John 7

Some Questions to Ponder

• Does familiarity breed contempt?
• Is it possible to take the evidence of God’s existence for granted?
• How do we keep our faith in God fresh and vibrant?
• Can we be inoculated against faith?

What is the "Feast of Tabernacles?"

• Leviticus 23:26—To remember the wandering in the desert.
• Thanksgiving for the growing season.
• Zechariah 14:17—Prayer for future rain and harvest.
• Anticipation of the prophecy in Zechariah 14:8: "On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea; it shall continue in summer as in winter."

John 7:1-9

• 7:4—John uses krupto (Greek, “secret”).
  a. His brothers are challenging Jesus to show how powerful He really is and to stop being a secret.
  b. 7:6—Jesus is running on a different timetable. His calendar is a spiritual one.
  c. 7:8—The revelation of who Jesus really is will come at a different time (cf. 2:4).

John 7:10-18

• This passage is central to Kierkegaard’s “hidden revealer” theory.
• 7:12—There was a great deal of complaining and murmuring (goggusmos) about Jesus among the crowd (Morris, p. 356-357).
  a. This is intentionally symbolic of the Exodus narrative.
  b. This crowd is divided because of Jesus and will later be divided over His words.
  c. Yet the people were not speaking openly because they were afraid of the Jewish religious leadership.
• 7:15—The idea behind this phrase is literally “to know letters,” meaning to study under a rabbi (Brown, 1966, p. 312).
• 7:16—Jesus says that His teaching comes from God:
  a. Wisdom of Solomon 7:12—Anyone who wants to know God’s wisdom will find it.
  b. John 5:44—Those who want to receive their own glory will receive it, but this glory is imperfect and not from God.
• Three Aspects of Jesus’ Teaching (Shawn Daggett, Harding University):
  1. 7:15—It was not academic (‘faking it”).
  2. 7:16—It was inspired by God (“feeling it”).
  3. 7:18—It was not self-serving (“frauding it”).

John 7:19-30

• 7:19—Is this a general statement or is Jesus being specific about the Law of Moses?
• 7:22—Sabbath is a reminder that God wants His world to flourish and heal itself with a day of rest.
• 7:24—Only those whose feet are grounded in reality can judge truthfully.
  a. 7:27—One cannot judge on appearances alone. The people think they know from where the Messiah will come.
  b. 7:28—We do not have any specific examples of Jesus’ teachings in John’s Gospel, only spin-offs controversies.
  c. 7:28-29—They know who Jesus is in human form, but His true identity as God’s emissary has been hidden from them.
  d. 1:15 and 19-23—It appears that John the Baptizer’s ministry was to evoke “the hidden revealer,” but he did not know exactly who it would be.
  e. 7:30—Jesus is mysteriously protected from being arrested prematurely.

John 7:31-39

• Is there a spiritual battle occurring here?
• 7:31—These people are not operating out of the world of light.
  a. They merely see the signs but do not grasp the meaning behind the signs. This is not a true faith but one based on a quantity of works (“sign faith”).
  b. 7:32—The crowd is being redefined and repositioned because of the Word and Light. They are taking a new stance towards Jesus.
  c. Proverbs 1:28—Wisdom would be searched for but not found because Man was not searching correctly. This is now being applied by Jesus to Himself.
  d. John 7:35-36—The Jewish leaders do not have a clue about what Jesus is saying.
  i. Jesus is not talking about going to the Gentiles, yet that is exactly what will happen during the time of the Early Church.
  ii. But then again, this could have been a derogatory comment regarding Jesus’ apparent lack of success with the Jews.
• 7:37—Jesus promises living water.
  a. Isaiah 12:3—On the last day of the festival, a priestly procession would bring water from the Pool of Siloam, chanting this passage as they marched.
  b. John 7:37-38—Jesus pops up and proclaims that He will replace earthly water with living water. He appropriates the symbol of the festival to Himself (“replacement motif”; Carson, p. 253-256).
  i. See Talbert, p. 154-155.
  ii. The practice of drawing water from Siloam began ca. 200 BC, and continued until AD 70.
  iii. Water would be drawn for 7 days, however only prayer was offered on the eighth day.

John 7:40-52

• 7:40—There is an expectation for the Messiah, yet it has been unclear what that expectation really is.
• 7:43—The crowd is torn (schisma) because of what Jesus has said.
• 7:47-49—The Pharisees are the shepherds of the Jewish crowds, yet they are neglecting their pastoral role.
• 7:52—The irony is that the Pharisees challenge Nicodemus to search the Scriptures, when, in fact, Nicodemus has started to come into the light because he has searched the Scriptures.

