John 13

Introduction

• By eliminating any reference to the Twelve, Jesus is continually with the Church.
• By not mentioning the Eucharist specifically, John makes the pint that Jesus’ entire life is communal.
• 14:31 and 18:1—Some scholars will say that we have two versions of the “Farewell Discourse.”
  a. The Paraclete is sent to guide the Church in remembering the things that Jesus said, thus these words are actually the words of the resurrected Jesus within the Church. This is a standard literary form for the last will and testament of Jesus as recorded by the Church (Kasemann, p. 59).
  b. It appears that John has inserted eucharistic language within the feeding of chapter 6 to highlight the communal nature of the Christian community and to emphasize that the Eucharist is not a one-time event.
  c. John does not include an account of the Ascension because Jesus is still with the Church, directing its mission and fellowshipping with us.
  d. It is not that John contradicts the other Gospels but that the Enlightenment taught us how to argue the validity of Scripture.
  i. Luke says that he gave us an “orderly account,” although it does have a theological purpose.
  ii. John gives us an orderly account, only with a different theological purpose.

John 13:1-11

• 13:1; cf., 18:28—John’s Passover appears to be a day early.
  a. 1:29—John wants Jesus to die on the Day of Preparation.
  b. 13:23—Beasley-Murray says the Essenes used a different calendar than the mainline Jews. He also says that it was uncommon during evening meals to recline, although it was mandatory for formal meals such as the Passover (p. 327-328).
• 13:2—Jesus is now in a confined space where evil is present (Brown, 1970, p. 563-564).
  a. 13:3—This is similar imagery to the Good Shepherd laying down His life for His sheep.
  b. 13:5—This was a menial task for the lowest servant in the household.
  c. Cullmann sees liturgical connections to the use of water and the Passover celebration (1978, p. 30-32).
  d. Michael Weed (AGST) sees this cleansing as a reference to the redemptive nature of the Cross.
  e. Continuous bragging about one’s self is a sure sign of insecurity. Jesus, however, feels no threat to Himself (cf., 1 Peter 2:23).
  f. 13:10—Some churches look at this proverb for the cleansing nature of baptism and the saving nature of confession.

John 13:12-20

• 13:12-17—This is a word not only to the original disciples but also to the Church.
  a. This is still practiced by those denominations that celebrate Easter liturgically.
  b. 13:17; cf., 1 John 2:18-23; 2 John 7-9—Could this be a defense against incipient Gnosticism or Docetism?
• 13:18—The phrase “to life the heel” means “to strike a low blow.”
  a. Jesus washed Judas’ feet. Love is not based on worthiness, but on need.
  b. The disciples are more concerned with what they are not going to do than with what Jesus was going through.
• 13:20—The disciples will be required to represent the story of Jesus in their lives (Morris, p. 553-554).

John 13:21-30

• The most self-expending and glorious action of Jesus is the Cross. It is here that the Church says, “There is a God!”
• 13:21—The humanity of Jesus comes through.
  a. 13:22—This is a ominous note that they are not prepared for.
  b. 13:23—The author makes himself know.
• 13:26—The incident will occur after the bread (psomion) of the Eucharist is given to Judas (Brown, 1970, p. 575; Morris, p. 557).
• 13:29—This is another reference to this event being before Passover.
• 13:30—Notice that the time of day is mentioned.
  a. This is another piece of Filson’s puzzle for Lazarus being the Gospel’s author.
  b. 1 Corinthians 11:23-31—One of Paul’s traditions is that the betrayer was one of us, thus we should examine ourselves.

John 13:31-38

• 13:31—This glorifies God because Jesus’ being lifted up on the Cross will draw all men to Him.
• 13:33—This is the hero image of ancient literature (Talbert, p. 207-209).
  a. 13:34—However, this is not a new command.
  b. Leviticus 19:18—This was the original social command for God’s people.
  c. This command is founded on a new act within a new order.
  i. Grace was seen in the Prologue to the Decalogue, however now it will take a new form through the revelation of the Cross, what Sittler calls “the shape of the engendering deed” (p. 24-26).
  ii. This is not about raising the bar, but about the new life we receive through the Paraclete, something the previous exodus did not offer.
  d. “Love one another” is the symbol of God’s nature. It is an action, not a feeling!
  i. Perhaps is was a problem in the Johannine community.
  ii. It is best represented in a community that reciprocates that love (Holladay, p. 90).
• 13:36-38—This is not bravado on Peter’s part, only dedication, although he “was not really ready” (Morris, p. 564).

References

G. R. Beasley-Murray, John, Word Biblical Commentary 36 (Waco, TX: Word, 1987).

Raymond Brown, The Gospel According to John XIII-XXI, Anchor Bible 29a (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970).

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

Tom Holladay, The Relationship Principles of Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008).

Ernest Kasemann, The Testament of Jesus: A Study of the Gospel of John in Light of Chapter 17, trans. Gerhard Krodel (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1968).

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

Joseph Sittler, The Structure of Christian Ethics (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1958).

