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OF 
 THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF SACRED LITERATURE 
 
 The Gospel of John 
 
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The Gospel of John 
 
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The Gospel of John 
 
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 EDGAR JOHNSON GOODSPEED 
 
 AN OUTLINE BIBLE-STUDY COURSE OF 
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 Copyright 1917 By 
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 Published October 191 7 
 
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To the American Institute of Sacred Literature, 
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 question sheets to be returned for a certificate on the course on The Gospel 
 of John. • . 
 
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FOREWORD TO THE STUDENT 
 
 The Gospel of John is perhaps the best loved and most frequently read of any 
 of the gospels. Recent scholarship has thrown much light upon the authorship 
 and purpose of this gospel and the part which it played in the developing thought 
 and life of the early Christians. Investigation, although modifying some current 
 views of this gospel, has added greatly to its value as a Christian document. 
 Viewed in the light of its origin and purpose, it becomes replete with life, not only 
 the life of the Master and his disciples, but with the intellectual and spiritual 
 struggles of the Christians of the hundred years following the death of Jesus. 
 
 This course presents the gospel in the light of recent scholarship but simply 
 and for the study of individuals and groups, in the home, church, or the com- 
 munity. It is one of the Outline Bible-Study Courses prepared by the American 
 Institute of Sacred Literature, twelve similar courses being mentioned on a 
 preceding page. This course follows the general method of all the series, giving 
 a daily assignment for reading from the Bible, but requiring no books of reference. 
 
 Any person paying fifty cents for this book to a dealer, the publishing agents, 
 the University of Chicago Press, or to the headquarters of the American Institute 
 of Sacred Literature directly or through the leader of a club is considered thereby 
 a member of the Institute and may register his name as such by mail at the 
 headquarters, the University of Chicago, without further charge. Upon appli- 
 cation, question sheets containing all the review questions printed in this book, 
 with spaces for written answers, will be sent him. These question sheets may be 
 filled out and returned to the Institute for credit and certificate. Work is not 
 graded. The certificate is given as a recognition of the fact that the work has 
 been done to the best ability of the student, which may vary according to previous 
 preparation and general knowledge of the subject. In applying for question 
 sheets, the printed form contained in this pamphlet may be used. 
 
 In the publication of these courses it is first of all assumed that the work is 
 to be 'done by the student and that the leader of the class is seeking to gather up 
 the results of the student's work rather than to assume the attitude of a teacher. 
 In those groups, however, which are taught in the fashion of a Sunday school or 
 other weekly class, in which no work upon the part of the student can be counted 
 upon, the passages may be read and discussed at the class period. For all groups 
 a special pamphlet of suggestions to leaders is provided in which special topics 
 for discussion are suggested and entertaining features for meetings of the class 
 outlined. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Whether working alone or in a group, see that your name is registered at the 
 headquarters of the Institute and that you are receiving all the privileges to which 
 your membership entitles you. 
 
 The Institute is a department of the University of Chicago through which 
 non-resident biblical and religious study courses are conducted. 
 
 These courses embrace thorough correspondence work leading to University \ 
 credit, as well as reading and study courses which require less rigid work. 
 
 Address The American Institute of Sacred Literature, The University 
 of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The first Christians had no written Gospel. When they first came into 
 the fellowship of the church they learned a short compend of the doings and 
 sayings of Jesus which Paul calls the "tradition" or "traditions" because 
 it was "handed down" from older Christians to those who later came into 
 the churches. Paul gives two quotations from this "tradition" as he knew 
 it (I Cor. n : 2, 23; 15 : 3). Nothing more was needed, for early Christians 
 were more interested in the glorified Christ seated at the right hand of God 
 than in the historical Jesus of Galilee, and they were expecting his speedy 
 return on the clouds of heaven to usher in the messianic regime. No one 
 thought of writing books. The few letters, perhaps twelve in all, which 
 have come down to us from the first thirty-five years of Christian history 
 were each written to serve some immediate and pressing need, not for pres- 
 ervation as books. , 
 
 In the seventh decade of the first century something occurred to change 
 this. The earliest Gospel was written. This was not simply the reduction 
 to writing of the familiar "tradition," for it does not accord with the two 
 fragments of that tradition which we find in First Corinthians. The earliest 
 Gospel embodies a rival "tradition," differing at important points from that 
 of Paul. How is this to be explained ? And above all how came a Gospel 
 to be written at all when men were expecting the speedy end of the age ? 
 The ancient explanation was, that upon the death of Peter, Mark, who had 
 served as his interpreter in his preaching among the Greek-speaking congre- 
 gations of the West, sought to preserve from oblivion the memorabilia of 
 Jesus which he had often heard Peter relate, and so committed them to 
 writing. This idea is clearly reflected in II Pet. 1:15, and in Justin Dialogue 
 106 . 3, and it is expressly stated in a fragment of Papias preserved in Euse- 
 bius Church History 3. 39. 15. It is not improbable that the Gospel of 
 Mark originated in this informal way, and many of its peculiar traits are 
 thus explained. 
 
 The Gospel of Mark with all its limitations showed the churches how 
 useful a written Gospel might be, and led to its expansion into the Gospel 
 of Matthew, in which much other material, especially sayings of Jesus, is 
 
 3 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 combined with the material of Mark. Another effort to improve and sup- 
 plement Mark was made by Luke, who sought to produce an orderly his- 
 torical record. These books were much more popular and influential 
 among early Christians than Mark was, probably because these improved 
 forms of it appeared so soon. The Gospel of Matthew was probably written 
 within ten years after the appearance of Mark, and Matthew remained for 
 a long time the favorite Gospel of the early church. 
 
 The defects of Mark were largely supplied in these Gospels that were 
 built upon it. But they were not wholly met even in them. The Gospel 
 was still cast in highly Jewish forms, although its public was now mainly 
 gentile. It was not related to contemporary philosophical thought in any 
 way, and the picture these Gospels gave of Jesus was very unlike the 
 Christ of Paul's teaching. Early in the second century a Gospel was com- 
 posed at Ephesus to supply these wants. It transplanted the Gospel into 
 Greek soil, set it in relation to Stoicism, the leading philosophy of the time, 
 and represented Jesus in a way much nearer to the Pauline picture of him, 
 glorified at God's right hand. Opposition to contemporary Judaism and 
 opposition to the sect of John the Baptist appear as subordinate motiv.es 
 in the new Gospel, and there is besides a strong symbolic element in it 
 which must be taken account of. 
 
 A comparison of the Gospel with the Synoptic 1 Gospels shows that the 
 writer is acquainted with them and in a great many instances makes use of 
 materials taken from them, at the same time that he undertakes in other 
 points to supplement and even to correct what they have said. This and 
 the strongly Pauline color of the thought of the Gospel makes it very difficult 
 to accept the testimony of the epilogue (chap. 21) that John or any other 
 intimate personal follower of Jesus wrote the Gospel. On the other hand, 
 there is much to show that valuable historical materials not supplied by the 
 synoptists were used by the writer, and these may have gone back to the 
 hand of John the apostle, or John the disciple, if, as is sometimes supposed, 
 they were different men. But this Gospel is to be viewed less as a his- 
 torical account of the ministry of Jesus than as the writer's effort to inter- 
 pret his own profound experience of the religious significance of Jesus for 
 other men of his own world of ideas. His aim is in large part theological, 
 and so he came to be known in .the early church as " St. John the 
 Theologian." 
 
 1 Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the Synoptic gospels. 
 
INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 The purpose of the Gospel is stated in its closing sentences to be that 
 its' readers may believe that Jesus is the Christ and that they may thus 
 come to have life in his name. Its conception of faith and salvation seems 
 sometimes wholly intellectual (belief that Jesus is the Christ), sometimes 
 wholly mystical (a life of inward union with him). We are to think of it 
 as designed to promote faith in Jesus as the Christ and the source of spiritual 
 life, and to reinterpret the religious significance of Jesus in broader terms 
 which should be more readily intelligible to its own day. 
 
 In doing this it sometimes departs widely from the synoptists and even 
 from Paul. They had taught that Jesus must return to complete his mes- 
 sianic work. 1 The new Gospel declares that he finished his work on earth, 
 and that his promised return has already taken place in the coming of the 
 Spirit, the comforter, into the hearts of believers. Matthew and Luke 
 seek to explain his divine nature by the virgin birth. The new Gospel 
 explains it in a loftier way by finding in him the eternal divine Word (Logos) 
 made flesh. Paul had greatly emphasized the death of Jesus. The new 
 Gospel finds his supreme significance in his life, in which the divine life was 
 manifested. This idea, which we call the incarnation, is really central in 
 this Gospel. ■ Not less striking is its emphasis upon the universal character 
 of Christianity: Jesus is not simply the Messiah of the Jews, but, as the 
 divine Logos, is the source of true life for all mankind. It has, moreover, 
 a splendid ideal of the possibilities of Christian development under the 
 influence of the life of God which may be shared through union with Christ. 
 "Its great ideas of revelation, life, love, truth, and freedom, its doctrine of 
 the Spirit as ever guiding the Christian consciousness into larger vision and 
 achievement, and its insistence upon Jesus as the supreme revelation of 
 God and the source of spiritual life have given it unique and permanent 
 religious worth." 2 
 
 1 Read Ernest F. Scott, The Historical and Religious Value of the Fourth Gospel; 
 Modem Religious Problems (Houghton Mifflin Co., 1909); Edgar J. Goodspeed, The 
 Story of the New Testament, chap, xvii (The University of Chicago Press, 1916). 
 
 2 The Story of the New Testament, p. 123. It is the intention of the author to present 
 this course so simply that no reference books will be required. For the benefit of those 
 who wish to make the work more comprehensive, books will be mentioned from time to 
 time. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 STUDY I 
 
 THE PROLOGUE (JOHN 1:1-18); THE PERIOD OF 
 BEGINNINGS (1:19—4:54) 
 
 First day. — § 1. The prologue. Read John 1 : 1-18 through and note in it the 
 expression of the great ideas of the Gospel, incarnation, revelation, regeneration, 
 communication of Life. Religion has been described as the life of God in the soul 
 of man. Does this throw any light upon these leading ideas ? 
 
 Second day. — Read John 1:1-2. Cf. Gen. 1:1. Does the evangelist inten- 
 tionally begin his Gospel with the opening words of Genesis ? Is the "Word " the 
 prophetic revelatory word of Jehovah which came to the prophets (Jer. 1:4; Joel 
 1:1, etc.) or the metaphysical "word" or Logos (reason) of Stoic philosophy, or 
 are these identified by the writer, as they were by Philo of Alexandria fifty years 
 before ? In any case, what is the meaning of finding in Jesus the embodiment of 
 the Word ? 
 
 Third day. — Read John 1:3. Compare the idea of Christ in creation in Heb. 
 1:2 and especially in Col. 1:15-17. Colossians has been called "the connecting 
 link between the Pauline writings and the Fourth Gospel." Why? 
 
 Fourth day. — Read John 1 : 4. The Word was not only the medium of crea- 
 tion, it was the source of life and light for men. Life means in John the divine 
 life, and light means truth, or divine reality. The attainment of this higher life 
 admits one to the light, the divine reality. 
 
 Fifth day. — Read John 1:5. The description of the Word as the seat of light 
 is a way of saying that God had always been seeking to reveal himself to men. 
 Light by its very nature tends to show itself. "Involved in God's inmost nature 
 there was the will to shine forth and communicate himself to his creatures" 
 (Scott). What in view of these facts is meant by "The darkness apprehended 
 [i.e., admitted, appropriated] it not"? Sum up for yourself the conception of 
 the Logos gathered from those five verses. 
 
 Sixth day. — Read John 1:6-8. John the Baptist is introduced as though 
 already known to the reader. What is affirmed of him in these verses ? What 
 would this mean for any who still followed John's baptism without having accepted 
 Jesus ? Cf . Acts 18:25; 19:3. Does this definite subordination of John to Jesus 
 appear again in John ? Cf. 1 : 20, 27, 29, 33, 36. 
 
 Seventh day. — Read John 1 : 9-1 1 . The identification of Jesus with the light 
 already suggested in vs. 7 is now made more explicit. The evangelist forecasts 
 
THE PERIOD OF BEGINNINGS 
 
 the rejection of Jesus, which he is to describe more fully later in his Gospel. A 
 special sense often attaches to the word "world" in John. What is it? Cf. 
 15:19; 16:20; 17:14, 16, 25, etc. Vs. 11 might be rendered, "He came home, 
 and they that were his own received him not." 
 
 Eighth day. — Read John 1:12, 13. A description of the Christian salvation 
 as the writer conceives it, that is, as the attainment through Christ of the life of 
 God, whose sons men thus become. What great idea of this Gospel appears in 
 these verses ? 
 
 Ninth day. — Read John 1 : 14. Is this a restatement in other terms of the 
 thought of vss. 9 and n? What, if anything, does it add to them ? What great 
 characteristic idea of this Gospel is expressed here ? Truth is also a character- 
 istic word of this Gospel. Compare the parenthesis with John 1:2. "Only 
 begotten": While all men may become sons of God, the evangelist wishes to 
 emphasize the idea that Jesus was in a unique sense the son of God. Does Jesus 
 continue to be described in this Gospel as the Word or is he generally described 
 as the Son of God ? Did Paul often refer to him in this latter way ? Did the 
 Synoptic Gospels do so? 
 
 Tenth day. — Read John 1:15. The testimony of John the Baptist already 
 mentioned in vs. 6 is now given in a form reminiscent of the synoptists, Mark 
 1:7; Matt. 3:11; Luke 3 : 16, and anticipatory of John 1 : 33, 34. Justin mentions 
 Baptists (referring to John the Baptist) among the Jewish sects {Dial. 80. 4) 
 and even in the third century the Clementine Recognitions speak of persons who 
 proclaim John to be the Messiah. It is in opposition to such views that this 
 summary interpretation of John's testimony to Jesus is given. 
 
