The Jewish Annotated New Testament (51 page)

The Jews are from the outset portrayed as the people who reject Jesus (1.11), persecute him (5.16), seek his death (8.40), expel believers from the synagogue (9.22), plot Jesus’ death (9.49–52), and persecute his followers (16.2). Furthermore, both the Gospel narrator and the Johannine Jesus employ dualistic language that contrasts spirit and flesh, light and darkness, life and death, salvation and eternal damnation, God and Satan, belief and nonbelief. Those who believe Jesus to be the Messiah and Son of God are firmly associated with the positive element in each pair, whereas those who reject him—epitomized by “the Jews”—are associated with the negative elements. The most extreme example appears in Jn 8, in which Jesus declares to his Jewish audience: “You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires” (8.44). This accusation has contributed to anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism from ancient times to the present day.

In using the term “the Jews” to indicate, and to condemn, those who do not believe in Jesus, the Gospel of John encourages its readers to dissociate themselves from any who would identify with that designation. For that reason it may also be considered “anti-Jewish,” insofar as it declares that Jews who do not believe in Jesus as the Christ and Son of God thereby relinquish their covenantal relationship with God (8.47). It must be emphasized that the Gospel is not anti-Semitic in a racial sense, as it is not one’s origins that are decisive but one’s beliefs. Nevertheless, it has been used to promote anti-Semitism. Most damaging has been Jn 8.44, in which Jesus declares that the Jews have the devil as their father. The association of the Jews with Satan or the devil is pervasive in anti-Semitic discourse and imagery, from woodcuts (such as the image of
[T]he Jew calling the Devil from a Vessel of Blood
, a 1560 woodcut found in the
Histoires Prodigieuses
by the important French humanist, Pierre Boaistuau, ca. 1517–66) to plays such Shakespeare’s
The Merchant of Venice
, in which the Jewish merchant Shylock is referred to as “a kind of devil,” “the devil himself,” and “the very devil incarnate” (act 2, scene 2), and on present-day white supremacist websites, to name but a few examples.

While John’s difficult rhetoric should not be facilely dismissed, it can be understood as part of the author’s process of self-definition, of distinguishing the followers of Jesus from the synagogue and so from Jews and Judaism. This distancing may have been particularly important if the ethnic composition of the Johannine community included Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles. This approach does not excuse the Gospel’s rhetoric, but it may make it possible for readers to understand the narrative’s place in the process by which Christianity became a separate religion, to appreciate the beauty of its language, and to recognize the spiritual power that it continues to have in the lives of many of its Christian readers.

STRUCTURE AND LITERARY FEATURES

The Gospel of John falls into two main sections, traditionally called the Book of Signs (chs 1–12) and the Book of Glory (chs 13–21). For details on the subsections under each main section, see the headings in the annotations.

The Johannine narrative

As a “life” of Jesus, the Gospel of John tells what we might term a “historical tale,” in that it situates Jesus’ story in its historical context of Galilee and Judea, during the decades leading up to the first Jewish Revolt against Rome. The Gospel also tells a cosmological story of the preexistent Word of God who enters the world, conquers Satan, and returns to the Father. This cosmological tale exists within and behind the account of Jesus’ words and deeds. The historical tale, which describes his interactions with his followers and his opponents, is evident primarily through the plot, which traces Jesus’ life from the moment of his identification by John the Baptist (1.19–36) through to his crucifixion (ch 19) and his resurrection appearances to the disciples (chs 20–21). The cosmological tale is told both by the narrator and by Jesus, in their comments and reflections upon Jesus’ life and death.

The Gospel of John employs a number of literary devices, which direct the reader’s attention to its main themes and help to bridge the historical and cosmological tales. These include repetition (e.g., “The hour is coming, and is now here”; 4.21,23; 5.25,28; 16.2,25,32), double entendre (e.g., “be lifted up” in 3.14–15 as meaning both crucifixion and exaltation), misunderstanding (cf. Nicodemus’s question on how it is possible to be “born a second time,” 3.3–5), and irony (e.g., 7.34–35, in which the crowd thinks that Jesus might “go to” the Diaspora when the reader knows he is speaking of his death and return to the Father).

