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The Glory of Kings: A Festschrift for James B. Jordan
Fyodor Dostoevsky
(Christian Encounters Series)
Athanasius
(Foundations of Theological Exegesis and Christian Spirituality)
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
It’s often noted, but during this Advent the point struck home with particular force: John begins his gospel with the incarnational gospel that the “Word became flesh and tabernacled (skenoo) among us.” God the Word descends from heaven to pitch His tent with men.
But that incarnational descent is not, in a sense, completed unti the revelation of the bride. The same verb (skenoo) appears again in Revelation 21:3: “Behold the tent of God with men, and he will tabernacle with them.” But this describes not the descent of the Son but of the Bride (v. 1).
God’s residence with humanity doesn’t reach its end until the Spirit-filled Bride descends from heaven. The church is not so much a “continuing incarnation” as a “completion of the incarnation.”
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 at 5:43 am
In John 10:30, Jesus says “I and the Father are One.” The Jews think it blasphemous. Why?
Jesus’ statement seems to be a riff on the Shema – “Hear, O Israel, YHWH your God is One.” Jesus sticks Himself into the Shema: Not YHWH along, but “I and YHWH” are one.
And the NT statements about us being “one” with God might also be taken as blasphemy for the same reason. Because we are united to the Son who united Himself to us, we are stuck into the Shema too. Jesus’ reference to Psalm 82 might have something to do with showing that “deification” is not blasphemous but something anticipated by the OT.
Thanks to Donny Linnemeyer for the question that inspired these scattered thoughts.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, November 7, 2011 at 1:07 pm
John 15 (ESV)
1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
Let us pray.
Father in heaven, brighten our hearts and minds by the Spirit of Jesus, so that His living words might abide in us, and we in Him, that we may bear much fruit. Amen.
The analogy Jesus draws between the vine and branches on the one hand, and Himself and His disciples on the other, only works because the order of creation anticipates the contours of redemption. The analogy works only because it is literally true that a vine is in the branches and the branches are in the vine. And that principle applies to the whole creation. We find the same curved and curling shape everywhere we look. Everywhere, things circle back to enclose what encloses them.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, June 20, 2011 at 1:18 pm
Commenting on John 1:12-13, Calvin says “Some think that an indirect reference is here made to the preposterous confidence of the Jews, and I willingly adopt that opinion. They had continually in their mouth the nobleness of their lineage, as if, because they were descended from a holy stock, they were naturally holy. And justly might they have gloried in their descent from Abraham, if they had been lawful sons, and not bastards; but the glowing of faith ascribes nothing whatever to carnal generation, but acknowledges its obligation to the grace of God alone for all that is good. John, therefore, says, that those among the formerly unclean Gentiles who believe in Christ are not born the sons of God from the womb, but are renewed by God, that they may begin to be his sons. The reason why he uses the word blood in the plural number appears to have been, that he might express more fully a long succession of lineage; for this was a part of the boasting among the Jews, that they could trace their descent, by an uninterrupted line, upwards to the patriarchs.”
Note that Calvin not only endorses this reasoning, but also that others were saying the same thing at the time.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Wednesday, May 4, 2011 at 9:12 am
John 20:28: Thomas answered and said to Him, My Lord and my God.
Let us pray.
Father, You raised Your Son Jesus from the dead to bring a new day. Strengthen our faith by Your Spirit, so that we may believe the things written and so participate more and more in the power of His indestructible life and ascend to be with Him where He is, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
An octave is a repetition, a repetition with a difference. It’s not the first note played again, but the first note played at a higher pitch. Octaves have always marked new beginnings. Hebrew boys were circumcised on the eighth day. Firstborn sheep were dedicated to Yahweh on the eighth day. Aaron entered the priesthood on the eighth day. Lepers, men with discharges, women with flows of blood were cleansed on the eighth day. The temple dedication climaxed with a solemn assembly on the eighth day.
Easter is itself an octave, an eighth. Jesus rose on the day after the Sabbath, after Israel’s week ended. Easter is a repetition of all the eights of the Old creation, but transcends all those partial new beginnings by taking them an octave higher. Yet, this evening we’re celebrating the octave of Easter, the evening of the eighth day after the eighth day. We have moved up another octave. If we’ve already celebrated the beginning of a new week, why do we need a second eighth day?
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, April 30, 2011 at 7:35 pm
Jesus tells Nathanael that he will see angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man. The Son of Man is Jacob’s ladder to heaven, but when? and how?