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 14

John 14:1-11

• The idea of “remaining” (mone) is very prevalent in this passage (Brown, 1970, p. 618-619).
  a. 14:2—monai—“dwelling place,” Greek; root comes from the word meno (“to dwell”).
  b. The work of Jesus is to display the love of God so that people will come to God and remain in Him.
• 14:6—On a scale of 1 to 10, evaluate your level of belief in this statement.
  a. Quote from Bono about Jesus' exclusive claims (Assayas, p. 204-205).
  b. What are the views regarding Jesus’ claim (Grudem, p. 55)?
  i. Inclusivist—All religious people will receive salvation.
  ii. Universalist—Everyone will receive salvation.
  iii. Exclusivist—Only adherents to a particular religion will receive salvation.

John 14:12-21

• 14:12—The “greater works” will be extending the mission of Jesus beyond Palestine (Morris, p. 573-574).
• 14:13-14—This probably refers to those issues that will arise in the life of the Church.
  a. 1 John 5:14-15—John is reminding the Church of this teaching and illustrates it with intercessory prayer.
  b. This is the energy for the Church’s prayer life.
• 14:15—What is the relationship between love and obedience (cf., 1 John 5:3)?
  a. It is difficult to be a “contagious Christian” when we make Christianity look difficult.
  b. “Knight’s Oath” from Kingdom of Heaven (2005).
  c. Matthew 22:36-40—The essence of our faith is wrapped up in love for God and for each other.

John 14:22-31

• What the Incarnation brings about is the presence of the Father and the Son within the Church through the Paraclete.
• 14:26—The Western Church inserted the Latin word filioque (“and the Son”) into the Greek-worded confession to say that the Paraclete comes from both the Father and the Son, while the Eastern Church wants to maintain the doctrine that the Father sent both the Son and the Paraclete (Cairns, p. 129).
  a. 16:7—Jesus will personally send the Paraclete when He returns to Heaven.
  b. The practical application is the testing of the Spirit and the actions brought about by the Spirit: Do they reflect the work of Jesus, and do they build up the Church?
• The function of the Paraclete is to guide the Church and help the Church remember the teachings of Jesus.
• 14:27-31—This is a word of eschatological peace and a word of encouragement that the Church will not be abandoned (Talbert, p. 216).

References

Michka Assayas, Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas (New York: Riverhead Books/ Penguin, 2005).

Raymond Brown, The Gospel According to John XIII-XXI, Anchor Bible 29a (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970).

Earle E. Cairns, Christianity through the Centuries: A History of the Christian Church, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996).

Wayne A. Grudem, Biblical Doctrine: Essential Teachings of the Christian Faith, ed. Jeff Purswell (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1999).

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 15

Introduction

• We see “remain” language (mone) appear twelve times in this chapter.
  a. 14:10—The idea of indwelling is in the background of chapter 15.
  b. Isaiah 5:1-7, 27:2-6; Hosea 10:1-2; Jeremiah 2:21; Ezekiel 15:1-8, 19:10-14—The vine was a regular symbol for Israel, both positive and negative.
  c. Jesus is now the way of contact with God because He remains with the disciples through the Paraclete.

John 15:1-8

• 15:1-2—What is meant behind this idea of pruning?
  a. Katharizo—“to cleanse,” Greek
  b. 1 John 2:4—Those who claim to love God but do not actually follow Him are liars (Rudolph, p. 306).
  i. Colossians 2:8—There was a concern about false teaching in Colossae.
  ii. Colossians 1:6-14—Loyalty to God is evident in the “fruit” we produce (Melick, p. 203-204).
• 15:3-4—This is language of the Cross that compels us to remain in Christ so that we may be faithful.
  a. The Cross is the place where God’s nature becomes clear in human history.
  b. 20:19-23—That nature is received in Christ breathing the Paraclete into His disciples.
• 15:5; cf., 5:19 and 30; 2 Corinthians 3:5—The Church can do nothing apart from Christ just as Christ can do nothing apart from God.
  a. 15:6; cf., 1 John 2:18-19—Those who do not remain in the Church destroy the Church (Beasley-Murray, p. 273)!
  b. Does this mean that persecution could be a form of “pruning?”
  c. 15:7-8; cf., 14:12-14—This is not a “blank check” for prayer, but a word about mission.
  i. To John, love for one another and a desire for mission are inseparable (Talbert, p. 222).
  ii. The “remaining” that glorifies God is continuing in the character, nature, and mission of God.
  iii. Some say that our love for one another has been watered down into neighbor love, but this love is mutual and reciprocated.

John 15:9-17

• 15:9-12—Jesus is not one of power but of trust because the giving up of His psuche led to the receiving of His zoe (Brown, 1970, p. 681-682).
  a. Matt. 26:29; Mark 14:25; 1 Cor. 10:16-17—Eucharistic references to the vine and its fruit.
  i. Is the Eucharist linked to the “love command?”
  ii. There is an Old Testament-era idea that we should be thankful for God giving us the fruit of the vine (Brown, 1970, p. 672-674).
  b. 15:13; cf., 10:11; 13:4—This is similar to Jesus laying down His cloak and the Good Shepherd laying down His life.
• 15:14-15; 1:16-18—Friends have intimate access to one another, thus the revelation of God has been made complete through the Incarnation.
• 15:16—This is another reference to mission.
• 15:17—There is nothing here about hiring ad agencies; it is a call to trust God as we preach the message of the Cross.
  a. The Cross is not a tactic; it is the revelation of God’s nature and is the message for the Church (Forde, p. 2-4).
  b. Carl Holladay (Emory University) says, “Whenever the message of caring is separated from the message of preaching, both suffer.”

