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The Four: A Survey of the Gospels
Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom
From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John
Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture
1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary
The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter
A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons
Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature
Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen
The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism
A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel
From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution
Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy
Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper
A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament
Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature
Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays
Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life
The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church
INTRODUCTION
The Spirit is the “Paraclete,” a Greek word often translated as “comforter.” But the Spirit doesn’t just soothe us. When the Comforter comes, He comes to convict (John 16:8-11). The Spirit is the Spirit of discipline.
THE TEXT
“These things I have spoken to you that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. . . .” (John 16:1-14).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, May 17, 2010 at 11:18 am
Introducing the Gospel reading from John 21 this morning, Chris Schlect pointed out that Jesus instructs Peter to take up the commission of Israel. Israel was supposed to be light to the nations, but refused; Jesus tells Peter to do what Israel failed to do.
That fits with a couple of other things. First, Peter, of course denies Jesus three times in an earlier chapter of John; so do the Jews (18:30; 18:39-40; 19:15). Peter is a representative Jew, but also representative of the “resurrected” Israel commissioned to feed lambs and sheep. Second, three times Jesus calls Peter “son of Jonah” (21:15, 16, 17). Peter has just plunged into the water from a boat (21:7), and he comes dripping to shore like his “father” Jonah. Jonah is not only his literal father but his spiritual father: Like Jonah, Peter the son of Jonah first joins Israel in denying Jesus and Israel’s own calling, and then takes up that task.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, April 19, 2009 at 11:16 am
The blind man in John 9 passes through the waters and gets attached to Jesus, Joshua. His parents are afraid of being kicked out of the old world, the world on the other side of the water of exodus. As several students have pointed out to me, the parents are like the generation that came out of Egypt but fell in the wilderness. They want to stay with the old Moses, rather than clinging to the new; they want to return to Egypt, the synagogue of Satan.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, March 9, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Another student points out the rhetorical effect of the words of the parents of the blind man in John 9. When the Pharisees ask if the blind man was their son, and born blind, they say “Ask him. He is of age.” When they do ask him, the blind man says “I was healed by Jesus; He is a prophet; do you want to be His disciples?”
Despite their fear, the parents are directing the Pharisees to the right source. They are urging the Pharisees to hear the son, their son. When we mix in the fact that there is a generational theme here – the fearful parents, the bold son – we can get a deeper sense of the purpose of the parents in the story. They are the “old guard” and want to stay in the synagogue; but as the old guard they are pointing to the coming of the new. As Jesus said, Moses spoke of Me.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, March 6, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Jesus’ trial before Pilate takes place near Passover, but it’s a Day of Atonement, as Barabbas is selected to go free and Jesus sent outside the camp bearing the sins of His people.
A student, Stephanie Beauchamp, points to another Day-of-Atonement theme in John’s account. Throughout the narrative, Pilate is the mediator between the Jews, who stay outside the Praetorium to avoid contamination, and Jesus, who is inside. In and out, in and out, Pilate is playing the role of a priest. Of course, everything is inverted. The clean Jews are outside, and the “priestly” character is a skeptical Roman governor. The Jews end up “outside”; despite their concern for purity, they don’t have access to the incarnate Glory in the Praetorium. In the end, they declare their devotion to Caesar instead of Yahweh; they become Gentiles.
This highlights the connection between Peter’s denial and that of the Jews. Peter is in the actual high priest’s court, and denies Jesus; the Jews, in the quasi-templar court of the quasi-priest Pilate, say “We have no King but Caesar.”
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, March 6, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Reacting to my earlier post on the week of John 1-2, John Barach offers a (needed) lesson in counting:
It seems to me that the wedding at Cana has to be taken as the eighth day for two reasons. First, the parallels with the seven days of creation make it the eighth:
DAY 1: The Light of the World (1:1-18)
DAY 2: The Baptism of John (1:19-28)
DAY 3: Jesus’ Baptism (1:29-34): dry land emerges from water, “the next day.”
