Sheffield New Testament Guides: John
Overview
Lindars deals with the controversial issue of the Jews in John’s Gospel. He tackles the Gospel’s authorship and its agreement with the Synoptic Gospels. Lindars draws the reader into John’s world and the audience to whom John was writing. He also examines Jesus’ encounters with Pharisees, the Law, eternal life, the Gospel’s Prologue, John’s use of the title “Son of Man,” and the “I Am” sayings.
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Top Highlights
“The twelfth benediction thanks God for keeping Israel safe from her accursed enemies, with an obvious allusion to the Romans. The additional words add the Nazareans (Christians) and Minim (heretics) to these enemies. The new clause effectively excluded Christians from synagogue worship, as they could not recite the words without cursing themselves. The date of this addition is uncertain, but generally held to be about 85–90 CE. John’s references to excommunication in 9:22; 12:42; 16:2 may well have some connection with this move on the part of the rabbis. In any case it is sufficient to observe that during this period relations between church and synagogue were strained to breaking-point.” (Page 54)
“The historic circumstances of Jesus in his time are the stage on which the ultimate cosmic drama is played out. Jesus’ victory (16:33) is not just a personal triumph, but the act in which the light finally overcomes the darkness and God’s plan of salvation for all humanity is achieved.” (Page 13)
“Seeing that the purpose of John is to promote belief in order that the readers may have ‘life’” (Page 67)
“This means to entrust oneself to Jesus, fully accepting what he proclaims himself to be” (Page 73)
“Greek religion knows of gods who appear as human beings (cf. Acts 14:11–12) and of supermen who are raised to the company of the gods (as in the emperor cult), but not of a divine being who becomes actually human and mortal. Gnostic dualism, totally separating the divine from the human, cannot entertain the notion of incarnation. It is the Wisdom tradition of Hellenistic Judaism which offers the best solution, as nearly all modern scholars agree. This can be traced in the New Testament through Paul (1 Cor. 1:30), the ‘Colossian hymn’, Col. 1:15–20 (possibly post-Pauline), and the opening verses of Hebrews (1:1–4), in which Wisdom as God’s Son is his agent in creation and active in Jesus in the work of redemption.” (Page 74)
- Title: John
- Author: Barnabas Lindars
- Publisher: Sheffield Academic
- Publication Date: 2001
- Pages: 103