 Eleventh day. — Read John 1:16, 17. These verses resume the thought of 
 1:14, "full of grace and truth." Jesus is the medium through whom we have 
 received the divine life. Grace, a word not used in Matthew or Mark but very 
 frequently by Paul, occurs only in 1:14-17 in John. It thus links to Paul's 
 emphasis of grace its own emphasis of truth. Vs. 16 contrasts the two dispensa- 
 tions: the Law and Grace. Does the evangelist reflect upon the Law (cf. 1:46; 
 3:14; 5 : 45) , or upon the Jewish scriptures (cf . 5:39; 10:35)? 
 
 Twelfth day. — Read John 1 : 18. What light does this verse throw upon the 
 writer's view of the Mosaic Law, in contrast with Christian truth ? What great 
 idea is set forth in this verse ? Reread carefully vss. 1-18. What are the leading 
 ideas and the great words of this prologue? What view of the gospel does it 
 present? How does it view Christian salvation? In what does this consist? 
 What does it regard as the religious significance of Jesus ? By what titles does it 
 designate him? What are the sources -of these titles? There has been much 
 discussion of the question whether the ideas of the prologue characterize the 
 Gospel as a whole, or play little part in the further development of the writer's 
 thought. Keep this question in mind as you advance. 
 
8 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Thirteenth day. — § 2. The testimony of John and the beginnings of faith in 
 Jesus: John 1 : 19-28. The significance of John for the evangelist is wholly that 
 of a witness to the light: cf. 1:7, 15 above. What does this add to Mark 1:3, 7 ; 
 Matt. 11:3? The Clementine Recognitions, already referred to, say (1:60): 
 "Then one of the disciples of John asserted that John was the Christ, and not 
 Jesus, inasmuch as Jesus 'himself declared that John was greater than all the 
 prophets." "Some even of the disciples of John who seemed to be great ones 
 have separated themselves and proclaimed their own master as the Christ" 
 (1:54). Observe the way in which the Jews are spoken of in vs. 19 as over 
 against John and Jesus and their followers, though these were all alike Jews. 
 What does this suggest as to the relations of Jews and Christians when this Gospel 
 was written ? Were many Jews Christians ? 
 
 Fourteenth day. — Read John 1:29-34. How does this compare with 1:15? 
 The evangelist understands John to have been a witness of Jesus' baptismal 
 experience. What is meant by describing Jesus as the Lamb of God ? We shall 
 observe later that the evangelist puts the date of the crucifixion on the afternoon 
 on which the Passover lamb was sacrificed.- Note the words of Paul in I Cor. 
 5:7: "For our Passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ." The death 
 of Christ as the basis of atonement is strongly emphasized in Paul's thought, 
 though he also has the conception of the life of Christ as the source of moral power 
 and the basis of salvation (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 5:10). How is it with the Gospel 
 of John ? Does the evangelist transfer the emphasis from the death, of which he 
 still speaks, to the life of Christ? The term "Lamb" is frequently applied to 
 Christ in the Revelation, though the Greek word there used is not the one 
 employed here and in vs. 36. Note that John finally bears witness that Jesus 
 is the Son of God (vs. 34). 
 
 Fifteenth day. — Read John 1:35-42. John directs two of his own followers 
 to Jesus, again calling him the Lamb of God. How would this affect the claim 
 of later followers of John that he and not Jesus was the Christ ? How does this 
 story relate to the call of Simon and Andrew in Mark 1:16-18? How does it 
 relate to the story of Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi, " Thou art the Christ " 
 (Mark 8: 29) ? Matthew connects Simon's new name Peter with that confession 
 (Matt. 16:18). Both John and Matthew thus explain the fact briefly stated in 
 Mark 3:16. In the synoptists the disciples come gradually to the conviction that 
 Jesus is Messiah. How is it in John ? Note especially vs. 41. 
 
 Sixteenth day. — §3. Read John 1:43-51. Notice that in some particulars 
 this paragraph supplements and in others corrects the information given by the 
 synoptists. Jesus is called the son of Joseph (vs. 45). Does the Fourth Gospel 
 show any acquaintance with the Virgin birth of Jesus, recorded in Matthew and 
 Luke ? Or does it conceive his sonship to God in a much loftier way, the incar- 
 nation of the eternal divine Word in Jesus? Notice Jesus' recommendation of 
 
THE PERIOD OF BEGINNINGS 
 
 Nathanael as an Israelite of the highest type. This frank approval of much that 
 was Jewish runs through the Gospel along with a vigorous protest against Judaism. 
 True to his doctrine of the nature of Jesus, the evangelist views Jesus as sharing 
 God's omniscience, "He knew what was in man" (2:25), and his disclosure of 
 this knowledge to Nathanael at once convinces him of Jesus' messiahship, which 
 is stated in both the Jewish and the Pauline way. The familiar synoptic term 
 Son of Man is here used, as usually in this Gospel, to suggest Jesus' human nature 
 in close connection with his higher nature soon to be revealed. 
 
 ^Seventeenth day. — § 4. Read John 2:1-12. This incident is perhaps suggested 
 by the reference to the marriage celebration and the new and old wine in Mark 
 2 : 18-22. The writer records it as the first of a series of seven " signs" or wonders 
 of divine power wrought by Jesus. But side by side with its evidential value the 
 story has a symbolic meaning: it symbolizes the purpose and power of Jesus to 
 transform man's nature into the higher diviner nature. Jesus' mother appears 
 here in an attitude of approval and sympathy with his work which is nowhere 
 suggested in the synoptists. In some passages of John the Mother of Jesus seems 
 to symbolize the older Jewish faith from which Christianity had sprung. How 
 would this apply here? The reference to Capernaum, vs. 12, brings us for the 
 first time into scenes familiar in the Synoptic Gospels. 
 
 Eighteenth day. — Reread John 1:19 — 2:12, noting John's attitude to Jesus, 
 Jesus' first disciples, the kind of knowledge and power he displays, and the titles 
 applied to him. What ideas of the prologue have reappeared in these verses? 
 How does the miracle at Cana compare with Jesus'- wonders in Mark ? Is it 
 like most of them an illustration of Jesus' attitude of helpfulness and compassion ? 
 Is it like some of them capable of a natural explanation ? 
 
 Nineteenth day. — §5. Jesus in Jerusalem and Judea: John 2:13 — 3:36. 
 Read John 2:13-22. What is the subject of this narrative? Where in Jesus' 
 ministry do the synoptists place this event, or a similar one ? How does such 
 an act at the outset of Jesus' work contribute to the evangelist's picture of the 
 masterfulness of Jesus ? With vs. 19 compare Mark 14: 58. In vs. 20 the trans- 
 lation, "Forty-six years has this temple been building," would better correspond 
 to the facts. Herod's temple was not wholly completed in Jesus' day. It was 
 begun in the eighteenth year of Herod the Great, and forty-six years later would 
 bring us to 27 a.d. Notice the evangelist's interest in the fulfilment of Old 
 Testament prophecy in Jesus, and in the fulfilment of Jesus' own predictions. 
 What is "the scripture" referred to in vs. 22 ? Is it Hos. 6:2? 
 
 Twentieth day. — § 6. Read John 2 : 23-25. The passover spoken of here and 
 in vs. 13 is the first one mentioned in John. How many are mentioned in all in this 
 Gospel ? Cf . 6 : 4, 1 1 : 55, and perhaps 5:1. Why was the faith of these Jerusalem 
 believers defective ? How does the evangelist generally regard faith based upon 
 "signs," that is, displays of Jesus' supernatural power? Cf. 2:11; 4:48; 6:26. 
 
IO THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Note the emphasis upon Jesus' divine knowledge, already implied in i : 48. Is this 
 a part of his Logos-nature? What other reflection of that doctrine have you 
 observed since the prologue ? 
 
 Twenty-first day. — § 7. Read John 3: 1-15. What great idea of this Gospel 
 is set forth in this conversation? How far is it implicit in Matt. 18:3 ? What 
 light does it throw on John's conception of salvation ? Is the new birth a renewing 
 of the moral nature, or a transition from mere natural existence to participation 
 in the divine life ? Is sin a positive thing in John, or is it negative, the mere ab- 
 sence of this higher divine life ? Mysterious as it is (vs. 8), it is the testimony of 
 experience (vs. n) that through Jesus men do come into a new life, with new 
 thoughts, motives, and aspirations. Stripped of its metaphysical dress, this is 
 the fundamental meaning of John's doctrine. Is it still true today ? 
 
 Twenty-second day. — § 8. Read John 3:16-21. These verses are the evan- 
 gelist's meditative comment upon the discourse of Jesus just recorded. The theme 
 of this paragraph has been described as "the motive and effect of divine revelation 
 in the Son" (Burton). What was the motive, and what the effect, according to 
 these verses? 
 
 Twenty-third day. — §9. Read John 3:22-30. That a Judean ministry 
 preceded the Galilean ministry of Jesus is one of the striking differences of John's 
 narrative from that of the synoptists. What is the significance for the purposes 
 the evangelist has in view of the words of John the Baptist in vss. 27-30 ? What, 
 if anything, do they add to John's previous testimonies to Jesus ? 
 
 Twenty-fourth day. — § 10. Read John 3:31-36. A meditative comment of 
 the evangelist, analogous with the prologue and 3:16-21. In such passages this 
 Gospel shows close kinship with I John; cf., e.g., I John 5 : 1-12. The subject of the 
 paragraph has been described as "the supreme character of the revelation in the 
 Son" (Burton). How does it describe salvation ? What does it say of Jesus as life- 
 giver? Vs. 346, "for he giveth him not the Spirit by measure," is significant: 
 "The whole work of Jesus as conceived by John is bound up with the presupposi- 
 tion that a divine Spirit, active from the beginning, was now finally revealed in 
 him" (Scott). Or is the evangelist's thought that while the Word was from the 
 beginning, the Spirit was not yet ? 
 
 Twenty-fifth day. — § 11. Jesus in Samaria, and his return to Galilee: John 
 4: 1-54. Read John 4: 1-3. Note the emphasis on baptism, already in the evan- 
 gelist's day an established rite of the church (cf. 3: 22), as practiced by Jesus, or 
 at least by his disciples under his direction. How does the evangelist account 
 for Jesus' departure from Judea? How does 4:1 bear upon the rival sect of 
 followers of John the Baptist ? Cf . 3 : 30. 
 
 Twenty-sixth day. — Read John 4:4-12. The earlier Gospels describe Jesus 
 as working almost exclusively among Jews. But Christianity had now become 
 a movement almost wholly gentile. Notice that this story describes Jesus as 
 
THE PERIOD OF BEGINNINGS 1 1 
 
 interested from the first in Gentiles as well as Jews, and thus gives his personal 
 work a wider scope, in line with the subsequent expansion of the church. On this 
 universal element in John, cf. 3 : 15-17. It is of course involved in the conception 
 of Jesus as the divine Word; which relates him not simply to the Jewish nation 
 but to all mankind. In John " the universal nature of Christianity is more fully 
 recognized than in any other New Testament book" (Scott). Notice also 
 the idea of salvation as eternal life, vs. 14; and of Jesus as the giver of it, 
 vss. 10, 13; the supernatural knowledge of Jesus, vss. 16-19; the respect expressed 
 for the Jewish religion, vs. 22; and especially the assertion of the spiritual 
 nature of religion, vss. 23, 24. This divine Word is the Messiah of Judaism, 
 vss. 25, 26. 
 
 Twenty-seventh day. — Read John 4:27-38. Vs. 27 reflects the severe dignity 
 of Jesus; the disciples, although surprised, do not venture to question him. This 
 is characteristic of the picture of Jesus in this Gospel, in marked contrast with the 
 synoptists;, cf. 2:3, 4 where he acts, not at another's direction, but only in his 
 own time. Vs. 34 brings out the sonship of Jesus, not in its philosophical, but 
 in its religious and moral aspects. This is the view of his sonship brought out 
 in the earlier Gospels. Jesus supremely loved, trusted, and obeyed God as his 
 Father, and this experience made his life a revelation of God to men. Does modern 
 experience confirm this side of John's view of Jesus ? 
 
 Twenty-eighth day. — Read John 4:39-42. Note that many Samaritans 
 believe on Jesus. In this story, "the later mission to Samaria is prefigured and 
 at the same time justified; for it is on this soil, where the church was first to take 
 root among an alien people, that Jesus makes his great declaration of the uni- 
 versality of his religion" (Scott); cf. Acts 8:5, 6. Notice the emphasis upon the 
 universal significance of Jesus as not simply the Jewish Messiah, but Savior of the 
 world. 
 
 Twenty-ninth day. — § 12. Read John 4:43-54. Notice the supernatural 
 power ascribed in this story to Jesus: he heals the child at a distance, and with a 
 word. Compare with this the healing of the centurion's servant (Matt. 8:5-13), 
 where the strength of the faith of the gentile centurion is brought out. This 
 story emphasizes the sheer power of Jesus as divine Word. The designation of 
 this as "the second sign that Jesus did" is a further hint (cf. 2:11) that the reader 
 is to observe the number of signs, seven, recorded in the Gospel. 
 
 Thirtieth day. — As you look back over this first part of the Gospel, 1 : 19 — 4: 54, 
 what great ideas of this Gospel do you find brought out in it ? What elements 
 in it bear upon the development of the church, its scope and institutions ? What 
 upon the relation of the church. to Judaism and the sect of John? What upon 
 the character of Jesus as Son and Word? What upon the meaning of sin and 
 salvation ? 
 
12 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 
 
 i. What were the Synoptic Gospels ? 
 
 2. Approximately when, why, and by whom were they written ? (a) Mark ? 
 (b) Matthew ? (c) Luke ? 
 
 3. About when did the Gospel of John appear? 
 
 4. Name one or more of the purposes of its author. 
 
 5. What great Christian doctrines does the prologue of this Gospel suggest ? 
 
 6. Name a passage from your study which presents any one of these doctrines. 
 
 7. What do you understand by the term "Logos" ? 
 
 8. By what titles does this Gospel designate Jesus, and why? 
 
 9. With what result does this Gospel repeatedly contrast Jesus and John 
 the Baptist ? 
 
 ' 10. Why does the author consider this desirable ? 
 
