2.3 miracles and signs pg 40-43

Question 1

Where does the fourth sign take place?

Answer 1

in Galilee near to the second Passover mentioned in the Gospel

Question 2

What is the significance of Jesus going up on a mountainside?

Answer 2

• comparison is made with Moses going up Mt Sinai
• similarities with Matthew’s account, where Jesus is depicted as the new Moses
• Dodd = just a setting for miracle

Question 3

What is the significance of the Jewish Passover being near?

Answer 3

• passover remembered the time in the desert when the Israelites were provided with manna by God

Question 4

What is the significance of the boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish?

Answer 4

• this links with Elisha’s miracle of feeding 100 men with a small number of barley loaves (2 Kings 4:42-44)
• this miracle is more impressive

Question 5

What is the significance of Jesus giving thanks and distributing the bread?

Answer 5

• giving thanks is part of the Passover, the Last Supper and the Eucharist
• only Jesus could give out the bread as it was his body on the cross
• Dodd = considers the sign to be Eucharistic as it would have reminded the early church of the practice of giving bread in the Eucharist

Question 6

What is the significance of filling 12 baskets?

Answer 6

• the ‘bread’ Jesus gives is more than adequate; there is plenty for all to join in the messianic banquet
• the number of baskets is symbolic of the 12 tribes of Israel

Question 7

What is the significance of “surely this is the prophet”?

Answer 7

• the crowd misunderstands Jesus’ actions; it sees him as a miracle worker and prophet and wants to crown him king, forcing Jesus to leave
• the crowd was concerned with its physical needs, like the Israelites in the wilderness, and could not understand the spiritual significance of Jesus’ action

Question 8

What is the overall message of the fourth sign?

Answer 8

• the bread offered by Jesus is the ‘bread of life’, so those who believe in Jesus will never feel spiritually empty

Question 9

What is the fifth sign?

Answer 9

Jesus walks on water

Question 10

What is the significance of it being dark?

Answer 10

• only recorded in John
• links the theme of light and darkness in the Gospel: at this moment Jesus ‘the light of the world’ is not present

Question 11

What is the significance of the water?

Answer 11

• a possible link with God saving the Israelites by the parting of the Red Sea
• Jesus, like God in the OT, has the power to save by controlling nature

Question 12

What is the significance of “It is I”?

Answer 12

• ego eimi
• John does not start with words of comfort offered, as in other Gospels; all that they need can be found in Jesus

Question 13

What is the significance of the boat reaching the shore?

Answer 13

• Barrett = there is a link with Psalm 107
• can be argued that the true heaven is eternal life, which is the theme of the discourse that follows

Question 14

What is the overall message of the fifth sign?

Answer 14

the salvation offered by Jesus is for all if they have faith, and all who welcome Jesus into their lives will have salvation - a safe haven

Question 15

What is the sixth sign?

Answer 15

the healing of the blind man

Question 16

What is the significance of him being blind from birth?

Answer 16

• at the time it was believed that such disabilities were a punishment from God for the wrongdoings of the parents

Question 17

What is the significance of “so the works of God may be displayed in him”?

Answer 17

• Jesus focuses attention on God’s glory, not the issue of sin

Question 18

What is the significance of ‘I am the light of the world’?

Answer 18

• Jesus’ ministry is the period of light; night will come when he is betrayed and put to death

Question 19

What is the significance of ‘spat on the ground and made mud’?

Answer 19

• Jesus is making him into a new person, this can be compared with God’’s act of creation
• classed as work and so broke Sabbath law

Question 20

What is the significance of the pool of siloam?

Answer 20

• means sent’ - Jesus was ‘sent’ by the father

Question 21

What is the overall message of the sixth sign?

Answer 21

Jesus brings ‘light’ to all those who ‘see’ who he is and have faith. Spiritual blindness isn’t caused by sin but by not having faith in Jesus.

Question 22

What is the final sign?

Answer 22

the raising of Lazarus

Question 23

What is the significance of ‘God’s son may be glorified through it’?

Answer 23

• it is through God’s activity in the world that life will be brought out of death
• only if Lazarus died could a raising from the dead take place, a foreshadowing of Jesus’ own death

Question 24

What is the significance of ‘falling asleep’?

Answer 24

• a typical misunderstanding of the disciples, who take this literally
• term is used in the NT to mean death