Transcription
Wow, I just read Matthew, Mark, and Luke. This gospel is a completely different beast; it doesn't even sound the same. Um, so how is it that I can compare John's gospel with Matthew, Mark, and Luke? It seems to have a completely different character.
Well, that opens one of the most lively critical discussions that takes place in New Testament studies. Is the gospel of John a complete revising of Jesus' life? Has Jesus' voice that you hear in Matthew, Mark, and Luke—the synoptic gospels—has that voice been lost in the voice of John? It sounds almost like a Greek voice; it sounds very, very different. So how do I understand all of this? How does this work together?
Well, in many respects, John's gospel is a very different retelling of Jesus' life. And I think John, in my view anyway, understands that you are already familiar with the synoptic Jesus. You've already read Mark, for instance, and now what he wants to do is take you on a guided trip behind the scenes so that you can see things that you probably missed earlier.
The other thing that's unique about John's gospel is this: John's gospel is a gospel that is completely embedded in Jewish culture. Now, in another day, another era, the gospel of John was understood to be a Greek gospel, and so therefore people looked at the language of Jesus and they said, "Oh my gosh, this sounds like something that came out of Corinth or Ephesus or someplace else." But today that view has been proven wrong. For instance, Jews living inside of Judea, down at the Dead Sea, they sound very much like the gospel of John. So a Jew could certainly write something like this.
But here is something that you might not notice: as John begins to tell his story, he organizes those episodes from Jesus' life not so much chronologically, but he organizes those episodes thematically. So therefore, as Jesus begins to open his ministry at Cana, for instance, he is at a wedding, and that there are water vessels there at the Cana wedding, and he changes that water into wine. And therefore, what he's doing is he's showing who he is using an instrument of purification inside of Judaism. Now that is a model of storytelling that John wants to use. Jesus steps onto the stage of some Jewish institution and then reveals who he is in light of something standing in front of him. That's the first episode of Jesus' public ministry. Second episode: Jesus goes to Jerusalem; then there he's at this huge temple, it's an instrument of purification, and he says, "Tear down this temple and raise it up again in three days," and we discover that he is going to be that new temple. In other words, what John's gospel does is he gives you a series of episodes inside of Judaism so that you can understand who Jesus is in light of those institutions.
Now watch for those because you'll find those institutions in John chapters 2, 3, and 4. Now this is what John does next: he now takes you through the festivals of Judaism and he says, "Now if it's true that Jesus was revealing himself in light of Jewish culture, what about the great Jewish festivals such as Sabbath, chapter five? What about Passover, chapter six? What about the Feast of Tabernacles, chapter seven? What about the festival of Hanukkah, chapter 10?" So what you have in John's gospel is this intentional comparison of Jesus' ministry with Jewish cultural festivals. In order for us to understand what Jesus is doing in those institutions and in those festivals, we have to know those institutions and those festivals and get them right. We will never understand John chapter 6 if we don't understand Jewish Passovers. Read the gospel of John carefully and then view it through the lens of Jewish culture. [Music] You