 11. How does this Gospel differ from the others in its statements concerning 
 the time of the revelation of the messiahship of Jesus ? 
 
 12. Why does not John, as Luke, emphasize the stories of the Virgin birth? 
 
 13. What philosophy has he concerning the object of the miracles of Jesus? 
 
 14. Tell the story of one of these early miracles, as given by John, and show 
 how it illustrates his theory as above. 
 
 15. How would you describe John's idea of salvation ? 
 
 16. Give a summary of John the Baptist's testimony to Jesus as presented 
 in this Gospel. 
 
 ' 17. What institutions of the church are reflected in John? 
 
 18. Name some evidences that at the end of the first century Jesus was 
 regarded by Christians as the Savior of the world as well as the Jewish Messiah. 
 
 19. What was Judaism, and what was Christianity's relation to it at this time ? 
 
 20. What does this preliminary study suggest that you will find in this Gospel ? 
 
THE CENTRAL PERIOD OF JESUS' MINISTRY 13 
 
 STUDY II 
 
 THE CENTRAL PERIOD OF JESUS' MINISTRY (5:1—8:59) (1) 
 
 First day. — § 13. Read John 5: i-ga. The feast mentioned was perhaps the 
 Feast of Purim, which commemorated the deliverance of the Jews recorded in 
 Esther, and fell in March a few weeks before the Passover. The pool of Bethesda 
 has been variously identified in modern times. It was evidently fed by an inter- 
 mittent spring, to the flowing of which healing qualities were popularly ascribed. 
 Notice that the man's sickness is a settled condition of long standing. This makes 
 his cure all the more wonderful. How does this contribute to the author's purpose 
 in recording Jesus' wonders ? 
 
 Second day. — Read John 5:96-18. The Jews are less interested in the man's 
 restoration to health than in the infringement of the Sabbath law as they interpreted 
 it, involved in his carrying about the slight bed, probably no more than a thin 
 mattress, on which he had been lying. Note that Jesus voluntarily presents him- 
 self, and defends his action by the bold claim that he works as God his Father does. 
 God does not refrain from works of beneficence and mercy on the Sabbath, and Jesus 
 does not. This idea that Jesus' activity reflects that of God is in full accord with 
 his Logos-nature and may be considered the theme of the discourse, 5:19-47, that 
 follows. It recalls the idea of the Jewish philosopher Philo, " that God never ceases 
 the work of creation which he accomplishes through the agency of the Word." 
 Jesus' claim of sonship to God gives still deeper offense to the Jews. 
 
 Third day. — Read John 5:19-29. Note in this paragraph: (1) the subordi- 
 nation of the Son to the Father, vs. 19 ; (2) the possession by the Son as Word of the 
 divine quality of self -existent life, vs. 26; (3) the messianic judgment committed 
 to the Son is not wholly future, but has in a sense already taken place in the revela- 
 tion of the Son; faced by this revelation men condemn or acquit themselves by the 
 attitudes they assume toward it; (4) the Son is the supreme life-giver, vss. 21, 24. 
 
 Fourth day. — Read John 5:30-47. Note that in ys. 30 Jesus' relation to the 
 Father is described as in the earlier Gospels as a personal relationship of self- 
 forgetful obedience. The idea of witness is prominent in the Gospel of John. 
 Observe the various kinds of witness mentioned in this paragraph as borne to Jesus. 
 
 Fifth day. — Of the two ideas of sonship expressed in chap. 5, which do you find 
 more religiously helpful, the philosophical one, or the moral and religious one ? In 
 the evangelist's efforts to interpret his inward experience of the religious significance 
 of Jesus, he describes him as the life-giver and finds the source of the life he imparts 
 
14 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 in Jesus' own life. Does modern religious experience corroborate this teaching in 
 its practical aspects ? 
 
 Sixth day. — § 14. Read John 6:1-13. In this narrative, it will be seen, the 
 evangelist is following closely a narrative of the earlier Gospels, Matt. 14:13-23; 
 Mark 6:30-46; Luke 9:10-17, chosen as one of the most notable wonders they 
 record. Observe the picture of Jesus as acting at the marriage in Cana on his own 
 motion, not at the suggestion of others, vs. 6. 
 
 Seventh day. — Read John 6: 14, 15. The people who were fed accept the feed- 
 ing as a sign that Jesus is the long-expected prophet (cf. 7:40, 41), but they under- 
 stand by that that he is to be their political deliverer and ruler. Jesus thwarts their 
 shortsighted purpose by withdrawing. To head a political uprising would defeat 
 his mission and lead only to disaster for all concerned. The point of these verses 
 in the progress of the narrative is that, while these people have a kind of faith in 
 Jesus, it is not the true and full kind. 
 
 Eighth day. — Read John 6: 16-21. This narrative, like the Feeding of the Five 
 Thousand, is drawn from the earlier Gospels (Matt. 14:24-36; Mark 6:47-56). 
 It is selected because of its striking picture of the power of Jesus, rather than as an 
 expression of mercy or compassion on his part. 
 
 Ninth day. — Read John 6: 22-27. The multitude from whom Jesus had with- 
 drawn after the Feeding of the Five Thousand now follows and overtakes him. 
 They wonder how he can have crossed the lake without their knowledge, but he 
 turns at once to the motive of their quest. They have chosen the lower benefit 
 instead of the higher one he can give them, eternal life. They have too low and 
 material airldea of messiahship and of the blessings he can bestow. 
 
 Tenth day. — Read John 6:28-33. The miracle of the loaves and fishes now 
 becomes the text for a discourse on the bread of life, much as in the last chapter the 
 miracle of the healing of the sick man led to the discourse on Jesus' relation to his 
 Father. The ordinance of the Lord's Supper is also in the evangelist's mind, and 
 it is his intention to defend it from the Jewish attacks of his time and to correct and 
 elevate the Christian idea of it by emphasizing its symbolic character. It is made 
 to commemorate, not simply Jesus' last supper with his disciples, but his whole life 
 and teaching, conceived as spiritual food for the life of men. 
 
 Eleventh day. — Read John 6 : 34-40. This Gospel gives no account of the insti- 
 tution of the Lord's Supper and relates it, not to the last meal of Jesus with his 
 disciples, but to his whole life-giving ministry. "I am the bread of life"; cf. Mark 
 14: 22. How would you express the relation of Jesus to God described in vs. 38 ? 
 Note the terms on which eternal life is granted (vs. 40). 
 
 Twelfth day. — Read John 6:41-51. Vs. 42: John says nothing of the Virgin 
 birth of Jesus, explaining his divine nature as having been his long before he became 
 flesh and came into the world. The evangelist's constant emphasis upon Jesus' 
 life as the source of true spiritual life is somewhat in contrast to Paul, who found 
 
THE CENTRAL PERIOD OF JESUS' MINISTRY 15 
 
 the chief religious efficacy of Jesus in his atoning death. Which idea do you find 
 more helpful practically ? 
 
 Thirteenth day. — Read John 6 : 52-59. Vs. 52 : The evangelist quotes this crude 
 misunderstanding but he has it also in mind to correct a wrong conception of the 
 Lord's Supper on the part of Christians. He would recall them to its lofty symbolic 
 meaning, that Jesus' flesh and blood — that is, his spirit, the very principle of his 
 life — is imparted to those who believe on him (vss. 53, 54). The Lord's Supper, 
 he would say, has religious value, indeed, but only as it is attended by the appro- 
 priation by the believer of the spirit which controlled Jesus. 
 
 Fourteenth day. — Read John 6 : 60-65. The symbolic character of the discourse 
 comes out clearly in vs. 63 : " It is the spirit that giveth life." Cf . the similar saying 
 of Paul (II Cor. 3:6). Note the emphasis on the words of Jesus, vs. 63. Important 
 as Jesus' signs are deemed in this Gospel, his words have still greater value as the 
 expression of one who is himself the Word of God. Notice in vs. 64 the same 
 emphasis on Jesus' divine knowledge already seen in 1 148; 2 : 24, 25; 4: 18, 39, and 
 perhaps 6:15. 
 
 Fifteenth day. — Read John 6:66-71. What was the effect of this boldly figura- 
 tive discourse upon Jesus' disciples and upon the other Jews ? Vs. 67 contains the 
 first reference to the Twelve in this Gospel; does the evangelist presuppose acquaint- 
 ance on the part of his readers with earlier Gospels ? Notice again in vs. 68 the 
 high value set upon Jesus' words. What does Peter mean by the Holy One of God 
 (vs. 69) ? What idea of the evangelist about Jesus comes out again in vss. 70, 71? 
 
 Sixteenth day. — Why has the discourse of chap. 6 been called the eucharistic 
 discourse ? What has it to do with the Lord's Supper ? What does it teach as to 
 the real essence of discipleship to Jesus? The evangelist often conditions the 
 possession of eternal life upon intellectual belief in Jesus. That is one aspect of 
 discipleship as he regards it. Has it in his mind another side quite as important ? 
 The evangelist is seeking to express his experience of the religious significance of 
 Jesus as the awakener and sustainer of a new life of sonship to God. Has such an 
 experience any modern parallels? Are the contemporary theological and philo- 
 sophical terms in which the evangelist expressed this experience equally adequate 
 today ? 
 
 Seventeenth day. — § 15. Read John 7:1-9. This paragraph evidently seeks 
 to correct a contemporary Jewish objection to Jesus as being an obscure country 
 teacher whose work had been don* off in Galilee, not in Jerusalem, the center of 
 Jewish life (vss. 3, 4). Notice that, as at Cana, Jesus acts only on his own initia- 
 tive (vss. 5, 8); cf. John 2:4. The Gospel now begins to show the opposition 
 between the world and the disciples of Jesus, vs. 7, and "the world" more and more 
 becomes the expression for the unbelieving part of mankind, in contrast with the 
 little circle of believing disciples to which Jesus increasingly devotes himself. The 
 Johannine idea of judgment, that is, that Jesus' presence in the world was in 
 
16 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 effect a judgment of the world, is reflected here (as in the work of the third day 
 above). 
 
 Eighteenth day. — Read John 7:10-24. What do vss. 16, 1.8 describe as the 
 attitude of Jesus to his Father ? Great emphasis is laid in this Gospel upon knowl- 
 edge; vs. 17 conditions knowledge upon an attitude of obedience. "The mind is 
 enlightened to observe the true nature of the revelation in Christ by a habit of 
 moral obedience" (Scott). 
 
 Nineteenth day. — Read John 7:25-30. The objection to Jesus' messiahship, 
 vs. 27, that his origin was known, while the Messiah's origin would be mysterious, 
 was probably one current in the time of the evangelist. The answer to it is that 
 Jesus had a loftier origin than his Nazareth home, for God had sent him. Notice 
 again, vs. 30, the writer's belief in Jesus' mastery of all the situations of his life. 
 Much as his enemies wished to destroy him, they were powerless against him until 
 his hour should come. 
 
 Twentieth day. — Read John 7:31-36. In this chapter the evangelist begins to 
 trace the gradual division of Jesus' hearers into friends and foes, resulting from that 
 sifting process which Jesus' presence in the world produced. This is the messianic 
 judgment in the new sense characteristic of this Gospel, and central in it. Vs. $3 • 
 Jesus boldly tells his enemies that they can effect nothing against him. He will 
 continue with them a little while and then return to his Father into whose presence 
 they cannot follow him. This idea of Jesus as largely freed from human limitation 
 is part of the evangelist's conception of his divine nature. 
 
 Twenty-first day. — Read John 7:37-44. Through the week of the feast 
 the bringing of water from the pool of Siloam to the temple was a daily reminder to 
 the people of the water from the rock which had quenched the thirst of their fathers 
 in the wilderness. Now on the eighth day they left their booths, entered the city, 
 and proceeded to the temple. The thought of living water and the necessity of it 
 to life had been before their minds throughout the week, and suggests the theme of 
 Jesus' discourse. While the figure is different, the idea resembles that of 6: 58, 63. 
 Jesus' spirit can establish in men's hearts inexhaustible springs of spiritual life. 
 Vs.. 39: this thought that the coming of the Spirit was not to take place until after 
 Jesus' death is characteristic of this Gospel, and is more fully developed in later 
 chapters; cf. 16:7. 
 
 Twenty-second day. — Read John 7 : 45-52. The paragraph shows the increasing 
 bitterness of Jesus' enemies, still futile in the face of his calm mastery of the 
 situation. Vs. 49 sets forth the religious condition of the common people of the 
 land in the eyes of the leaders of Judaism. Necessarily absorbed in earning their 
 daily bread, they had opportunity neither to learn nor to practice the minute require- 
 ments of scribal religion. 
 
 Twenty-third day. — Read John 7:53 — 8:11. This striking story is omitted 
 from John by the best and oldest manuscripts and forms no part of this 
 Gospel. It is nevertheless an ancient and beautiful tradition in full accord with 
 
THE CENTRAL PERIOD OF JESUS' MINISTRY 17 
 
 Jesus' ways and spirit. In contrast with John's picture of Jesus this story, like the 
 earlier Gospels, brings him into relations with the outcast and sinful, and shows 
 a touching human sympathy and compassion on his part. Contrast 9:31, which 
 the evangelist quotes with evident approval. 
 
 Twenty-fourth day. — Read John 8:12-20. Jesus has described himself as 
 the bread of life and the water of life. He now presents himself as the light of 
 the world. The emphasis upon light in the early part of the Gospel has already 
 been noted. Cf. 1:4, 5, and the note upon them in Study I. As the light of the 
 world Jesus lifts men out of the lower life of darkness into the clearness and beauty 
 of the higher divine life. The idea of witness already brought out in chap. 5 now 
 reappears. In vs. 14 Jesus' own consciousness bears witness to his relation to God 
 and the truth of his message, and God in the hearts of open-minded truth-seeking 
 men confirms this witness (vss. 16, 18). What familiar idea of this Gospel reappears 
 in vs. 20 ? 
 
