The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown (78 page)

⁴⁴
P. M. Hoskins,
Jesus as the Fulfillment of the Temple in the Gospel of John
, Paternoster Biblical Monographs (Carlisle, UK: Paternoster, 2007); Köstenberger, “Destruction of the Second Temple”; Draper, “Temple, Tabernacle and Mystical Experience,” 264–65.

⁴⁵
In addition to these possible occasions, there were also other influences that may have affected his writing, such as the OT, rabbinic Judaism, Qumran, the Samaritans, Jewish persecution, Philo, and the Corpus Hermeticum. For an excellent examination of these factors, see Borchert,
John 1:1–11
, 60–80.

⁴⁶
Compare the purpose statement in 1 John 5:13: “I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

⁴⁷
The phrase “so that you may believe” in 20:31 is represented in textual variants as either in the present
(pisteuēte)
or the aorist subjunctive
(pisteusēte).
Some have suggested that the former would point to an edificatory purpose while the latter would suggest an evangelistic purpose, but matters are considerably more complex, and the tense of
pisteuō
in 20:31 hardly resolves the ambiguity, which may be deliberate. See the discussion in Carson and Moo,
Introduction to the New Testament
, 270.

⁴⁸
Bauckham,
Gospels for All Christians
, 10.

⁴⁹
The terms “Messiah” and “Son of God” are most likely used interchangeably (e.g., Acts 9:20, 22). See the interchange between D. A. Carson, “The Purpose of the Fourth Gospel: John 20:30–31 Reconsidered,”
JBL
108 (1987): 639–51; G. D. Fee, “On the Text and Meaning of John 20,30–31,” in
The Four Gospels 1992. Fs. Frans Neirynck
, ed. F. van Segbroeck, C. M. Tuckett, G. van Belle, and J. Verheyden, vol. 3, BETL 100 (Leuven: University Press, 1992), 2193–205; and D. A. Carson, “Syntactical and Text-Critical Observations on John 20:30–31: One More Round on the Purpose of the Fourth Gospel,”
JBL
124 (2005): 693–714. The debate revolves around the issue of whether John's purpose is to identify Jesus as the Messiah or the Messiah as Jesus.

⁵⁰
E.g., 1:12; 3:15–16,36; 4:50; 5:24; 6:29,40,47; 6:69; 9:38; 11:25–27; 12:44,46; 14:1; 16:27,30; 17:8,20; 19:35. See D. A. Croteau, “An Analysis of the Concept of Believing in the Narrative Contexts of John's Gospel” (Th .M. thesis, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2002).

⁵¹
Carson and Moo,
Introduction to the New Testament
, 270.

⁵²
Many commentators, such as F. J. Moloney,
The Gospel of John
, SacPag (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1998), v–viii, call the second major unit “Book of Glory,” though references to glory are prevalent also in the first major unit.

⁵³
Carson,
Gospel According to John
, 106–7; Ridderbos (
Gospel of John
, viii) called John 11–12 “Prelude to the Passion Narrative”; as did Keener (
Gospel of John
, xvii) who labeled the unit “Introducing the Passion.”

⁵⁴
Moloney,
Gospel of John
, v–vi.

⁵⁵
E.g., Keener,
Gospel of John
, xvi; Ridderbos,
Gospel of John
, vii; Köstenberger,
John
, 52, whose structural proposal includes both the “Festival cycle” in chaps. 5–10 and a break at a “moment of major crisis” at 6:60–71.

⁵⁶
A. J. Köstenberger, “The Seventh Johannine Sign: A Study in John's Christology,”
BBR
5 (1995): 87–103.

⁵⁷
See the discussion in Köstenberger,
John
, 84–87.

⁵⁸
Regarding the noninclusion of the Pericope of the Adulterous Woman (7:53–8:11), see Sidebar 7.2: Textual Issues in John's Gospel above.

⁵⁹
H. N. Ridderbos,
The Gospel According to John
, trans. J. Vriend (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 423.

⁶⁰
See 6:14–15; and Jesus' “signs.” Possible antecedents for Jesus' Farewell Discourse in John's Gospel include Moses' farewell discourse (Deuteronomy 31–33), other similar OT and Second Temple farewells (see
Jub
. 22:1–30; 1 Macc 2:49–70), and the patriarchal deathbed blessings and final words. For specific additional references, see Köstenberger,
John
, 396–97.

⁶¹
M. W. G. Stibbe,
John as Storyteller: Narrative Criticism and the Fourth Gospel
, SNTSMS 73 (Cambridge: University Press, 1992), 111–12.

