expectation o f their taking place to herald the future, espe­ cially the final future o f the kingdom o f G od. A n early ex­ ample o f this is seen in Isa 7:10-16, but it becom es highly developed in later apocalyptic writings. T h e G ospels are at one in the application o f this teaching to Jesus: nothing less than signs o f the kingdom o f G o d are at w ork in this world in and through Jesus. T his understand­ ing o f the signs is clearly set forth in M att 11:5, 6, 12, 13; 12:28: 13:16, 17; M ark 3:27; Luke 4:16-21; 17:20, 21. T h e fourth evangelist both clarifies and emphasizes this interpre­ tation. H e sees the miracles as parables o f the kingdom that comes through the w ork o f the So n o f G od. T h e signs o f Jesus are powerful manifestations o f the kingdom in the earthly ministry o f Jesus, but they are also anticipations o f the “greater things” (14:12) o f the kingdom that comes yet more decisively in his own greater w orks— in his death and resurrection, the sending o f the H oly Spirit, and the final coming o f the L ord for last judgm ent and resurrection. A s in the O ld Testament the com ing o f G o d for his kingdom results in the gathering o f the G entiles to see his glory, (Isa 66:19), so the signs o f Jesus are revelations o f his glory. T he kingdom that comes through the S o n is the kingdom o f G o d in C hrist. O f this the signs o f Jesus are revelations. T he manner in which the signs o f Jesus are presented by our evangelist is o f particular interest. They dominate

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the story o f the public ministry o f Jesus, so much so that C . H. D odd called chapters 2-12 o f the G ospel “T h e Book o f Signs.” T h e general procedure o f the evangelist is to relate a sign, or tw o signs, and to follow on with teaching that ex­ plains the significance o f the sign(s). O n one occasion a mirac­ ulous sign is combined with a nonmiraculous event, each contributing to an exposition o f the gospel o f considerable length (see chapter 2, which describes the miracle o f the Wa­ ter into W ine and the Cleansing o f the Temple; the form er prepares for the Nicodemus discourse in chapter 3, the latter for the exposition o f the new order o f worship in chapter 4). There is even one instance o f tw o nonm iraculous signs being followed by an explanatory discourse, exactly as the miraculous signs are followed by like instruction (ch 12, the anointing o f Jesus by M ary and the Entry into Jerusalem, seen as signs o f the burial o f Jesus and his exaltation). It was D od d ’s merit to have perceived that in each episode o f signs plus discourse the gospel in its wholeness is presented, the good news o f C h rist manifest, crucified, risen, exalted, and bestowing life.1 It seems evident that the evangelist him self will have used these episodes time and again in his own proclam ation and teaching o f the gospel. H is procedure is an invitation to m odem witnesses to C h rist to use them in precisely the same way. It is now our task to review briefly the accounts o f the signs o f Jesus in the G ospel and consider the lessons that we are intended to learn from them.

The water into wine T h e first miraculous sign, that o f the Water into W ine, is bound up with a highly im portant nonm iraculous action o f Jesus, namely the Cleansing o f the Temple. We are certainly intended to perceive a relation betw een the tw o events, as is indicated by the evangelist’s placing the cleansing at the 47

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beginning o f the ministry instead o f at its end, and even m ore because the discourses that follow are integrally con­ nected with the tw o signs (ch 3 with the Water into Wine, ch 4 with the Temple o f the Living Lord). It is highly u n ­ likely that in setting the account o f the temple cleansing at this point in the narrative the evangelist wishes to show that it is a different event from that recorded in the synoptic G ospels, still less to correct their dating o f it. Rather, it would appear that he has set this well-known happening at the beginning o f his G ospel and conjoined it with the sign o f the changing o f the water into wine in order to create a kind o f program chapter: whoever understands the miracle o f the W ine and the C leansing o f the Temple has the key to the ministry, death, and resurrection o f Jesus and their outcom e in the salvation o f the kingdom and existence o f the church. In churches o f our time the m ost com m on use o f the story o f Jesus at a wedding in C ana is to recount it on the oc­ casion o f a wedding, and so to convey from it a lesson for the happy couple. It tells o f a bride and bridegroom whose mari­ tal troubles began even in the m idst o f their wedding cele­ brations; fortunately Jesus was at hand, and som eone told him o f the calamitous situation, and he put it right. T h e moral o f the story is: W hen you find yourself in trouble, let Jesus know about it, and he will work things out for you; indeed, if you keep in touch with him he’ll prevent you from getting into that sort o f a mess! Such a use o f the narrative, without simplistic conclusions, is naturally permissible, but we may be sure that that was far from the mind o f the evangelist when he wrote it. T he comment in Joh n 2:11 indicates that the story has an intensely serious purpose: it is the first fulfillment o f the declaration to the disciples in 1:51 (heaven is to pour out its blessings upon earth through the So n o f Man) and so a revelation o f the glory o f Jesus. T h e description in verses 2 and 3 o f the presence o f Jesus and his disciples at the wedding, and the failure o f the wine

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to last is a hint o f how such a catastrophe came about. A Jewish marriage feast, when the bride was a virgin, lasted for fully seven days. Such a custom was possible am ong poor people because the guests brought gifts, including provi­ sions. Jesus and his disciples w ould have been viewed as a family for this purpose, but neither he nor they had gifts to bring; that will have occasioned M ary’s drawing the atten­ tion o f Jesus to the situation. It is hardly a plea for a miracle, but he had som e responsibility for it, and surely he could d o something to meet it! H is reply, “W hat have we to do with one another, woman?” uses familiar idiomatic speech and does not convey in a Jewish atmosphere the harshness that comes over in our language; it probably is intended to show that Jesus also shares his mother’s concern. In the latter part o f the G ospel the “hour” o f Jesus denotes the time o f his death (e.g., 7:30; 8:20, etc.), but here the statement that his hour had not yet come signifies rather his task o f bringing the kingdom o f G od, which will culminate in his death and resurrection. T hat work has been given him by his Father, and the Father alone can determine when it begins, not his mother. T he m ode o f meeting the need o f wine is clearly significant in a Jewish setting. Jars o f water intended for ritual cleansing o f people about to eat become, by the transforming power o f Jesus, vessels o f wine for celebrating the mercies o f G od. (Among pious Jews wine was almost exclusively used for reli­ gious purposes.) T he meaning o f the event is illuminated by one o f the best known passages o f the Bible o f the Jews, and a favorite description o f the kingdom o f G o d in their eyes, namely Isaiah 25:6-9: T h e L ord o f hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this m ountain; a banquet o f aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, and refined, aged wine. A n d o n this m ountain he will swallow up the covering 49

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which is over all peoples, even the veil which is stretched over all nations. H e will swallow up death for all time, and the L o rd G o d will wipe tears away from all faces, and he will remove the reproach o f his people from all the earth; for the L ord has spoken. A n d it will be said in that day, “Behold, this is our G o d for whom we have waited that he might save us. T h is is the L o rd for w hom we have waited; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation” (NASB). T h at celebration o f the salvation o f G o d ’s kingdom m ade its beginning in the peculiarly suitable setting o f a wedding feast in Cana. T h erein the glory o f Jesus was m anifested (v 11), and the “h o u r” o f Jesus was adum brated w hen the kingdom came for the deliverance o f . the whole hum an race— note that the feast o f G o d is m eant for “all peoples”! (Isa 25:6). T h e reality symbolized by the wine o f the king­ dom o f G o d is none other than the “eternal life” o f the kingdom , w hich was m ade know n to N icodem us (John 3:1— 12), m ade possible by the lifting u p o f the S o n o f M an on his cross and to heaven (3:14, 15), and set forth for all hum ankind in the im m ortal w ords o f Jo h n 3:16. T h e Cleansing o f the Temple does not strictly fall within our purview in this chapter, bu t its connection with the first sign warrants mention o f it. In all four G ospels the event signifies less the action o f a zealous reformer to purify the worship in the temple than an act o f judgm ent (see Jer 7:4- 15) that presaged a new and more worthy order o f worship o f G o d (cf. the anticipation o f this in the kingdom o f G od, set forth in great detail in Ezek 40-48). T hat new order is achieved not by Jesus throwing the traders and their beasts out o f the temple but by the death to which his action leads (note the citation o f Psalm 69:9 in verse 17), and the resurrec­ tion which is inseparable from it.

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T his is made plain in the riddle-like utterance o f Joh n 2:19, spoken in reply to the demand o f the Jewish leaders for a sign o f his authority over the temple which, after all, was in their hands. “D estroy this tem ple” is an ironical call to the rulers to carry on as they have been doing, for that will surely lead to the destruction o f their temple (note the close parallel in M att 23:32-36). T he sign that Jesus will then give will be to raise it “in three days.” T his prophecy perfectly accords with the Jewish expectation o f a glorified temple in the kingdom o f G od. B ut in light o f the impending death and resurrection o f Jesus the “raising” o f the temple “in three days” assumes a profounder meaning than the Jewish leaders could know. T h e “destruction” o f the temple through the rejection o f the Lord’s A nointed (the “M essiah”) primarily relates to its pu r­ pose as a place o f meeting for G o d and the people. Since the rulers o f the temple have rejected G o d in the person o f his So n he rejects their temple (note M att 23:38: “Behold, your house is being left to you— desolate!” A n d see the elaborate description o f the abandonment o f the temple by G o d in Ezek 10:15-19; 11:22,23). T h e new temple that Jesus is to raise is stated in verse 21 to be “the temple o f his body.” A s the spiritual destruction o f the old temple is brought about in the destruction o f the body o f Jesus so the building o f the new temple is accom­ plished through the resurrection o f Jesus. T h e risen L o rd him self becom es the “place” where G o d is revealed, where his forgiveness and renewal are know n, and where fellow­ ship with G o d is experienced and forever maintained. N o t the church as the “body” o f C hrist, but the risen Lord in person is the temple o f the new order. T h at the symbolism can pass over to the church as the temple o f the Lord, in view o f the unity in the Spirit o f the L o rd and his people, is understandable (so in R om 12:4, 5; 1 C o r 12:12, 13; and cf. 1 Pet 2:4,5), but we m ust not impute it to this passage, where

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the L ord in his redemptive activity is explicitly in view. T his is the root o f the revelation expounded to the Samaritan woman— and to the church and the w orld at large— in John 4:21-24.

Two healings In Joh n 4:46-5:47 we have a typical example o f the way the Book o f Signs was constructed. Two stories are related o f the miracle-working power o f Jesus. O ne concerns a child who is desperately ill and about to die, the other a man advanced in years whose life has been ruined by illness. To both Jesus gives new life, and a discourse is added which draws out the implications o f the signs. W hat kind o f a m an was it who came to Jesus to request that he should heal his son? T h e term used to describe him, basilikos, is properly an adjective and m eans “what belongs to a king,” and so “royal.” A s a noun it can be used to denote a member o f a royal family, o f the royal household, o f the court, and o f the king’s army. Josephus uses the word in all these ways, and m ore than once he uses it in the plural, o f the troops o f the king’s army. W hile therefore it is linguisti­ cally possible to translate the w ord here as a “royal official” (NIV, n a sb ) or “court official” (JB), it is m ost likely that this man was an officer in the army o f H erod Agrippa. Perhaps he was the centurion o f w hom Matthew and Luke wrote, whose “boy” was ill and who showed great faith in Jesus (Matt 8:5-13; Luke 7:2-9). In that case the centurion will not have been a Rom an, as is so commonly assumed, but in all probability an Arab. Matthew speaks o f the sick person as the soldier’s pais. That is an ambiguous term; it can mean “boy” or “servant” (cf. the French garçon, boy, is still the usual term for “waiter” in a restaurant). Luke’s source gave him the term doulos, “servant” or “slave.” T he original tradition doubtless spoke o f

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the soldier’s “boy,” and the term was variously interpreted o f his child or his servant. John makes it clear that he was his son, and that comports with the urgency o f the officer in his approach to Jesus. A further point o f interest to note is that in both Matthew and Joh n Jesus raises an objection to the father’s request. M att 8:17 is now commonly recognized to be a question: Jesus asks the officer, “A m I to come and heal him?” T h e officer had been long enough among Jews to know that Jews don’t enter Gentile houses, since otherwise they would be rendered unclean. In John 4:48 Jesus re­ sponds to the officer’s request with a heavy-hearted sigh: “U nless you people see signs and wonders you will never believe!” (Note the remarkable parallel to this in M ark 9:19, a similar situation o f need.) In Matthew the centurion expressed his great faith in ask­ ing Jesus simply to exercise his God-given authority and com ­ mand the healing to take place; in Joh n the officer was told to go home, since his son was alive, and he believed the word o f Jesus and returned home without further question. T he clue to the meaning o f this incident is the statement, three times repeated, “your son lives” (see w 5 0,51,53). Since it has been explicitly stated that the boy was at the point o f death (v 47) the healing o f the child is a sign o f the power o f Jesus to give life. In the discourse that follows this is spoken o f as eternal life (5:24), and even resurrection life, which the Father has empowered the So n to bestow (5:21-29). T he Healing o f the Paralytic at Bethesda (5:1-9) has essen­ tially the same significance, even though the subject o f healing is very different. T he man in question has been ill for thirtyeight years, so presumably he was getting on in years. H e was one o f a number o f pitiable physical wrecks lying by the pool o f Bethesda, waiting for a miracle to happen to them (observe that the explanation o f their presence at the pool is not in the earliest manuscripts o f our Gospel, but it represents a popular

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tradition noted by a later copyist in the margin o f his manu­ script). To judge from his response to the approach o f Jesus, who sympathetically asked if he'wanted to get well, the man had lost hope and faith as well as health. H is reply was like that o f many others in his condition— the complaint o f an embittered spirit. It is remarkable that Jesus selected such an individual as this among the many needy people waiting for a cure. T he man had no idea who Jesus was; he didn’t ask to be healed by him, and appears to have been altogether without faith. N ev­ ertheless, Jesus took pity on him and with a word restored him to health. It is that very word spoken by Jesus to him that points to the significance o f the healing: Egeire, i.e., “rise!” A t the utterance o f that word the paralytic was enabled to stand up, pick up his mattress, and walk. T h e healing was a sign o f the truth o f verse 21: “A s the Father raises the dead (egeirei) and gives them life, so also the So n gives life to those whom he wishes.” Jesus had given life to a man as good as dead. Such is the theme o f the discourse in 5:16-30. T h e discourse is sparked o ff by reference to the fact that the healing took place on the sabbath. Jew ish leaders at the pool saw a man who had become a new creation by the power o f G o d on the sabbath, but their gaze was entirely taken up with the mattress he was carrying. H e was breaking the sabbath law! W hen the Jews learned that Jesus was the one who had both healed the m an and commanded him to carry the m attress— both acts contrary to the sabbath law as they understood it— they were confirm ed in their wrath against Jesus. Here was another example o f Jesus acting as the law breaker! T h e tense o f verse 16 should be observed: “It was on this account that the Jews used to persecute Jesus, because he used to do such things on the sabbath.” T h e response o f Jesus to this criticism warrants closest attention: “My father has been working until now, and I also am working.” T his is a deliberate modification o f the Jewish