 Twenty-fifth day. — Read John 8 : 21-30. The opposition between the world and 
 Jesus and his followers appears again in vs. 23. Note the emphasis here, as often 
 in John, of the idea of revelation (vs. 26). The "lif ting-up" of Jesus, vs. 28, often 
 spoken of in John, has reference to his death as carrying with it his truest exaltation. 
 Obedience, the moral aspect of Jesus' sonship, finds its finest expression in vs. 29. 
 Note that the sifting process by which men of their own accord pronounce judgment 
 on themselves by accepting or rejecting Jesus continues (vs. 30). 
 
 Twenty-sixth day. — Read John 8:31-36. The Gospel's great ideas of knowl- 
 edge, truth, and freedom are strikingly related in vs. 32. The emphasis upon 
 knowledge is one of the marked Greek traits of John. Men find deliverance through 
 knowledge of the truth. Sin is here conceived as bondage, a form of limitation 
 which cuts men off from the privileges of freedom. This idea of sin as limitation is 
 unlike Paul's, in which the elements of guilt and culpability are prominent. 
 Salvation here appears as emancipation from the limitation of the bondage of sin. 
 
 Twenty-seventh day. — Read John 8:37-47. In these controversial dialogues in 
 John we see reflected the bitterness of the conflict between the church and the 
 synagogue in his day. Note the continued emphasis upon truth (vss. 40, 44, 45), 
 and the return to the idea of love, so prominent earlier and later in the Gospel (vs. 42) . 
 
 Twenty-eighth day. — Read John 8:48-53. The only allusions to demon pos- 
 session in John are of this kind and probably refer simply to madness; cf. 10:20* 
 The great idea of salvation as eternal life unaffected by mere physical death comes 
 out again in vs. 51. 
 
 Twenty-ninth day. — Read John 8:54-59. The evangelist's philosophical doc- 
 trine that Jesus is the divine Logos, coexistent with God himself (cf. 1:1), reaches 
 its boldest expression in vs. 58. Can we distinguish the evangelist's experienced 
 conviction of the moral and religious union of Jesus with his Father from this expres- 
 sion of it in ancient philosophical terms ? If so, which is religiously more significant 
 for us? 
 
l8 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Thirtieth day. — Looking back over these discourses and dialogues at the Feast 
 of the Tabernacles, chaps. 7, 8, what do you consider the leading ideas brought out 
 in them ? What value do you find in these for modern religious life ? Is John a very 
 theological Gospel? The evangelist undertook the task of relating his religious 
 experience to the best philosophical thought of his day. Must not Christian thinkers 
 in every age undertake this task afresh ? 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 
 
 i. What made the healing miracle of Jesus at the pool of Bethesda especially 
 remarkable ? 
 
 2. Why did the Jews object to it ? 
 
 3. From what source did Jesus claim to receive his power ? 
 
 4. How did he extenuate himself from the charge of "working" on the 
 Sabbath ? 
 
 5. Name four kinds of "witness" claimed by Jesus in 5:30-47. 
 
 6. What two remarkable material miracles are recorded in chap. 6, and what 
 is the subject of the discourse to which the account of them leads ? 
 
 7. What custom of the church continuing to the present time is in the mind 
 of the author of the Gospel as he relates this discourse ? 
 
 8. On what terms does this Gospel claim that eternal life may be secured ? 
 
 9. Which of the three doctrines — the Virgin birth, the atoning death, or the 
 inspiring life of Jesus— is most practically helpful to you ? 
 
 10. How does this Gospel answer the current objection of the Jews to Jesus 
 as the Messiah — that he was of obscure and humble parentage ? 
 
 n. In what sense was Jesus' presence in the world a judgment of it ? 
 
 12. What belief of the author accounts for his certainty that Jesus was master 
 of all the situations of his life ? 
 
 13. What custom lies back of Jesus' discourse on the "living water," and 
 what does Jesus mean by "living water" ? 
 
 14. In what spirit did the Pharisees receive such statements as those of Jesus 
 concerning the "bread of life," and the "living water" ? 
 
 » 15. Were the common people in sympathy with the Pharisees and the "Law" ? 
 
 16. Under what figure does Jesus describe himself in chap. 8, and with what 
 promise does he accompany his statement? 
 
 17. What contrast does Jesus make between sin and truth in this chapter? 
 
 18. How great had become the enmity of the Jews as reflected in Jesus' 
 statements in chaps. 5-8. 
 
 19. To what does Jesus attribute this hatred ? 
 
 20. What teachings, valuable for religious life today, do you find in the 
 chapters covered by the study of the month ? 
 
THE CENTRAL PERIOD OF JESUS' MINISTRY 19 
 
 STUDY III 
 
 THE CENTRAL PERIOD OF JESUS' MINISTRY (2) 
 
 (9:1—12:50) 
 
 First day. — § 16. The man born blind and Jesus the light of the world: chap. 9. 
 Read John 9:1-3. The fact that the man had been blind from his birth made 
 his cure all the more wonderful. Like the other wonders reported by John, this 
 cure is of an extreme and indeed a hopeless case. The disciples' question reflects 
 the old Jewish view that suffering was a punishment for sin. Jesus, on the other 
 hand, declares that the man was born blind in order that he might by healing him 
 manifest the works of God — that is, show his divine power in a striking and 
 convincing way. 
 
 Second day. — Read John 9:4-7. Jesus' sense of divine commission and of 
 devotion to the will of God appears here again; cf. 8:29; 4:34- The main 
 interest of this cure for the evangelist lies in its symbolizing the relief that Jesus 
 as light of the world (vs. 5) brings to the spiritually blind (vs. 39). Compare the 
 similar use of the water made wine, 2:1-11. The method pursued by Jesus recalls 
 that in Mark 7 : 33 and especially 8 : 23. Is the insistence upon the man's washing 
 as necessary to complete his cure a symbolic reference to baptism? If so, is it 
 the evangelist's purpose here to exalt it (cf. 13 : 8-10), or, as at some points in his 
 Gospel (4:2), to check a tendency to overestimate the rite of baptism? What 
 is the evangelist's attitude toward the Lord's Supper? Note the symbolic 
 significance found by the evangelist in the name Siloam. 
 
 Third day. — Read John 9:8-12. The doubt of the man's neighbors as to his 
 identity is due to their conviction that his blindness was incurable, and since he 
 is now able to see, they are forced to think he cannot be the same man. This 
 conversation therefore has the effect of heightening the wonder of the cure, which 
 appeared to the man's acquaintances perfectly incredible. This is a part of the 
 evangelist's view of Jesus' signs as marvels of divine power due to his supernatural 
 nature. 
 
 Fourth day. — Read John 9 : 13-16. The Pharisees are appealed to as religious 
 leaders capable of explaining the fact that a man incurably blind had been cured, 
 and cured on the Sabbath, in violation of the Law as generally understood. Per- 
 haps the making of a little clay was also considered a transgression of the Sabbath 
 law. The violation of the Law outweighs with the Pharisees both the inestimable 
 good done to the man and the manifestation of divine power involved in his cure: 
 "This man is not from God, because he keepeth not the Sabbath." 
 
20 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Fifth day.— Read John 9:17-23. The continued incredulity of the Jews is 
 related as further evidence of the wonderful character of the cure. The testimony 
 of the man's parents, however, at length convinces them that he has been cured 
 of his lifelong blindness. The hostility of the synagogue to the followers of 
 Jesus, so active in the evangelist's day, is here described as already developed in 
 the time of Jesus, vs. 22. 
 
 Sixth day. — Read John 9:24-29. The bitter conflict between church and 
 synagogue in the evangelist's day is reflected in these verses. The Jews now 
 admit the cure but declare Jesus to be a sinner, that is, a transgressor of the Law. 
 The man, on the other hand, declares his belief that Jesus is a prophet. The 
 sifting process or judgment in which men judge themselves by their estimates of 
 Jesus reappears here. , 
 
 Seventh day.— Read John 9:30-34. Two points are emphasized here: an 
 incredible cure has been wrought, and it is a proof that Jesus is divinely com- 
 missioned. These are the things the evangelist would emphasize in the story. 
 For these views the man is expelled from the fellowship of the synagogue. How 
 does the statement that God heareth not sinners, vs. 31, compare with the thought 
 of the Synoptic Gospels on the same subject, e.g., Luke 18: 13, 14 ? 
 
 Eighth day.— Read John 9:35-41. This bold presentation of himself by 
 Jesus as Messiah and Son of Ctod is characteristic of the Gospel of John; cf. 4: 26. 
 Note the ideas of judgment, and of Jesus as the light of the world to the spiritually 
 blind. This brings out the symbolic character of the story: thus Jesus gives 
 sight to the spiritually blind, and lifts them out of the life of limitation, ignorance, 
 and bondage into the new divine life of truth and freedom. Observe the evangel- 
 ist's reinterpretation of the earlier Christian idea of messianic judgment to come : 
 he finds it already taking place in the attitudes men are assuming toward Jesus, 
 for in these they unconsciously condemn or acquit themselves. 
 
 Ninth day. — § 17. Jesus the door of the sheep and the good shepherd: chap. 10. 
 Read John 10:1-6. The falseness of the Pharisees to their task of religious 
 leadership suggests the contrast between them and worthier leaders, such as Jesus 
 himself. But the allegory has a further application, setting forth, as it does, the 
 true Christian shepherd (pastor), that is, the ideal of the Christian ministry of 
 which in the evangelist's day some men had proved unworthy. The allegory 
 reflects an age when the position of a Christian shepherd or minister had become 
 one of dignity and responsibility, and men needed to be reminded that it carried 
 the gravest responsibilities with it. Has it a message for Christian leaders today ? 
 
 Tenth day. — Read John 10: 7-10. Jesus' relation to the shepherd is now dis- 
 closed. He is the door by which the true and worthy Christian shepherd gains 
 access to the fold within which his sheep are gathered. The church is not men- 
 tioned in the Gospel of John; is the idea of the church in the evangelist's mind 
 when he speaks, in this passage, of the fold and the safety the sheep find within 
 
THE CENTRAL PERIOD OF JESUS' MINISTRY 21 
 
 it ? It is significant that Jesus does not describe any rite as the door of the fold; 
 he is himself the door by which alone the true shepherd must enter. 
 
 Eleventh day. — Read John 10:11-15. In contrast with the false teachers 
 who come to kill and plunder, Jesus is the giver of life, vs. 10. The designation 
 of Jesus as the door of the sheepfold now gives way to the description of him as the 
 good shepherd, the pattern of what all Christian shepherds ought to be in self- 
 sacrificing fidelity to their sacred trust. The false shepherds who have betrayed 
 their Christian office are again rebuked, vs. 12. The death of Jesus, which he 
 endured for the sake of his flock, is dwelt upon as the supreme illustration of the 
 devotion his undershepherds ought to manifest. 
 
 Twelfth day.- — Read John 10:16-18. The spread of the gospel among the 
 Gentiles is reflected here, vs. 16. Through the death of Christ these other sheep 
 will be united with those of the Jewish fold. Notice the view here taken of Jesus' 
 death : he goes to it under no necessity, but lays down his life of his own accord, 
 confident that he has power to resume it at his pleasure. How does this compare 
 with the synoptic teaching, e.g., in Mark 14:34-36? Even here in John, Jesus' 
 filial at'titude of love and obedience to God is brought out, side by side with his 
 Logos-nature, vss. 17, 18. 
 
 Thirteenth day.— Read John 10:19-21. The taking of sides for or against 
 Jesus continues. In what sense is demon possession used in this Gospel ? Cf . 
 John 7:20; 8:48, 52. 
 
 Fourteenth day. — Read John 10:22-26. The Feast of Dedication was cele- 
 brated in December, in commemoration of the reconsecration of the temple 
 by Judas Maccabeus (165 B.C.) after it had been profaned by the Syrian king 
 Antiochus IV. The thought of the works of Jesus as witnessing to his divine 
 nature is often expressed in this Gospel (cf. 5:36), but the Gospel repeatedly 
 states that faith based on works, or signs, is not of the highest kind. 
 
 Fifteenth day.— Read John 10:27-33. Jesus appears here as the good shep- 
 herd and the life-giver. The life he imparts to his followers is not merely future 
 life, but a new and higher kind of life which is related to the higher eternal world, 
 and to which he introduces them here and now. Jesus' bold claim of oneness with 
 God the evangelist understands as referring to his divine Logos-nature quite as 
 much as to his moral oneness with God through filial obedience to his will. These 
 two conceptions of Jesus' relation to God, the one philosophical, the other religious, 
 run through the Gospel of John, often appearing together, as here, for in the 
 words "Many good works have I showed you from the Father," Jesus' filial 
 dependence upon God reappears; cf. 8:26, 28, 29. Here, as on another occasion 
 (8:58), the Jews are ready to stone Jesus for blasphemy, because of his bold 
 words. 
 
 Sixteenth day.— Read John 10 : 34-39. The Old Testament oracle which Jesus 
 quotes from Ps. 82:6 describes the judges of Israel as gods, and sons of the Most 
 
22 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 High. The argument is that it is no blasphemy to claim for one who has done the 
 works of power and beneficence that he has done, a title which the Scripture itself 
 freely applies to the judges of the Jewish nation. Here, as before in addressing the 
 Jews, the appeal of Jesus is to the testimony of his works of power, and again he 
 insists upon his oneness with God. This revives their hostility, but, with the 
 easy mastery of every situation so frequently brought out in this Gospel, Jesus 
 goes his way. The statement that the Scripture cannot be broken, vs. 35, reflects 
 a time in the history of the early church when the Old Testament had come to be 
 accepted as authoritative by Christians as well as Jews. Jesus in the earlier 
 Gospels sometimes takes a different view; cf. Mark 10:4, 5; 7: igb. 
 