⁶²
See Köstenberger, “John,” in
Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
, 500–6.

⁶³
Outside (18:29–32); inside (18:33–38a); outside (18:38b–40); inside (19:1–3); outside (19:4–7); inside (19:8–11); and outside (19:12–15).

⁶⁴
Ridderbos,
Gospel According to John
, 587.

⁶⁵
For a book-length study, see Köstenberger,
Missions of Jesus and the Disciples
.

⁶⁶
See Köstenberger,
John
, 581–82.

⁶⁷
See ibid., 583–86.

⁶⁸
See 21:14: “This was now the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead” (cf. 20:19–23,24–29). Note that this numbering does not include Jesus' appearance to Mary Magdalene (20:11–18), indicating that the Fourth Evangelist did not include her among Jesus' disciples known as the Twelve (or Eleven).

⁶⁹
The disciples' return to fishing may indicate unbelief. This is also suggested by the fact that they catch no fish. See the discussion with further bibliographic references in Köstenberger,
John
, 588–89.

⁷⁰
Ibid., 606.

⁷¹
For a monograph-length treatment of Johannine theology see A. J. Köstenberger,
The Theology of John's Gospel and Letters: The Word, the Christ, the Son of God
, BTNT (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009).

⁷²
See A. J. Köstenberger and S. R. Swain,
Father, Son and Spirit: The Trinity and John's Gospel
, NSBT (Leicester, UK: InterVarsity, 2008), who argued that John's Christology neither minimizes nor sacrifices his Jewish monotheistic views.

⁷³
John featured many other Christological themes. Beasley-Murray (
John
, lxxxi) noted the following: only Son (1:18; 3:16, 18); the Son (3:17, 36; 5:19–27); a teacher from God (3:2); a prophet (4:19; 9:19); the Messiah (1:41; 4:29; 11:11, 20, 31); King of Israel (1:49; see 6:15; 12:13); King of the Jews (19:19); and Lord (20:18, 28; 21:7).

⁷⁴
Köstenberger,
John
, 39.

⁷⁵
Together with Romans and Revelation, John's Gospel provides the most extensive and explicit theodicy in the NT, vindicating the righteousness of God by showing that his condemnation of sinners is just since they rejected his love expressed in the sending of his Son (3:16; 12:36b–41). See further the discussions of theodicy in chaps. 13 and 20 below.

⁷⁶
Köstenberger, “The Seventh Johannine Sign,” 87–103.

⁷⁷
J. W. Pryor,
John, Evangelist of the Covenant People: The Narrative and Themes of the Fourth Gospel
(Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1992).

⁷⁸
C. Blomberg (
Jesus and the Gospels
[Nashville: B&H, 1997], 167) rightly noted that “John recognizes as readily as the Synoptics that Jesus' first followers were all Jewish, so there is no universal indictment of the entire ethnic group here.”

⁷⁹
For further study, see D. A. Carson,
Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility: Biblical Perspectives in Tension
(Atlanta: John Knox, 1981), 99–122; and Blomberg,
Jesus and the Gospels
, 165.

⁸⁰
Compare the terminology of “love,” “obey,” and “keep commandments” (chaps. 13–17; cf. 1:17). See Köstenberger,
Encountering John
, 144.

⁸¹
Köstenberger,
Missions of Jesus and the Disciples
, 190–98.

⁸²
See Köstenberger and Swain,
Father, Son and Spirit
, chap. 3.

⁸³
See further ibid., chap. 1, with additional bibliographic references.

⁸⁴
See Köstenberger,
John
, 75, with reference to J. McPolin, “Mission in the Fourth Gospel,”
ITQ
36 (1969): 118.

⁸⁵
J. T. Forestell,
The Word of the Cross: Salvation as Revelation in the Fourth Gospel
, AnBib 57 (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1974).

⁸⁶
See Köstenberger,
Missions of Jesus and the Disciples
, 74–81.

⁸⁷
John used three terms to identify the Holy Spirit: “Paraclete” (“helping presence”; 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7); “Holy Spirit” (14:26; focusing on his holiness); and “Spirit of truth” (14:17; 15:26; 16:13; focusing on his truthfulness). See Köstenberger and Swain,
Father, Son and Spirit
, chap. 5.

⁸⁸
See Köstenberger,
John
, 121–25, 156–57.

⁸⁹
Köstenberger,
Encountering John
, 40.

⁹⁰
See Köstenberger and Swain,
Father, Son and Spirit
, chap. 5.