John 15:18-27

• Matthew 5:10-12, 10:22, 24:9—Persecution validates the Church’s mission!
• John 15:21—People who do not know the One who sent Jesus will hate Him. Thus, if there do not know Jesus, they will hate His disciples.
• 15:22—This does not say that God ignores our sins (Morris, p. 604).
• 15:23—One cannot reject Jesus and still love God.
• 15:25—This was a crafted indictment against those who expelled Jewish Christians from the synagogue.
• 15:26-27—A word about our Advocate.
  a. The filioque controversy finds its roots in this passage.
  b. 14:26—The work of the Paraclete is closely linked with the work of the Son in that the Paraclete will provide memories of insights into the life and teachings of Jesus.

References

G. R. Beasley-Murray, John, Word Biblical Commentary 36 (Waco, TX: Word, 1987).

Raymond Brown, The Gospel According to John XIII-XXI, Anchor Bible 29a (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970).

Gerhard O. Forde, On Being a Theologian of the Cross (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997).

Richard R. Melick, Jr., Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, New American Commentary, vol. 32 (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1991).

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

Kurt Rudoplh, Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnosticism (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1983).

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 16

Introduction

• What would be your concern if you had only a few months to live?
• It was once said that “Disappointment is the distance between our expectations and our experience.”
• What is our “misery index” (Devine, p. 43-48)?

John 16:1-11

• 16:1—Jesus warns them about these things so that they will not be “shaken” (Brown, 1970, p. 701).
  a. 16:2—We are dealing with a largely Jewish community that has been ripped from the synagogue because of the scandal of the Cross.
  i. Being put out of the synagogue would be like being accused of treason.
  ii. The irony is that Jesus’ mission was to restore the Sabbath and the community that worships on that day.
  b. 16:3-4—Those who are not “in the know” will lead the persecution. This word is to remind the disciples that they are not alone.
  c. 1 John 1:15, 2:24, 3:8 and 11—The Church is connected to the events of the Incarnation through the Paraclete.
  d. 14:30-31—Dodd says that this is an exhortation to move against the “prince of this world” (p. 408-409).
• 16:5-6; 13:36, 14:5—But they have asked where He is going? Could this be a reference to a feeling of a failed parousia (or Jesus’ return)?
• 16:7—The Son says that He will send the Paraclete, thus supporting the doctrine of the “economic Trinity” (Brown, 1970, 1139-1141).
  a. 16:8—Augustine avoided this passage and Thomas Aquinas danced around it.
  b. 14:17—It does not appear that the world can receive anything from the Spirit.
  c. It appears that as long as the Church is in the world, there will always be an encounter between light and darkness. The question is, has it happened yet?
  i. The world can be convicted of sin yet still not be persuaded to accept salvation.
  ii. The Church is the place where this conviction is played out, and the Church sees the world for what it is—a place of sin that stands judged.
  iii. 7:7 and 24—The world is a contradiction to the Church and its message.
  iv. Implicit in the Christian confession of kurious Christos (“Christ is Lord”) is ouk Kaisar (“not Caesar”).
  d. 2 Timothy 3:16—Although Jesus is unjustly convicted, He is vindicated by the Resurrection.
  e. John 16:11—The worldview of most people is faulty.
  i. 19:13—This passage is left ambiguous because Rome is actually on trial and is guilty of a whole host of sins (Rauschenbusch, p. 240-259).
  ii. 16:9-11—This may not be about convincing the world as convicting the world.
  iii. 12:31—The defeat of the “prince of this world” will not be a public display but the Church eluding his clutch.

John 16:12-22

• 16:12-13a—This could be a reference to the continual function of the Paraclete.
  a. 15:26—The Paraclete will bring to memory the life and teachings of Jesus. His mission, then, is linked to the Incarnation.
  b. 1 John 4:1-3—John encourages the Church to test what comes in because of the emergence of Docetism and Gnosticism (Talbert, p. 35-36).
  c. The Paraclete will “flesh out” the true teachings for the Church.
  i. Some see the Paraclete as replacing the Son as the guide for the Church, yet John says that He is the revelatory force behind understanding the Son.
  ii. The Paraclete’s office is to continue what Jesus has already said and done, not to bring a new revelation.
  d. The Holy Spirit guides in two ways—preaching (2 Timothy 3:16) and revelation (2 Peter 1:21).
  e. John 16:13b—The events could possibly be the further events of John’s Gospel.
• 16:21—The necessary pains of childbirth are linked to the joy of bringing a child into the world (Morris, p. 626).
  a. Does this speak to the feeling of a failed or delayed parousia?
  b. Does it refer to their sorrow over His leaving?