 Seventeenth day.' — Read John 10:40-42. While the Jewish rulers refuse to 
 accept Jesus, in Perea many others come to him and believe on him. The locality 
 and its associations suggest comparison with John the Baptist, whose inferiority 
 is again emphasized (he did no sign) along with his testimony to Jesus. Note 
 that the evangelist invariably mentions John in such a wav, as to exalt Jesus. 
 
 Eighteenth day. — § 18. The raising of Lazarus: Jesus the giver of life: chap. 
 11. Read John 11 : 1-7. In the story of Lazarus, Jesus appears as the life-giver. 
 As in the case of the man born blind, much of the significance of this seventh of 
 Jesus' signs lies in its symbolic force; Jesus can raise men dead to spiritual relations 
 and values into a life of freedom and power. Jesus from the first news of Lazarus' 
 sickness views it as an opportunity for a supreme sign: it is for the glory of God, 
 that the Son of Man may be glorified thereby. Indeed he waits two days before 
 starting for Bethany. How does this compare with Jesus' attitude toward per- 
 forming cures as the synoptists represent it ? 
 
 Nineteenth day. — Read John 1 1 : 8-16. The disciples' apprehensions about the 
 danger from the Jews of Judea Jesus meets with calm confidence. He has still 
 some time in which to work. For the present his foes cannot hurt him. By the 
 exercise of that divine knowledge so often ascribed to him in this Gospel (cf . 1 : 48- 
 50; 2:25; 6:64; 13:11) he informs his disciples of the death of Lazarus. Jesus 
 rejoices that Lazarus is dead, since the sign he is about to perform in raising him 
 to life will strengthen the faith of the disciples. Faith resting on signs is more 
 favorably spoken of here than at some other points in this Gospel. Vs. 16 credits 
 the disciples with a conscious courage in returning to Judea with Jesus; in con- 
 trast with the synoptic representation, cf. Mark 10:32; 14:50. 
 
 Twentieth day. — Read John 11:17-27. In this touching interview Martha 
 expresses the faith of the early church that dying believers shall rise again at the 
 last day. Over against this Jesus declares that the life he imparts is unaffected 
 by physical death (vs. 26). "Those who believe in him have risen already; their 
 death is only in seeming and they carry with them into the world beyond the same 
 life on which they entered here" (Scott). The evangelist seeks throughout his 
 Gospel to represent eternal life, not as merely future, but as present. The ultimate 
 
THE CENTRAL PERIOD OF JESUS' MINISTRY 23 
 
 resurrection "is not the commencement but simply the manifestation of the new 
 life" (Scott). This departure from the old apocalyptic conception of the resur- 
 rection is a marked feature of the recast of earlier Christian belief which is effected 
 in the Gospel of John. 
 
 Twenty-first day. — Read John 11 : 28-37. These verses more than any others 
 in this Gospel express pity and human sympathy. But even here Jesus stands 
 apart from and above human grief, a superior being of another world. The Jews 
 interpret his tears as expressions of his regret for his dead friend, but, in the light 
 of what the narrative itself says Jesus meant all along to do, Jesus' sorrow is rather 
 that of "a divine being who stands apart and contemplates the earthly tragedy" 
 (Scott). 
 
 Twenty-second day. —Read John 1 1 : 38-44. The purpose of this seventh of 
 the great signs of Jesus recorded in this Gospel is distinctly stated in vs. 42 ; it is 
 done that the multitude may believe that Jesus is sent by God. From a historical 
 point of view it is very difficult to understand how so extraordinary a wonder 
 performed close to Jerusalem and just before Jesus' final appearance there could 
 have been passed over in silence by the earlier evangelists, especially if, as John 
 represents, it was the immediate cause of Jesus' death. Probably here, as in the 
 water made wine, the main teaching lies in the symbolism of the story, which 
 presents Jesus in the most graphic possible way as the giver of life, while its form 
 may be reminiscent of the raising of Jairus' daughter (Mark 5 : 42) and the widow's 
 son at Nain (Luke 7:15) and of the saying about one risen from the dead in the 
 parable of Dives and Lazarus (Luke 16:31). This story and that of the wedding 
 at Cana might thus be considered as virtual parables. 
 
 Twenty-third day. — Read John 11:45-53. The Jews continue to take sides 
 for or against Jesus, carrying on that idea of continuous present judgment already 
 noted in this Gospel. The raising of Lazarus stirs the Pharisees to act against 
 Jesus on the theory that these multiplied signs will soon convince everyone and 
 bring their national religious life to an end. Caiaphas declares that the only wise 
 course is to put Jesus to death, and in his words the evangelist finds an unconscious 
 prophecy of the death of Jesus for the people. But as elsewhere in this Gospel, the 
 chief significance of the death of Jesus is found, not in its vicarious character, but 
 in its power to attract into the church persons through all the world who crave 
 the divine life (vs. 52; cf. 10:16; 12:32). 
 
 Twenty-fourth day. — Read John 11:54-57. What was the purpose of Jesus' 
 withdrawal to Ephraim ? What other passovers have been' mentioned in this 
 Gospel? Cf. 2:13; 6:4. With the expectancy of the people at Jerusalem, cf. 
 7:11, where a similar anticipation is connected with the Feast of Tabernacles. 
 
 Twenty-fifth day. — § 19. Jesus' final presentation of himself to the Jews of 
 Jerusalem: chap. 12. Read John 12:1-11. This narrative very closely resembles 
 the account of the same event given in Mark 14:3-9. What differences do you 
 
24 THE GOSPEL OP JOHN' 
 
 observe in the narrative in John, and what significance did the evangelist find 
 in them ? Three hundred shillings would be about fifty dollars of our money, 
 but their purchasing power in ancient times would be vastly more than fifty 
 dollars. Was Mary's use of this costly luxury right ? 
 
 Twenty-sixth day.— Read John 12:12-19. How does this narrative compare 
 with that in Mark 11:5-11 (Matt. 21:4-11; Luke 19:33-38) ? Notice in John 
 the witness of the multitude, vs. 17. The interest of the multitude in Jesus' 
 Messianic entry into the city is here explained as due to the raising of Lazarus 
 a few days or weeks before, vs. 18. Notice the statement that subsequent events 
 afterward led the disciples to go over those incidents of Jesus' ministry from a new 
 point of view and to find in them a new meaning, vs. 16. 
 
 Twenty-seventh day.— Read John 12:20-26. In the interest of these Greeks 
 in Jesus, as in Jesus' work in Samaria, the evangelist foreshadows the great 
 extension of the church among the Gentiles which was so marked a development 
 of his time. The dignity and aloofness of Jesus as he appears in this Gospel again 
 come out in the fact that the Greeks approach him, not directly, but through his 
 disciples. In their request Jesus finds the token that his ministry is nearing its 
 end. It only remains for him to be glorified through death, vss. 23, 24. This 
 conception of his death as glorification is characteristic of this Gospel. 
 
 Twenty-eighth day. — Read John 12 : 27-360. The Gethsemane incident of the 
 earlier Gospels is reinterpreted in John in accord with the evangelist's conception 
 of Jesus as a being almost wholly freed from human limitation, vss. 27, 28. Here, 
 as in other instances in John, the earlier gospel story is retold and modified. The 
 writer's idea of the messianic judgment as involuntarily effected by Jesus reappears 
 in vs. 31. The significance of Jesus' death is at once his release from earthly 
 limitation into his higher life, and the signal by which he will attract to himself 
 all those who have in them the craving for the truer life, vs. 32. Vs. 34 doubtless 
 answers a contemporary Jewish objection to Jesus' messiahship; cf. 7:41, 42, etc. 
 What is meant by the light, vss. 35, 36 ? Cf. 1 : 5; 9: 5. 
 
 Twenty-ninth day. — Read John 12:366-43. What is the evangelist's idea of 
 the value of signs, vs. 37 ? A Jewish objection to Jesus' claims doubtless current 
 jn the time of the evangelist is reflected and met in vss. 37-41, which explain'the 
 failure of the Jews to accept him. A kindred objection already touched upon in 
 7 : 48 is dealt with in vss. 42, 43. 
 
 Thirtieth day. — Read John 12 : 44-50. Notice here the Gospel's conception of 
 judgment, vss. 47, 48. Not Jesus but his word which men either accept or reject 
 will judge them at the last day. Here the evangelist seems indeed to retain the 
 thought of a final judgment, but he does so in little more than form, emphasizing 
 rather the thought that Jesus' message acts as a touchstone to men's hearts, 
 thrusting upon them a choice by their response to which they settle their own 
 
THE CENTRAL PERIOD OF JESUS' MINISTRY 25 
 
 moral destinies. Jesus' relation to God is here set forth, vss. 49, 50, as a filial 
 •dependence upon God, not, as so often in John, as a metaphysical relationship. 
 
 Under what terms has Jesus in these chapters (9-12) described himself (cf. 
 9:5; 10:7,11,36; 11:25; 12:35), and what meaning do you attach to each? 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 
 
 1. What was the popular belief of the Jews concerning one who was afflicted 
 with disease or misfortune ? 
 
 2. What does Jesus' statement to the man born blind suggest to you concern- 
 *ng his own attitude toward that belief ? 
 
 3. What was the conclusion of the Pharisees concerning Jesus because of the 
 time and manner of his cure of the blind man ? 
 
 4. What view of Jesus does the evangelist, seek to establish by his use of this 
 story ? 
 
 5. What suggestion does the story contain as to the relation of Jews and 
 Christians in the author's own day ? 
 
 6. What was the "blindness" with which the Jews charged the Pharisees? 
 
 7. Name some ways in which Jesus has proved his claim to be called the light 
 of the world. 
 
 8. Who were the "false shepherds" alluded to in chap. 10? 
 
 9. What did Jesus claim to be the tests of a good shepherd ? 
 . 10. Did Jesus' own life satisfy these tests ? 
 
 11. How does this writer represent Jesus' attitude toward his own death. 
 
 12. What two aspects of Jesus' "oneness" run side by side through the 
 Gospel ? Answer with an illustration of each. 
 
 13. What evidence have we in the Gospel that in the time of the author 
 Christians regarded the Old Testament as sacred and binding ? 
 
 14. Is the story of Lazarus presented in any other Gospel than John ? 
 
 15. Can you suggest any reasons for this omission? 
 
 16. Describe your impression of Jesus from a careful reading of this 
 story. 
 
 17. How do Jesus' words to the sisters regarding death, resurrection, and 
 eternal life appear to us today ? 
 
 18. What, according to this Gospel, was the effect of Jesus' act upon the 
 Jews ? 
 
 19. Tell the story of the next few days as related in John, chap. 12. 
 
 20. In what terms has Jesus described himself in these chapters, and what 
 meaning do you attach to each of these names ? 
 
26 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 STUDY IV 
 
 JESUS' FULLER REVELATION OF HIMSELF TO HIS 
 DISCIPLES (13:1—17:26) 
 
 First day. — § 20. Washing the disciples' feet: the lesson of humility and service: 
 John 13:1-20. Read John 13:1. The controversial tone which has marked the 
 central part of the Gospel now gives way to a more intimate and confidential 
 intercourse between Jesus and his disciples. Notice that John puts the Last 
 Supper, not on the night of the Passover supper, but on the night before. The 
 evangelist intends to correct the notion so clearly expressed in Mark 14:12, 16, 18, 
 that Jesus' last meal with the disciples was the Passover supper. Certain touches 
 in Mark, indeed (14:2; 15:42), seem to agree with this placing of the Last Supper, 
 which, on the one hand, avoids making the Supper an outgrowth or modification 
 of the Passover supper, and, on the other, brings the death of Jesus to the time 
 at which the Passover lambs were being sacrificed throughout the city. Note 
 that in 13 : 1 the contrast between the disciples and the world, so characteristic of 
 this Gospel, reappears, as does the supernatural knowledge of Jesus. The verse 
 not only gives a very touching picture of the unselfish affection of Jesus for his 
 disciples, so that his whole thought in this last night of his life was for them, but 
 it suggests the evangelist's interpretation of his death as endured primarily for 
 "his own"; cf. 10:11; 1^:13. 
 
 Second day. — Read John 13:2-4. Cf. Matt. 11:27; Philip. 2:6. Notice 
 again the emphasis on Jesus' extraordinary knowledge, and observe that his 
 consciousness of his divine nature is the background of the menial act he now 
 prepares to perform. 
 
 Third day. — Read John 13:5-11. In countries where sandals were worn, 
 which protect only the soles of the feet from the dust, it was the duty of an oriental 
 host to offer the guests who came under his roof water with which to wash their 
 feet. It is singular that in John the washing follows the Supper; cf. Luke 7:44. 
 The point of the story is of course the extraordinary condescension of Jesus in 
 doing this menial service for his disciples. The process of interpretation which 
 the memory of the disciples was later to apply to these events is suggested here, 
 vs. 7, as above in 12:16. The symbolic character of Jesus' action is clearly 
 brought out in vs. 8: the feet-washing symbolizes the attitude of humble service 
 to others. Every follower of Jesus must experience it. Does vs. 10 refer to 
 baptism ? The thought is that he who has once entered upon the Christian life 
 
JESUS' FULLER REVELATION OF HIMSELF 27 
 
 has need only to renew each day his attitude of humility and service to his 
 fellows. Notice the continued emphasis upon the extraordinary knowledge of 
 Jesus, vs. n. 
 
 Fourth day. — Read John 13:12-17. What lesson is drawn here from the 
 incident of the feet-washing? How do you interpret vs. 14? Vs. 16: a similar 
 saying of Jesus occurs in Matt. 10:24; what is its application here in John? 
 Notice the characteristically Greek emphasis of knowledge as a condition of 
 "doing," vs. 17; cf. 8:32. 
 