References

Raymond Brown, The Gospel According to John I-XII, Anchor Bible 29 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966).

D. A. Carson and H. G. M. Williamson, ed., It is Written: Scripture Citing Scripture: Essays in Honor of Barnabas Lindars (Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988).

Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John, rev. ed., New International Commentary on the New Testament 4 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995).

Charles H. Talbert, Reading John: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the Fourth Gospel and the Johannine Epistles, rev. ed., Reading the New Testament (Macon, GA: Smyth and Helwys, 2005).

John 7:53-8:11--Pericope de Adulterae

John 7:53-8:11

• This passage did not appear in any Greek manuscripts until ca. AD 900, although it was known to 4th and 5th century Latin Church Fathers such as Jerome, Ambrose and Augustine.
  a. Some manuscripts place this narrative after Luke 21:38.
  b. This is the only account of scribes and elders being mentioned in John’s narrative.
  c. Some apocryphal gospels contain narratives that are similar to this story (e.g., Gospel of the Hebrews).
  d. Eusebius (H.E., 3.39) states that a story similar to this one is recorded in the writings of Papias (d. ca. AD 125), although it is not certain “that Papias knew this story in precisely this form, inasmuch as it now appears that at least two independent stories about Jesus and a sinful woman circulated among Christians in the first two centuries of the church” (Holmes, p. 304).

• Bruce Metzger is adamant that this passage could not be original with John based on the following reasons:
  1. It is absent from many early manuscripts.
  2. The style and vocabulary are noticeably different from the remainder of the Gospel.
  3. It interrupts the flow of events from 7:52 to 8:12.
  4. There appears to be several “amplified” statements in this passage (p. 187-190).

• Zane Hodges states that this passage was part of the original narrative based on some of the same reasons:
  1. The style of the passage is similar to that of the narrative as a whole.
  2. The details of the encounter fit well into the surrounding context.
  3. The appearance of the passage in a majority of manuscripts, if not the oldest ones, proves that it is an authentic passage (p. 318-332).

• 8:6—This sounds very Synoptic because the Pharisees already have blasphemy and stirring up the crowd on Jesus.
  a. The Greek term katagrapho means “to write” or “to draw characters.” Is there any meaning in this reference?
  b. 8:8—What was Jesus writing? Their names? Their sins? Some manuscripts add in the statement “the sins of every one of them” (Metzger, p. 190).

John 7:53-8:11--Jesus' Postures

1. Sitting (8:2)—Taught

2. Standing (8:3)—Accusation

3. Bending Down (8:6)—Servant

4. Standing (8:7)—Advocate

5. Bending Down (8:8)—Servant

6. Standing (8:10)—Encouragement

References

Zane C. Hodges, “Problem Passages in the Gospel of John Part 8: The Woman taken in Adultery (John 7:53-8:11) : The Text,” Biblica Sacra 136 (1979): 318-332.

Michael W. Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers in English (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006).

Bruce Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed. (Stuttgart, Germany: German Bible Society, 1994).

John 8:12-59

Three Questions to Ask

• How do we size up others?
• How does God size us up?
• How do we size up with God?

John 8:12-20

• 8:14-18—Jesus says that His claims are valid because He knows where He comes from, even if the priests do not. Jesus brings light, not judgment.
  a. But the flip side to bringing light into the world is that some will reject the light and thus be judged because of their rejection.
  b. It is not that they are ignorant, but that they are not open to the light.
  c. 8:19-20—They are still on a biography level and do not see Jesus for who He really is.

John 8:21-29

• 8:21—Again, Jesus says that He is going where they cannot follow.
  a. 8:22—They ask if Jesus is going to commit suicide. How does this reflect their misunderstanding of His identity?
  b. 8:23-24—Jesus is the Word who has become flesh and exegetes the Father because Jesus is the ego eimi.
  c. 8:28-30—We understand this mean the Cross.
  i. The Cross is the ultimate display of who God is. The Son, in an act of supreme selflessness, becomes the ego eimi and the very essence of God.
  ii. Hans Kung says that the very reason why God even created us is love. God chooses not to be alone solely out of His nature (p. 78).
  iii. Everyone wants a God who is big and strong, yet in the Cross we see a God who is selfless. The Resurrection is the defining moment of God’s nature and the Son’s work.
  iv. The Incarnation is God taking our humanity into Himself. The scars on the resurrected Jesus seal a permanent relationship between God and His creation (Pannenberg, p. 396-397).