John 16:23-33

• 16:22-24; cf., 15:15-16; Hebrews 4:6-9—Jesus’ departure will be the event that draws the disciples into the circle of love shared by the Father and the Son.
• 16:25-28—His departure will be to return to the Father. The Paraclete can only come when the Son is fully revealed.
• 16:29-30—The problem is that they do not yet fully understand because Jesus has not yet been fully revealed. This is John’s message that Jesus’ whole life is parabolic.
• 16:31-33—The disciples will not only have peace but will no longer feel sorrow.
  a. Daniel 12:1; Zephaniah 1:14-15; Habakkuk 3:16—In the Septuagint, each of these passages uses the same Greek word for “distress” (thlipsis).
  b. Colossians 1:24—Paul links his message to the messianic woes by saying that suffering is necessary as history turns on its hinge because more suffering is coming through preaching.

References

Raymond Brown, The Gospel According to John XIII-XXI, Anchor Bible 29a (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970).

Edward T. Devine, Misery and Its Causes (New York: Macmillan, 1909).

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

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

Walter Rauschenbusch, A Theology for the Social Gospel, Library of Theological Ethics (Reprint: 1917. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1997).

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 17

Introduction

• B. F. Westcott calls this the “Prayer of Consecration” (p. 280) and Ernst Kasemann (p. 5) says it parallels Jewish farewell addresses.
  a. Deuteronomy 32-33—Moses’ farewell address.
  b. Apocryphal writings—4 Ezra 8:19ff; Baruch 48; Jubilees of Moses 1; Jubilees of Abraham 20-22; Jubilees of Isaac 36.
  c. The 2nd-century Hermetic writing Poimandres also shows some similarities (e.g., 1:31ff).
• The “History of Religions” school in Germany felt that the Christian movement appropriated pieces of secular and heretical teaching in order to gain access to the pagan world (Moule, p 44-47).
• Did John construct this prayer from other prayers not explicitly recorded?
  a. It appears to be both prospective in terms of future believers (17:20-21) and retrospective in terms of His mission (17:4).
  b. It serves as a report about His mission and as support for His obedience to die.
  c. Some of the Church Fathers, looking back at 11:41-42, refer to this as a “teaching prayer.”
  d. Dodd’s breakdown of the prayer (p. 417-418):
  i. 17:1-5—Praying for Himself.
  ii. 17:6-19—Praying for His disciples.
  iii. 17:20-24—Praying for His future believers.
  iv. 17:25-26—Results of His mission.
  e. 17:5; cf. 1:3 and 10—“World” is used 14 times.
  i. 1 John 2:15-17—The “world” here refers to the organized reality that is set against God.
  ii. John 3:16-17—The concern of the salvific event is the particular point to which the Christian faith is attached (Kierkegaard’s “scandal of particularity” theory).

John 17:1-8

• 17:1; cf. 2:4—The timetable has come to fruition.
• 17:1-2; cf., Luke 9:31-32—“Glorified,” in the Gospels, means that Jesus is being seen for who He really is.
• 17:2—The zoe here is the character of life, not the duration of life (Morris, p. 636-637).
• 17:3—It is through the Cross that the Father and the Son are ultimately revealed.
• 17:4-5—The Cross is not a tactic to attract attention; it is the revelation of God’s true nature.
  a. The Incarnation is the eternal disclosure of God’s goodness (Kung, 1984, p. 437-440).
  b. For some, the Cross is a singular event, where God showed some compassion. For others, the Cross is the ultimate expression of God’s love.
• 17:6-8—The irony is that they do not see and they do not believe, meaning this could have been written in retrospect.

John 17:9-19

• 17:9-10—The disciples are taken into the divine community through the Cross and will become the new Incarnation through the Church (Brown, 1970, p. 763).
• 17:13-15—This “world” is that structure of resistance that is alienated from God (Buber, 1970, p. 143).
  a. Martin Luther says that when the shepherds saw Jesus, they did not build a monastery but returned to their flocks.
  b. This prayer is armor for the early Church against Docetism.

John 17:20-26

• 10:17-18; cf., Hebrews 2:18—Jesus did not have a moral edge over us; He trusts that God would return His life to Him.
• Does knowing the “sign of Jonah,” something He would have learned at synagogue school, mean Jesus knew He would be raised?
  a. When did Jesus know that He was the “Son of Man” and the “Warrior Messiah” (Cullmann, 1963, p. 105-107)?
  b. It is not as if Jesus is following a script but more of playing a role (Wright, 1996, p. 645).
• 17:20-21; cf. 13:34—The “oneness” of the Father and the Son is a “community of love,” which is embodied in the Christian community (Rensberger, p. 147; cf., Talbert, p. 236).
• 17:22-23—The “glory” is to embody the selfless nature of God.
• 17:24—The full disclosure of God will only come through the Cross.
• 17:21-23; cf., 17:11—Unity is instrumental in continuing the tension between the light and the darkness. One of the weaknesses of the Church is that, even early on, it has fragmented into smaller pieces (Morris, p. 649-651; Wright, 2004, p. 99-100).
• What is in competition with God for our adoration and worship?
• 17:25-26—It is not that every Christian thinks alike or confesses the exact same thing, or that we all just get along in love regardless of our differences.
  a. Peter Berger says that ecumenical conversations should only be held between those who practice the faith daily, even if they do not agree with one another (p. 143-145).
  b. H. Richard Niebuhr says that we cannot attack a view until we can argue it as well as those who hold it (p. 1-3).

