Examine the Purpose and Nature of John
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- Date Submitted: 04/02/2014 02:12 PM
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Examine the purpose and nature of John’s passion narrative
Throughout the passion narrative the evangelist in the gospel of St. John writes with many key purposes, one of the most important is to clearly portray Jesus’ divinity and humanity. This also contributes to the nature of John as Jesus character and the evangelist’s portrayal of this is contributes to the nature of the gospel itself.
The evangelist makes a firm point of Jesus divinity throughout the passion narrative by different means. One of the first clear signs of Jesus as the divine Son of the Father and part of the Godhead is in chapter 18 verse 4 and 5, the evangelist writes:
“Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?”
“Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied.
“I am he,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) 6 When Jesus said, “I am he” they drew back and fell to the ground.”
So the key statement here in terms of divinity is the “I am” by which Jesus identifies himself. This statement would carry vast amounts of meaning to a learned Jew as Jesus is quoting the “I am”, “Yahweh” by which God identifies himself to Moses in Exodus 3v6. So many scholars (Marsh, Sanders and Mastin to name a few) see Jesus words emphasising his divine majesty as the Son of God, and the falling back of the oncoming soldiers would support this as when Jesus says this his glory is revealed in a way that they cannot withstand and so they “fell to the ground”.
The evangelist also demonstrates Jesus divinity through what Russell calls his “knowingness” and Schnackerburg his “supra-human knowledge”. This may just be prophetic awareness but other scholars see it as the divine quality of omniscience that Jesus is demonstrating. Throughout the entire gospel Jesus has predicted his death on multiple occasions; some scholars suggest that even Jesus statement soon after he is introduced, in chapter 1 verse 51 “you will see ‘heaven open, and the...
Throughout the passion narrative the evangelist in the gospel of St. John writes with many key purposes, one of the most important is to clearly portray Jesus’ divinity and humanity. This also contributes to the nature of John as Jesus character and the evangelist’s portrayal of this is contributes to the nature of the gospel itself.
The evangelist makes a firm point of Jesus divinity throughout the passion narrative by different means. One of the first clear signs of Jesus as the divine Son of the Father and part of the Godhead is in chapter 18 verse 4 and 5, the evangelist writes:
“Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?”
“Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied.
“I am he,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) 6 When Jesus said, “I am he” they drew back and fell to the ground.”
So the key statement here in terms of divinity is the “I am” by which Jesus identifies himself. This statement would carry vast amounts of meaning to a learned Jew as Jesus is quoting the “I am”, “Yahweh” by which God identifies himself to Moses in Exodus 3v6. So many scholars (Marsh, Sanders and Mastin to name a few) see Jesus words emphasising his divine majesty as the Son of God, and the falling back of the oncoming soldiers would support this as when Jesus says this his glory is revealed in a way that they cannot withstand and so they “fell to the ground”.
The evangelist also demonstrates Jesus divinity through what Russell calls his “knowingness” and Schnackerburg his “supra-human knowledge”. This may just be prophetic awareness but other scholars see it as the divine quality of omniscience that Jesus is demonstrating. Throughout the entire gospel Jesus has predicted his death on multiple occasions; some scholars suggest that even Jesus statement soon after he is introduced, in chapter 1 verse 51 “you will see ‘heaven open, and the...