John 8:30-47

• 8:31-32—Jesus says that if they believe in Him, then they will truly be free.
  a. 8:30—Is this faith that will stick around?
  b. 8:33—The people have forgotten their past and do not truly believe.
• 8:34-40—Jesus offers a discourse in response to their reaction in v. 33.
  a. 8:34-36—First, Jesus says that anyone “who commits a sin is a slave to sin” (cf., Rom. 6:12-18).
  i. Talbert reminds us that sin is both an “orientation” and an “action” (p. 160).
  ii. Augustine once wrote, “An evil conscience flees not from itself; it has no place to go to; it follows itself. Yea, he cannot withdraw from himself, for the sin he commits is within...The pleasure passes away; the sin remains. What delighted is gone; the sting has remained behind. Evil bondage” (p. 231 [41.4]).
  iii. It is Jesus’ position as “the Son” that affords His the power to provide forgiveness (Morris, p. 407).
  b. 8:37-40—Second, Jesus challenges their heritage by saying that they are not acting in a way that honors Abraham.
  i. 8:41—The response by the Jews is meant to be an attack on Jesus’ patronage, that He is illegitimate.
  ii. Jesus’ response to them, however, is that they are no different than their fathers who failed to listen to the prophets.
  iii. Philo once said, “Kinship is not measured only by blood, but by similarity of conduct ad pursuit of the same objects” (On the Virtues 195).

John 8:48-59

• 8:48—The Jewish leaders are attempting to discredit Jesus (Talbert, p. 162).
• 8:51—Jesus, of course is speaking of the spiritual death, although the Jewish leaders assume He is talking about physical death.
• 8:59—Taking His proclamation of divinity in v. 58 as blasphemy, the Jewish leaders seek to purge the world of what they assume is an unholy abomination, thus proving they are no different than their fathers (cf., Leviticus 24:16; Brown, p. 367).

References

Raymond Brown, The Gospel According to John I-XII, Anchor Bible 29 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966).

Hans Kung, On Being a Christian (New York: Image Books/Doubleday, 1984).

Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John, rev. ed., New International Commentary on the New Testament 4 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995).

Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jesus: God and Man, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1977).

Charles H. Talbert, Reading John: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the Fourth Gospel and the Johannine Epistles, rev. ed., Reading the New Testament (Macon, GA: Smyth and Helwys, 2005).

John 5

John 5:1-9a

• This narrative (5:1-18) was often associated with the sacrament of baptism in the early Church (Cullmann, 1978, p. 84-85).
• 5:3b-4—Talbert informs us that this section of the text is missing from several early manuscripts, such as p66 (ca. AD 200) and Vaticanus (ca. AD 350), thus it does “not belong in the text of the story” (p. 128).
• 5:7—This man had been an invalid for 38 years and had become consumed by self-pity, what is often referred to as “victim mentality.”

John 5:9b-18

• How would we read this story after a terrorist attack?
• 5:10-13—This man was caught between good and evil! Every good story has a well-crafted villain.
• 5:14-16—The connection between healing and the forgiveness of sins is typically a Synoptic concept (cf., Mark 2:1-12). However, John appears to be pointing to the sacrament of baptism by saying that we find healing and forgiveness in water (Cullmann, 1978, p. 87).
• 5:17—Jesus continues to work without rest “God’s saving work has not yet reached the Sabbath rest” (Cullmann, 1963, p. 300).

John 5:19-29

• 5:19-20—Jesus denies the charge that He has blasphemed (lit., “denied the existence of God”) by making Himself equal to God.
  a. Jesus’ argument, then, is based on His identity.
  b. Jesus does not claim to be independent from God, however He is equal to God.
• 5:22-23—To dishonor Jesus (i.e., not accept His message) is to dishonor the One who sent Him (Morris, p. 279).

John 5:30-38

• Who/What witness about Jesus:
  1. 5:35—John the Baptizer.
  2. 5:36—Jesus’ own works (not just the signs, but His whole ministry and personhood).
  3. 5:37-38—God Himself in the presence of the Holy Spirit working in their conscience and faith.
  4. 5:39-40—The Scriptures, properly understood.
• Once all of this evidence is put forth, “the jury is out—on the hearers, not on Jesus himself” (Wright, p.67).