References

Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967).

Raymond Brown, The Gospel According to John XIII-XXI, Anchor Bible 29a (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970).

Martin Buber, I and Thou (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1970).

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

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

Ernst Kasemann, The Testament of Jesus: A Study of John in Light of Chapter 17 (London: SCM Press, 1968).

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).

C. F. D. Moule, The Phenomenon of the New Testament, Studies in Biblical Theology, 2nd series, vol. 1 (London: SCM Press, 1967).

H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture (New York: Harper and Row, 1951).

David Rensberger, Johannine Faith and Liberating Community (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1988).

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

B. F. Westcott, Introduction to the Study of the Gospels (New York: Macmillan, 1882).

N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, Christian Origins and the Question of God, vol. 2 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996).

N. T. Wright, John for Everyone, Part Two (Chapters 11-21), 2nd ed., For Everyone Series (London/Louisville: SPCK/Westminster/John Knox Press, 2004).

John 11

Living By Faith

The book A Voice in the Wind (1993) is about a young Jewish slave girl named Hadassah who is thrown to the lions when she does not confess Caesar as Lord. Although she is mauled, she rejoices in being chosen to be persecuted for her faith.

Every Good Story Needs a Villain

• According the Mishnah, a sanhedrin (means “sitting together” and is used as a legal term, thus “council”) was to be comprised of a “community” of 23 judges.
  a. Numbers 14:27—The minimum size of a Jewish “community” is 10.
  b. Numbers 35:24-25—The purpose of this “community” was to vote for conviction and exoneration in criminal cases. Thus, ten would vote for conviction and 10 for exoneration.
  c. Exodus 23:2—An additional person would be needed to reach a majority (11-10). However, a simple majority could not convict, thus, an additional judge would be added to one side (12-10).
  d. Finally, one more judge would be added in order to prevent deadlocks, thus 23 members.
• The Grand Sanhedrin met in the Hall of Hewn Stones, which was located inside the Temple in Jerusalem.
  a. It was comprised of 71 members:
  i. The Nasi, or chief judge (which could have also been the High Priest),
  ii. The Av Beit Din, or vice chief judge,
  iii. An additional 69 general members.
  b. They convened everyday, with the exception of festival days and the Sabbath.
  c. The Sanhedrin was dissolved in AD 358 with the adoption of the Hebrew calendar.

John 11:1-16

• Many see this narrative as the crux of the Gospel because it appears to point to Jesus’ death and resurrection and also includes the Sanhedrin's plot to kill Jesus.
• This passage is where Floyd Filson develops his theory that Lazarus is the author of the Gospel because who else would love Jesus more than one who had been raised from the dead by Jesus.
• 11:2—This is evidence of the familiarity the early Church has with these characters and stories (Morris, p. 478).
• 11:4—The Son of God will receive glory from Lazarus, yet His full divinity will only be revealed through His own death and resurrection.
• 11:5-7—It was a rabbinic tradition that one’s soul did not fully abandon the body until three days after death. Jesus’ reluctance to go establishes the fact that Lazarus is dead (Brown, 1966, p. 424; Talbert, p. 177).
• 11:9—Is Jesus saying that anytime they go is appropriate because the Light is always with them?
• 11:12—They do not want to go because of what almost happened to them last time.
• 11:16—Some say this is the stuff of heroism because it is better to die with Jesus than to live without Him.
  a. Thomas is typically remembered for his doubting that Jesus had risen from the grave, yet here he shows a tremendous amount of faith.
  b. Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die” (p. 89).

John 11:17-27

• 11:17—This affirms the fact that Lazarus is dead.
  a. 11:18-19—Lazarus must have been a man of some wealth. The mourning period was usually 40 days.
  b. 11:21—This is an example of belief in a bodily resurrection in pre-Christians.
• 11:25-26—What is Jesus asking here?
  a. Cullmann says that John’s Gospel carries several liturgical meanings, and this is an example of an early Christian confession (1978, p. 53-55).
  b. Although Lazarus will die again, Martha receives eternal life through her confession.

John 11:28-37

• 11:28—Martha refers to Jesus as “the Teacher.” Women were not allowed to be taught by the rabbis, however Jesus taught all who were open to His mission (Morris, p. 491).
• 11:34—This is the only time we see the phrase, “Come and see,” on the lips of the Jewish leaders. Ironically, they are leading Jesus to see death.
  a. 11:33—What is He “moved” by? Talbert offers four ideas (p. 179-180):
  i. It is a reflection of Jesus’ humanity.
  ii. It is a reflection of Jesus’ grief over sin or lack of faith.
  iii. It is a reflection of Jesus’ anger over:
  a) The intense emotion arising within Him.
  b) The unbelief of the Jews and Mary’s reluctance.
  c) The hypocritical sorrow of the mourners.
  iv. It is a correction regarding the Stoic philosophy about detachment from “the disrupting aspects of human nature.
  b. 11:36-37—The crowd is still divided over Jesus.