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understanding o f G o d ’s relation to the sabbath. G en 2:2 states that G od completed his work on the sixth day o f cre­ ation, and so he rested on the seventh day. Since the works o f creation were then finished, it was deduced that G o d ’s sab­ bath continues to this day. B ut that supposition raises a diffi­ culty: H ow does one reconcile the thought that G o d keeps his sabbath with what the Scriptures say o f his acts o f judg­ ment and salvation, e.g., in the Exodus? A popular answer to that question ran: G od rested from work on the world, but not from his work on the godless and the righteous. H e shows to the latter something o f their recompense and to the form er something o f their recompense (so Genesis Rabba \ .8c).2 In other words, G o d blesses the righteous in anticipa­ tion o f their gaining the life o f the kingdom o f G o d and brings judgment on sinners in anticipation o f their exclusion from it. Here then we see the significance o f our Lord ’s w o rd s,“. . . and I’m working too.” Jesus as So n o f G od does the w orks o f G o d on the sabbath. B ut the signs just described show that he brings to m en no mere anticipation o f the kingdom o f G od, but its reality— life from the dead! A n d he declares judgm ent on rejecters o f the W ord o f G o d which the Last Judgm ent will confirm. T h at is spelled out in verses 24-29. B ut there is a further element in the answer o f Jesus in verse 17 that infuriated the Jewish leaders: “My father is work­ ing . . . and I also am. ” Jesus, they said, was calling G od his own Father, and thereby he was making himself equal with G od. T h e former charge Jesus did not deny, but rather af­ firmed: Yes, G o d was his Father, and it was from him that his power and authority were derived. T he second charge, how­ ever, Jesus rebutted. H e did not make himself equal with G od. H e didn’t make himself anything! Indeed, he could do nothing o f himself! H e depended utterly and entirely on his Father for his works. It was the Father who gave him power to give life to people, as the healing o f the paralytic illustrated, and his

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Father similarly has given him authority to judge humankind. Accordingly, to dishonor the Son is to dishonor the Father who sent him. These insights with respect to the works o f Jesus on the sabbath and his relation to the Father give insight into the heart o f Jesus’ understanding o f his mission. H is con­ sciousness o f unity with the Father combined with his sense o f utter dependence on his Father is observable right through the Gospel. It characterizes the life o f the incarnate So n o f G od, and his mission to bring life to all, from children (4:4653) to the aged (5:1-9). But as So n o f G od he is the Mediator not only o f life but o f judgment. H e makes it plain that the gospel he brings is a double-edged sword, and he demands that it be received responsibly.

The feeding of the multitude an d w alking on the sea A s in the preceding section, so here we have tw o signs followed by an explanatory discourse. U nlike the tw o for­ m er signs (but like the first recorded in the G ospel) these are “nature m iracles,” not healings o f people. T h e discourse is alm ost wholly taken up with the m eaning o f the first sign. T h e second, however, is not ignored in the discourse, but rather contributes an essential elem ent o f its Christological basis. T he Feeding o f the M ultitude is the best know n o f the miracles o f Jesus, and indeed it is the only miracle o f his that is reported in all four G ospels. N o t infrequently m odem preachers tend to romanticize the event (when they don’t render it innocuous!); attention is drawn more to the small boy who generously gave his lunch that others might share it than to the light that the event sheds on the Lord who multiplied the loaves. In reality it is a deeply theological narrative, closely linked with O ld Testament story, type, and

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prophecy, with its center in Jesus, in whom earlier revelation and redemptive action comes to its completion. T he details o f the event are familiar. W hereas the first three G ospels all mention that it took place in the wilder­ ness, our evangelist merely mentions that it happened in the hill country on the other side o f the lake from Galilee. Never­ theless he, as they, had the same fundamental conception in mind: T he synoptists saw in the feeding miracle a repetition o f the feeding o f the people o f G o d in the wilderness (see Exod 16:15-18,31-36) but through a greater than M oses, the C hrist o f G od; our evangelist assumes that understanding but emphasizes (through the discourse that follows) that Jesus, the Second Redeemer, was now bringing about the awaited second Exodus into the kingdom o f G od. T h e event, there­ fore, is recognized to be an anticipation o f the feast o f the kingdom o f G od for all nations (cf. Isa 25:6-9), but on a larger scale than the wedding in Cana o f Galilee (2:1-11). It is wholly characteristic o f our evangelist, however, that by a mere mention o f a date he orientates the event to the “hour” o f Jesus, by which the nations will be able to partici­ pate in the feast o f the kingdom. H e notes, “T h e Passover, the great festival o f the Jews, was near” (6:4). We shall consider at a later point the extent to which this reminder controls the interpretation o f the sign; meanwhile we observe that Jesus’ gift o f the bread o f the kingdom o f G o d is related in the dis­ course to the bread that was “broken” in death and is broken every L ord ’s Day in the L ord ’s Supper. It is inevitable that in discussions about the feeding mira­ cle the question should rise as to what really happened on that occasion. T h e report in the G ospels o f Jesus breaking five bread rolls and tw o pieces o f dried fish o n and on and on, till five thousand m en were satisfied, is too frankly su­ pernatural for many to accept. Various alternative explana­ tions accordingly have been offered. It is suggested, e.g., that

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the sharing o f one person’s provisions was made by Jesus an example for others to follow, so that in the end nobody went hungry; or that the little that was available was broken into minute pieces, enabling a celebration o f the eucharist to take place in the wilderness which was spiritually satisfying to all present; or even that an O ld Testament story o f a prophet feeding a group o f hungry m en (2 Kgs 4:42-44) was attri­ buted to Jesus on an amplified scale. Such rationalizing ex­ planations can be neither proved nor disproved, though all freely admit that they are out o f harmony with the thought o f the writers o f the G ospels and o f their sources. In this connection one factor in John’s description o f the situation deserves to be weighed. He, and he alone o f the evangelists, states that there was an almost revolutionary aftermath o f the event. W hen the men present saw the “sign” that took place they concluded that Jesus m ust be the prophet that was to come into the world, i.e., the prophet like M oses, and they endeavored to seize Jesus and compel him to become king (verses 14, 15). In popular thought the “prophet like M oses” (Deut 18:15,18) was to do the miracles that M oses did; some thought that M oses himself would return and lead Israel into a second exodus, but others identified the prophet with the expected Messiah. W hatever the precise views o f the multitude on this occa­ sion, a full-blown messianic revolt centering on Jesus was about to take place. It was the most dangerous moment in the ministry o f Jesus, threatening to undo all that he had sought to achieve through his preaching and dem onstration o f the real kingdom o f G od. H is reaction is to be observed: some o f our earliest manuscripts and witnesses to the G ospel text at this point read that Jesus “f led to the hills” (the reading, he “departed to the hills,” is a later watering down o f the text by copyists who could not believe that Jesus did such a thing). Plainly som ething more than a call by Jesus for generosity in sharing food or arranging for a kind o f open-air eucharist was

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needed to account for that messianic “Revolt in the D esert” as H ugh M ontefiore called it. We take it to be an act o f G od in Christ, as the other signs o f Jesus were. In Matthew and Mark, as well as in John, an account o f Jesus’ Walking on the Sea follows at once that o f the feeding miracle. T he fourth G ospel alone explains why Jesus sent his disciples away from the place: they, too, were Jews with mes­ sianic longings and aspirations and were as susceptible to messianic fervor as the rest (cf. Luke 19:11); it was essential that they should be removed from the dangerous situation that had arisen as speedily as possible. S o Jesus went to the hills to pray and they were sent across the lake. A s they rowed, the waters became increasingly whipped up by a pow ­ erful wind. Jesus therefore ceased his praying and went to their aid. T h e text states that the disciples see Jesus “walking upon the sea and coming near the boat,” and they were terrified. D id Jesus really do that? Som e notable commentators, includ­ ing Bernard, have pointed out that the language can mean that Jesus walked beside the sea, as in John 21:1. Bernard believed that John was correcting a false understanding o f what actually took place: Jesus was walking beside the lake, and the disciples, not realizing that their boat had been driven close to the shore, thought that he was walking on the water, and in their fear they made a miracle out o f a perfectly ordi­ nary circumstance. Linguistically, Bernard’s view that “epi tes thalasses” can mean “beside the sea” is correct, but his interpretation o f what John was wanting to say is quite certainly far from the evange­ list’s mind. Mark uses exactly the same wording as John, and he goes on to say that the boat was “in the midst of the sea” (Mark 6:47). Matthew is equally clear and emphatic in his account (Matt 14:25). In John 21:lff. the situation described is wholly different; there the evangelist plainly states that Jesus stood “on the

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beach,” and he goes on to tell o f the conversation o f Jesus with the disciples in that place. If John had wished to correct the churches’ (mis)understanding o f what Jesus was doing on or beside the sea he could have easily done so by writing unambiguously that Jesus was walking alongside the sea (para ten thalassan). Precisely this phrase occurs in M ark 1:14 and A cts 10:6. In reality it is this extraordinary situation that gives rise to the utterance o f Jesus which form s the reason for the evangelist telling the story: “Stop being afraid,” said Jesus: “I am (he). ” T he expression “I am” is reproduced elsewhere by John (see especially John 8:24, 28, 58; 13:19), and he intends us to recall the name o f the Lord revealed to M oses in the wilderness (Exod 3:14) as well as in the prophetic writings (see especially the central chapters o f Isaiah, notably Isa 43:10, 25). T he evangelist, when describing the present event, will doubtless have had in mind the description o f G od coming to the rescue o f the Israelite tribes at the R ed Sea in Psalm 77:16, 19 (NIV): T h e waters saw you, O G od, the waters saw you and writhed; the very depths were convulsed . . . . Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen. So the evangelist saw Jesus, the revelation o f the Father, com­ ing to his disciples in their distress— in the Second Exodus! T he discourse that now follows is almost wholly taken up with the meaning o f the sign o f the Feeding o f the M ulti­ tude, but the Walking on the Sea is also presupposed. It is because Jesus can utter, “I am ” that he can also say, “I am the Bread o f Life” (6:35). A n odd feature o f the discourse is that it begins beside the lake (v 25) and ends in the synagogue at Capernaum (v 59). A t some point in it a change o f venue is

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presupposed. T his could throw light o n an element in the discourse to which we earlier alluded. In verses 25-29 Jesus addresses the m en who had followed him after the miracle in the wilderness, telling them to seek the bread that endures to eternal life which he, the So n o f M an, gives. In verses 30ff. certain Jews ask what work Jesus does that can compare with the gift o f bread from heaven that M oses gave and that the M essiah shall give, and they challenge him to do the same. It is evident that they had heard reports o f the feeding o f the crowd, and they disbelieved them and so opposed him, probably in the synagogue o f Capernaum . T he chief features o f the discourse that especially relate to the sign o f the feeding miracle are: (i) the affirmation o f Jesus that he is the Bread o f Life that satisfies the hunger o f hu­ mankind (v 35); (ii) he, unlike the manna that G od gave, is the real Bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world, an assertion that implies his incarnation as the So n o f G od (w 32, 33); (iii) the Bread that Jesus gives is his flesh for the life o f the world, hence he must die to impart the living bread to the human family (v 51); (iv) the violent symbol o f the necessity o f eating his flesh and drinking his blood is employed (vv 53-58), emphasizing that it is needful not only to come to Jesus, and to believe on him, but to receive him — all which are really different aspects o f faith. For Jesus is both the giver o f the living Bread and is the living Bread. T his revelation is perfectly comprehensible to the people o f the new covenant as they celebrate its truth in the Lord’s Supper. In its essentials it can be grasped by any who reach the faith o f Peter that Jesus is the Holy O ne o f G o d and has the words o f eternal life (vv 68,69).

The healing of the m an born blind T h is graphic story is one o f the m ost fascinating in the four G ospels. T h e account o f the healing is briefly given 61

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in verses 1-7, and the rest o f the chapter tells o f its conse­ quences. T hroughout the narrative the blind m an is on center stage, and the evangelist tells the story by recounting the differing reactions o f people to his changing situations. H e begins with the reactions o f the disciples o f Jesus to the m an’s blindness (vv 1, 2) and the contrasting response o f Jesus to it (vv 3-5). H e continues with the astonishm ent o f the m an’s neighbors (vv 8-12), the hostility o f the Jew ish leaders (vv 13-24), and the bewilderment and fear o f the m an’s parents (vv 19-23). T h e com passion o f Jesus on the now outcast m an concludes the healing narrative (vv 35-38), but a postscript is added: Jesus’ m ission is to make blind to see and seeing blind (vv 39-41). T h e disciples’ response to the sight o f the blind m an is typical o f the w orld o f their day, including the Jews. It was generally believed that all suffering was due to sin, hence all sufferers were punished for their sins. T h e Jerusalem Targum on D eu t 21:20 states that parents bringing a rebel­ lious son to the elders should say, “We have transgressed the W ord o f the Lord, therefore this o ur so n has been b o m to us, w ho is unruly and rebellious.” T h e possibility o f a child sinning before birth was also discussed by the rabbis. T hey were intrigued by the m ention in G e n 25:22 o f the tw ins Jacob and Esau struggling in R ebek ah ’s womb. O n e rabbi suggested that they went roun d trying to kill one another. Som eone else had the bright idea that w hen Rebekah walked past a synagogue Jacob struggled to get out (on the basis o f Jer 1:5), bu t w hen R ebekah passed an idol tem ple Esau struggled to get out (cf. Psalm 58:4)! Jesus dis­ m issed such speculations. T h is m an’s plight, he said, was not due to his or his parents’ sin; it was that the m an might have a share in the m ission o f the S o n o f G o d and that the glory o f his salvation be revealed in him. H e was to becom e a dem onstration o f the truth that Jesus is the Light o f the w orld (v 5).