⁹¹
Most likely, this represents a symbolic promise of the soon-to-be-given gift of the Spirit, not the actual giving of him about 50 days later at Pentecost. See Köstenberger,
John
, 574–76, with further bibliographic references.

⁹²
On the destruction of the temple as one possible occasion for the composition of John's Gospel, see the discussion under Purpose above. See also Köstenberger, “Destruction of the Second Temple” (with further bibliographic references).

⁹³
See the survey in D. M. Smith,
John Among the Gospels: The Relationship in Twentieth-Century Research
(Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992).

⁹⁴
But note the “interlocking traditions” enumerated in Carson and Moo,
Introduction to the New Testament
, 260–62. See the internal evidence for John's awareness of Synoptic tradition, if not one or more of the written Gospels, listed in Köstenberger,
Encountering John
, 36–37, who cited 1:40 (Andrew “Simon Peter's brother”); 3:24 (“This was before John [the Baptist] was put in prison”); 4:44 (a prophet is without honor in own country; see Mark 6:4 and parallels); 11:1–2 (Bethany, the “village of Mary and her sister Martha”; see Luke 10:38–41); and 6:67,71 (the Twelve, Judas “one of the Twelve”).

⁹⁵
D. Wenham, “The Enigma of the Fourth Gospel: Another Look,”
TynB
48 (1997): 149–78.

⁹⁶
See A. J. Köstenberger, “Diversity and Unity in the New Testament,” in
Biblical Theology: Retrospect and Prospect
, ed. S. J. Hafemann (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2002), 148–49.

⁹⁷
See the brief treatments on “John and the Synoptics” in Köstenberger,
Encountering John
, 36–37, 198–200. Stuhlmacher (“My Experience with Biblical Theology,” in
Biblical Theology: Retrospect and Prospect
, 185–87) contended that John and the Synoptics do not merely represent different perspectives (what M. Hengel calls “aspective”) but that the Fourth Gospel “cultivates a[n]…idealized type of memory concerning Jesus.” He urged that “[t]he Johannine witness therefore needs to be consistently realigned with the Synoptics, the Pauline corpus and the OT, so that faith in Jesus Christ does not lose its historical roots” (p. 187). But his seems to be merely a nice way of saying that John's Gospel is historically unreliable and that there are real contradictions between John and the Synoptics (see Stuhlmacher's more blunt statement in “Der Kanon und seine Auslegung,” in
Jesus Christus als die Mitte der Schrift: Studien zur Hermeneutik des Evangeliums
, ed. C. Landmesser et al., BZNW 86 [Berlin: de Gruyter, 1997], 287). Current evidence denies both.

⁹⁸
See the discussions of authorship in chaps. 19 and 20 below.

⁹⁹
For a list of important parallels between John's Gospel, his Letters, and Revelation, see Köstenberger,
Encountering John
, 204–5; cf. chaps. 19 and 20 below.

Part Three

I
N THIS PORTION of this work, the book of Acts (chap. 8) forms the basic framework for the discussion of Paul's life and ministry (chap. 9) and subsequent chapters treating Paul's letters in chronological sequence in their presumed order of writing (chaps. 10–15): Galatians; 1 & 2 Thessalonians; 1 & 2 Corinthians; Romans; the Prison Epistles (Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon); and the Pastoral Epistles (1 & 2 Timothy; Titus).

Organizing the material in this way enables the student to get a sense of the development of the early church and first-century Christianity throughout Paul's missionary career. Since Paul wrote 13 of the 27 books of the NT, and since his letters probe the major implications of Jesus' mission and saving cross-work for NT believers, part 3 forms the heart of this introduction to the NT. It is complemented and completed by the discussion of the General Epistles and the book of Revelation in part 4 (chaps. 16–20) and a concluding chapter on unity and diversity in the NT (chap. 21).

CHAPTER 8

CORE KNOWLEDGE

Basic Knowledge:
Students should know the key facts about the book of Acts. With regard to history, students should be able to identify the book's author, date, provenance, destination, and purpose. With regard to literature, they should be able to provide a basic outline of the book and identify core elements of the book's content found in the Unit-by-Unit discussion. With regard to theology, students should be able to identify the major theological themes in the book of Acts.

Intermediate Knowledge:
In addition to mastery of the core content identified in Basic Knowledge above, students should be able to present the arguments for historical, literary, and theological conclusions. With regard to history, students should be able to discuss the evidence for Lukan authorship, date, provenance, destination, and purpose. With regard to literature, they should be able to provide a detailed outline of the book. With regard to theology, students should be able to discuss the major theological themes in the book of Acts and the ways in which they uniquely contribute to the NT canon.