As noted in the previous post, John speaks writes of the exaltation of the Son of Man on the cross. When the Son of Man is lifted up in death, He becomes the ladder to heaven; that’s when the heavens are opened; that’s when the One who descended begins to ascend again to the Father.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 7:26 am
What makes John link the Passover prohibition of breaking bones (Exodus 12:46) with the Zechariah 12 prophecy that “they shall look on the one whom they pierced” in John 19:36-37?
One of the links is Passover itself. ”Not a bone shall be broken” is clearly a Passover text, but so is Zechariah 12, the mourning in each household resembling the mourning of the Egyptians at Passover.
John witnesses an event that is already testified by two witnesses, the double witness of Exodus 12 and Zechariah 12. Both texts, fulfills in Jesus, demonstrate that He is what John the Baptist said He was: The Lamb of God come to take away the sins of the world.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 6:47 am
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so shall the Son of Man be lifted up,” Jesus told Nicodemus.
It’s a chiasm:
A. Lifted up
B. Serpent
C. Wilderness
B’. Son of Man
A’. lifted up.
Two interesting questions emerge here:
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 12:13 pm
Alison Trites (The New Testament Concept of Witness) finds parallels between the use of witness in the fourth gospel and that found in Isaiah 40-55: “There the controversy between Yahweh and the false gods turns out to be a lawsuit between God and the world. God is represented by Israel and the world by the pagan nations. Similarly, in the Fourth Gospel God incarnate has a lawsuit with the world. His witnesses include John the Baptist, the scriptures, the words and works of Christ, and later the witness of the apostles and the Holy Spirit. They are opposed by the world, represented by the unbelieving Jews. In Isaiah 40-55 the debate is over the claims of Yahweh as the Creator, the only true God and the Lord of history . . . . ; in John it is over the Messiahship and divine Sonship of Jesus. . . . John, like his Old Testament counterpart, has a case to present, and for this reason he advances his arguments, challenges his opponents and presents his witnesses after the fashion of the Old Testament legal assembly.”
He makes the point that the ultimate silence of the witnesses against Jesus in the fourth gospel is similar to the silence of the nations in Isaiah 40-55. The pagan gods or the nations that represent them are called to witness, but they say nothing. They “neither see nor know” (44:9) and have nothing to say: “Accordingly, by their silence the nations, who function as the legal representatives of the false gods, acknowledge that Yahweh has won the lawsuit.” By contrast, Israel is a garrulous witness on Yahweh’s behalf (43:10, 12; 44:8), and this links to “Yahweh’s own refusal elsewhere in the Old Testament to keep silent in court when acting as a witness or judge (Ps. 50:3-7; Mal. 3:5).” In John, Jesus is the Father’s agent in “the cosmic lawsuit with the world.”
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, March 5, 2011 at 8:03 am
John’s gospel begins with a “book of signs,” the word semeion used sixteen times in the first 12 chapters and only once after (20:30). The last use of the noun in the book of signs occurs in 12:37, which speaks of the “signs” that Jesus performs to unbelieving Jews.
What comes after the “book of signs”? It seems that 12:33 tells us: In talking about being “lifted up,” Jesus “signified” (semaino) the death that He would die. This is the first use of the verb in John’s gospel (indeed, in the entire NT), but it is picked up in 18:32 and 21:19, both of which also talk about “signifying” Jesus’ manner of death.
The book of signs is followed by the book of the single sign, the sign of the cross.
(As a bonus, we might notice, following J. Massyngberde Ford, that all the uses of the word semeion in Revelation come after chapter 12. John’s book of signs in 1-12 thus matches Revelation’s book of signs in 12-22, with the sign of the cross bridging the two.)
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, February 26, 2011 at 10:23 am
A number of students writing on John 13 have noticed the oddity that Jesus washes the disciples feet – an act of hospitality in preparation for a meal – but then they never eat. It’s a feast interrupted.
I suspect that has something to do with the interaction between John and Revelation. For John, the wedding feast doesn’t start until the harlot is overthrown. Jesus washes His disciples in preparation for that feast yet to come.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, February 11, 2011 at 4:56 pm
Jesus comes to Jerusalem riding over palm branches. He is the promised king, and marches over the treetops into Jerusalem, up to the temple.
When the disciples hear the sound of the Wind-filled Jesus in the tops of the trees, they will know that Yahweh has gone before them (cf. 2 Samuel 5:24).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, October 15, 2010 at 8:00 am
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
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