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T h e m ode o f Jesus’ Healing o f the Blind M an reminds us o f M ark 8:23; doubtless his actions helped encourage the faith o f the man. T he latter was sent to wash in the pool o f Siloam, as Elisha sent Naam an to wash in the Jordan to heal his leprosy (2 Kgs 5:10-14). B u t saliva, mud, and washing in a pool make no blind person to see; it is the w ord and power o f Jesus that do that. T h e evangelist sees this illustrated in the meaning o f the name Siloam. It puts in a G reek form the Hebrew Shiloah, which is a participle meaning “sent.” T h e term related to the waters that were “sent” (i.e., gushed) into the pool, but in the G ospel the evangelist repeatedly m en­ tions that Jesus is the “Sen t O n e ” o f G od. T h e blind m an receives his sight as he washes in the pool nam ed “Sen t,” b u t he is healed by the Sen t O ne o f G od. Jesus is, as Joh n Chrysostom put it, the “spiritual Siloam .” T h e neighbors o f the blind m an could not believe the evidence o f their eyes as they looked on the beggar they knew, but who now saw. They took him to the Pharisees, who were their spiritual leaders and who ought to know about this miracle. T h e Pharisees, however, were nonplused. T h e heal­ ing had taken place on the sabbath; the miracle pointed to Jesus as an instrument o f G od, but its occurrence on the sabbath showed him to be a sinner! They therefore sent for the m an’s parents, to see if the healing were genuine. T h e parents were ready enough to attest the blindness o f their son and the fact o f his healing, but they were unwilling to say more for fear o f being thrown out o f the synagogue. T h e accuracy o f that observation has been questioned by some scholars. We know that about the end o f the first cen­ tury o f our era the daily prayers o f the Jews (used also in all synagogue services) included a curse on the Christians. It ran: Let the Nazarenes and the heretics be destroyed in a moment, and let them be blotted out o f the book o f life and not be inscribed with the righteous. 63

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It is believed that this prayer was intended to bring about the exclusion o f all Jewish Christians from the synagogue, some­ thing that did not take place in the time o f Jesus and the early church. T he evangelist, it is suggested, was reflecting in this story what went on in his day, and was really addressing his contemporaries through it. U ndoubtedly John was relating this event to the Christians o f his day, b ut he was doing the same in every line o f his Gospel. In reality he had justification for his statement in this case. Jesus himself warned against being afraid to confess faith in him before men (Mark 8:37), and he pronounced a blessing on those who endured perse­ cution, were hated, insulted, excluded, and rejected because o f their connection with him (Luke 6:22; M att 5:11,12). T he book o f A cts illustrates the situation o f the blind man and his parents, and o f Christians generally. T he curse on the Nazarenes was but a reinforcement o f the attitude o f Jewish authori­ ties toward followers o f Jesus from the time o f the ministry o f Jesus onward. T h e rest o f the narrative shows the Pharisees endeavoring to discredit the testimony o f the blind man. They command him to “give glory to G o d ,” i.e., by confessing the truth (cf. Jo s 7:19). T hus, they were implying that he was a liar, that Jesus was a sinner, and that they were right. H e confessed the truth readily enough— that once he was blind, but now he can see! A n d he confessed his amazement at the rulers’ ignorance o f Jesus and their disbelief in the good he was doing. O utraged at this the Pharisees exclaimed, “You were b o m in utter sin, and are you trying to instruct us?” S o then they admitted that he was b o m blind! A nd that Jesus m ust have healed him! B u t they rejected him, and the miracle, and the one who perform ed it. W hen Jesus heard what had happened to the man he found him, and completed the process o f his healing, open­ ing his spiritual eyes to know w ho it was who had healed him. T his was the first time the blind m an saw Jesus, and he

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now learned that he was looking into the face o f the S o n o f Man. N o wonder he fell down before him and gave him glory! T he conclusion o f the story is an ironical but som ber ut­ terance o f Jesus: “for judgment I came into this world . . . We cannot but contrast John 3:17. Salvation is the primary intent o f the coming o f Jesus, but since salvation calls for faith and obedience, rejection o f the saving revelation entails G o d ’s rejection o f the rejecter. T he Light o f the world shows up the darkness, and the way out o f it. They who refuse to see the Light are confirmed in their blindness (9:40,41).

The raising of L azaru s A feature o f the La 2arus account strikes the observant reader immediately. Instead o f its describing a sign o f Jesus followed by an exposition o f its meaning, it reads like a narra­ tive interspersed with comments that reveal its meaning step by step. There is truth in that observation, although the ma­ jor elements in the story actually occur at the beginning and the end, and the intermediate steps are punctuated by con­ versations o f Jesus, notably with the disciples (vv 7-16), with M artha (vv 20-27), and with M ary (vv 28-32). T h e raising to life o f a dead person by Jesus is not a solitary occurrence in the G ospels. H is message to Joh n the Baptist, who had inquired whether he was indeed the M es­ siah, includes in a brief summary o f his w orks, “the dead are raised” (Matt 11:5). N ote the plural! T h e synoptic G ospels tell o f the raising o f Jairus’s daughter (Mark 5:21-24, 35-43) and o f the widow’s son in N ain (Luke 7:11-17). In the case o f Lazarus, however, Jesus is confronted with a situation in which a man had been dead for four days— manifestly be­ yond all possibility o f recall by a kiss o f life. In the raising o f Lazarus we meet with the starkest expression o f G o d at work through Jesus among people in the extremity o f need. 65

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T h e statement o f Jesus on learning o f Lazarus’s illness provides a clue as to how we are to understand what now takes place: “T h is illness is . . . for the sake o f the glory o f G od, that the So n o f G o d may be glorified through it” (v 4). In this G ospel the glorifying o f G o d through the So n prima­ rily takes place in the event when the S o n is glorified by G od, namely as he is lifted up via his cross to heaven. Jesus, on his way to his death, awakens a dead man. H is life-giving work becom es the occasion o f his giving up his own life, as the postscript to the story shows (11:47-53). T h e extraordinary observation in verses 5 and 6 is proba­ bly to be linked with this understanding o f the event. Jesus, comments John, loved M artha and M ary and Lazarus; when therefore he heard that Lazarus was ill he remained where he was tw o days more! T h e conundrum is illuminated by verses 11 and 17: T h e messenger from the sisters will have taken a day to reach Jesus; Jesus waits tw o m ore days; he takes an­ other day to reach Bethany, and is told that Lazarus had died four days earlier. Jesus will have realized on the m essenger’s arrival that Lazarus was already beyond healing and was dead. H is delay accordingly was for the even greater glory o f G od, the greater blessing o f the family o f Lazarus (though they could not yet know it), and the greater revelation o f the saving power o f G o d through his Son. T he conversation o f Jesus with M artha is the most impor­ tant in the chapter. H er opening words are not a rebuke but a simple expression o f grief and continuing faith in Jesus. H is affirmation that her brother will rise is accepted as a consola­ tory reminder o f the hope o f resurrection in the last day. But Jesus has more than the last day in view: H e illumines that day with the light o f the present kingdom o f G od and the pres­ ence o f the king: “I am the resurrection . . . ” T he power to raise the dead has been vested in him, hence the believer in him “even though he dies will come to life.” T he believer’s resurrection is assured by the Lord o f the resurrection.

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B u t more: “Everyone w ho lives an d believes in me will never, never die!” T he believer in Jesus “lives” even now, i.e., he has the life o f the kingdom o f G od, and over that life death has no power. O f the truth and the nature o f this specifically Christian hope the resurrection o f Lazarus is the sign. T h e conversation with M ary is much briefer, but it leads to a statement o f the evangelist as surprising as any­ thing in his G ospel. “W hen Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became angry in spirit and very agitated” (v 33). Virtually every English trans­ lation o f the Bible waters that down to mean that Jesus was “deeply m oved” in spirit, but the lexicographers and the great commentators protest that that is not what Joh n meant. R u d o lf Schnackenburg, the greatest contemporary scholar on Joh n ’s G ospel, wrote: T h e w ord . . . indicates an outburst o f anger, and any attem pt to reinterpret it in term s o f an internal em otional upset caused by grief, pain, or sympathy is illegitimate.3 T h e anger o f Jesus was due not to Lazarus’s death but the behavior o f his relatives and friends over his death. To use Paul’s language, they sorrowed “like the rest o f m en who have no hope” (1 T hess 4:13). D espite the O ld Testament, despite the signs o f Jesus attesting the kingdom o f G o d among them, and despite his own teaching they m ourned like the pagans. It was this unbelief o f the people o f G o d in the presence o f him who is the R esurrection and the Life, and who had come to raise Lazarus from death, that made Jesus angry. T h e same com m ent is repeated by the evangelist as Jesus approached the grave o f Lazarus (v 38). Why, then, did Jesus weep (v 35)? H is tears, if not caused by the unbelief that made him angry, will have been evoked by the sight o f 67

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the havoc created by sin and death, the tragedy o f the h u ­ man situation in which even the people o f G od are engulfed. A n d so Jesus comes to the tomb. H e commands the stone to be removed from it, despite M artha’s expression o f hor­ ror. T h en he prays. B ut there is no petition, simply a brief giving o f thanks that his Father had “heard” him, i.e., had listened to him and granted his request. T h e praying had already been done! T here was no need to pray more. A c­ cordingly Jesus calls Lazarus with a great shout— “Lazarus, come out here!” It was like the shout o f the archangel and the trum pet o f G o d (1 T hess 4:16), and it had a similar effect. Lazarus came out, shuffling in his grave clothes. A t the w ord o f Jesus the bystanders released him from them, and Lazarus was free to live again. T hat the evangelist’s selection o f the signs o f Jesus should end with the account o f the raising o f Lazarus is entirely fitting, not only because o f its stupendous nature, or because it was chronologically the last, but above all by reason o f its meaning. M ore plainly than any other sign o f Jesus it brings into relief the meaning o f them all, namely that Jesus is the Redeem er, who by his living, working, dying, and rising brings to all hum ankind the life o f the kingdom o f G od. M oreover it makes transparently clear that in order for this life o f the kingdom to come to the world Jesus m ust give his own life— and take it again! (see Joh n 10:17, 18). It is Joh n who informs us that the raising o f Lazarus was the last straw for the Jewish Sanhedrin. It led them to ap­ prove the high priest’s recommendation that Jesus m ust die that the whole nation should not perish (11:49, 50). T h e later trial o f Jesus was but the form al ratification o f that decision. B u t as the evangelist noted, the high priest’s words are an extraordinary unconscious prophecy. Its language is strangely reminiscent o f the gospel summary in Joh n 3:16. T h e signs o f Jesus illumine the multifaceted truth o f that summary and encourage all to experience it for themselves.

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4

JESUS AND THE JEWISH FESTIVALS

T h e religious life o f the Jews was regulated by a com plex institution o f festivals or obligatory religious occasions. T he term “feast” conveys a misleading notion to m odem ears. T he fundamental festival was the sabbath day, hardly a day characterized by feasting. T hat day was ordained as “a sab­ bath to the L o rd ” (Exod 20:8-11), a rest day in his honor. Every new m oon was counted as a festival (Num 10:10), the seventh new m oon being observed with particular solemnity (Lev 23:24, 25), doubtless because o f its number. S o also the seventh year was viewed as “a sabbath o f rest for the land” (Exod 23:11). T h e passage o f seven sevens o f years led to the celebration o f the so-called Year o f Jubilee (Lev 25:8-55), which came to be viewed as a type or foreshadowing o f the kingdom o f G od (Isa 61:1, 2; cf. Luke 4:16-21). In addition, there were festal celebrations o f a special kind, often called “pilgrim feasts” (the Hebrew term for feast, hag, was related to the verb hagag, meaning “to make a pilgrim­ age”). T h e O ld Testament specifies three o f these, which were to be attended by all the m en o f Israel: 69

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T h ree tim es a year all your m en m ust appear before the L o rd your G o d at the place he will choose: at the Feast o f U nleavened Bread, the Feast o f W eeks and the Feast o f Tabernacles. (D eut 16:16 NIV; note the slightly different wording o f Exod 23:14) Originally these were all agricultural festivals, but to each o f them a special significance was attached, for in them the people celebrated particular aspects o f G o d ’s dealing with his people in the sacred history. T h e festival o f Unleavened Bread was preceded by the Passover, commemorating Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. T he festival o f the H arvest (“W eeks”) memorialized the giving o f the Law, and the Ingathering (“Tabernacles”) was especially associated with the wilderness wanderings o f the people. Two other festivals came to be observed in the period shortly before the first century o f our era— the festival o f the Dedication and Purim. T h e former was instituted by Judas M accabaeus to commemorate the cleansing o f the temple af­ ter its desecration by Antiochus Epiphanes, and is the con­ text o f a dialogue between Jews and Jesus in John 10. T he latter was a lively celebration o f the deliverance o f Israel from Ham an through Esther and M ordecai, but is not mentioned in the New Testament. O ne o f the outstanding differences between the synoptic G ospels and John is that the form er record one visit only o f Jesus to celebrate a pilgrim festival in Jerusalem, and that in the last week o f his life, whereas John tells o f Jesus attending all the m ajor feasts (other than Purim). M oreover, while the synoptists doubtless assum ed the profound significance o f the Passover festival in relation to the death o f Jesus, they nowhere elaborate it, whereas the fourth evangelist makes a point o f linking these feasts to the redemption brought by Jesus. T he festivals o f Israel to a marked degree enshrined

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the heritage, faith, and hope o f Israel; Joh n is anxious to dem onstrate that by his w ord and action Jesus represents the fulfillment o f the festivals, and consequently the fulfillment o f the heritage, faith, and hope o f Israel. To the consider­ ation o f the outw orking o f this theme we now turn.