John 11:38-46

• 11:40—This is an anticipation of Jesus’ own resurrection.
• 11:41-42—This is not a prayer, but an exacerbation or a mini-lecture. When did Jesus say anything?
  a. 11:43—This is another reference to the voice, the agency of Life.
  b. 11:44—Even though he is bound, Lazarus is brought out by the eternal Word. Is this a commission to help raise people to new life?

John 11:47-57

• 11:48—The presumption is that Jesus is a political revolutionary who is destabilizing the crowd.
  a. This is a major problem for the religious leaders because it is their job to hold things together.
  b. John writes them as not really investigating these incidents.
• The Jews were afraid of losing their “place” (which could also be translated “temple”), meaning they were afraid of losing the little freedom the Romans allowed them.
• Josephus, the noted general and historian, wrote that the Sadducees were extremely rude (p. 135 [20.9.1]).
• 11:49-52—The irony of Caiaphas’ statement is that he did not know what he was saying because he was inspired to speak with a double meaning.
  a. Caiaphas reveals that his intentions are political.
  b. Ironically, the Romans will still destroy Jerusalem in AD 70, and the Sadducee order will vanish forever.

References

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (Reprint: 1959. New York: Touchstone Books/Simon and Schuster, 1995).

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

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

Flavius Josephus, The Works of Flavius Josephus, Part 2, ed. William Whitson (Whitefish, MT: Kessigner Publishing, 2003).

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

Francine Rivers, A Voice in the Wind, Mark of the Lion Series 1 (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1993).

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 12

John 12:1-8

• Matthew 26:6-13; Mark 14:1-10—This appears to be a parallel to the Synoptic story of an immoral woman washing Jesus’ feet.
  a. All of the disciples rebuke her, not only Judas.
  b. Jesus defends her and says that her kind act will be part of the “good news.”
  c. Mark 14:10—This is where Judas decides to betray Jesus.
• 12:2—This may have been a celebratory dinner for Lazarus.
• 12:3—The term used to describe Mary’s gift is pistikos, from the root word pistos (which means “faith”), although it is difficult to know exactly what this term means or how it relates to the story (Morris, p. 511-512).
• How do we feel when someone “out serves” us?
• 12:6—We do not have this aside on Judas’ character in the Synoptics? Do you find this interesting?
• 12:8—This is not to stop helping the poor, only to speak about Jesus’ burial (Lindars, p. 418-419).

John 12:9-12

• 12:10—Joining the community of faith can be dangerous.
• 12:13—Quote from Psalm 118:25-26
  a. The palm branch is the national symbol of Israel.
  b. “Hosanna” literally means “Oh, save [us]!”
• 12:15—Quote from Zechariah 9:9—"Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey" (NRSV).
• 12:16; cf. 14:26—The Paraclete will bring remembrance of and insight about these events.
• 12:17-19—The two groups of people are becoming even more divided about Jesus.

John 12:20-26

• 12:21—Philip was a Greek-speaking, Diaspora disciple.
• 12:23—With the coming of these Diaspora Jews, Jesus realizes that the time for His death is quickly approaching (Brown, 1966, p. 470). Yet they will not see Jesus until they see Him in the missionaries who will preach about the Cross.

John 12:27-36

• 12:30—Jesus does not need the assurance, yet the disciples do.
• 12:32; cf. 1:50-51—Jesus will be honored and revered through His death and resurrection.
• 12:34—Despite all that they have seen and heard, the crowd still wants to debate.
  a. This is an abrasive break with the crowd in which Jesus says, “No more talking!”
  b. Soren Kierkegaard compares this to someone debating about what should be done as the ship races toward the waterfall (1973, p. 374-375).
• 19:5—Pilate will present Jesus as the new Adam.

John 12:37-43

• How many of us are “people-pleasers”?
• 12:36-37—This is the official end of Jesus’ public ministry in John’s Gospel.
  a. 12:36—We are reminded that Jesus will sacrifice Himself on His time.
  b. 12:38—Ultimately is the unbelief of the people that brings about Jesus’ death by fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 53:1 (Morris, p. 536).

John 12:44-50

• Jesus’ motivation for Faith
  a. 12:44—Belief in Jesus is belief in God.
  b. 12:46—Belief in Jesus frees us from spiritual distress.
  c. 12:47—Hearing Jesus’ words means a responsibility to keep them.
• 12:45—Whoever “sees” Jesus understand who He really is.
• 12:50; cf. Deuteronomy 32:45-47—These are parallel passages about receiving instructions that give life.

References

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

Soren Kierkegaard, A Kierkegaard Anthology, Robert Bretall, ed. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973).

Barnabas Lindars, The Gospel of John, New Century Bible Commentary (Greenwood, SC: Attic Press, 1972).

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

John 9

What Is "Retribution Theology?"

• There is a Jewish proverb that says “There is no suffering without sin?”
  a. Psalm 32:3-5—The poet says that, as long as he ignored his sin, God’s “hand was heavy upon” him.
  b. What is the relationship between sin and suffering?
• Is there any validity to this theological concept?
  a. Does God punish people with suffering because of their sin or the sin of their family members?
  b. Sherwin describes this concept as an effort “to determine whether it is ‘cost effective’ to maintain us” (p. 65).