Narrative patterning

The Gospel of John narrates fewer events than do the Synoptics, but the stories are more developed and stylized, perhaps in order to make them easier to follow. The narrative structures of these stories are easily discernible and tend to follow similar patterns. One example consists of “signs” stories, the accounts of Jesus’ miracles. These tend to have the following structure or a variation thereof: (1) the identification of a problem, (2) the expectation that Jesus will remedy the problem, (3) the apparent frustration of this expectation, (4) the miracle itself, and (5) the aftermath. For example, in ch 2, the wedding at Cana, Jesus’ mother points out to Jesus that the wine has run out, clearly expecting him to do something about this; he apparently rebukes her (2.4), saying that his hour has not yet come. He then performs the miracle, the steward marvels, and the narrator explains that “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him” (2.11). The purpose of this pattern seems to be to convey to the audience that Jesus’ miracles are not intended to demonstrate his superhuman abilities but to testify to his identity as the Son of God. This aspect of the Johannine signs calls to mind Ex 10.2, in which the LORD tells Moses that the signs that he has done among the Egyptians were in order that the people might know that “I am the LORD.”

A second example of close narrative patterning can be found in the stories that narrate the call of the disciples. In almost every case, it is someone who already believes that testifies to others and brings them to encounter Jesus, after which they believe as well. For example, John the Baptist tells two of his disciples to follow Jesus. One of them, Andrew, tells his brother Simon Peter, who then comes to Jesus and becomes a disciple himself (1.42). Jesus finds Philip, who tells Nathanael, who comes to encounter Jesus and becomes a disciple (1.49). The Samaritan woman meets Jesus by the well and testifies to her Samaritan community; they invite Jesus to stay with them, after which they become believers (4.41–42). The purpose of this pattern becomes clear at the end of the Gospel, when Thomas refuses to believe the disciples’ testimony that Jesus has risen from the dead unless he can see for himself. Jesus returns and invites him to see and touch him, but he offers a gentle rebuke: “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (20.29). Here the Johannine Jesus is clearly addressing later readers who will not have the capacity to see Jesus directly but will believe in any case. The Gospel’s concluding statement (20.30–31) indicates that for later generations, it is the Gospel of John itself that will be a basis for faith, the means through which believers can encounter Jesus.

Adele Reinhartz

1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
²
He was in the beginning with God.
³
All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being
⁴
in him was life,
^*
and the life was the light of all people.
⁵
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

⁶
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
⁷
He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.
⁸
He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.
⁹
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
^*

¹⁰
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.
¹¹
He came to what was his own,
^*
and his own people did not accept him.
¹²
But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,
¹³
who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

¹⁴
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son,
^*
full of grace and truth.
¹⁵
(John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”)
¹⁶
From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
¹⁷
The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
¹⁸
No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son,
^*
who is close to the Father’s heart,
^*
who has made him known.

¹⁹
This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”
²⁰
He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.”
^*
21
And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.”
²²
Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
²³
He said,

“I am the voice of one crying out in the
         wilderness,
      ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’”
as the prophet Isaiah said.       

²⁴
Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.
²⁵
They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah,
^*
nor Elijah, nor the prophet?”
²⁶
John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know,
²⁷
the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.”
²⁸
This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

²⁹
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
³⁰
This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’
³¹
I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.”
³²
And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.
³³
I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’
³⁴
And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
^*

³⁵
The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples,
³⁶
and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”
³⁷
The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.
³⁸
When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?”
³⁹
He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon.
⁴⁰
One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.
⁴¹
He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed
^*
).
⁴²
He brought Simon
^*
to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter
^*
).