The Passover Festival T h e Passover was the first o f Israel’s festivals in the liturgi­ cal year, and, as it happens, the first to be m entioned in the fourth G ospel (2:13). It is possible that, like the other Jewish feasts, the Passover had an earlier history, maybe a shepherd’s rite when the Israelite tribes were nomadic shepherds. B ut it was given a unique significance through relating it to Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, just as the Passover itself became transformed into the Christian L ord’s Supper. In New Testament times the Passover lambs were bought and then handed to the priests to be slaughtered by them in the temple. T h is took place in the early afternoon; then the lambs were handed back to the persons to w hom they be­ longed for the Passover celebration in the evening. T h e lamb was eaten with bitter herbs dipped in a paste o f fruit and nuts. A t an appropriate point in the meal the appointed “son” (the group might not be a real family) asked the question, “W hy is this night different from all other nights?” T h e an­ swer was given in accordance with Exod 12:26 and 27, and Exod 13:3-16: T he L o rd ’s deliverance o f the Israelites from the Egyptians was recounted, followed by remembrance o f later experiences o f the Lord’s salvation, and prayer was made for a comparable deliverance from the oppressive power o f Rom e. T he place o f hope for Israel’s future salvation in the celebration o f the Passover has already been noted. T h e ex­ pectation o f a second Exodus under the second Redeemer, the Messiah, was a living hope in Israel during the time o f 71

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Jesus and the early church. It features prominently in the fourth G ospel and in the book o f Revelation. W hen considering the sign o f the feeding o f the multi­ tude we observed the note o f time in Joh n 6:4: “T h e Passover, . . . o f the Jews, was near,” and we reflected on the likelihood that this was intended as a key to the meaning o f the sign. E. C . H oskyns expressed this in a typical com ­ pressed sentence: T h e m ovement from the miracle to the discourse, from M oses to Jesus, and above all from bread to flesh, is almost unintelligible unless the reference in verse 4 to the passover picks up 1:29, 36, anticipates 19:36 (Exod 12:46; N um 9:12) and governs the whole narrative.1 T h e discourse, as far as verse 35, is comprehensible in term s o f the gift o f manna given by the M essiah in the second Exodus. Jews frequently used the symbolism o f eating and drinking with regard to receiving the instruction o f the Law and W isdom (to the rabbis the two were the same). Ben Sira writes in the name o f W isdom (E cdus 24:21): W hoever feeds on me will be hungry for more, W hoever drinks from me will thirst for more. H e then proceeds to identify W isdom and the Law. John 6:38-50 develops the thought that the “bread” is he who came dow n from heaven to reveal the Father. T h e manna came from heaven; the So n o f G o d came from heaven. From verse 51 on, however, the “bread” is nothing other than the flesh o f Jesus, given for the life o f the world. “Flesh,” “given,” “on behalf o f”— this is sacrificial language. Jesus the Bread o f G o d is to die as the Lam b o f G o d for the sin o f the world (John 1:29). H e is G o d ’s Passover Lamb.

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T h e symbolism o f eating the flesh o f the S o n o f M an is a natural extension o f the concept o f Jesus as G o d ’s Passover Lamb, but the thought o f drinking the blood o f the S o n o f M an is a developm ent o f the fundam ental imagery o f verse 35 in the light o f verse 51: “com ing” and “believing” are replaced by “eating” and “drinking.” In both cases the ob­ ject o f faith is C h rist in his sacrificial offering o f his body and blood for the life o f the world. T h e language, admittedly, at first hearing will have been shocking to the Jew, but in the context o f the Last Supper o f Jesus and the Lord’s Supper o f the church it is entirely comprehensible. A d o lf Schlatter’s com m ent on this passage is w orth reflecting on: W hat we have to do with his flesh and blood is not chew and swallow, but recognize in his crucified body and poured out blood the ground o f our life, and hang our faith and hope on that body and blood and draw from there our thinking and our willing.2 T h e symbolic imagery o f eating and drinking is more widely used than we sometimes think. We can speak o f de­ vouring a book, drinking in the substance o f an address, swallowing a story (or declining to do so!), chewing over a matter, ruminating over an idea (to ruminate is to chew the cud!). Som etim es we say that we cannot stom ach an idea, or even a particular person. A n d I have heard a fond grand­ m other declare that she could eat her grandbaby! Such lan­ guage, strange as it may seem, is not uncom m on in Eastern religions with regard to sharing in the being o f G od. T h e m ost pertinent example o f this imagery occurs in the Tal­ mud. A certain Rabbi Hillel (not the fam ous rabbi o f that name) shocked his contemporaries by saying: “There shall be no M essiah for Israel, because they have already eaten him in the days o f Hezekiah.”3 73

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Hillel may have wished to counter the apocalyptic ideas o f some o f his contem poraries, or more likely to oppose the preaching o f the Christians. In any case he appears to have thought that Hezekiah fulfilled the role o f the M essiah in light o f the ministry o f Isaiah and the m arvelous deliverance o f Israel from the power o f the Assyrians. It is noteworthy that the English translation o f the Talm ud substitutes the term “enjoyed” for “eaten.” T h e blessings awaited from the M essiah were enjoyed by Israel through king Hezekiah’s rule. W hen Jesus and the church use this language, how­ ever, it is m ore intensely personal. T h e m eaning is well expressed in Joh n 6:57: “Just as the living Father sent me and I live because o f the Father, so whoever eats me will live because o f m e.” T h e believer depends on and is sustained by the So n as the S o n in his life depended u p on and was sustained by the Father. In the account o f the trial and crucifixion o f Jesus several passages have the evident intention o f relating the death o f Jesus to the Passover. W hen the Jewish leaders hand Jesus over to the R om an governor for trial it is recorded: “they did not enter the G overnor’s residence so as not to become defiled, but that they might eat the passover lamb” (18:28). T h e irony o f the situation is evident: T h e Jewish leaders hold firmly to the ceremonial law while they are bent on bringing about the execution o f Israel’s prom ised Deliverer, the M essiah-Son o f G od. In their zeal to eat the Passover they unknowingly help to fulfill its ultimate meaning in the sacrifice o f the Lam b o f G od. A comparable note o f the time in Jesus’ trial is given in Joh n 19:14. W hen Pilate recognized that his efforts to re­ lease Jesus were o f no avail he took his place on the judge’s seat. T h e evangelist observes, “It was the Preparation Day for the Passover, the hour was about midday. . . .” T h e evangelist is conscious that this is a m om entous hour in world history. B u t it was significant also for the Jews, for at

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this hour they ceased their work, the leaven was gathered out o f the houses, and the Passover lambs were being pre­ pared for slaughter. T h e festival was virtually beginning and its fulfillment in the setting apart o f the Lam b o f G o d for his sacrifice was under way. This relating o f the death o f Jesus to the Passover comes to its climax in an eyewitness account o f the crucifixion, de­ scribed in John 19:31-37. T he Jewish leaders had requested Pilate to have the three crucified men killed and buried, so that their bodies should not remain exposed during the Passover festival and so defile the land. T he request was granted. Soldiers advanced to the crucified men and “broke” the legs o f two o f them. T he action was more brutal than the description; the custom was to smash the legs o f the crucified with an iron mallet, so causing great loss o f blood and as­ phyxia. T he men died at once. T he soldiers went to Jesus with the intention o f doing the same, but on approaching him they saw that he was already dead, and so had no need o f this treatment. O ne soldier accordingly thrust his lance into the side o f Jesus, presumably to make sure he really was dead; an efflux o f blood and water immediately took place. A t this point in his record the evangelist adds an emphatic declaration o f the truth o f his account: It rests on the evi­ dence o f an eyewitness whose trustw orthiness all acknowl­ edge. A n d he makes a comment: “T hese events happened in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, ‘N o t a bone o f his is to be broken.’ A nd again another scripture says, ‘They will look o n him whom they pierced.’” T h e latter citation is from Zechariah 12:10, describing the grief and repentance o f the Jewish people for their treatment o f G o d ’s representative, and the subsequent opening o f a fountain for cleansing their sin (in M att 24:30 and R ev 1:7 the Scripture is applied to the nations generally). T he evangelist includes this reference probably to dem on­ strate the reality o f the death o f Jesus, and so the reality o f his

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hum anity in face o f those w ho in his day wished to deny it (cf. 1 Jo h n 4:1-6, 5:6-9). T h e form er citation is found, with more or less approxim ation to the wording, in n o less than three O ld Testam ent passages. In E xod 12:46 and N u m 9:12 it refers to the way in which the Passover lamb should be eaten: “not a bone o f it shall be broken,” i.e., in the roasting and eating o f it. In Ps 34:20 the w ords relate to G o d ’s care for the R ighteous Sufferer: “H e protects all his bones, not one o f them will be broken” (NIV). T h e evangelist will quite certainly have know n b oth these applications o f the w ords he cites. In light o f the im portance to him o f the Passover typology the application to the Passover lamb will have been forem ost in his mind: Jesus in his death brings to fulfillm ent the significance o f the Passover in relation to the present and the future; through his sacrificial death and risen life he enacts the Second Exodus and opens for all m ankind the prom ised kingdom o f G od . A t the same time he fulfills the role o f the R ighteous M an, w ho suffers on behalf o f the unrighteous b u t rem ains at all tim es in the care o f G o d — a care that results in resurrection to his pres­ ence and Lordship over the kingdom .

The Festival of Weeks T h e second pilgrim festival o f the Jew ish year was vari­ ously nam ed by the Jews. In E xod 23:16 it is called “the Festival o f the H arvest.” In D eu t 16:10 it has the name “Festival o f W eeks,” doubtless due to the com m and to count seven weeks from the day after Passover and to cele­ brate the festival o n the fiftieth day. T h is com m and, how ­ ever, led Jew s outside Palestine to give it the name “Pentecost,” a G reek term which simply m eans “fiftieth.” T h e festival lasted one day, although in the w orld outside Palestine it generally lasted tw o days (to be sure that it was celebrated o n the right day!). T h e agricultural aspect o f the

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festival in later times gave place to observance o f the day in celebration o f the giving o f the Law. . . Eleazar ben Pedath in the third century A.D. stated, “Pentecost is the day on which the Torah was given.” To this day it is know n am ong Jews as “the time o f the giving o f our Law.” T h ere is evi­ dence that it was so observed in the time o f Jesus and the early church. T he festival is not m entioned by name in the fourth G ospel. B u t from very early times it was realized that the unnam ed festival in John 5:1 was the Festival o f Weeks, i.e., Pentecost. T h e identification fits perfectly the content o f the discourse in the chapter. T h e emphasis throughout the dis­ course is on the authority o f Jesus. A s So n o f G o d he does what the Father does, for the Father shows him and teaches him to do his works, which include raising the dead and the exercise o f judgm ent (5:21-29). T h e latter half o f the discourse is a self-contained unit. It reminds us o f the trial scenes in the O ld Testament, when the Lord calls witnesses from the nations to testify on behalf o f their gods in face o f the overwhelming truth o f the only G od, whose witnesses the people o f Israel are (see, e.g., Isa 43:8-13; 44:6-11). H ere Jesus is opposed by Jews, who ask for witnesses to justify his claims. H e proceeds to call them, beginning with “A nother,” an unnam ed person but whose witness John knows to be true (5:32). T h at “O th er” is G o d himself, who has provided witness through Joh n the Baptist (vv 33-35), the works o f Jesus (v 36), and the W ord o f G o d in the Scriptures (vv 37-40). It is im portant to note that in verse 37 the witness o f the Father to Jesus is not through his voice but through the Scriptures, which the opponents o f Jesus do not grasp. They “search the Scriptures,” believ­ ing that in so doing they possess the life o f which they speak. B ut they are wrong! To read and study the Scriptures is not the equivalent o f swallowing spiritual vitamins that give eter­ nal life; they are given as the Father’s witness to Jesus, that 77

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people who read them may repent and believe on him, and so receive from him the eternal life prom ised in the Scriptures. T h e upshot o f this is an astonishing turn o f the tables. T h e Jews believed that M oses, who interceded for their fore­ fathers when they worshiped the golden calf (Exod 32:30-32), continues to be their intercessor in heaven (so in the Assump­ tion of Moses, 12:6). O n this basis they looked for him to intercede for them at the last judgment, and so they set their hope on him (see Joh n 5:45). Jesus declared that, on the con­ trary, M oses was their accuser, not defender, for “he wrote about m e,” and “if you are not believing his writings, how will you believe my words?” Since the Law, in Jewish eyes, is the supreme element in the Scriptures, M oses m ust be accounted as the supreme witness to Jesus; accordingly on the day that the Jews celebrated the giving o f the Law they should the more readily receive his witness and the W ord o f G o d that Jesus brings. T h e Pentecostal festival thus gains its ultimate significance in the witness o f the Law, Prophets, and Writings to Jesus and his mission from G od. To celebrate the festival in the right way is to listen to their testimony and seek from Jesus the life o f the kingdom o f G o d o f which the Scriptures speak.

The Festival of Tabernacles T h is festival, w hich began o n the fifteenth day o f the seventh m onth (Septem ber/O ctober), was primarily a thanksgiving for the harvests o f wine, fruit, and olives. T h is feature was com bined w ith thankful rem em brance o f the blessings o f G o d up on his people during the forty years o f wanderings in the wilderness together with an anticipation o f their renewal at the second Exodus, w hen the kingdom o f G o d should come. “Tabernacle” is an old English w ord (derived from the Latin tabernaculum ) m eaning a h u t or

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shed or booth. “Festival o f Tabernacles,” thus, is simply the “festival o f ten ts.” A ll who kept it cam ped out in shelters o f leafy branches set o n housetops or around houses or in fields, so vividly recalling the time w hen their forefathers lived for a w hole generation under the open sky. Joh n 7 and 8 are set in this festival, and the central utter­ ances o f Jesus are clearly related to the outstanding events o f the festival. T h e structure o f signs-plus-discourse elsewhere in the G ospel is replaced by festival rites-plus-teaching o f Jesus concerning them. Each day at dawn priests, accom panied by the festival crowds, went in procession from the temple to the pool o f Siloam. T here an appointed priest filled a golden pitcher with water and carried it back to the temple. T h e psalm o f the kingdom in Isa 12 was sung, with its central words, “W ith joy you will draw water from the wells o f salvation.” T h e priests processed round the altar, and the temple choir sang the Hallel (Psalms 113-118), supported at appro­ priate times with the shouts o f the m en and boys, “Give thanks to the Lord!” and “O Lord, save us!” and the shaking o f branches. T h e priest who had drawn the water m ounted the altar and poured the daily drink offering o f wine into a bow l and then the water from Siloam into another. T h e crowd shouted, “Lift up your hand!” as a sign that the offer­ ing was completed. T h e whole procedure had in m ind the gift o f water in the desert w hen the Jews were in danger o f dying o f thirst (Exod 17:1-6), and the prophecy o f a river o f living water flow ing from the Jerusalem temple in the kingdom o f G o d (Ezek 47:1-11) plus that o f waters in the new age flow ing from Jerusalem to the eastern and western seas (Zech 14:8). T h ese passages o f Scripture were all read in the festival. T h e burning question that none can answer is at what time Jesus uttered Joh n 7:37,38. T h e saying is best rendered as follows: 79