DAY 4: John Points Disciples to Jesus (1:35-39)
DAY 5: Disciples Bring Brothers (1:40-42)
DAY 6: Jesus and Nathanel (1:43-51): “the following day,” the first day
DAY 7: [nothing]: Sabbath; the second day
DAY 8: The Wedding at Cana (2:1-11): “the third day”
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, December 23, 2008 at 12:24 pm
The miracle at Cana takes place on the seventh day of John’s gospel. It’s a wedding, and it’s “Sabbath.”
If we assume that the fall of Adam took place on the first Sabbath, then the Johannine Sabbath provides some neat parallels and reversals. In particular, this parallel may illuminate Mary’s role: She urges Jesus to provide wine, but Jesus puts her off with “My hour is not yet come.” Jesus is true Adam who waits until the right time to take the fruit of the vine.
Mary is also a true, better Eve. Having told by her Son to wait, she waits, and instructs the servants to do whatever He requires. She is not an impatient Eve, but like the Seed of the Woman waits to receive the cup.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, December 22, 2008 at 2:43 pm
“In the Word was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness.” Thus John describes the incarnation of the Son. He comes as the living and life-giving light of the world.
That’s good news. In the beginning, God spoke and light shone into the darkness, and unending light is the image of eternal life in the book of Revelation. Between these endpoints, Jesus is the dawn of a new day, the beginning of new life for the world..
But light also seems threatening.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, December 7, 2008 at 8:07 am
Siloam was a pool (John 9), but Siloam also had a towner (Luke 13:4). That enhances the Edenic setting of the story of the man born blind in John 9. He is not only sent to wash in the water, he is sent to wash in the water by the tower. Tower and pool, mountain and lake, tree and pond, tree and river – all variations on a theme. And the blind man, now seeing, stands as the righteous tree by the living and life-giving water, like a tower reaching to heaven, like Adam among the groves.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, November 27, 2008 at 5:58 am
The inventive Calum Carmichael (The Story of Creation) argues that “John, in an imaginative, allusive approach to the text of Genesis that is akin to Philo’s approach before him does indeed lay out the equivalent of the seven days of creation. The elements of each day in Genesis have their historical counterparts in John such that these echo in allegorical fashion the details of the creation story. In the first five chapters of his Gospel Johannine historical reporting is an allegorization of the creation story, just as Philo’s interpretations of Genesis 1 are primarily allegorical.”
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, August 16, 2008 at 3:47 pm
The first 12 chapters of John are commonly seen as John’s “book of signs.” There are seven signs, which may suggest a connection with the creation week. Some starting thoughts:
1. Water to wine, ch 2: Jesus’ manifests His glory, His light in the darkness of Israel.
2. Child raised from deathbed, ch 4: second sign (4:54; again in Cana)
3. Paralytic in Jerusalem, ch 5: Water plays a prominent role in the story.
4. Feeding of 5000, ch 6: They want to make Jesus king (6:15), like the luminaries.
5. Crossing the sea, ch 6: Water again prominent, and the fifth day is the day for sea creature.
6. Blind man receives sight, ch 9: Jesus makes a man new with clay, as in Genesis 2:7.
7. Lazarus raised from the dead, ch 11: Resurrection, new life, Sabbath.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, July 18, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Wayne Brouwer offers this chiastic analysis of John 13-17:
A. Gathering, 13:1-35: unity with Jesus in mutual love
B. Disciples’ denial, 13:36-38
C. Jesus departure and Father’s power, 14:1-14
D. Promise of Paraklete, 14:15-26
E. Troubling encounter with the world, 14:27-31
F. Vine and Branches, 15:1-17
E’. Troubling encounter with world, 15:18-16:4a
D’. Promise of Paraklete, 164b-15
C’. Jesus’ departure and father’s power, 16:16-28
B’. Prediction of disciples’ denial, 16:29-33
A’. Departing prayer, 17:1-26
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, July 18, 2008 at 12:01 pm
I like J. Louis Martyn. His commentary on Galatians is a masterpiece, and the other essays I’ve read are all very stimulating. I begin with a disclaimer because what has been called Martyn’s “seminal proposal” concerning the gospel of John is remarkable mainly for the absence of evidence and argument.