John 5:39-47

• Jesus draws a huge contrast between the way His opponents read the Scriptures and the way the Scriptures were intended to be read.
• Carson says that “there is nothing intrinsically life-giving about studying the Scriptures, if one fails to discern their true content and purpose” (p. 263).
• Is it possible to know the Bible without knowing God?

References

D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (Leicester, England/Grand Rapids, MI: Apollos/Eerdmans, 1991).

Oscar Cullmann, The Christology of the New Testament, rev. ed., New Testament Library (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1963).

Oscar Cullmann, Early Christian Worship, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1978).

Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John, rev. ed., New International Commentary on the New Testament 4 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995).

Charles H. Talbert, Reading John: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the Fourth Gospel and the Johannine Epistles, rev. ed., Reading the New Testament (Macon, GA: Smyth and Helwys, 2004).

N. T. Wright, John for Everyone, Part One (Chapters 1-10), For Everyone Series (London/Louisville: SPCK/ Westminster/John Knox Press, 2004).

John 6 (new material added)

John 6:1-15

• 6:2—Notice that the crowds are following Jesus “because they saw the signs he was doing for the sick.”
  a. 6:4—Although “the Passover…was near,” the crowds are out in the wilderness wandering after Jesus.
  b. Dodd suggests that John is hinting at “the eucharistic significance of the narrative which follows” (p. 333).
  c. 6:14; cf. Deut. 18:15-19—What is the response from the crowd to the sign?

John 6:16-25

• The Jewish people were not necessarily sea-savvy people, often associating the “sea” with the existence of Chaos.
  a. God’s power over the sea was a common theme in Psalms (e.g., 74:13, 93:3-4, 104:25).
  b. 6:20—A further connection is made between this event and the Passover/ Exodus in Jesus walking on water, a sign that can only be interpreted “by the divine name ‘I am’” (Brown, 1966, p. 255).

John 6:26-59

• 6:26—Jesus rebukes the crowd because they are only interested in being fed. They are not even interested in signs at this point.
  a. Has God ever sent His best gifts in the “wrong” package?
  b. There was an expectation that the Messiah would provide a never-ending supply of bread (Apocalypse of Baruch 29:8; Cullmann, 1978, p. 96-97).
  c. They have traded their “sign faith” for “crass materialism” (Morris, p. 317).
• 6:33—Jesus not only reveals who God is but is, in fact, the revealed God in our presence.
  a. 6:27 and 53—The “Son of Man” is “the exalted Lord of the Church, who in the present gives the bread of life in the sacrament of the eucharist” (Cullmann, 1963, p. 186).
  b. The bread, then, serves as a symbol of the redemptive and satisfying nature of our relationship with God (Cullmann, 1978, p. 95).
• John describes the institution of the Eucharist in spiritual terms with this story.
  a. In Matthew and Mark, the Eucharist is a re-enactment of the Cross.
  b. In Luke, the Eucharist is a fellowship meal in which disciples enter into a relationship with Jesus.
  c. In John, the Eucharist is a continuation of the Incarnation. When we partake of Jesus’ body and blood, He becomes present with us and in us.

John 6:60-71

• 6:60-65—Jesus “wants to ‘scandalize’ his hearers so that “they will attend to what is important” about their faith (Cullmann, 1978, p. 100).
• The Ascension directly relates to the Eucharist because it means that the Spirit is now at work among the Church as we watch and wait for Christ’s return (Talbert, p. 146).

"I AM" Statements

• In His use of “I AM” (Greek, ego eimi), Jesus connects Himself to God
  a. Exodus 3:13-15—Moses is to say that the “I AM that I AM” sent him to Israel.
  b. Each use of ego eimi “brings home an important aspect of the person and the ministry of Jesus” (Morris, p. 323-324).
  c. In using ego eimi, Jesus is demanding that we recognize Him as God in the flesh and respond to Him as such. Kysar writes that “to assert the divinity of the founder of his faith. . .[John] uses it to claim that, when Christ speaks, it is God who speaks. . . .The words of Christ are God’s words. The actions of Christ are God’s actions. The human response to Christ is the response to God” (p. 44).

1. 6:35—“I am the bread of life.”
2. 8:12–“I am the light of the world.”
3. 10:9—“I am the door.”
4. 10:11-14–“I am the good shepherd.”
5. 11:25–“I am the resurrection, and the life.”
6. 14:6–“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
7. 15:1–“I am the vine.”