 Fifth day. — Read John 13 : 18-20. The supernatural knowledge of Jesus is 
 again emphasized. He predicts his betrayal by one of his immediate followers, 
 and declares that he does so that when they see his prediction fulfilled they may 
 have their belief in him confirmed. Vs. 20 recalls a similar saying of Jesus recorded 
 in Matt. 10:40. If they yield to his spirit and go on his errands, they become 
 his actual representatives, sharing his dignity and privilege. 
 
 Sixth day. — § 21. The prediction of the betrayal; the withdrawal of the betrayer: 
 John 13:21-30. Read John 13:21-23. The prediction of the betrayal now 
 becomes more specific. The beloved disciple now first appears in the narrative. 
 He is mentioned in this way three times in the Gospel (13:23; 19:26; 20 : 2), and 
 twice in the epilogue (21:7, 20). The Gospel nowhere gives his name, but the 
 use of this title for him makes him much more conspicuous than any name could 
 have done. Is he the apostle John, or an ideal figure, the typical sympathetic 
 follower of insight and devotion, who would have understood Jesus as none of his 
 actual followers seems to have done? Or does he unite these two characters? 
 
 Seventh day. — Read John 13 : 24-30. The persons at the Supper were reclin- 
 ing about the table on long couches, each probably accommodating three persons. 
 Jesus would naturally occupy the place of honor at the head of the principal 
 couch, and next him at his right reclines the beloved disciple, to whom even 
 Peter is subordinated. Jesus designates Judas by handing him a morsel of bread 
 which he has first dipped in the common bowl of sauce upon the table. In keeping 
 with Jesus' mastery of every situation he here appears as telling Judas that the 
 time has come for the betrayal; cf. 7:30; 8:20. Vs. 29 is further'proof that the 
 evangelist means that the Passover is still in the future; cf. 13: 1. 
 
 Eighth day. — § 22. The farewell discourses of Jesus: John 13:31 — 16:33. 
 Read John 13:31-35. The departure of Judas leaves Jesus alone with his loyal 
 followers, to whom he can speak fully and without reserve, and the great dis- 
 course and player which form the culmination of the Gospel follow (13:31 
 through chap. 17). Jesus speaks of his death, now close at hand, as his glorifi- 
 cation; cf. 7:39; 12: 16, 23. Love is now declared to be the bond of the spiritual 
 fellowship (the church), represented by the little group of disciples gathered 
 about the table. Compare with this I John 4:7-21. It is an exalted idea that 
 the Christians are to be known not by any rite or outward mark but by the love 
 
28 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 they show to one another, and that the love of Jesus is to be the standard and 
 pattern for theirs. Is this a broadening or a narrowing of Jesus' teaching in 
 the earlier gospels? Cf. Matt. 5:43-48. 
 
 Ninth day. — Read John 13:36-38. Notice again the evangelist's charac- 
 teristic emphasis upon Jesus' supernatural knowledge, vss. 36, 38. Peter does 
 not understand Jesus as well as the beloved disciple does. 
 
 Tenth day. — Read John 14: 1-4. Jesus now seeks in these beautiful words to 
 comfort his disciples in view of his departure. He goes away to prepare for their 
 later coming to the house of many abiding-places, but he will come again to them, 
 that they may be with him. The Gospel now begins the skilful modification of 
 the early idea of Jesus' visible return on the clouds of heaven into the coming 
 of his spirit into the believer's heart. 
 
 Eleventh day. — Read John 14:5-7. Jesus has already declared himself to 
 be life, in the sense that he introduces men to the higher divine life which is 
 eternal, 11:25. The evangelist has described him as the source of truth, 1:17, 
 and Jesus has promised the knowledge of the truth to those who abide in his 
 word, 8:32. He now declares himself to be life and truth, at the same time 
 describing himself as the way by which alone men can come to God. The common 
 point of emphasis in these three ways of putting the religious significance of Jesus 
 is that only through him can men attain salvation, whether it be conceived as the 
 divine life, or as the apprehension of truth, or as finding God. Vs. 7 : in what 
 sense is it true that Jesus has definitely added to our knowledge of God ? Is it 
 in simple fact easier to find God and to know him than it was before Jesus lived 
 and taught ? 
 
 Twelfth day. — Read John 14:8-11. Notice that the discourse here has some- 
 thing of the form of a dialogue; Peter, Thomas, Philip, and Judas (not Iscariot) 
 successively question Jesus (13:36; 14:5, 8, 22). "The answer to Philip at the 
 
 supper may be regarded as the central theme of the whole Gospel Jesus 
 
 himself is the revelation, and according as men know him, through a living 
 fellowship, they attain to the knowledge of God" (Scott). With vs. 10 compare 
 7:16 and 8:29: Jesus' filial dependence upon God is brought out in these verses. 
 Vs. 11: faith here is not, as in the earlier Gospels, the condition of Jesus' 
 mighty works, but their result. Yet, as elsewhere in this Gospel, faith based 
 on Jesus' works is inferior to faith inspired by association with him. Is faith 
 in this Gospel more like intellectual assent to doctrine than like personal depend- 
 ence upon God ? That is, is it belief rather than trust ? 
 
 Thirteenth day. — Read John 14:12-14. The departure. of Jesus is to lead 
 to his return as a spiritual presence in the hearts of his followers, and thus endowed 
 they will carry on his work with even greater power. This suggests that the 
 wonders of Jesus in this Gospel — feeding multitudes, making water wine, giving 
 sight to the blind, raising the dead — may be regarded as symbolic of the later 
 
JESUS' FULLER REVELATION OF HIMSELF 29 
 
 spiritual achievements of his followers. This new endowment of Jesus' presence 
 will give the Christians' prayers the efficacy of Jesus' own, since he will in effect 
 be speaking through them to his Father; cf. 11:42. 
 
 Fourteenth day. — Read John 14:15-21. To those who love and follow Jesus 
 he will send another helper, the spirit of truth, who shall abide with them and 
 reside in them. It might seem that this being, so objectively spoken of, must be 
 someone other than Jesus himself, but this impression is immediately corrected 
 by vs. 18: "I come unto you," and a little later in vs. 21 : "I will reveal myself 
 unto him." The promised helper is to be Jesus' own spiritual presence. This 
 promise is made, not only to the disciples present at the Supper, but to anyone 
 who afterward should know and follow Jesus' teaching; cf. 20:296. 
 
 Fifteenth day. — Read John 14:22-24. The earlier apocalyptic idea of Jesus' 
 return had represented it as a spectacular event manifest to all the world. But 
 the teaching here presented is that the world will not behold the presence of the 
 returning Jesus, vs. 17. Judas' question relates to this difference. Jesus again 
 affirms that he and his Father will come and dwell as a permanent inward presence 
 in those individual hearts that love him. Others are neither capable nor desirous 
 of receiving him, vs. 24. Again, in this verse as in 7: 16 and 14: 10, Jesus declares 
 his filial dependence upon his Father for his message. Luke is the only one of 
 the earlier evangelists to mention this Judas among the apostles (Luke 6: 16). 
 
 Sixteenth day. — Read John 14:25-31. It will be seen that the Gospel here 
 identifies the coming of the Spirit with the return of Jesus to the world as a spiritual 
 presence in the hearts of his followers, describing it variously as the sending of 
 the helper or comforter, his own coming unto them, and even the coming of his 
 Father and himself to stay with those who love him. This spiritual presence will 
 revive and perpetuate Jesus' teaching, and in the expectation of its speedy coming 
 the disciples are urged to tranquillity and peace. Vss. 28, 31 again emphasize 
 the subordination of Jesus to his Father, and vs. 29, like 13 : 19 above, calls atten- 
 tion to his power of prediction incident to his supernatural knowledge. 
 
 Seventeenth day. — Read John 15: 1-10. This allegory is the nearest approach 
 to a parable which the teaching of Jesus in this Gospel contains. Certainly it is 
 quite unlike the parables of the earlier Gospels, and it may. more properly be 
 called an allegory. It teaches the significance of Jesus as the source of life. 
 Spiritual fruitfulness is dependent upon vital union with him, and life is viewed 
 as a higher kind of existence which can be attained only through mystical union 
 with Jesus, the giver of life. 
 
 Eighteenth day. — Read John 15 : n-16. The relation of Jesus to his followers 
 is here reinterpreted as that of friendship, for he has shared with them his knowl- 
 edge of his Father's will. The Gospel's habitual emphasis upon knowledge 
 reappears here. Jesus' death is now interpreted as endured, not as in Paul's 
 letters to atone for men's sins, but for the sake of his friends, to whom it more 
 
30 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 fully reveals his love and whom it binds more closely to him. This recalls the 
 figure of the good shepherd laying down his life for the sheep, 10:11; cf. 13:16. 
 
 Nineteenth day. — Read John 15:17-21. The opposition between the church 
 and the world again appears. The ancient world, especially in the first and 
 second centuries, altogether misunderstood the church and credited Christians 
 with cannibalism and other monstrous practices. Before the end of the first 
 century the empire had begun to persecute the church. The language of this 
 paragraph is colored by these contemporary experiences of the church. How are 
 they explained ? Notice again the importance of knowledge, 15:21. 
 
 Twentieth day. — Read John 15:22-27. The revelation of Jesus, attested by 
 his signs, has opened to men the higher divine life; in rejecting it they convict 
 themselves of sin in a far deeper sense than would otherwise have been possible. 
 In hating him they have in effect hated God who is revealed in him. The promised 
 helper or comforter is now described, vs. 26, as proceeding from the Father and 
 bearing witness to Jesus. Where has this idea of witness to Jesus appeared 
 before in this Gospel ? 
 
 Twenty-first day. — Read John 16: 1-7. Notice in these verses the atmosphere 
 of contemporary persecution, vs. 16, the emphasis upon knowledge, vs. 3, and 
 upon Jesus' power of prediction, vs. 4; cf. 13:19; 14:29. Again, as in 14:12, 16, 
 Jesus' departure must precede the coming of the helper, vs. 7. Jesus speaks now 
 of sending the helper, now of coming himself. 
 
 Twenty-second day. — Read John 16 : 8-15. These verses set forth the influence 
 of the Spirit which is to come, upon the world and upon Jesus' followers. To the 
 world it will so vindicate Jesus' claims that the world will recognize its sin in 
 rejecting him, together with his righteousness and the judgment which the world 
 has through his presence in it passed upon itself. To Jesus' followers the helper 
 will come as the spirit of truth, enlightening them so that they shall gain larger 
 vision of truth and deeper insight into the mind and teaching of Jesus. This 
 thought of the progressive development of the Christian consciousness is one of 
 the great ideas of this Gospel. What is the basis of condemnation in the judg- 
 ment as here stated, vs. 9 ? What is it in the picture of the judgment given in 
 Matt. 25:45? 
 
 Twenty-third day. — Read John 16:16-24. This strangely repeated emphasis 
 upon the " little while" that is to intervene between Jesus' death and his return 
 to stay with his disciples is highly significant in John, for it means that Jesus' 
 resurrection is virtually his final return to his disciples as the helper or spirit of 
 truth to abide as a spiritual presence in their hearts. The resurrection, the 
 coming of the Spirit, and the return of Christ are thus identified in John. Why 
 will no one be able to take the disciples' joy from them, vs. 22 ? Why will they 
 ask Jesus no further question in that coming day ? Why will all their prayers in 
 his name be answered, vss. 23, 24? 
 
JESUS' FULLER REVELATION OF HIMSELF 31 
 
 Twenty-fourth day. — Read John 16:25-28. In contrast with the figurative 
 language in which these discourses are cast, the voice of Jesus' Spirit in the Chris- 
 tian consciousness is clear and distinct. With vs. 26 cf. 14:14; 15:7; 16:23. 
 Again the great ideas of the love of God and the continued presence of Christ 
 are emphasized. 
 
 Twenty-fifth day. — Read John 16:29-33. Where else in this Gospel has this 
 thought of the supernatural knowledge of Jesus been expressed ? Cf. 1 :48; 2: 25; 
 4:18, 39, etc. Vs. 32 expresses Jesus' consciousness of God as a sustaining 
 presence. Notice again the thought of peace so finely characteristic of this 
 Gospel; cf. 14:1, 27. Again, as often before, the little group of disciples rep- 
 resenting the church is silhouetted against the dark background of a hostile 
 world. But Jesus in his own life has won a moral victory over the world which 
 guarantees his ultimate spiritual triumph over it. 
 
 Twenty-sixth day. — § 23. Jesus' prayer for his disciples: John 17:1-26. 
 Read John 17:1-5. This intercessory prayer marks the culmination of Jesus' 
 work; he now declares it finished. The hour is come. The honoring or glorify- 
 ing of the Son describes the approaching death of Jesus in one of its aspects. 
 Cf. 13:31. Life is again described in vs. 3 in terms of knowledge. How is this 
 knowledge defined? The earlier apocalyptic conception had been that Jesus 
 would return on the clouds to do his proper messianic work. What bearing does 
 vs. 5 have upon this ? 
 
 Twenty-seventh day. — Read John 17:6-11. The contrast with the world is 
 again sharply drawn, vs. 9. With vs. 10 compare 16:15. Does vs. n suggest 
 that the church is in some sense to take the place of Jesus in the world ? Does 
 this imply an exalted idea of its dignity and misson? Yet the disciples' great 
 heritage from Jesus was not an institution, but an inward spirit of peace and 
 love; cf. 14:27. Notice the emphasis upon the unity of the church; cf. 10:16; 
 11:52. This is of course primarily a spiritual unity. Does it also imply anything 
 as to the developing organization of the church in the writer's day, e.g., the 
 system of presbyters (or bishops) and deacons that had replaced the primitive 
 want of organization? cf. I Cor. 12:28. 
 
 Twenty-eighth day. — Read John 17:12-19. The followers of Jesus, like 
 him, enjoy a higher life; they are not of this world, vs. 16. Jesus consecrates 
 himself or devotes himself to death that his followers may be the more fully con- 
 secrated to God, vs. 19. Does vs. 16 apply to the disciples as the first of those 
 who are to guide the church and after them to those who become its later leaders ? 
 Cf. 15:27; 20:21. 
 