Martyn begins with the common critical assumption that the gospels tell us as much or more about the communities that produced them than about Jesus. On this assumption, he finds evidence that John is written in response to the introduction of the Twelfth Benediction against heretics into the Eighteen Benedictions that are part of Jewish worship.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 at 3:59 am
Jesus spits on the ground, makes clay of the spittle, and “applies” the clay to the eyes of a blind man (John 9; NASB). The verb behind “apply” is epichrio. Its only other usage in the NT is five verses later, where the NASB translates the very same form of the very same verb as “anoint” (much better than “apply”). At least the NIV is consistently bad, rendering both uses as “put on.” The less patient will be tempted to say “ARGHH!”
Kudos to the ESV and the NKJV, which have the rather jolting “anoint” in both verses.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, April 3, 2008 at 9:55 am
John is aware of linguistic diversity, translating unusual Hebrew terms into Greek (e.g., “Messiah” into “Christ,” 1:42). This is perhaps for the convenience of Greek readers, but there is likely also a theological reason: John proclaims the incarnate Word, and describes the work and words of that Word with words drawn from a variety of languages.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, April 3, 2008 at 8:36 am
John tells us that the inscription “Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews” was placed above his head on the cross in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek (19:19-20). But this is just the culmination of a text that, though written in Greek, contains a number of cross-linguistic terms. Twice in chapter 19 John translates a Greek term into Hebrew/Aramic (vv. 13, 17), something he does only two other times in the gospel (5:2; 20:16).
Pilate, meanwhile, goes in and out of the Praetorium (18:28, 33), a Greek word borrowed from Latin, and a central point in debate is whether Caesar is going to be happy with Pilate (19:12).
That Jesus is the King of the Jews is proclaimed in all the relevant languages; that Jesus is crucified by a united humanity is evident in the trial scene as a whole – Pilate in his Praetorium, the Jews concerned for ritual impurity, both are described in John’s Greek.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, April 3, 2008 at 8:33 am
John 20:3-8: Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed.
Graveyards are spooky places, sites for countless horror films and Steven King novels. Death is unnerving, and we keep our distance from the dead. We put them off in a sequestered, fenced area on the outskirts of town, where they – and we – can rest in peace.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 4:51 am
In medieval iconography, John the Evangelist is depicted as an eagle, and this portrait expresses the opinion of the early church fathers, that John wrote a “spiritual” gospel which has a “loftier spiritual purpose” than the other gospels. John is the eagle because he soars “aloft to contemplate and proclaim sublime truths,” while the other gospel writers are land animals, preoccupied with the “more mundane aspects of Jesus’ ministry and person” (quotations from article by Barbara Pitkin on Calvin’s commentary on John, found in Janse and Pitkin, The Formation of Clerical and Confessional Identities in Early Modern Europe).
Continue reading…
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, March 21, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Jesus’ “I am” sayings are usually linked with the revelation of the name of Yahweh on Sinai But Marianne Meye Thompson notes that there is also a large concentration of “I am” sayings in Isaiah 40-66, which are linked to the new exodus of Israel out of Babylonian exile. This illumines a number of Johannine passages. In John 8, for instance, Jesus charges that the Jews who oppose Him are children of the devil and slaves, and in this context utters the famous “Before Abraham was, I am.” He is not simply declaring that He is Yahweh – though He is doing that – but also saying that He is the One who will bring the slaves out of slavery.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, March 17, 2008 at 11:48 am
At the chiastic center of John 9, the Jews interrogate the blind man’s parents, threatening them with expulsion from the synagogue if they confess Jesus. Why do the parents appear? The answer goes back to the disciples’ question at the beginning of the chapter: Jesus says the parents have not sinned to cause blindness. At the center, though, the parents hesitate when confronted by the Jews, in order to stay in the good graces of the leaders. As Jesus says at the end of the passage, the Jewish leaders are blinded, and blind because of their sin. The parents were not responsible for the man’s blindness, but by the end of the chapter through fear they are standing with the ones who are blinded.
There also seems to be a generational issue here. The older generation fears expulsion, and only the younger man receives light from the Light and sees the Lord.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 6:01 am
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