John 9:1-12

• 9:4-5—What is the symbolism here?
  a. “Day” is a symbol for the time allowed to work.
  b. “Night” is a symbol for death (also, suffering or distress; cf., Psalm 30:5).
• 9:7—Information on the Pool of Siloam.
  a. It is Greek for “sent” (cf., Hebrews 11:1).
  b. It is located on the southern end of the Lower City, near the Water Gate. It was fed by the Gihon spring that flowed through an underground tunnel built by Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:20).
• What are the connections between this “sign” and the “sign” in chapter 5?
  1. 9:7; cf., 5:2—Both are performed at a pool.
  2. 9:14; cf. 5:9—Both are performed on the Sabbath.
  3. 9:15; cf., 5:16—Both provoke the Pharisees.
• In describing this situation, Wright writes, "The chaos and misery of this present world is, it seems, the raw material out of which the loving, wise and just God is making his new creation. . . .A new chaos is on the way-the 'night', the darkness, when Jesus will be killed and the world will seem to plunge back into primal confusion. But at the moment he is establishing the new world of light and healing. After the chaos of Good Friday and Holy Saturday, he will bring the new creation itself into being with the light of the first Easter Day (John 20.1)" (p. 134-135).

John 9:13-23

• 9:22—The man’s parents are afraid that they will be “put out of the synagogue.”
  a. What this means is that they will be forbidden from worshipping in that synagogue. In the Jewish system, this means that they will no place in the community, that they will be outcasts.
  b. 9:34—The Jews “drove [the man] out.”
  i. In a sense, they excommunicated the man (Cullmann, 1978, p. 104-105).
  ii. Is this representative of what is occurring in John’s time of writing this Gospel?

John 9:24-34

• 9:24—Is there not a bit of irony in this question?
  a. “Give glory to God!” literally means “Promise before God that you will tell the truth” (cf., Joshua 7:19; Talbert, p. 165).
  b. There appears to be a real emphasis on the dichotomy between light (salvation) and darkness (sin) in this passage. The one who has been healed of his physical blindness (“enlightened”) becomes a missionary to those who are shackled with spiritual blindness (Brown, 1966, p. 379; Cullmann, 1978, p. 103).
• 9:27—By posing this question to the Pharisees, the man is declaring himself to be a disciple of Jesus (Morris, p. 437; Talbert, p. 165).
  a. The man was not expecting them to answer positively to his question.
  b. 9:28-29—They are speaking boastfully out of an assumption, thus further solidifying John’s point that they are in darkness.

John 9:35-41

• 9:35-38—Hearing that the man has been cast out of the synagogue, Jesus returns to him and “helps the process of the man’s faith along” (Talbert, p. 167).
  a. 9:36—It appears that the man is genuinely interested in knowing who healed him.
  b. 9:38—This is the only reference in John to anyone worshipping Jesus.
• 9:39-41—Jesus is condemning the Pharisees because they have the necessary knowledge yet are unwilling to use it (Morris, p. 442).

References

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

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).

Byron L. Sherwin, Studies in Jewish Theology: Reflections in the Mirror of Tradition (Portland, OR: Vallentine Mitchell, 2007).

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).

N. T. Wright, John for Everyone, Part One (Chapters 1-10), 2nd ed., For Everyone Series (London/Louisville: SPCK/Westminster/John Knox Press, 2004).

John 10

What No Parables?

• Alyce McKenzie writes, “Parables are short narrative fictions that seek to make us evaluate our lives. While we think we are interpreting them, they are actually interpreting us” (p. 1)!
  a. Parables, according to McKenzie, help us answer two questions (p. 2-3):
  i. What is the kingdom of God like?
  ii. How am I to respond to the reign of God?
  b. Parables offer four answers to the first question (p. 3):
  1) The kingdom of God is not under our control.
  2) The kingdom of God shows up when we least expect it.
  3) The kingdom of God disrupts business as usual.
  4) The kingdom of God is a reign of justice and forgiveness.
  c. Parables also offer us four responses to the second question (p. 3-4):
  1) We divest ourselves of our need for control.
  2) We discern the presence of God among the details of daily life.
  3) We accept the disruption that God brings to our complacent values, attitudes, and assumptions.
  4) We set ourselves in the destination of the kingdom that brings and will bring justice and forgiveness.
• The Synoptic Gospels contain over 100 proverbs and 40 parables that deal with McKenzie’s two questions.
• However, John’s Gospel contains only one reference to the Kingdom of God (3:5), and “Jesus’ teachings take the form of a series of explanations of his identity and mission that are often called the ‘I am’ sayings” (McKenzie, p. 7; cf., Metzger,2003, p. 113-114).
• Brian Stiller offers seven characteristics which are common to the parables in the Synoptics (p. 15-17):
  1. The parables are “earthy” (McKenzie calls them “paradoxical”, p. 23).
  2. The parables do not require previous learning.
  3. The parables are direct and concise.
  4. The parables have a unique structure with a major and some minor points.
  5. The parables use repetition.
  6. The parables offer a conclusion, although it is an affective conclusion rather than an informative conclusion (McKenzie refers to this as the “open-ended quality”, p. 26).
  7. The parables use a surprise element of a reversal of expectation.
• Although the word parabole is not used in John’s Gospel, this is the nearest example of a parable. This illustration may be more akin to the Hebrew mashal, which also includes analogy and parallelism.
  a. 10:6; cf. 16:25—The word that is used here is paroimian (or “figure of speech”), a technique that compares two worlds in order to draw the physical world into the spiritual world.
  b. The implication is that Jesus’ entire life is a parable, which is the basis for John’s “come and see” theology.