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“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and let him drink who believes in me. A s the scripture said, ‘Rivers o f living water will flow from his heart.’” If the voice o f Jesus sounded across the temple court imme­ diately after the crowd had shouted, “Lift up your hand!” and the priest had done so, the cry o f Jesus w ould have been as a thunder clap from heaven. Even had it been at a later hour, or on the eighth day when no ritual drawing o f water took place, the significance o f the cry w ould have been plain to all. Jesus was claiming to fulfill the meaning and promise o f the festival for his people. A s G o d rescued the fathers in the desert by giving them water, so Jesus can do for his generation. A n d as the Jews looked to G o d to send the river o f living water from his presence in the kingdom o f G od, so Jesus offers the living water in the present, for he is the M ediator o f the life o f the kingdom. (Note, the water flow s from Jesus the Representative o f G o d and Savior, not from the believer; in Ezek 47 it comes from G od, and in Rev 22:1 and 2 it flow s from the throne o f G od and the Lamb.) T he evangelist is conscious that the present gift offered as Jesus was speaking required for its fullness the “lifting u p ” o f Jesus (on his cross to the throne o f G od) and the outpour­ ing o f the H oly Spirit o f the kingdom (John 7:39); but this the reader o f the G ospel on this side o f Easter and Pentecost fully understood. A n d we m odem readers can understand how astonished the temple police sent to arrest Jesus were on hearing these words; they could no more lay hands on Jesus than they could have attempted to lay hands on G od Almighty! But more was to follow. T he next sentence from Jesus recorded by the evangelist is in Joh n 8:12. It has been separated from the narrative o f chapter 7 by the story o f the woman caught in the act o f adultery. T his account is not in the earliest manuscripts o f

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our G ospel but occurs in various places in the G ospels and has evidently come from an independent source. A ccord­ ingly, 8:12 belongs (with 7:37, 38) to the festival o f the Tents. T h e background to this utterance is given in the Talmudic tractate: Toward the end o f the feast o f Tabernacles, people went down into the court o f the women. . . . G olden lamps were there, and four golden bowls were on each o f them, and four ladders were by each; four young men from the priestly group o f youths had jugs o f oil in their hands and poured oil from them into the individual bowls. W icks were made from the discarded trousers o f the priests and from their girdles. There was no court in Jerusalem that was not bright from the light o f the place o f drawing water. M en o f piety and known for their good works danced before them with torches in their hands, and sang before them songs and praises. A nd the Levites stood with zithers and harps and cym­ bals and trumpets and other musical instruments with­ out number. . . . T his procedure happened every night o f the festival, except on an intervening sabbath. It was intended to recall the pillar o f cloud by day and o f fire by night that was with the Israelites in the wilderness, a sign o f the presence o f G od. It had saved them from threatened destruction by the Egyptian army (Exod 14:19-25) and led them through the wilderness to the promised land. T he lighted lamps also brought to mind the promise o f the shining o f the light o f G od for their salva­ tion in the coming kingdom o f G o d (cf. Isa 60:14-22; Zech 14:5-7). In affirming “I am the Light o f the w orld” Jesus was again appropriating the symbolism o f the festival to show the ful­ fillment o f the history and hope o f G o d ’s people in his 81

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G od-appointed ministry. A s Israel followed the Light from the land o f slavery through the wilderness to the prom ised land, so the believer following Jesus has “the Light o f life.” H e has both the promise o f life in the kingdom to come and its possession now. Jesus fulfills Tabernacles!

The Festival of the Dedication There is no reference in the O ld Testament to the Dedica­ tion Festival. It had its origin at a later time, in one o f the m ost astonishing and courageous episodes o f the history o f Israel. Antiochus Epiphanes, one o f the successors o f Alexander the Great, endeavored to unify his empire by establishing a single religion throughout its borders. In accordance with this pol­ icy he ordered the Jews to give up their religion and its laws and to adopt the worship o f Zeus. T h e climax o f his religious reformation was to set on the great altar in the temple o f Jerusalem a pagan altar, on which stood an image o f Zeus bearing his likeness. A n d on the twenty-fifth o f Kislev (i.e., December) 167 B.C. a sacrifice o f pigs was offered on this altar. T he turmoil and suffering that this attempted forced apostasy caused in Israel can well be imagined. In an incredible series o f battles with the forces o f Antiochus, Judas the M accabee (“the Ham m erer”!) led the Jews to victory. A n d on the twenty-fifth o f Kislev 164 B.C., three years to the day, the desecrated temple was cleansed and sacrifice was offered in accordance with the Law. T he people rapturously celebrated the rededication o f the temple and its altar for eight days, and it was decreed that a similar festival be held each year, beginning on the twentyfifth o f Kislev (see 1 M acc 4:36-59). T he festival remains to this day as one o f the m ost im portant o f Jewish feasts, not least aided by the fact that it can be held in the hom es o f the people. T h e festival was and is characterized by the use o f lights (possibly due to an earlier celebration o f the winter

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solstice). Josephus called it “the Festival o f Lights,” “because such a freedom shone upon u s.” A lampstand with eight lights was used, one candle being lighted on the first day o f the festival, then another each succeeding day, until all eight were alight. Rejoicing was the keynote o f the festival. A n account o f Jesus in the temple at the D edication Festi­ val is given in Joh n 10:22-39. It is stated that it was “w inter,” hence Jesus walked in Solom on ’s Porch, doubtless because it gave shelter from the biting wind. B u t it is likely that the reflection on the frosty tem perature related rather to the frozen spirits o f the Jew ish leaders (cf. Jo h n 13:30). A great deliverance from an A ntichrist was being celebrated, but a greater and m ore terrible power now tyrannized over the Jews, and there was no sign o f salvation. B ut there stood Jesus, the alleged perform er o f miracles, regarded by many as the M essiah, yet he didn’t keep the Law! W hat was one to make o f him? Som e o f the leaders therefore surrounded him and asked how long he intended to provoke them, and that he should tell them whether or not he was the Messiah. Jesus actually had never publicly claimed to be the Messiah, but much o f his teaching implied it. H ence he replied to them, “I told you, and you do not believe.” Nevertheless, after further conversation he stated som ething beyond anything they had expected: “I and the Father are on e” (v 30). It is im portant to observe that in the context this saying relates to the unity o f the Father and the So n in the w ork that they do. N one can snatch the sheep o f Jesus out o f his hand, for the Father gave them to him, and none can snatch them out o f the Father’s hand! Jesus and the Father are one in their work o f salvation. T h e language nevertheless points to a unity o f being, as is made plain in verse 38: T h e Father is in the So n and the So n in the Father. In fury the Jews alleged that Jesus had blasphemed. H e responded by citing a Scripture that sounds strange to us, but 83

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which was o f deepest interest to the Jews, and which they debated at length. Psalm 82:6 reads in full: I said, “You are gods; you are all the sons o f the M ost H igh.” B ut you will die like mere men; you will fall like every other ruler. It is evident from John 10:36 that Jesus presupposed, if not actually cited, both clauses o f the psalm. “You are gods,” . . . “you are all the sons o f the M ost H igh.” Jews under­ stood well that the term “god” can be applied to others than G o d himself. They discussed w ho is meant here— Israel’s judges (as representatives o f the supreme Judge), or angelic beings, or the people o f G od. M ost rabbis concluded that it was the last, more specifi­ cally Israel gathered at Sinai to receive the Law as the covenant people o f G od. T h at is evidently assum ed here; Jesus says, “the Scripture called them ‘gods’ to whom the w ord o f G o d cam e” . . . (v 35). It is harm onious with the O ld Testam ent teaching that Israel is G o d ’s (adopted) Son, as in E xod 4:22, 23: “Israel is my firstborn son, . . . Let my son go, so he may w orship m e.” T h e logic o f Jesus’ reply to his opponents is: “If the Scripture addresses G o d ’s people as ‘gods’ and ‘sons o f G o d ,’ how can you charge the representative S o n o f G o d with blasphemy when using this language o f him self?” In fact, Jesus went further than this: he spoke o f himself not simply as M essiah-Son o f G o d but specifically as “the one whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world.” In the festival that celebrated the deliverance o f Israel from a destroyer o f true religion and the consecration o f the temple for true worship, Jesus affirmed that G od had consecrated him as the Redeemer, whose deliverance issues in the king­ dom o f G o d and with it the worship o f G od under the new

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covenant. T he fundamental thought is the same as that made known by Jesus at the Passover, when he spoke o f him self as the new temple o f G od for all m ankind through his death and resurrection (2:19-21). H ere it gains color through its con­ text: Jesus is the fulfillment o f the Festival o f the Dedication! O u r review o f Jesus and the Jewish festivals shows how closely bound Jesus was to the revelation o f G o d in the O ld Testament and to the faith and worship o f his people ex­ pressed in their festivals. T he festivals were vivid reminders to the Jew s o f the experiences o f G o d in their nation’s his­ tory and o f the promises o f G o d to bring that history to a glorious destiny in the kingdom o f G od. A s they remem­ bered they included themselves in those experiences and those promises. In Jesus both the history and the prom ises came to fulfillment as he revealed in his words and deeds the kingdom o f G o d that brings salvation— to Jews and to all nations. T h is teaching will have been o f utm ost importance to the earliest readers o f the G ospels, who were in close touch with Jews who had not embraced the good news. We who belong to other times and races may also gain a securer grasp o f the gospel o f the kingdom as we contemplate the revelation o f Jesus in the festivals o f his people.

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JESUS AND HIS OWN: THE UPPER ROOM DISCOURSES

T h e discourses o f Jesus to his disciples, recorded in chap­ ters 13-17, are a distinctive feature o f o ur G ospel. M ark describes what Jesus said on that occasion in nine verses; Jo h n takes five chapters to do it— seventeen times as long! B u t there is a difference o f m ethod involved here. M ark tells o f Jesus instructing the disciples on various occasions earlier in the ministry (see, e.g., M ark 4:10-20; 7:17-23, and espe­ cially chapter 13), bu t Joh n reports none o f this. H e evi­ dently reserved all the instruction o f Jesus to the Twelve for the Last Supper, when Jesus will have sought to prepare his m en for what lay ahead o f them in the light o f his death. T his m ode o f compiling discourses o f Jesus, by bringing related teaching together, was followed by all the evangelists, and it is particularly plain in M atthew’s G ospel (compare, for example, M atthew 13 with M ark 4, and M atthew 2 4 ,2 5 with M ark 13). It looks as though Joh n originally drew up chapters 13 and 14 o f his G ospel as a complete discourse, since 14:31 brings it to a close. If that be so, chapters 15 and 16 were formed from 87

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the reservoir o f our L o rd ’s teaching that was available to him. It is also likely that the five passages on the Holy Spirit had earlier been brought together to tell what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit, and the evangelist set them in the discourses at appropriate points. It is a very plausible suggestion that every­ thing that is contained in John’s account o f the Last Supper had been remembered and repeated many times in celebra­ tions o f the Lord’s Supper, and so the whole story was even­ tually written up by the evangelist. People have often expressed their surprise that no report o f the words o f Jesus concerning the bread and wine is given in these chapters. T he explanation is probably that Joh n was aware that all Christians knew them well, and so there was no need to repeat them; he chose to provide in these discourses an exposition o f the meaning o f those w ords o f Jesus that were repeated in Christian services every Sunday. We shall divide the discourses as follows: T he washing o f the disciples’ feet by Jesus and prophecy o f his betrayal 13:1-30 T he departure and the return o f Jesus 13:31-14:31 Jesus, the True V ine 15:1-17 T h e opposition o f the world to the church 15:18-16:4a T h e ministry o f the Spirit and the joy o f the disciples 16:4b-33 T h e prayer o f consecration 17:1-26

The footwashing an d prophecy of betrayal T he introductory paragraph in verses 1-4 contains an ex­ traordinary contrast between the exalted dignity o f Jesus and the depths o f humility to which he stooped. H e had come from G o d and was going to G od, and the Father had given him “all things,” i.e., complete authority; but he stripped his JO H N

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clothes and put on a towel to do a slave’s job! Therein was seen his love “to the limit” (v 1, rather than “love to the end”). T he task o f washing anybody’s feet was seen by the Jews as peculiarly demeaning; it was one o f the few things which the Law stated a Jewish slave should not be asked to do— it should be left to a Gentile slave. Jesus and his disciple group had been invited to use the U pper R oom for this occasion. It would have been carpeted, and custom demanded that they wash their dusty feet before they occupied the room. But there was no Gentile slave, and none o f the disciples were prepared to do such a thing, and so they did nothing about it. Jesus therefore took the opportunity o f teaching the disciples a lesson in humility: W hat they were not prepared to do for one another he, their “Lord and M aster,” did (v 14). It is clear, however, that there are profounder dim ensions to this narrative than what lies on the surface. Peter, protest­ ing at Jesus washing his feet, is told first that only later will he be able to understand what Jesus is doing and, secondly, that if Jesus does not wash his feet he will have n o part in him. Som ething extraordinarily important is entailed in this ac­ tion o f Jesus. T he clue to its meaning is given in verse 10: “H e who has bathed does not need to wash . . . but is clean all over.” T h at is the statement in the earliest manuscripts o f the G ospel o f John; later manuscripts have the addition after “wash”— “except the feet.” T his is quite certainly due to a scribe, who thought that the washing o f the feet by Jesus assumes an earlier bath. It then came to be commonly be­ lieved that the earlier bath was baptism, and the washing o f the feet represented the Lord’s Supper! In reality Jesus was telling Peter that what he was now doing had the meaning o f a complete cleansing that is gained by a bath. H is washing o f the feet o f the disciples, accordingly, is a sign o f the greater cleans­ ing that Jesus is about to achieve by his sacrificial self-giving. S o he is able to say later (v 10), “you are clean,” i.e., through 89

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the Word he had spoken and the action that points to the death he is about to die. T hat entails a deeper understanding o f the example o f humility that Jesus gave; it was not simply his stripping off his robe and stooping to wash disciples’ feet, but his stripping o ff his glory with the Father and stooping to the humiliation and pain o f the cross; this is, indeed, “love to the limit,” and such he would have his disciples show to all. A fter the footwashing, Jesus “became agitated in spirit” (v 21), clearly due to what he was about to make know n to the group. “O ne o f you will betray m e.” T h e news shocked them. N ow occurs the first m ention o f “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” T he identity o f the betrayer was revealed to this disciple by Jesus handing to Judas a piece o f bread dipped into the central dish on the table (cf. v 18). T he action is to be interpreted as a sign o f favor. Jesus offered Judas a sign o f friendship, and then commanded him to do at once what he intended to do. T hat compelled Judas to make up his mind whether to turn from his evil plan or to reject the offer o f Jesus and carry it out. Never has anyone been so completely put on the spot as Judas in that moment. H e chose to open his heart to the devil and shut out the C h rist o f G od. A n d so he went out. T h e evange­ list added “and it was night,” although the paschal m oon shone almost as brightly as the day. T he night was in the heart o f Judas. It always is when his kind o f bargain is made.