Application Questions

• How would we look if our physical condition matched our spiritual condition?
• Where would you be if you had not accepted Christ into your life?
• What would become of your life if you gave up your relationship with God?
• Have there been a time when you have felt God’s presence in your life during a crisis? Have there been a time you felt that God was not with you?

References

Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John, I-XII, Anchor Bible 29 (New York: Doubleday, 1966).

Oscar Cullmann, The Christology of the New Testament, rev. ed., New Testament Library (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1963).

Oscar Cullmann, Early Christian Worship, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1978).

C. H. Dodd, The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953).

Robert Kysar, John, the Maverick Gospel (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1976).

Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John, rev. ed., New International Commentary on the New Testament 4 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995).

Charles H. Talbert, Reading John: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the Fourth Gospel and the Johannine Epistles, rev. ed., Reading the New Testament (Macon, GA: Smyth and Helwys, 2004).

John 4

John 4:1-15

• The Samaritans were descendants of the Jews who married those who were resettled in Israel by the Assyrians in 722 BC.
• They built a temple on Mt. Gerizim in 400 BC, but it was destroyed by John Hyrcanus, a member of the Maccabeean family and governor of Palestine, in 108 BC.
• 4:2—This is an interesting side-note.
• 4:4—This affirms a Synoptic affirmation that Jesus did not go to Samaria on purpose, per se.
• Oscar Cullmann says that this text is the beginning of an isolated group of Samaritan Christians.
  a. He says that the reference to “other sheep” in John 10 refers to these Samaritan disciples and John winds up leading this community until he disappears in Acts 8.
  b. Could these passages be the “family memories” of people who were cast out of the Temple and isolated from the Christian synagogues in Palestine (1976)?
• 4:6—Soren Kierkegaard says that God has chosen to reveal Himself in particular people at particular times and now time has collapsed back on itself in the person of Jesus (“scandal of particularity” theory) (p. 94ff; Gouwens, p. 130-131).
• 4:9—This provides background material for the Gentile reader.
• Different Images of Water:
  1. 4:6—Jesus is sitting next to a spring.
  2. 4:11-12—The woman identifies it as a cistern.
  3. 4:13-14—Jesus says His water comes from “a living spring.”
  4. 4:15—She understands better than Nicodemus, yet she does not completely understand. She is willing to trust Him so that her life may be easier.

John 4:16-26

• Some scholars have suggested that her first five husbands represent the books of the Pentateuch.
  a. She is not just an immoral woman who is changing the subject; she has picked up on something important because she realizes who Jesus is.
  b. 4:19—She is trying to get deeper into the conversation with Jesus.
  c. 4:21-24—This is crisis time as a new reality will soon be revealed by God. This is not talking about being visible or accurate but about being in the new reality.
  d. 4:26—The One speaking is not only the Messiah but also the “I AM” (God).
• Deuteronomy 12:5—God would choose where people would seek Him.
  a. Eventually that place was Jerusalem, however the Samaritans did not know this.
  b. They were only familiar with the Pentateuch.
• 4:27—The disciples are shocked that Jesus is speaking openly with a woman.
  a. 4:29; cf. 1:46—She says, “Come and see.”
  b. The woman left her jar because she had moved from her earthly concern into a greater spiritual reality. She is placed into the role of midwife missionary, although she is still uncertain of Jesus’ identity.
  c. 4:33—The disciples, the “in” group, are just as dense as everyone else.
  d. 4:34-38—Food and mission are redefined.
  i. 4:35—Perhaps is was C. H. Dodd who said that Jesus motions across a flat plain to a group on oncoming Samaritans.
  ii. 4:37-38—Oscar Cullmann labored over the meaning of this passage (1963, p. 183-184):
  1) Does this refer to the Samaritans?
  2) Or does it refer to a looking back with the Gentile Christians accepting Christ?
• 4:39-42—The Samaritans ask Jesus to stay and He remains with them for two days.
  a. The presence of the Holy Spirit also remains with them.
  b. 4:42—They believe, not because of the woman’s chatter (lalain), but because they have heard the Word of God for themselves.
• Our faith needs to be based on our own experience in seeking the truth, rather than through being spoon-fed facts or hollow emotionalism.