John 10:1-10

• 10:1—A “sheep pen” was a court surrounded by walls, yet open to the sky and with only one entrance.
• 10:1-3—The legitimacy of Jesus is set against those who are false or malicious teachers.
  a. 10:2-3—The image is of a communal sheep pen where each shepherd has a call for his specific group of sheep (Brown, 1966, p. 385).
  b. 3 John 15—John asks that his personal greetings be given.
  c. The voice the sheep hear is the voice of the Creator.
  d. John 10:5—Some connect this to the Blind Man narrative (9:1-12) because he responds to the voice of the Shepherd while the religious leaders, who can see Jesus, do not respond to Him.
• 10:6-10—Some did not understand what Jesus was talking about.
  a. 10:9—Those who go in and out of the gate are led by the Shepherd.
  b. 10:10a—This may be a reference to some form of incipient Gnosticism.
  c. 10:10b; 5:22-26—The “life” that is mentioned here is zoe not bios.

John 10:11-18

• 10:11—The Good Shepherd will lay down His psuche (“life”) for His sheep.
  a. The worthy shepherd will always put his life in front of danger to protect the flock.
  b. 10:12-13—The hired hand, who may be a church worker or a false teacher, will not defend the sheep (i.e., the Church).
  c. The idea behind the use of psuche is His personality as the Good Shepherd, Savior and Messiah (Cullmann, 1963, p. 58).
• Isaiah 56:9-12—God had given responsibility of guiding the people to the religious leaders, yet they had failed.
• Characteristics of a “Good Shepherd”:
  a. Caretaker
  b. Personal-“calls them by name”
  c. Loyal
  d. 10:4—Salvation
  e. Leader
  f. Calls
• 10:16—Is this the Samaritan group or the Gentile mission?
  a. 10:19—Those opposed to Jesus are not a solid opposition against Jesus.
  b. The “background music” of this reality is the sheep listening to the true voice and others only hearing the voice (Jeff Peterson, AGST).
  c. Schisma—“tear, rip,” Greek
• The relinquishing of one’s life is the very essence of zoe.
  a. Some see the Incarnation as a one-time deal where Jesus gets everything back in spades when He returns to Heaven. However, we must remember that the Cross is a continual action (Morris, p. 456-457).
  b. Jesus does not take up His psuche again. He will receive His life again from the God who always sustains the faithful.
• 10:18; cf. Philippians 2:6-7—Jesus is not saying that He has an ace up His sleeve. He is saying that He trusts that He is doing what God has asked Him to do.
  a. The fullest expression of self-expending love (agape) is giving up one’s life (Ballie, 1948). b. Luther wants us to cling to the Cross and ignore the dark mystery of God’s wrath, yet the Cross swallows God’s wrath because the Cross becomes His essence.
  c. 13:34-35—Our loving one another as Christ has loved us continues the love seen through the Cross (Grenz, p. 194-195).
  d. 17:21—This love is then made flesh through mission.

John 10:19-30

• 1 Maccabees 4:8-9—In 164 BC, Judas Maccabees cleanses the Temple of Antiochus Epiphanes IV’s abominations. The memorial festival becomes known as Hanukkah, or the Feast of Dedication, which is held in winter.
• 10:22—Could this reference to “winter” be a time of discontent with the religious leaders?
  a. 10:23—Solomon’s Porch was a place where one could stand to stay out of the harsh December winds.
  b. 10:24—“How long will You continue to provoke us?”
• 10:25-30—How much more proof do they need? According to Talbert, Jesus provides two answers to thie question (p. 174):
  a. 10:25—Jesus has and will continue to perform signs that reveal His true identity.
  b. 10:28-29—The religious leaders will attempt to tear Jesus’ followers away from Him.

John 10:31-42

• 10:31-39—This is another possible example of the “replacement motif.”
  a. The Lamb is again standing in the Temple courtyard.
  b. 10:38—This is more of a call for faith.
• 10:40-41—The people revered John the Baptizer.

References

Donald Ballie, God Was In Christ: An Essay on Incarnation and Atonement (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948).

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

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

Stanley J. Grenz, Created for Community: Connecting Christian Belief with Christian Living, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: BridgePoint Books/ Baker 1998).

Alyce M. McKenzie, The Parables for Today, For Today Series (Louisville/London: Westminster/ John Knox Press, 2007).

Bruce M. Metzger, The New Testament: Its Background, Growth, and Content, 3rd ed. (Nashville: Abingdon, 2003).

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

Brian C. Stiller, Preaching Parables to Postmoderns, Fortress Resources for Preaching (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005).

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).