The departure an d return of Jesu s T he departure o f Judas leads to an exultant cry from Jesus, in striking contrast to the anguish m entioned in verse 21. T h e saying reminds us o f 12:23: T h e departure o f Judas and the arrival o f the G reeks to see Jesus alike signified that the beginning o f the end had arrived. T h e “glorification” o f Jesus clearly has in view his death, but 12:31,32 indicate that it embraces his exaltation to heaven also. T h e crucifixion-

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resurrection o f Jesus is an indissoluble event. G o d is glori­ fied in both aspects o f it, and he glorifies the S o n in that he made the S o n ’s sacrifice effective for all and raised him to be Redeem er-Lord. It is in this context that the “new com m and” to love as C hrist loved us is set. Note, it is a command, not a suggestion. A s G o d laid on Israel the Law as their part o f the covenant that they should be the people o f G od, so the So n o f G od, when initiating the new covenant, laid on his people one supreme command. T he addition, “as I have loved you,” is beyond our ability; it can be demanded only because the new covenant is charactem ed by grace and the gift o f the Holy Spirit. T he church thus becom es the People o f the New Life, and its hallmark is love in the Jesus manner. A s Christians fulfill their calling they show what a community o f love is like, and they learn to extend that love to the world outside its borders. Chapter 14 is occupied with the discourse o f Jesus on his departure and return. T h e disciples at the end o f chapter 13 are in a state o f shock: O ne o f them is to betray Jesus, Peter is going to deny Jesus, and Jesus is going away from them. W hat sort o f awful crisis lies ahead o f them? To that situa­ tion Jesus addresses the beautiful words o f 14:1, D o not let your hearts continually be in turmoil; keep on believing in G od, and keep on believing in me. Yet rarely did Jesus ask so difficult a thing. They were shortly to see him arrested, ridiculed, and condemned, learn o f his being flogged by Pilate’s soldiers, and finally see him from a distance nailed to a cross. H ow should they believe in him through all that? They didn’t. O nly in the light o f Easter were they to grasp that G o d ’s will was never m ore truly done than in those very events, and that in them was faith’s su­ preme ground and inspiration. 91

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T h e imagery o f the departure and return o f Jesus (in verses 2 and 3) is literally “hom ey” (the British expression is “hom ely”!). It m akes no reference to the terrible circum­ stances o f his “going away,” i.e., through crucifixion, and none to the splendor and glory o f his “com ing back.” It states in simplest term s that the death o f Jesus is for the purpose o f his securing a place in the Father’s house for his followers, and that he will welcome them into it on his return. In view o f references to the “coming” o f Jesus later in this discourse some scholars question whether verse 3 really has in view the coming o f C h rist for the victory o f his kingdom, or whether it refers to his coming in some other way, per­ haps through the coming o f the Spirit at Pentecost, or possi­ bly in death. To me these suggestions are very doubtful. In verse 18, “I shall not leave you orphans, I shall come back to you,” the context indicates that the reference is to Jesus coming back in the Easter resurrection. T h at is seen in verse 19, “A fter a little while the world will see me no longer, but you will see me; because I live you too will live.” T h e thought is expounded at length in 16:16-24, which plainly has in mind the resurrection o f Jesus. In verse 23, however, a quite different thought is in view. Jesus says, “If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him, and we shall make our dwelling with him .” T hat picks up the saying in verse 2, “in my Father’s house there are many dwellings.” Jesus goes away so that there may be a place for us in that “hom e,” but he declares that in this time the Father and the So n will “com e” to those who love him and they will make their home with them. T h e promise is a kind o f anticipation o f the coming o f the Lord and the welcoming to the Father’s home. T h e meaning o f all this is perfectly clear. T h e Lord who departs from this earthly scene through death comes and reveals him self as the conqueror o f death at Easter. H e

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com es to every one who believes in him, so that the believer may know som ething o f heaven on earth in this life; and he shall complete the joy o f fellowship with the Father and the Spirit when he comes to bring his people home. M arvelous promises! A nd we know som ething o f their fulfillment even now. Verses 25-31 form an epilogue to the first discourse. They hark back to the beginning o f chapter 14 and utter a bequest o f peace. In reality that is the salvation o f G od. Jesus m ust now complete the Father’s purpose, confront the devil, and win salvation for the world. Accordingly he tells his disci­ ples, “G et up, and let us go from this place”— that is, to meet the foe. T he battle m ust now be joined!

Jesus, the True Vine T he figure o f the vine (or sometimes vineyard) is frequent in the O ld Testament for Israel. It is remarkable, however, that whenever Israel is so described, the vine or vineyard is under the judgm ent o f G od for failing to produce fruit, or for producing only bad fruit (see especially Isa 5, but also Jer 2:21; Ezek 15:1-8; Ps 80:8-18). In contrast to this, Jesus is the True Vine; he fulfills G o d ’s purpose, not only in himself, but in those who are united with him in faith. O bserve that in this figure Jesus is not said to be the trunk and believers the branches; he is the tree in which the branches live and are therefore productive. T h e figure is closely similar to that o f C hrist as the body, in whom the believers are limbs (so 1 C o r 12:12: “as the body is one . . . so it is with C h rist,” RSV). In the allegory it is urged that the branches m ust “remain” in the vine (v 4). T he reality speaks o f a continuance in union with Jesus. Its meaning is spelled out in verses 7-10. It is to let his words remain in us— to heed them and live by them (v 7). It is to live in the love o f Jesus (v 9), i.e., in the consciousness o f his love for us, to rejoice in it and to depend upon it. It is to 93

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live in obedience to the Lover (v 10), since that shows the genuineness o f our responsive love. T h e result o f such “remaining” in Jesus is fruit bearing. A n d “fruit” would appear to mean all the manifestations o f genuine faith. Verse 16 further indicates that it includes also winning converts to C h rist as the fruit o f his suffering for them (“. . . that you should go forth and yield fruit”). B u t the ultimate product o f fruit bearing is love (v 17). T h at is the fruit that m ost delights the Lord.

The opposition of the world to the church In the opening paragraph o f this section causes o f the w orld’s opposition to the followers o f Jesus are described: the world’s hatred o f Jesus is directed to those who follow him (v 18); and the disciples o f Jesus, like their Lord, are not “o f this w orld,” i.e., they belong to a different world (v 19, cf. 3:31; 8:23; 18:36,37). T h e world may be counted on to make a similar response to them as it did to Jesus, i.e., rejection— and yet also, in measure, acceptance (v 20). There follows a grim warning o f an increase o f opposition to the disciples (16:1-4). T h is will lead to their exclusion from the synagogues, and even attempts to have them put to death. T h e first clause o f verse 2 reminds us o f the last beatitude o f Jesus in M att 5:11, 12, and especially its parallel in Luke 6:22, 23 (NIV): “Blessed are you w hen m en hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because o f the So n o f M an.” T h e second clause o f verse 2 finds a remarkable illustration in the Talmud (Num. Rab. 21.19a): the slaying by Phineas o f a Jew and o f a M oabite woman with whom the man cohabited is interpreted, on the basis o f N um 25:13, as an atoning sacri­ fice; the comment is added, “T h is alone will teach you that everyone who pours out the blood o f the godless is like one who offers a sacrifice.” T h e story o f the Christian church, JO H N

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from the lynching o f Stephen to the last attempt o f a R om an emperor (Diocletian) to annihilate the church, along with the many attempts that have been made to do that same thing through the centuries to our own time, provides a continu­ ous exposition o f this passage.

The ministry of the Spirit an d the joy of the disciples T h e tw o longest statements relating to the H oly Spirit in the U pper R oom discourses fall in this section. We shall take the opportunity to consider all five o f them (14:15-17; 14:25, 26; 15:26, 27; 16:7-11,12-15). T h e first o f these sayings refers to the H oly Spirit as “another Paraclete.” T h at name is really the G reek w ord for the Spirit in these passages. It is often used in discussions about the H oly Spirit because it is difficult to find a real parallel for it in our language. O ften it denotes a legal adviser in court, but it is not a legal term like advocate, barrister, or attorney; it can have a m ore general meaning like “helper.” In 16:8-11 the legal associations are to the fore, and there the Spirit appears to perform the functions o f a prosecuting barrister in court. B ut in 14:25 and 26 and 16:13 and 14 his task is to recall and interpret the revelation given through Jesus. T h e chief w ork o f the Paraclete-Spirit is indicated in 15:26: “H e will bear witness concerning m e.” T h e Spirit is to “teach” and “rem ind” the disciples o f all that Jesus said to them (14:26). T h ese are complementary, alm ost identical tasks (note how remembering and under­ standing are closely linked in 2:17-22 and 12:16). T h e Spirit teaches as he reminds. Accordingly he brings no new revela­ tion, but points to that which Jesus brought, and enables the disciples to understand it. T h e Spirit will “bear witness” to Jesus, and so will the disciples (15:26 and 27). T h is affirmation w ould appear to m ean that the Spirit will bear joint witness with the disciples 95

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as they proclaim Jesus in the gospel. T h e saying is closely parallel to M ark 13:9,11, and the Q-saying in Luke 12:11,12 and M att 10:19, 20. It serves as a reminder o f the context in which the early disciples frequently preached the gospel— on trial for preaching Christ! But it also indicates that the H oly Spirit is the power behind the apostolic witness to Christ: H e makes it effective (cf. M ark 16:19, 20). T he H oly Spirit in his witness to Jesus will expose the world (16:8) and thereby reveal its wrong in relation to sin, righteousness, and judgm ent (16:9-11; for a striking example cf. A cts 24:24, 25). T he emphasis on unbelief as the major sin runs through Joh n ’s G ospel (cf. 1:11; 3:19; 15:22). T h e “w orld” saw in the death o f Jesus p ro of o f his wrong, but the Spirit is to bring hom e to people the fact that he was right (and righteous!), since his “lifting u p ” on the cross was one with his exaltation to the throne o f G od. T h at act, moreover, entailed the dethronem ent o f the devil, who led the world to oppose him and put him to death. T h e world accordingly shared in that judgment, and its continuation in rejecting Jesus as L ord continues to implicate it in that judg­ ment. To reveal the truth o f these realities is the task o f the Paraclete-Spirit. T he last Paraclete saying (16:12-15) expands what is stated in the second (14:26). T he Paraclete is to guide the disciples in all the truth revealed in Jesus, a necessary process because the disciples so little grasped its depths and heights; and the church needs that ministry ever after. T he Spirit teaches what he hears, just as Jesus taught what he heard from the Father; it is one revelation o f G o d in C hrist that is com­ municated. A final w ord on the Spirit’s ministry is apparently con­ tained in 16:25. It may especially relate to verses 16-24, but it extends also to the last discourses in their entirety, and perhaps is intended to apply to the teaching o f Jesus throughout his ministry. To this point Jesus has spoken JO H N

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“in figures” (RSV, or “figuratively,” N iv). In the language o f Jesus the w ord actually means “proverbs,” “parables,” and “riddles”— all three; so we may understand Jesus as saying, “I have said these things to you in the obscure speech of metaphor. ” B ut in the com ing “h our,” i.e., after the death and resurrection o f Jesus, he will speak plainly o f the Father. T h is m ust refer to his instruction o f the disciples and the church through the H oly Spirit. It is a striking promise; along with the rest o f the Paraclete sayings it found fulfill­ m ent in the G ospel in which it is set, as also in the ministry o f the Spirit as G o d ’s people have sought to understand his Word.

The prayer of consecration T his matchless prayer is often called “the High Priestly Prayer o f Jesus.” Westcott, seeing the focal point o f the prayer to be in verses 17-19, aptly named it “the Prayer o f C onsecra­ tion,” 1 and that title we prefer. Com m only the prayer is di­ vided into three sections: Jesus prays for him self (vv 1-5), for his disciples (vv 6-19), and for his church (vv 20-26). We suggest subdividing the latter tw o sections, and will follow that pattern in our exposition. 1. Prayer for the glory o f the Son, vv 1 -5. In light o f 12:23, 2 7 ,3 1 ,3 2 the prayer that the Father may glorify the S o n will have in m ind tw o things: that the death o f the S o n may be an acceptable sacrifice, and that he be raised from death to the Father’s presence. W ith that prayer answered the king­ dom o f G o d will be opened for all believers. Such a coming o f the kingdom will issue both in the greater glory o f G o d and in entrance into it by the L o rd ’s people (vv 2, 3); for eternal life is the life o f the kingdom o f G o d in his presence and under his gracious care. 2. Prayer for the disciples of Jesus, vv 6-19. (a) Jesus prays for the disciples and “not for the w orld” (v 9). T h is exclusion

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o f the world from the prayer o f Jesus m ust be understood in its context. T h e disciples have been called to continue the mission o f the L ord to the world (v 18). Self-evidently this task includes mobilizing the church to engage in that m is­ sion also. It is as the church fulfills its calling that the world will recognize that Jesus has been sent to them by G o d (w 21, 23). To this extent the prayer o f Jesus for the disciples is indirectly prayer for the world also. T he key petition for the disciples is in verse 11: “Keep them in your name . . . that you have given m e,” i.e., through adherence to what Jesus has revealed to the disciples o f the “name” or the character o f G od. It is as they are kept in adherence to that revelation that the further prayer can be answered, “that they may be one, just as we are one.” (b) A profound extension o f the prayer that the disciples be “kept in your name” is made in verses 17-19: “Consecrate them in the truth. . . . For their sakes I consecrate myself, that they also may become consecrated in (the) truth.” In light o f the utterances o f Jesus during the Supper— “this is my body . . . this is my blood . . .” (Mark 14:22, 24)— “I con­ secrate m yself” m ust mean consecrate to death for the sake o f humankind. T h e continuance o f the prayer, however, “that they may be consecrated . . .” indicates an overlap in the meaning o f the consecration o f Jesus and that o f his disciples. H is dedication to death is made in order that they too may be dedicated to the task o f bringing the saving sovereignty to the world, and that in a like spirit as he brought it. H e alone through his redemptive w ork can introduce G o d ’s kingdom o f salvation into the world and open its gates for all; but his disciples can, and should, serve as its instrum ents as they proclaim the good news to the world. T his they will best do as they exemplify in their own lives the suffering love o f the Redeem er. 3. Prayer that all believers may be one, vv. 20-23. Here the petition o f verse 11b is expanded. It is to be observed that

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the single prayer for the church in the world is “that they may be one.” T h e nature o f this unity is strikingly defined: “as you, Father, are in me and I am in you.” It is a unity grounded in the being o f G od and in the redemptive action o f G o d in Christ. Its goal is equally profound: “that they also may be in u s” (v 21); “I in them and you in m e” (v 23). In the former petition the redeemed become one by participating in the fellowship o f the Father and the Son; in the latter, that partic­ ipation is through their union with the Son, for the So n o f G od is the one M ediator between G o d and man. Clearly, this is a unity that cannot possibly be achieved by the efforts that people— even Christian people— can make. It is the fruit o f G o d ’s redemptive work in Christ. A n d the prayer has been answered, so surely as G o d answered the prayer o f Jesus to glorify the So n that the So n may glorify him! Nevertheless, it is abundantly plain that the church is called to give expression to this unity created by G od. T h e unity has to become visible before the world. Accordingly Jesus prays, “that the world may believe . . . that the world may know.” T he church is to be the embodiment o f its gospel, that the world may not only hear the good news but see its power in bringing about a community o f Life and Love such as the world needs. 4. Prayer that believers may be perfected in the glory of the Son, vv 24-26. T h e prayer that the L o rd ’s people may be with him and behold his glory (v 24) is without indication o f time, apart from the fact that it follows his “glorification.” Since, however, the prayer has the church in view, and Jesus goes to prepare a place for his own and is to return to welcome them to the Father’s house (14:2, 3), it is likely that the glory o f his coming and the consum m ation o f the king­ dom o f G o d are primarily in mind. T h e petition o f verse 24 is grounded in verses 25 and 26. T h e goal o f C h rist’s revelation o f the Father’s name is stated 99

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in verse 26: “that the love with which you have loved me may be in them. . . .’’ It has a variety o f implications: an ever-increasing understanding o f the love o f the Father for the Son, an ever fuller grasp o f the w onder that that love is extended to believers, an ever-growing love on their part to the Father, and an ever deeper fellowship with him as they abide in the So n and he in them. In this way the command to love in 13:34 attains its ultimate fulfillment, and the prayer o f verse 24 its final exposition. T h e glory o f C h rist is the glory o f G o d ’s love. Seen by his people, it transform s them into bearers o f Christly love. Such is the goal o f history in the new creation brought about by the So n o f G o d — Revealer and Redeem er in the past, the present, and the future.