 Twenty-ninth day. — Read John 17:20-24. These words foreshadow the 
 wider Christian circle of the writer's day, wilted into one through Jesus' devotion 
 of himself in his death, vss. 20, 21; cf. 10:16; 11:52. Here, as in 10:15, 16, the 
 unifying of all that believe is connected with Jesus' death; cf. vs. 19, above, and 
 
32 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 12:32, 33- The thought that Jesus' followers are to be with him recalls the 
 beautiful expression of the Christian hope in 14:3. Jesus' death appears in John 
 as his release from the limitations of time and place which the incarnation had 
 imposed upon him, so that .instead of being with one little group of disciples only, 
 Jesus by virtue of his divine nature can after his death be present in the heart of 
 each of his followers on earth and also be with those who have passed on into the 
 house of many abodes. That is, this Gospel connects the whole influence of the 
 Spirit of God in the human heart with the personality of Jesus. 
 
 Thirtieth day. — Read John 17:25-26. In these verses notice the emphasis 
 upon knowledge and love. Jesus alone knew God and revealed him. As a 
 divine presence he will still communicate this revelation to his followers and thus 
 awaken the divine love in their hearts. Cf. I John 4: 19. 
 
 What are the leading ideas of this farewell discourse, chaps. 14-16 ? How 
 does it compare with the Sermon on the Mount ? Cf. Matt, chaps. 5, 6, 7. Is 
 it as varied, ethical, and practical? Is it more meditative, mystical, and theo- 
 logical? What are the leading thoughts in the intercessory prayer, chap. 17? 
 How does it compare with the Lord's Prayer, Matt. 6:0-13 ? 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 
 
 i. Name some of the peculiar features of the narrative of the Last Supper as 
 described by the author of the Gospel of John. 
 
 2. In what connection does the idea of the supernatural nature of Jesus, so 
 prevalent in this narrative, appear in this chapter ? 
 
 3. What lesson is drawn here from the lesson of the feet-washing, and how 
 do you interpret vs. 14? 
 
 4. Describe the scene and the incidents presented in 13:24-30. 
 
 5. In the great discourse beginning with 13:31, what does Jesus declare to be 
 the sign by which Christians shall be known ? 
 
 6. What strong doctrine of the earliest Christians and of Paul shows modifi- 
 cation in 14:1-4? 
 
 7. In view of vs. 6 name some reasons why it is easier to find God now than 
 before Jesus lived and taught. 
 
 8. What is the peculiarity in form in the contents of chap. 14? 
 
 9. What is the central Leaching of this chapter ? 
 
 10. What is the teaching of Jesus as to the prayers of his followers as pre- 
 sented in this chapter ? 
 
 11. Under what conditions is the future presence of God and Jesus in the 
 world to continue ? 
 
 12. How closely in this chapter does Jesus identify himself, God, and the 
 Holy Spirit ? 
 
 13. What is an allegory ? 
 
JESUS' FULLER REVELATION OF HIMSELF 33 
 
 14. Why is that a better name than parable for chap. 15 ? 
 
 15. What is the lesson of this allegory? 
 
 16. How does the doctrine of Jesus' death differ in this Gospel from the 
 doctrine of the atonement which has come down to us from Paul ? 
 
 17. How does the author account for the persecutions in the midst of which 
 the church of his time then w^as ? 
 
 18. Where has the idea of the witness of Jesus suggested in vss. 26, 27 appeared 
 before in this Gospel ? 
 
 19. What are the leading thoughts in Jesus' prayer? 
 
 20. These chapters have brought comfort to Christians through all the 
 centuries since they were written. Has your study of them made them more or 
 less practically helpful to you ? Why ? 
 
34 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 STUDY V 
 
 THE DEPARTURE AND RETURN OF JESUS (18:1—21:25) 
 
 First day. — §24. The arrest of Jesus: 18:1-14. Read John 18:1-6. The 
 betrayal has already been foreshadowed in 13:2, 21, 26-30. What characteristic 
 elements in this Gospel's view of Jesus are emphasized in this account of the 
 betrayal ? Notice that the Gospel of John contains no account of the agony in 
 Gethsemane. Would such an account have contributed to the picture of Jesus 
 as this evangelist conceived him ? 
 
 Second day. — Read John 18:7-11. Even in the hour of his betrayal and 
 arrest Jesus appears the master of the situation, solicitous only for the safety of 
 his disciples. What was their behavior, according to Matthew and Mark? 
 How is it described here ? How does the evangelist interpret this escape of the 
 disciples ? We have seen that he likes to dwell on the fulfilments of Jesus' sayings. 
 Is the reference to John 17:12 ? The evangelist says the swordsman was Peter, 
 and that his victim's name was Malchus. Is vs. 1 ib a reflection of the Gethsemane 
 story of the earlier Gospels? Cf. Mark 14:36 and parallels. How does this 
 account of the betrayal and arrest differ from the accounts in the earlier Gospels, 
 Matt. 26:47-56; Mark 14:43-52; Luke 22:47-53? 
 
 Third day. — Read John 18:12-14. This preliminary examination of Jesus 
 before Annas, the ex-high priest, is not mentioned in the earlier Gospels. Outside 
 of this chapter Annas is mentioned in the New Testament only in the writings 
 of Luke (Luke 3:2; Acts 4:6). Why should the fact that Annas was the high 
 priest's father-in-law explain Jesus' being led to Annas first ? The high priesthood 
 had long since ceased to be hereditary and had become appointive. Annas held it 
 from 6 to 15 a.d. One of his sons held it for a short time about 16 a.d., and in 
 18 a.d. Caiaphas was appointed to it. He was succeeded in 36 a.d. by another 
 son of Annas and he in turn in 37 by another. It may be that Annas, though 
 not in office at this time, was the power behind the high priest in the year of Jesus' 
 arrest. At any rate, his experience and influence would make it natural for a 
 preliminary examination to take place before him. On the counsel of Caiaphas, 
 cf. John 11:49-52. 
 
 Fourth day. — The Jewish examination of Jesus, and Peter's denial: 18: 15-27. 
 Read John 18:15-18. The first of Peter's denials foretold by Jesus (13:38) 
 takes place in the court of Annas' house, to which Peter has been admitted through 
 the interest of another follower of Jesus who is acquainted there. There is no 
 
THE DEPARTURE AND RETURN OF JESUS 35 
 
 reason to identify him with the beloved disciple who is sometimes mentioned in 
 John, for, if he were meant, the evangelist would probably have made the fact clear. 
 The Fourth Gospel is simply explaining how it came about that Peter was allowed 
 to enter the court of Annas' house. Annas is now spoken of as high priest, vss. 15, 
 16; ci. vss. 19, 22, 24. 
 
 Fifth day. — Read John 18:19-24. Annas is again spoken of as high priest, 
 perhaps because he had once held the office. The private examination of Jesus 
 in the dead of night was not, however, in accordance with Jewish legal procedure. 
 Jesus replies with great boldness, refusing to help his enemies and challenging them 
 to find their witnesses among those who have heard his many public utterances in 
 synagogue and temple. Even when brutally struck and reproved by a constable, 
 he answers with a skilful and confident rebuke. This attitude of superiority to his 
 judges characterizes Jesus in the account of his trial in John. 
 
 Sixth day. — John 18: 25-27. The evangelist does not ordinarily record what 
 already stood in the earlier Gospels without some reason for repeating it or remold- 
 ing it. How does his account of Peter's denials differ from that of the synoptists ? 
 Why has he included these in his narrative ? How do they contribute to it ? Is 
 it because they so strikingly fulfil Jesus' prediction in 13:38? What is the 
 evangelist's general attitude toward the disciples? Cf. 18:8 with Mark 14:50; 
 Matt. 26:56. 
 
 Seventh day. — §25. The trial before Pilate: 18:28 — 19:16. Read John 
 18:28-32. The trial before the actual high priest, Caiaphas, which is recorded 
 in Matthew and Mark, is passed over in John; cf. vss. 24, 28. Jesus is sent by 
 Annas to Caiaphas and by Caiaphas to Pilate, the Roman procurator. Jesus' 
 trial before the Sanhedrin is not even mentioned. Does the evangelist pass 
 over these matters because they were familiar enough to his readers from the 
 earlier Gospels or oral tradition, or because they did not contribute to the ideas 
 which it was the purpose of his Gospel to set forth, or both ? Notice that the 
 Passover has not yet been celebrated, vs. 28. What sayings of Jesus recorded 
 in this Gospel indicate the manner of his death ? The Jews, when they had the 
 right to put to death, executed men by stoning, the Romans by crucifixion. If 
 the Romans were to execute him, it meant crucifixion. Which form of execution 
 is reflected in passages like 3: 14; 8:28; 12:32,34? 
 
 Eighth day. — Read John 18:33-380. The masterful attitude of Jesus con- 
 tinues to the end. Is his attitude here one of confident superiority, or of silent 
 contempt or indifference ? Does he deny that he is a king ? What is his earthly 
 mission? "Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice." Where else in 
 this Gospel has a similar idea been expressed ? 
 
 Ninth day. — Read John 18:386-40. What is Pilate's verdict upon Jesus' 
 case ? Upon whom does the narrative place the responsibility for the condemna- 
 tion of Jesus ? 
 
S6 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Tenth day. — Read John 19: 1-9. The Jews remain outside the gentile dwell- 
 ing, to avoid ceremonial defilement which would unfit them for eating the Passover 
 supper; cf. 18:28. Pilate has in consequence to pass in and out between his 
 judgment hall and the Jews outside. The crown and purple which the soldiers 
 put on Jesus in caricature of his royal claims serve in this Gospel (vs. 5) to 
 emphasize, the kingly dignity with which he goes through his trial. Even Pilate 
 is alarmed at what he sees and hears about his prisoner, vs. 8. 
 
 Eleventh day. — Read John 19:10-16. At the decisive moment of his trial 
 Jesus is still the master of his fate, and behaves more like the judge of his enemies 
 than like their prisoner, vs. 11. In the view of the evangelist Jesus' very enemies 
 are simply carrying out a program which he himself had already voluntarily 
 accepted, and which they could enter upon only when his own time for it was 
 come, and he even gave the word for its commencement; cf. 8 : 20; 12 : 23 ; 13 : 27. 
 Notice Pilate's repeated efforts to secure his release; cf. 18:31-38; 19:4, 5, 12. 
 This sets in high relief the insistent hostility of the Jewish leaders. How would this 
 affect the opposition between church and synagogue in the evangelist's day ? The 
 narrative once more, vs. 14, emphasizes the fact that the Passover supper is to take 
 place in the evening, in contrast with Mark's statement that it had taken place on 
 the previous night, Mark 14:12-17. The evangelist gives the time of Jesus' 
 conviction as noon, vs. 14: "It was about the sixth hour," although Mark 
 describes the crucifixion as taking place at nine o'clock in the morning, Mark 
 15:25. Is the evangelist unacquainted with Mark's statement, or is he seeking 
 to correct it ? 
 
 Twelfth day. — §26. The crucifixion: 19:17-30. Read John 19:17-22. 
 What does this account of the crucifixion add to those of the earlier Gospels? 
 How does the evangelist's statement that Jesus went forth carrying his cross 
 for himself contribute to his picture of Jesus' attitude toward his death ? Some 
 Gnostic Christians, holding that the Son of God could not experience death, 
 had a legend that Simon of Cyrene (cf. Mark 15:21) was crucified in Jesus' stead. 
 How does vs. 35 bear upon that idea? This Gospel says nothing about the men 
 crucified with Jesus except that there were two of them, and that Jesus was placed 
 between them. What interest has this bare fact for the evangelist ? In spite of 
 his enemies, Jesus' very cross, vss. 19, 21, proclaims the dignity they had denied 
 him. Is the mention of the three languages in vs. 20 another hint of the universalism 
 characteristic of this Gospel ? Cf . 1 2 : 32. Vs. 22 is one of those dramatic touches 
 in which this Gospel is so rich; cf.8:58; 11:35; 18:38; 19:5,14. 
 
 Thirteenth day. — Read John 19 : 23, 24. How does this account of the parting 
 of Jesus' garments among the soldiers differ from that of the earlier Gospels? 
 Are there many Old Testament quotations in this Gospel ? The evangelist finds 
 in this incident a remarkable fulfilment of the psalmist's account of the experiences 
 of God's chosen, Ps. 22 : 18. Even the soldiers in their coarse greed bear involun- 
 
THE DEPARTURE AND RETURN OF JESUS 37 
 
 tary witness to Jesus' high claims. So Pilate, the Jewish leaders, and the soldiers 
 themselves bear unwitting testimony to Jesus' royal dignity and divine and uni- 
 versal mission. 
 
 Fourteenth day. — Read John 19:25-27. Who were the women at the cross, 
 according to the earlier Gospels ? There is nothing in them to indicate that Jesus' 
 mother ever approved his work, unless it be possibly in such touches as Luke 
 2:19, 35. What other references to Jesus' mother does this Gospel contain? 
 Cf. 2:3, 12. It has already been pointed out that the mother of Jesus may in 
 John symbolize the older Jewish faith, of which the evangelist, like Matthew, 
 believes Christianity to be in a real sense the child. How would this apply here ? 
 Would it mean that Jesus in his death virtually commends the religious heritage 
 of Judaism to such followers of his as most deeply understand and appreciate 
 him? What is the attitude of the Fourth Gospel toward the Old Testament? 
 Cf. 4:22; 5:39; 10:35. 
 
