Lesson 12 - John (Issues and Texts)

Question 1

What is the issue concerning John 1:1 and the deity of Jesus?

Answer 1

• • “And the word was God” – was Jesus sub-divine
• • This shouldn’t be translated, “the word was a God”. Jesus is fully God, not a form of God
• • John is developing a miniature chiasm in the first 2 verses and this is why he wrote this backward.
• • Beginning → Word → God → Word → Beginning

Question 2

Discuss the issue concerning the day of the crucifixion in John’s Gospel versus the day in the Synoptics.

Answer 2

1. ) Problem
   - - Synoptics (Day of passover - thursday; day of crucifixion - friday)
   - - John (day of passover - friday; day of crucifixion - friday)

Question 3

What are the 3 verses used to prove the contradiction between the synoptics and John?

Answer 3

1. ) John 1:29 – Jesus is the lamb that takes away the sins of the world
2. ) John 13 – no mention of the Passover lamb at the last supper
3. ) John 18:28 – they hadn’t eaten the Passover meal yet and its Friday morning

Question 4

What’s the solution to this contradiction?

Answer 4

1. ) John 1:29 - this proves no contradiction between John and the synoptics
   - - Calling Jesus a lamb of God, doesn’t prove that Jesus has to die when the lambs are being slaughtered.
   - - Jesus as the sacrifice is a theme throughout all the gospels.
   - - John the Baptist is just identifying Jesus’s role, not appointing a day in which he must die.
2. ) John 13 - the last supper, the lack of the institution of the Lord’s supper
   - - When John tells the same stories that the synoptics tell, he fills in gaps that they don’t tell.
   - - John focuses on the time prior to the meal (washing of the feet) and not on the meal itself.
   - - John doesn’t tell us if it is or isn’t the passover meal. (It’s an argument from silence)
   - - John 13 is inconclusive
3. ) John 18:28
   - - If we understand passover in v. 28 as the actual passover meal.
   - - Whatever meal is being referred to in 18:28 as the passover meal, can’t be the actual passover meal, because entering into the house of a Gentile wouldn’t stop you from being able to eat the passover meal (you would just need to bathe before you ate that night).
   - - What is going on in John 18:28?
   - - Partake in passover? Throughout passover there are many different meals and feasts.
   - - The main feast was always at night, and this feast had to be mid-day, so this feast that this verse is talking about must be talking about another mid-day feast.

Question 5

What is the summary solution for the contradiction of the crucifixion day?

Answer 5

The synoptics are clear on this chronology and John doesn’t challenge this position, although his chronology is not as clear as the synoptics.

Question 6

Discuss whether or not the story of the adulterous woman is original to John’s Gospel?

Answer 6

– Consensus of scholarship is that this story is not original to John’s gospel, but was added later

Case against inauthenticity

a. ) Does not appear in the earliest Greek manuscripts
- - the earliest this story appears is in the 5th c.
b. ) Located in 5 different places in later manuscripts
c. ) Non-John features (vocabulary sounds like Luke, “scribes and pharisees”)
d. ) Natural transition from John 7:52 to 8:12
e. ) No church father cites it before the 4th c.

Question 7

Should John 7:53-8:11 about the adulterous woman be included in the Bible or not? Could it be true?

Answer 7

• • Yes it could be true, but doesn’t need to be included in the canon.
• • The canon is reserved for the inerrant words of the apostles and this story could be true, but wasn’t written by John