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6

THE GLORIFICATION OF JESUS

A ll four G ospels in the N ew Testam ent conclude with an account o f the circum stances that led to the death o f Jesu s — his arrest and trial, his crucifixion, burial, and resurrec­ tion. A n d each one emphasizes certain features in the h ap­ penings o f the last week o f the life o f Jesus. In this the fourth evangelist is no exception. H e selects elem ents in the familiar story that serve as pointers to the m eaning o f the event that was to change history and determ ine the destiny o f hum ankind for all time. A primary emphasis o f the evangelist in his description o f the suffering o f Jesus is that he who is here tried, humiliated, rejected, and crucified, is none other than G o d ’s K in g — the Lord o f Israel and o f the nations. N o account is given o f the trial o f Jesus before the supreme court o f the Jews, the San ­ hedrin (contrast Mark 14:53-64 and parallels). T hat Jesus was brought for trial before the Sanhedrin under the leadership o f Caiaphas is presumed to be known. John’s concern is limited to the trial o f Jesus by Pilate, and the governor’s dealings with Jesus and with the Jewish leaders, for in these the primary issues o f the life and death o f Jesus are most clearly seen. 101

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T h e first utterance o f Pilate to Jesus is a question, “Are you the king o f the Jews?” (John 18:33). T he question itself assum es what had taken place in the Jewish trial, notably the high priest’s question (“A re you the M essiah?”) and Jesus’ answer (“I am . . . M ark 14:61, 62). T h e translation o f M essiah as King o f the Jews was easy enough, but it placed Jesus in a situation o f lèse majesté, i.e., o f committing high treason, for Caesar alone could be recognized as king o f the Jews (see Joh n 19:15). T h e answer o f Jesus was first a negative statement as to the nature o f his kingdom: It is not a kingdom o f this world, the kind o f kingdom Pilate serves. T h at leads inevitably to a second question o f Pilate: “S o then you are a king?” T h at elicits a positive statement from Jesus: H is king­ dom is the kingdom o f truth. H e was b o m and came into the world to bear witness to this kingdom. For the kingdom o f truth is none other than the kingdom o f salvation. T he answer o f Jesus led Pilate to make an abortive attempt to release Jesus, but the Jewish leaders and the crowd gath­ ered with them called for the release o f Barabbas instead. Pilate therefore handed Jesus over to the soldiers that they should flog him. W hy was this done? In all likelihood, in hope o f satisfying the Jews with a lesser punishm ent than the ultimate one o f death. T he flogging, however, as practiced by Rom ans was o f appalling severity, frequently capable o f killing a victim. T his is to be borne in mind in the subsequent narrative; Jesus will have been in a condition o f near physical collapse, and it will have been apparent to all. Nevertheless, the soldiers were not finished with Jesus after his flogging. They wove a crown o f long thorns, to imitate a crown o f a divine king, and clothed him with a purple coat, then gave him the kind o f salutation they ac­ corded to the R om an emperor (“Hail, king o f the Jews!” is said in imitation o f the cry, “Hail, Caesar!”). Joh n records the soldiers’ cruel action, but not simply to show a sadistic act o f

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mockery; like Caiaphas, the soldiers said better than they knew. Jesus is G o d ’s king, and warrants m ore truly than C aesar the homage o f all hum ankind. W hen the soldiers took Jesus back to the governor, dressed as a parody o f a king, Pilate prom ptly led Jesus out to the crowd and cried, “Look, the M an!” It is improbable that this was done for spite. M ore likely it was to make Jesus appear as a pitiful figure w ho was plainly no danger to R o ­ mans o r Jews, and so to persuade the Jewish leaders to agree to release him. T he evangelist, o f course, will have had other thoughts in recording this. For him Pilate’s cry was a call to look at the M an sent from God, whose majesty was veiled by sacrificial love and whose suffering was the m eans o f bringing the kingdom o f salvation for all people, including those thirsting for his blood and those who were shedding it. Pilate’s ploy failed. H e therefore took his place on the judg­ m ent seat. Jesus will have been made to stand beside him. T he crowd awaited the sentence o f judgment. Instead, to their astonishment, Pilate called out to them, “Look, your king!” H e made the moment o f Jesus’ condemnation the occasion for declaring his kingship. In so doing he confronted the Jews with a mom entous decision: were they willing to send their king to death, or did they wish to relent? T his latter course they were unwilling to take. O n the contrary, they committed the greatest act o f apostasy in Jewish history: they declared, “We have n o king except C aesar.” In light o f Jesus’ proclama­ tion o f the kingdom o f G od, that was tantam ount to a re­ jection o f the reason for Israel’s existence. A fter that there was no more to be said. T he King o f the Jews was sent to the gallows. T he last word, however, was not with the Jewish leaders but with Pilate. It was customary for a condem ned criminal to have a card round his neck, stating the crime for which he was to die. Jesus was made to wear just such a placard. T h e 103

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wording was, “Jesus the Nazarene, the King o f the Jew s,” and it was written in multiple languages so that all w ho saw could understand. It was Pilate’s act o f revenge on the Jewish lead­ ers. They controlled their fury and asked that he add a single word to the card, namely, “I am ” (that is one word in the languages used). T he addition would have meant that Jesus claimed to be king, but that he was a liar. Pilate refused to change the inscription, and in so doing refused to change the truth into a lie. Jesus died as King o f the Jew s— rejected by those who should have owned him, but appointed by G o d as the King who saves alike Jews and people o f every nation under heaven. O f the rest o f the story o f the last hours o f Jesus on the cross there is one happening to which the evangelist attached greatest importance. Joseph o f Arimathea, a member o f the Jewish Sanhedrin, requested o f Pilate that he might give Jesus a proper burial (i.e., not one in a com m on grave, as the Jewish leaders had in view, 19:31). This he was permitted to do. H e and Nicodem us accordingly prepared the body o f Jesus for burial. Joseph supplied the grave clothes, Nicodemus the spices, but the evangelist notes that Nicodem us supplied a prodigious quantity— one hundred liters o f spices. In to­ day’s measures that represents sixty-five and a half pounds, an enormous amount to use on one individual. T he only peo­ ple recorded as receiving such a burial were kings. O ne may compare what happened at the burial o f King Asa, recorded in 2 C hr 16:14. A t the funeral o f H erod the G reat spices were carried by hundreds o f slaves. M ore to the point, it is stated that Onkelos, a contemporary o f our evangelist, at the death o f Gamaliel the Elder burned eighty liters o f spices. W hen asked why he had done so he cited the words o f Jeremiah (34:4-5) to king Zedekiah: “You shall die in peace, and with the burnings in honor o f your fathers (i.e., earlier kings) who were before you,” and he added, “Is not Rabbi Gamaliel far better than a hundred kings?” 1 D oubtless Nicodemus, if he

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had been similarly questioned, would have answered in a like spirit, “Is not Jesus far greater than all kings?” T h e death o f Jesus as the king who brings the kingdom o f salvation to the world has various im portant aspects to which Joh n draws attention. T he last w ord o f Jesus on the cross o f which he knows is his cry, “It is accomplished!” (19:30). T h e utterance indicates not alone that the earthly work o f Jesus has now come to an end, but that the task assigned him has been accomplished. If we ask what it is that has been accomplished, and allow Jesus to answer for him ­ self, we must say, “N othing less than the judgm ent o f the world!” S o Jesus declared in anticipation o f his hour (12:31). In the m urder o f the So n o f G o d sin has been revealed as a G od-opposing force that is God-destructive in its intent. But the unique and astonishing feature o f the death o f Jesus is that in the event wherein the world sought to destroy him, G o d gave his So n that the world might not perish! T h e So n o f G o d endured the judgm ent o f G o d that should have fallen on the would-be destroyers o f God! In virtue o f Jesus, the So n o f G od, bearing the judgment o f G od upon the world two immense consequences follow. First, Satan has no ground o f accusing humanity represented by the Mediator; he has been “thrown o u t” o f heaven and so has no access before G o d in heaven (John 12:31; the imagery is comparable to that in Job chs 1, 2). T his is a vivid way o f saying that sinful man is justified in Christ, and the decision cannot be reversed by any accuser (cf. R om 8:33, 34). Secondly, the M ediator is exalted from his cross to the right hand o f G od. T he vaunted “prince o f this world” has been dethroned and the C hrist o f G od enthroned. In the dying and rising o f the King o f Israel the kingdom o f G o d has come in fullness o f blessing to humankind, he is revealed as Lord and Savior o f the nations, and the doors o f the king­ dom have been opened for all who own him as Redeemer. T h is fundamental understanding o f the saving work o f

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Jesus is represented by the evangelist through a symbol that appears throughout his G ospel, namely, that o f a second Exodus that brings freedom, not for one nation but for all nations. John, and Joh n alone, records a request o f the Jew­ ish leaders that the m en who had been crucified o n that day should not be left to hang on the crosses, eventually to be devoured by vultures, but rather that they be killed and buried speedily, so that the land should not be defiled by the corpses during the Passover (John 19:31). T h is request was granted. Soldiers were sent to hasten the death o f the cruci­ fied men. A s we have noted, the soldiers did this to the tw o m en beside Jesus, and were about to do the same to him when they saw that he was dead already. T here was no need there­ fore to smash the legs o f Jesus, but one soldier thrust his spear into his side, presumably to make sure that he was truly dead. T his happening was observed by an eyewitness and through him was made know n to the evangelist, who saw it as deeply significant. T hese events happened, he affirmed, “that the Scripture might be fulfilled, ‘N ot a bone o f his is to be broken,’ and again another Scripture says, ‘They will look on him whom they pierced.’” There is no doubt as to the pri­ mary reference the evangelist had in view in this passage: T h e Passover Festival is about to be celebrated, the Passover lambs have been slaughtered (at the time when Jesus was crucified!), and his executioners were restrained from smashing his bones. Jesus accordingly dies as the Lam b o f G od, fulfilling the meaning and the hope o f Passover, and bringing about the “redemption” o f the world, i.e., real freedom, liberation, emancipation, and an Exodus from the powers o f sin and death for life in the kingdom o f G o d under the Savior Christ. In view o f the evangelist’s fundamental assum ption o f the unity o f the death and resurrection o f Jesus, it is to be ex­ pected that som e light on the L o rd ’s saving work should be JO H N

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shed by the resurrection narratives. In this we are not disap­ pointed. A fter the preliminary accounts o f the finding o f the em pty tom b and the appearance o f the risen L ord to M ary M agdalene, the essential meaning o f the resurrection o f Jesus is concentrated into a single short paragraph, Joh n 20:19-23. T h e first words o f the risen L ord to the disciples gathered in the U pper R oom are “Peace to you!” or, in the language he had always used with his disciples, “Shalom !” Everybody know s that that term was and is the everyday greeting o f Jews in Palestine. B ut the occasion o f this use o f it was far from everyday. Shalom is the m ost comprehensive w ord for salvation in the O ld Testament. Primarily it denotes well­ being, health, completeness, prosperity, a relation o f friend­ ship with others and so in a wider context absence o f war; m ost o f all, however, it denotes a happy relationship with G o d and the world which he alone can establish. In the writings o f the prophets peace is the gift o f G o d which his people will know in the kingdom o f G od. T h e prophecy o f the coming o f the M essiah in M icah 5:2-5 con­ cludes with the famous words: H e will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength o f the Lord, in the majesty o f the name o f the Lord his G od. A n d they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends o f the earth. A n d h e w ill b e th e ir p e ac e. (NIV) W hen, therefore, the Lord, after his crucifixion and resurrec­ tion, uttered the greeting to his disciples, “Shalom to you,” it carried a fullness o f meaning such as it had never borne on the lips o f any man. A ll the prophetic anticipations o f the blessings o f the kingdom o f G o d had essentially been realized in the living, dying, and rising o f Jesus. H is “Shalom ” o f 107

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Easter evening is the complement o f “It is finished” on the cross, for the peace o f reconciliation with G od and man was achieved and was now imparted. T h e joy o f the disciples was a natural response to the sight o f their beloved Lord, an overwhelming gladness to see him alive after the appalling death that he had suffered (John 20:20). Later, their joy was to be deepened as they came to realize the profound significance o f the Easter events. For joy is an inseparable concomitant o f the kingdom o f G o d (as may be seen in such typical passages as Isa 25:6-9 and R ev 21:2-4). Paul reflects precisely this consciousness when he defined the kingdom o f G o d as “righteousness, peace, and joy in the H oly Spirit” (Rom 14:17). T h e accomplishment o f the salvation o f the kingdom o f G od by the crucified and risen Lord is accompanied by a com m ission to make the good news known. T h e L o rd ’s “Shalom to you” is to be proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and that in the Jesus manner. S o it is that in our G ospel the great com m ission runs, “A s the Father has sent me, I also am sending you” (John 20:21). In these words there is a reflection o f a principle o f representation that was fundamental to the Jewish people.- “O ne who is sent is as he who sends him .” It finds expression in the saying o f Jesus in Joh n 13:20, “H e who receives anyone I send receives me, and he who receives me receives the O ne who sent m e” (cf. M att 10:40 and Luke 10:16). Ju st as Jesus was sent as the representative o f the Father, and taught and acted with the authority o f G od , so the disciples are sent as the representatives o f Jesus to make know n the kingdom o f G o d with the authority and power vested in him. T h e followers o f Jesus, however, are ex­ pected to observe the way he exercised his authority. For he was sent to fulfill the vocation o f the Servant o f the L ord, in a spirit o f hum ility and obedience to the Father, as set forth in the songs o f the Servant in Isaiah 42-53. S o also the