John's View of Mission (from Dr. Stepp)

1. Jesus is God’s agent, sent by God to do God’s work by revealing what He has seen of God (1:18, 5:30-38, etc.).
2. Jesus passes part of this task on to his disciples (4:38, 17:18).
3. The disciples are to lead people to Jesus, yet the saving activity is God’s work (1:40-49, 4:29-42, 17:20.

John's Pattern of Conversion

1. 4:39; cf., 1:35-36—Someone bears witness to Jesus.
2. 4:40; cf., 1:37-39—Seekers come to Jesus.
3. 4:40; cf., 1:39—A decision to “abide with” or “dwell with” Jesus is made.
4. 4:42; cf., 1:41—The seeker becomes a disciple through confessing Jesus as “Savior of the world” (Talbert, p. 124).

John 4:43-54

• 4:43-45—Does this passage make any sense?
  a. Could the “country” be the Jewish nation as a whole?
  b. 4:45—The Galileans, Jesus’ own people, gladly receive Him.
  c. Remember that many were believing in His signs without seeing to whom the signs were pointing (“sign faith”).
• 4:46—An official, most likely a Gentile, asks Jesus to heal his son.
  a. 4:48—The “you” is plural, possibly being directed toward the Galilean crowd.
  b. 4:50—This is the first example of someone believing, coming to faith, without needing anything else in John’s narrative.
• Some literary critics would say that we move from an impersonal to an intimate identification of the official:
  a. 4:49—The official is the first to come to Jesus desperately.
  b. The woman may have shunned the Light at first, but she come to understand who Jesus is. Yet the official understands only the brevity of life.
  c. 4:53—The Word evokes faith in someone, and he is the first person to be commended for his faith.

References

Oscar Cullmann, The Christology of the New Testament, rev. ed., New Testament Library (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1963).

Oscar Cullmann, The Johnannine Circle (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976).

David J. Gouwens, Kierkegaard as Religious Thinker (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

Soren Kierkegaard, Practice in Christianity, Kierkegaard’s Writings, vol. 20, Trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991).

Charles H. Talbert, Reading John: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the Fourth Gospel and the Johannine Epistles, rev. ed., Reading the New Testament (Macon, GA: Smyth and Helwys, 2005).

John 3

John 3:1-13

• 3:2—Is this the first sign of those being expelled from the synagogue for following Jesus?
  a. Nicodemus is part of the Jewish establishment and religious leadership.
  b. Does he come by night because he wants to avoid criticism, or because he is, in fact, in darkness?
  c. Does Nicodemus, a trained rabbi, come to Jesus with some of his students?
  d. Regardless of his motives, Nicodemus is respectful of Jesus.
• Nicodemus and “ethnically religious” people:
  1. Jewish since birth.
  2. Jewish because of parents.
  3. Jewish among a majority.
  4. Would have been persecuted.
• Do you see any correlations to people today who call themselves Christians (or Jews or Muslims, etc.)?
• 3:3—Jesus speaks in a way that invites misunderstanding and perplexes Nicodemus.
  a. This means either “born from above” or “born anew.”
  b. One cannot just walk into the Kingdom; one must be transcended into the Kingdom.
  c. Three possibilities:
  i. Natural birth and spiritual birth.
  ii. John’s baptism then the coming of the Spirit.
  iii. The Christian rite of baptism.
• There is a connection between water and the Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 36:25-26; John 7:37b-39a).
  a. Baptism and Eucharist are done within the presence of the Holy Spirit (1 John 5:8).
  b. Paul sees baptism as a spiritual act done by God (Colossians 2:11-12).
  c. Oscar Cullman says that the Pool of Siloam (John 9:10-11) narrative was commonly used in baptismal liturgies in the second century (p. 71-73).
• How would Nicodemus understand the reference to Christian baptism if this form of baptism was not yet being practiced?
• What do baptism and water have in common?
  a. Both can kill.
  b. Both can cleanse.
  c. Both give life (Willimon, p. 54-55).
• 3:12—Whenever He speaks, Jesus stands at the junction of two worlds.
  a. Some accept, some reject, and some stay in the middle confused.
  b. Jesus uses earthly objects in order to open a window onto the sacramental reality.
  c. Even though Nicodemus is confused, he does not recoil and will even speak up on Jesus’ behalf later.
• “Vice-Grip of Faith” (Shawn Daggett, Harding University missions professor) (see handout)

John 3:14-21

• 3:14—The phrase “to be lifted up” has two meaning.
  1. To be glorified and exalted.
  2. To be crucified.
  3. For John, both are true in Jesus’ crucifixion.
• Some of John’s images are just outside our grasp because he intends for them to be outside our grasp.
• 3:16-21—Many scholars see this passages as commentary provided by the early Christian community (Brown, p. 135-136).
  a. Some will recoil because they are evil or because they just do not understand what is being taught.
  b. Some will see faith as having belief in a skimpy idea. However, in John’s Gospel, faith is a verb that describes having trust in the person of Christ.
  c. Charles Talbert offers three dimensions of the importance of John’s “descent-ascent” typology:
  i. 3:16—The descent is a saving event.
  ii. 3:17—The intent of the descent is benevolent.
  iii. 3:18—Yet, a result of Jesus’ return will be judgment (p. 106-107).
• John’s position on the signs that Jesus is complex (Talbert, p. 108-109):
  a. Jesus’ signs, at times, produce faith (i.e., 4:53; 10:41-42; 11:45-48; 14:11).
  b. However, not everyone comes to faith as a result of the signs (i.e., 10:25-26; 11:45-48).
  i. 6:26—Some are only interested in the physical benefits of the signs.
  ii. 11:46-48—Some reject them because they perceive Jesus as a national threat.
  iii. 9:16 and 30—Some see them as not coming from God, thus rejecting Jesus as Messiah and fulfilling Scripture (cf., 12:37-40).
  c. Faith is often required in order to see beyond the sign to the meaning of the sign (i.e., 2:11; 4:46-54; 20:30-31; 21:6-7), yet it is not always present (i.e., 2:23; 3:2; 11:45).
  d. However, when faith is already present, the meaning of the sign is deepened (i.e., 2:11; 20:30-31).
  e. Martin Buber says that Christians slip into a “believe that” mindset instead of staying true to the Jewish mindset of “faith in” (p. 7-9).

John 3:22-36

• 1:33-34—But are these not the closing comments of John the Baptizer?
  a. It looks like chapter 20 is the actual ending to John’s narrative and that chapter 21 is appended due to John’s death. It may have been at this time that, for some theological reason, it may have been edited.
  b. If 3:22-29 was supposed to be inserted into chapter 1, why was it moved? Was it to maintain a certain timeline schema?
• 3:22—This is the only reference in the Gospels to Jesus baptizing.
• 3:23—John the Baptizer is baptizing some thirty miles north of Jerusalem.
  a. 3:24—The Synoptic picture is that Jesus’ ministry does not begin until after John the Baptizer is imprisoned (Matthew 4:12-17; Mark 1:14-15).
  b. 3:26—No one has a clue to what kind of baptism was occurring.
• 3:27—These are the last words of John the Baptizer.
  a. What is the sitz im leben of the Church in this text?
  b. A group of disciples of John will be discovered 25 years later in Ephesus (Acts 19:1-7), and there is still a group in Bagdad that believes that John the Baptizer brought salvation and that Jesus was an interloper.
  c. 1:31—John the Baptizer is to reveal the Messiah although he does not know who He is at first.
• Jesus and John the Baptizer refuse to compete with one another. John supports Jesus, and Jesus leaves until John’s ministry is completed.
• This is an important lesson for contemporary church leaders to learn, especially ones with dominant personalities. We are to point the way to Jesus, rather than increase our own following.

References

Martin Buber, Between Man and Man (New York: Macmillan, 1965).

Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John, I-XII, Anchor Bible 29 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966).

Oscar Cullman, The Christology of the New Testament, rev. ed., New Testament Library (Philadelphia: John Knox Press, 1963).

Charles H. Talbert, Reading John: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the Fourth Gospel and the Johannine Epistles, rev. ed. (Macon, GA: Smyth and Helwys, 2005).

William H. Willimon, Preaching and Leading Worship, The Pastor’s Handbook (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1984).