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servants o f the Servant o f the L o rd are to go in like m anner, em bodying the message they proclaim in their living. T h e principle is set forth in w ords that need to be pondered by every servant o f the Lord: “T h e S o n o f m an also (i.e., he as well as his followers) came n o t to be served b u t to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for m any” (M ark 10:45 RSV). T h e balance betw een authority and hum ble service is difficult to achieve, b u t the secret was dem onstrated by the K in g o n his way to the cross; as the ancients used to say, “H e reigns from the tree.” It is im portant to observe that when the S o n was sent forth on his m ission by the Father he was conscious that he had n ot left the Father’s presence: “H e who sent m e is with m e,” he said (John 8:29). H is ministry was a partnership with the Father, aided by the H oly Spirit, the reality o f which was dem onstrated by the com passion and power in which he labored. S o also the representatives o f Jesus are sent out as partners with him in their mission. T h e risen L ord goes with those he sends (cf. the ending o f the G reat C om m ission in Matthew, “Look, I am with you to the end o f the age!” M att 28:20). T his authority and power o f the partnership o f the disci­ ples with their Lord is expressed in a graphic manner in Joh n ’s narrative. Having commissioned the disciples, the Lord said, “Receive (the) H oly Spirit” (John 20:22). T h e account is plainly symbolic. T h e unusual use o f the w ord “he breathed in them ” is reminiscent o f its use in G en 2:7, where we read, “G o d breathed into the nostrils o f A dam the breath o f life,” and again in Ezek 37:9, 10 (n iv ), where the prophet is bidden to call on the wind, “Breathe into these slain, that they may live.” We are meant to understand by this symbolic action that the risen L ord imparted to his disciples the H oly Spirit o f the new creation, which had been brought into being through his death and resurrection; thereby he enabled the service o f the kingdom o f G o d to be

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carried out in the power o f the H oly Spirit o f the kingdom. From this m om ent on, the partnership o f the ParacleteSpirit and the disciples begins, so fulfilling the prom ises o f Jesus in Joh n 14-16 concerning the sending o f the Spirit. T h e salvation o f the kingdom o f G o d brought into being by the crucified and risen Redeem er is n o merely private enjoyment o f forgiveness o f sins and new life from the Lord. It is a salvation for the forgiveness and life o f all hum ankind. W ith the grace o f life is given the grace to communicate it. S o surely as we who believe have received the former, so surely are we intended to experience the latter. W hen the C h urch engages in its m ission in that faith, the reality o f the partnership o f the L ord o f the kingdom with his subjects is seen in the transform ation o f m en and women by the gospel o f the kingdom. In that spirit, let us go to it!

JOHN

110

NOTES

Chapter 1 Interpreting the G ospel of John 1. Reported by Eusebius, History of the Church, 3.31,3. 2. Against Heresies, 3.1,2. 3. The development of this prayer and its application to Chris­ tians have been widely discussed. For its wording and meaning see J. Jocz, The Jewish People and Jesus Christ (London: SPCK, 1949), 51-57. For its possible application in the fourth Gospel see History and Theology in the Fourth Gospel, J. L. Martyn, ed. (Nashville: Abingdon, 1979), 24-62, and especially the magisterial treatment of the subject by W. Horbury, “The Benediction of the Minim and Early Jewish-Christian Controversy,” JTS 33 (1982): 19-61. 4. See J. Louis Martyn’s treatment of this idea in History and Theology in the Fourth Gospel, 24-62. 5. The Fourth Gospel (London: Faber and Faber, 1943), 362. 6. The Historical Jesus in the Gospel of S t John (London: Bums and Oates, 1967), 46. Chapter 2 T h e Word M ade Flesh 1. Le quatrième Evangile (Paris: 1903), 98. 2. Hoskyns, The Fourth Gospel, 162.

Ill

Notes

3. Hebrew Thought Compared with Greek (Philadelphia: West' minster, 1960), 58-59. 4. The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel (Cambridge: The University Press, 1953), 284. 5. Ibid., 285. 6. The Gospel of John (Oxford: Blackwell, 1971), 31. 7. The Gospel of John, 449. 8. The Gospel According to John, The Anchor Bible vol. 1 (New York: Doubleday, 1966), 535. Chapter 3 T h e Signs of Jesus and their Significance 1. The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, 383-86. 2. See the Jewish Midrash, Genesis Rabba, 11.8c. 3. The Gospel According to John, vol. 2, (New York: Seabury, 1980), 335. Chapter 4 Jesus and the Jew ish Festivals 1. The Fourth Gospel, 281. 2. Das Evangelium nach Johannes, in Erläuterungen zum Neuen Testament (Stuttgart: Calwer Verlag, 1947), 116. 3. The Talmudic tractate Sanhedrin, 99a. Chapter 5 Jesus and H is Own: T h e U pper Room Discourses 1. The Gospel According to S t John, vol. 2 (London: John Murray, 1908), 238-39. Chapter 6 T h e Glorification of Jesus 1. The rabbinic work Semahoth:8.

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INDEX OF SCRIPTURES

Old Testament Genesis 1:1 2 2:2 2:7 22:2 22:12 22:16 25:22 Exodus 3:14 4.1-8 4:22-23 4:29-31 7:13 12:26-27 12:46 13:3-16 13:21-22 14:19-25 16:15-36 17:1-6 20:8-11 23:11

113

24 24 55 109 32 32 32 62 60 45 35,86 45 46 71 72, 76 31 71 81 57 79 69 69

2314 23:16 32:30-32 33:7-11 33:18 40:34-38 Leviticus 23:24-25 25:8-55 Numbers 9:12 10:10 25:13 Deuteronomy 6:22 16:10 16:16 18:15,18 21:20 Joshua 7:19 Judges 11.34 1 Samuel

70 70 78 31 34 31 69 69 72, 76 69 94 46 76 70 58 62 64 32

10:1-9 2 Samuel 7:14 2 Kings 4:42-44 5:10-14 2 Chronicles 16:14 Job 1-2 Psalms 2-7 34:20 58:4 69:9 77.14-20 80:8-18 82:6 89:26-27 113-118 136 Proverbs 8:22-31 8:22

45 36 58 63 104 105 36 76 62 50 41,60 93 84 36 79 46 23 24

Index of Scriptures

Isaiah 5 7:10-16 12 25:6-9 42 43:8-13 43:10 43:10-13 43:25 44:6-11 45:5,6 45:18,21,22 53 60:14-22 61:1-2 66:19 Jeremiah 1:5 2:21 7:4-15 31:31-33 32:20 Ezekiel 10:15-19 11:22-23 15:1-8 20:33-44 37:9-10 40-47 47:1-11 Daniel 7 Hosea 2:14-23 Micah 5:2-5 Zechariah 12:10 14:5-7 14:8

93 46 79 49,50,57,108 108 77 42,60 41 41,42,60 77 41 41 108 81 69 46 62 93 50 32 46 51 51 93 32 109 50 79,80 38 32 107 75 81 79

New Testament Matthew 5:11-12 8:5-13

JOHN

64,94 52

8:17 11:5-6 11:12-13 10:19-20 10:40 12:28 13 13:16-17 14:25 23:32-36 23:38 24-25 24:30 28:20 Mark 1:14 3:27 4:10-20 5:21-24 5:35-43 6:22-23 6:47 7:17-23 8:23 8:37 9:19 10:45 12:34 13 13:9-11 14:22 14:24 14:53-64 14:61-62 14:62 Luke 4:16-21 6:22 7:2-9 7:11-17 10:16 12:11-12 17:20-21 19:11 John 1 1:1-4 1:1-5 1:1-13

53 46 46 96 108 46 87 46 59 51 51 87 75 109 60 46 87 65 65 94 59 87 63 64 53 109 9 87 96 98 98 101 102 36 46,69 64 52 65 108 96 46 59 29,30, 34 28 20,21 26,28, 30

1:1-18 1:2 1:3 1:4 1:4-5 1:5 1:6-8 1:6-9 1:9 1.9-12 1.9-13 1:10 1:10-12 1:11 1:12 1:13 1:14

2,28 28,30 29 12,26,28, 30 20 20,26,28,30,38 20 8 12,20,26,27 38 30 28 20,21,26, 27 96 28,30 26,28,30,33, 71 9,20,21,26,31, 32,33,37 33 1:14-17 1:15 20 1:16 20,21, 28 20 1:17 1:18 5,9,20,28,34,47 1:29 72 22 1:30 72 1:36 1:51 39,48 2 47 2:1-11 57 2:2 48 2:3 48 2:11 22, 32,48, 50 2:17-22 95 2:18 10 2:19 51 2:19-21 85 2:20 10 2:21 51 3 47,48 3:1-12 50 3:3-8 30 3:14-15 39,50 3:16 12,22,37,39,50,68 3:16-21 38 37,50,65 3:17 3:18 37 3:19 38,96 3:25-30 8 3:31 94 38 3:31-34

114

3:31-36 4 4:15 4:16 4:18 4:21-24 4:37-38 4:42 4:46-54 4:47 4:48 4:50 4:51 4:53 5 5:1 5:1-9 5:16 5:16-30 5:19-29 5:20 5:20-29 5:21 5:24 5:24-29 5:27 5:32 5:33-40 5:45 6 6:4 6:14-15 6:20 6:25 6:25-29 6:26-35 6:30-33 6.35 6:38-50 6:41 6:48 6:51 6:51-58 6:57 6:59 6:60-66 6:60-69 6:68-69 7 7:11

115

38 14,47,48 10 10 10 52 14 13 52-53,56 53 53 53 53 53 12,14,52 77 53,56 56 54-56 39 39 38,53, 77 40,54 53 55 39 77 77 78 15,36,56-61 57, 72 36, 58 40,60 60 61 72 16,61 40,60, 61 72 40 40 40 16,61,72, 73 74 60 36 9 37, 61 12, 79-80 10

7:12 7:30 7:31 7:37-38 7:39 7:43 8 8:12 8:20 8:23 8:24 8:28 8:29 8:30 8:31 8:58 8:59 9 9:1-7 9:5 9:7 9:8-12 9:13 9:13-24 9:16 9:18 9:19-23 9:22 9:24 9:35-38 9:39 9:39-41 9:40-41 10 10:7 10:9 10:11 10:14 10:17-18 10:19 10:22-39 10:29 10:30 10:35 10:36 10:38 11:4-6 11.7-16 11:11 11:17

10 49 10 79 80 42 12, 79 22,40,80-82 41,42,49 94 41,42,60 39,40,60 109 42 10 41,42,60 42 12,14,61-65 62 14,40,62 63 62 10 62 10,42 10 62 10,63 64 62 65 62 65 70 40 40 40 40 68 42 83 40 40,83 84 37,84 83 66 65 66 66

65 22,40,66-67 65 67 67 67 68 12,66 68 47 95 39 22,32,90,97 14 97 12,14,22,39, 42,90,97,105 22 12:41 87-91 13 5 13:1-2 88 13:1-4 89 13:10,14-15 90 13:18 41,60 13:19 108 13:20 90 13:21 5 13:23-24 83 13:30 22 13:31 100 13:34 87,91-93 14 91 14:1 92,99 14:2 39,92,99 14:3 40 14.6 29 14:10 14:12 46 15 14:12-13 13 14:12-14 95 14:15-17 92 14:18,19,23 14:25-26 3,95 14:25-31 93 14:26 96 14:31 87 15 87,93-94 40 15:1 93 15:4 40 15:5 93 15:7-10

11:20-27 11:25 11:28-32 11:33 11:35 11:38 11:41,43 11:45-54 11:49-50 12 12:16 12:21-23 12:23 12:23-24 12:27 12:31-32

Index of Scriptures

15:10 15:12-15 15:16-18 15:18-16:4 15:19-20 15:22 15:26-27 16 16:1-4 16:8 16:8-11 16:12-15 16:13-14 16:16-24 16:25 17 17:1-5 17:3 17:5 17:6-19 17:11 17:17-19 17:20-23 17:24-26 18:15 16 18-28 18:28-31 18:33 18:36-37 18:38-40 19 19.1-3 19:5 19:5-6 19:7 19:12 19:14 19:15 19:19-22 19:30 19:31 19:31-37 19:32-35 19:35 19:35-36 19:36 19:38-40 20

JO H N

94 5 94 12 94 96 95 87,94-97 94 96 22,95,96 17,96 95 92,96 96 97-100 97 7 21,29, 35 22,97 98 97,98 98,99 99,100 6 74 10 102 94 10 103-6 102 103 41 10 10 74,103 10,103 103-4 105 104,106 75,106 9 4 32 72 104 107-10

20:2,3 20:5,8 20:19-23 20:22 20:24-29 20:24-31 20:28 20.30-31 21:1-4 21:24 Acts 10:6 13:50 14:1-7 14:11 14:19 17:4-9 17:13 18:12-17 24:24-25 Romans 8:33-34 12:4-5 14:17 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 Philippians 2:6-11 Colossians 1:15-20 1 Thessalonians 4.13 4:16 1 Timothy 3:16 Hebrews 11:17 13:8 1 Peter 2:4-5 2 Peter 1:3 1:4 1John 1:2

6 6 107-8 109 32 35 22,30 4, 7,22 59 4 60 11 11 31 11 11 11 11 96 105 51 108 51,93 19 19 67 68 19 32 17 51 30 30 29

1:3 2.18-20 4.4-6 5:6-9 Revelation 11 1:4 1:7 1:9 21:2-4 22:1-2

29 9 76 76 4 4 75 4 108 80

Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha Wisdom of Solomon 7:26-8:1 9:1-2 Ben Sira 24:6-8 24:21 1 Maccabees 4:36-59 1 Enoch 42:2 Assumption of Moses 12:6

17 23 27 72 82 26 78

Rabbinic Literature and Tractates Berakoth 28b 12 Sanhedrin 99a 73-74 Semahoth 8 104 Sukkoth 5:1 81 Genesis Rabba 11:8c 55 Leviticus Rabba 15:2 38 Numbers Rabba 21:19a 94 Jerusalem Targum: Deuteronomy 21:20 62 Other Versions: JB, Jerusalem Bible; N A SB, New American Standard Bible; NEB, New English Bible; RSV, Revised Standard Version

116