John 2

John 2:1-12

• 2:1—How many days are we dealing with?
  a. Have we backed up in time?
  b. Is it three days later?
  i. If so, then we are at the beginning of a new week.
  ii. Is there a subtle hint in John’s mention of “the third day?”
  iii. It is not an accident that this sign is on the seventh day and that it begins Jesus’ ministry.
  c. Genesis 1:9-13—The wedding began on Tuesday because the Jews believed the third day of Creation was more blessed due to God saying “it was good” twice.
  d. To the Jews, this reference symbolizes the Sabbath Day. To the Christians, this reference symbolizes the Resurrection. It is supposed to be both because John’s Gospel is pointing to Jesus (Brown, 103-105).
• 2:2—This is the first reference to Jesus having disciples of His own.
• 2:4—Jesus’ response to His mother.
  a. Jesus’ mother is mentioned here yet is never referred to by name.
  b. The term “mother” is intended to be a term of respect and admiration, yet it shows distance because Jesus has outgrown obedience and has entered public life as an adult.
  c. This sign is analogous to the Resurrection.
  d. How significant is the description of the water jugs?
  i. Qumran was a community that was continually cleansing itself and would have needed large amounts of water.
  ii. There were 39 stipulations for keeping the Sabbath. Jesus is now redefining the Sabbath: doing good on the Sabbath honors the purpose of the Sabbath.
  e. There are now 180 gallons of new wine!
  i. There will be an overflow of new wine at the Messianic banquet (Amos 9:13-14; Isaiah 25:6; Joel 2:18-19; 2 Baruch).
  ii. One familiar with these texts would be familiar with the Jewish purification codes and would recognize the semblance of fresh, new wine.
  iii. To Christian readers, this is the first in-breaking of the Messiah on Sunday.There were 39 stipulations for keeping the Sabbath. Jesus is now redefining the Sabbath: doing good on the Sabbath honors the purpose of the Sabbath.
  f. “Hour” is symbolic in that this sign is not part of the agenda.
  i. Jesus is not here to be diverted or manipulated. He is here to complete the mission that God has sent Him on.
  ii. Jesus is working from a different calendar.
  iii. Jesus is living in a different time, one that is pregnant with opportunity and mission.
  iv. Jesus’ time rips into our time and runs on its own understanding of reality.
• How would the Church read this narrative?
  1. Is it symbolic of the Eucharist?
  2. This is new, fresh, fulfilling wine!
  3. In Revelation, John will be invited to sit at Jesus’ banquet table.
  4. This is not the last time that Jesus will serve a group of people in a communal fashion.

John 2:13-25

• This is the first time that Jesus comes to Jerusalem.
• Did Jesus cleanse the Temple more than once?
  a. Luke 1:1-4—Luke says “orderly,” not chronological. He is writing a story for the Church.
  b. Matthew, by using five discourses, asserts that Jesus is the new Moses and has a new Law.
  c. When it was done is not nearly as important as why it was done.
• 2:13—Jesus goes to the center of Jewish identity.
  a. In the Synoptics, Jesus only drove out the money-changers, thus cleansing the Temple of corruption.
  b. 2:15—Here, Jesus drives out the sacrificial animals because He is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
  c. Oscar Cullmann says that Jesus takes on the role of ibn Yahweh (“son of God”) from Isaiah by taking the world’s sins upon Himself (p. 51-68).
• 2:22—John is looking back at this moment and finally understands its meaning. He is not chronicling the life of Jesus but presenting Him as the ibn Yahweh.
  a. Jesus speaks in a way that leads some to misunderstand Him. Is this intentional?
  b. If we see these two events as connected and eschatological, then we see Jesus transcending the Jewish religion and the Temple as He completes God’s original objective of reconciling mankind back to Himself.
  c. This may also be a hint of the anti-Temple sentiment that was common among Hellenized Jews and Samaritans who had spiritualized the Temple as the body and life of a devout person (Acts 6:13, 7:44-51; cf. Romans 12:1-2).
  d. When Rome laid siege to the city of Jerusalem, the Jewish Christians left because they knew that the Temple was not worth defending anymore.
• 2:23—What other signs did Jesus do?
  a. It is possible that cleansing the Temple could be seen as a prophetic act.
  b. 2:24-25—It is tempting to develop a typology for “sign-faith,” yet John encourages us to see that there are different ways to respond to Jesus.
  c. John never uses the noun form of pistos (“faith”) yet routinely uses the verb form so that we may understand that faith is a commitment.
  d. Martin Buber (1985) says that Christians try to conceptualize their faith instead of making a commitment.
  i. Based on your experience with Christianity, do you agree or disagree with this statement?
  ii. Does the academic study of Christianity encourage or discourage conceptualization? Commitment?
  iii. What can be done to encourage commitment?

References

Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John, I-XII, Anchor Bible 29 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966).

Martin Buber, The Prophetic Faith (New York: Collier Books, 1985).

Oscar Cullman, The Christology of the New Testament, rev. ed., New Testament Library (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1963).