 Fifteenth day. — Read John 1% : 28-5^. Notice the writer's continued emphasis 
 upon Jesus' knowledge; upon the idea that Jesus' work was now finished, cf. 17:4; 
 19:30; and upon the fulfilment of Scripture in the manner of Jesus' death, cf. 
 vs. 24 above. Jesus' cry of thirst is recorded as though he uttered it with Ps. 69 : 2 1 
 definitely in mind, and almost as though he said it in order to bring about the 
 fulfilment of the psalmist's words: "In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." 
 Jesus thus retains the mastery over his situation to the very end, with his last 
 breath declares his work finished, and seems of his own volition to give up his 
 spirit. Does this agree with the conception of his supernatural nature so often 
 expressed in this Gosoel ? , 
 
 Sixteenth day. — §27. The burial of Jesus: 19:31-42. Read John 19:31-34. 
 The piercing of Jesus' side is related to establish the fact of his death against the 
 fantastic theories of the Docetics who thought of his death as illusory. But it has 
 also a symbolic interest. "The water and the blood that issued from the side of 
 Christ typify the double work effected by him and the two sacraments in which 
 it is appropriated by the believer" (Scott). Cf. I John 5:6, 8. 
 
 Seventeenth day. — Read John 19:35-37. The incident is strongly emphasized 
 by the evangelist. He solemnly asserts its truth, doubtless in contrast to the 
 Docetic speculations on the subject rife in his day. He finds an added import in 
 the incidents he has just recorded, in that both were foreshadowed in Scripture. 
 Exod. 11:46, with Num. 0:12, forbids the breaking of any bone of the Passover 
 lamb. It will be remembered that this Gospel twice refers to Jesus as the Lamb of 
 God, 1 : 29, 36, and puts his death upon the cross on the day and almost at the 
 very hour at which the Passover lambs were sacrificed. The piercing of Jesus' 
 side the writer connects with Zech. 12: 10, which he quotes in a form unlike either 
 the Hebrew or the Greek as we know them. The same interest in the fulfilment 
 of Scripture marks the earlier accounts of the crucifixion in Matthew, Mark, and 
 
38 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Luke. In John such interest is mainly exhibited in this chapter, and the Old 
 Testament influence upon this Gospel is decidedly less than is the case with the 
 earlier ones. 
 
 Eighteenth day. — Read John 19:38-42. Notice that Nicodemus, the influ- 
 ential Pharisee who had visited Jesus secretly (3: 1-12), is associated with Joseph 
 of Arimathaea in the pious task of caring for the body of Jesus. Notice that the 
 Gospel is intended for readers to whom Jewish burial customs are unfamiliar. 
 In a garden near the place of crucifixion was a new and unoccupied tomb, and 
 as there was not time before the Passover evening to carry Jesus' body to a perma- 
 nent place of burial, it was hurriedly deposited in this convenient garden tomb, 
 because it was nigh at hand. The Jews highly esteemed such pious care for the 
 dead, and having performed it did not debar men from eating the Passover supper, 
 Num. 9:10. 
 
 Nineteenth day. — §28. The empty tomb: 20:1-10. Read John 20:1-10. 
 What Scripture is referred to in vs. 9? Is the reference to Ps. 16:10 or to Hos. 
 6:2? The Fourth Gospel views Jesus as a supernatural being whom death would 
 only release from material limitations to resume his original higher existence. 
 What is its teaching as to the condition of those who through Jesus have entered 
 upon eternal life here on earth and then experience physical death ? Does the 
 evangelist condition this doctrine of eternal life upon the resurrection of Jesus or is 
 the resurrection simply the manifestation of such continued spiritual existence in 
 Jesus' case ? Luke, too, records Peter's running to the tomb, but says nothing of 
 the other disciple, Luke 24: 12. How does this bear upon the view that the other 
 disciple is an ideal figure, symbolizing the sympathetic, spiritually minded believer 
 of after-days (such, for example, as Paul), who could have drawn from Jesus con- 
 fidences which the actual Twelve dared not claim, 13:25; whose spiritual insight 
 makes him the true heir of the religious heritage of Judaism, 19: 27, and who experi- 
 ences the resurrection faith without waiting to see Jesus risen, 20:8 ? Cf. 20: 29. 
 
 Twentieth day. — § 29. The return of Jesus: 20 : 1 1-29. Read John 20 : 1 1-18. 
 The appearance of Jesus to the women, Matt. 28:9, 10, is repeated in this most 
 touching of the resurrection narratives. Except in this passage, vs. 12, spirits, 
 whether demons or angels, are not spoken of in this Gospel. (The occasional 
 expression "Thou hast a demon " is clearly only a form of rebuke or condemnation.) 
 They seem here to be due to the influence of Matt. 28:2, Mark 16:5, and espe- 
 cially Luke 24:4. The influence of Luke may be seen above in the account of 
 Peter's running to the tomb, vss^3-6; cf. Luke 24: 12. Jesus does not here, as in 
 Matt. 28: 10, promise to meet his disciples in Galilee, but sends them word that he 
 is about to ascend to his Father. His forbidding Mary to touch him, in contrast to 
 his later commanding Thomas to do so, 20: 27, is explained here by the fact that he 
 has not yet ascended. It would seem, therefore, to be the thought of this Gospel 
 that Jesus after appearing to Mary ascended to God and then, after the "little 
 
THE DEPARTURE AND RETURN OF JESUS 39 
 
 while" so much emphasized in 16: 16-19, returned to his disciples to remain with 
 them forever. Cf. Matt. 28 : 20. Or is the "little while" the interval between his 
 ■death and his appearance to his disciples related in 20 : 19 ? Of the earlier evangel- 
 ists only Luke records the ascension. Where does he place it in relation to the 
 resurrection appearances of Jesus? Cf. Luke 24:51. Thus while Matthew 
 describes Jesus as returning to his disciples to be with them always, Luke speaks 
 of him as ascending to his Father, and promising to send the Spirit to them. How 
 does the writer of John harmonize all this? Does he understand that Jesus' 
 spiritual presence with his followers began with his resurrection appearances to 
 the disciples? Cf. 16:16-24 and the notes on those verses. Were the resur- 
 rection appearances then spiritual experiences? Paul co-ordinates his vision 
 of Jesus with the earlier resurrection experiences, I Cor. 15:5-8. 
 
 Twenty-first day. — Read John 20: 19-23. How does this narrative differ from 
 Luke 24:36-43 ? It is the added elements that are significant for the evangelist's 
 purpose. Jesus now imparts to his disciples the Holy Spirit. Why had he not 
 ■done this before ? Is it because in his earthly life of human limitation he could not 
 do what now, restored to his exalted existence, he can do ? Cf. 14: 16; 16: 7, 13, 
 with the commission of the disciples as the leaders of the church, vs. 23 ; cf. 15:27; 
 17:18. This is one of the ecclesiastical touches in the Gospel, reflecting a time 
 when the church had come to be definitely conceived as an established institution, 
 with leaders charged with a priestly function; cf. Matt. 18: 18. 
 
 Twenty-second day. — Read John 20: 24, 25. It is evident that Thomas is here 
 representative of a class of persons, probably those who found the resurrection 
 iaith difficult, and demanded to be convinced of the indubitable reality of the 
 resurrection. 
 
 Twenty-third day. — Read John 20:26-29. Notice that Jesus does not forbid 
 Thomas to touch him as he had forbidden Mary (20:17). Does the evangelist 
 mean that he had in the meantime ascended and was now returned to earth to 
 abide with his disciples ? The reference to Jesus' hands and side is much more 
 than a way of saying that he had indeed survived the experience of death; it 
 meant that in returning to his former exalted life he carried with him from his 
 incarnation the personality in which his followers had come to know him on earth. 
 The blessing pronounced on those who have not seen but have believed, vs. 29, 
 recognizes the inward experience of fellowship with Jesus which is to be experienced 
 on the part of believers of later days as of equal reality and validity with the 
 resurrection experiences of the first disciples. It thus greatly exalts the signifi- 
 cance of the believers' spiritual experience, and at the same time confirms the 
 Gospel's teaching that the resurrection of Jesus is his return or second coming. 
 
 Twenty-fourth day. — §30. Conclusion: 20:30, 31. Read John 20:30, 31. 
 While the Gospel sometimes discredits faith based upon signs, it closes with a 
 rather favorable reference to them in relation to the calling forth of faith, and with 
 
40 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 a statement of the purpose of the book. What is its purpose declared to be? 
 Is it only to produce belief ? What is the content of this belief ? Is this belief 
 precisely what Paul meant by faith ? Does the Christ mean in this last sentence 
 of the Gospel just what it did to the Christian churches before the book was 
 written ? What added elements, if any, has this Gospel wrought into it ? What 
 is the life which believers in Jesus may have? What other elements in the 
 evangelist's purpose have you observed in this study ot his Gospel ? 
 
 Twenty-fifth day. — In what ways has this Gospel changed the early Christian 
 conception of the personality of Jesus ? How has it restated his religious signifi- 
 cance ? What significance does it find in the life of Jesus ? What in his death ? 
 What is its view of his second coming? How does this Gospel relate it to the 
 descent of the Holy Spirit? What becomes of the apocalyptic expectations of 
 the early church ? What is the judgment ? Does the Gospel have any message 
 as to baptism and the Lord's Supper ? Does it assign any authority to the leaders 
 of the church? What is its view of knowledge? What is its idea of sin? of 
 salvation? Is it a product of profound religious experience and reflection, or 
 simply another eyewitness record of fact, to be put side by side with Mark ? 
 
 Twenty-sixth day. — Do you find in John any influence of the synoptists? 
 of the teaching of Paul ? of the Alexandrian symbolic way of thinking ? What 
 narratives in John, if any, seem to you best understood as symbol or parable? 
 Are the ideas of the book mainly Greek or Jewish ?. What are some of its great 
 ideas ? Do some appear in the Prologue and others in the body of the book, or do 
 the same ideas appear and reappear throughout ? It has been remarked that John 
 is a Gospel of a few great ideas, to each of which the evangelist returns again and 
 again. Does your study of the Gospel accord with this? It has been pointed 
 out that the evangelist deals throughout the book with two ideas of Jesus; one 
 philosophical and metaphysical: he is the eternal divine Logos; one religious and 
 ethical: he is God's wholly faithful and obedient son. Which of these do you find 
 more practically helpful ? Do power and love attach equally to each ? Paul 
 conceived Jesus as the Messiah of Jewish apocalyptic expectation. This evangel- 
 ist conceives him as the pre-existent divine Logos of Greek philosophy. Are both 
 of these ways of putting the religious significance of Jesus essential elements of 
 Christian truth, or is either of them such an essential element ? 
 I ' Twenty-seventh day. — §31. The Epilogue: 21:1-25. Read John 21:1-14. 
 This chapter, which now concludes the Gospel of John, is evidently an addition 
 to the Gospel, made probably when it was put forth along with the three earlier 
 Gospels. We may suppose that so bold a recast of earlier Christian ways of 
 putting things would not command the immediate assent of churches already 
 attached to some one Gospel, Matthew about Antioch, Mark in the vicinity of 
 Rome, and Luke probably about the Aegean. It was evidently in consequence 
 of this and in order to win a wider acceptance for the new Gospel that John was 
 
THE DEPARTURE AND RETURN OF JESUS 41 
 
 at length put forth not as a competitor of the others but along with them. This 
 fourfold Gospel won friends everywhere. Vs. 24 shows that the writer of the 
 Epilogue, who was doubtless one of the editors of the fourfold gospel collection, 
 is not identical with the author of the Gospel, and the new conclusion, vs. 25, 
 which now ends the book, is, as we shall see, even more appropriate as the Finis oi the 
 fourfold Gospel. The motive of this epilogue is then to meet objections that may 
 have been made to the new Gospel as originally issued, to bring the Gospel more 
 into harmony with its companion Gospels, to commend it to their adherents, and 
 to enforce its message by a strong indorsement, vs. 24. John's account of the 
 closing scenes of Jesus' life, we have seen, is more like Luke than Matthew. In 
 particular John, like Luke, places Jesus' reappearance at Jerusalem, not, like 
 Matthew, in Galilee. In harmony with Matthew an account of a Galilean 
 reappearance of Jesus is now added. Seven disciples with Peter at their head are 
 fishing on the Sea of Galilee. The beloved disciple is the first to recognize Jesus, 
 who appears on the shore. This made three appearances of Jesus to his disciples, 
 vs. 14, but only by omitting his appearance to Mary, which in fact makes three 
 appearances without this one. With this miraculous catch of fish, cf. a very 
 similar narrative in Luke 5:4-10. The breaking of bread recalls the scene at 
 Emmaus, Luke 24:30, 35. 
 
 Twenty-eighth day. — Read John 21:15-23. This passage includes (1) a 
 recognition of the leadership and the pastoral office of Peter, more in harmony with 
 the synoptic representation and fitted to commend the enlarged Gospel to those 
 who cherished his memory; (2) an allusion to his martyrdom, as foretold by Jesus, 
 like .those of James and John, vss. 18, 19; and (3) a reference to the beloved disciple 
 as perhaps to tarry till Jesus' coming. This seems to conceive the second coming 
 of Jesus in the manner of Paul rather than in that of the body of this Gospel, but 
 if the beloved disciple is an ideal figure, he might well be thought of as never to 
 disappear from the world. 
 
 Twenty-ninth day. — Read John 21 : 24. Such* a one at all events, the Ephesian 
 editors declare, was the writer of this Gospel, and to the truth of his testimony and 
 the validity of his experience they who are probably his pupils and successors 
 bear emphatic witness. He exhibited the spiritual insight and the comprehending 
 sympathy with the mind and message of Jesus of which the beloved disciple is the 
 symbol in the narrative of the Gospel. Had he or such another been at Jesus' 
 side, his words and spirit would have been more quickly and clearly understood 
 than they were by the dull fishermen and publicans who actually heard his words. 
 Consider from this point of view the other references to the beloved disciple in the 
 Gospel, 13:23; 19:26; 20:2 (where a different Greek word for "loved" is used), 
 and in the Epilogue, 21 : 7, 20. 
 
 Thirtieth day. — § 3 2 . Read John 21:25. This final paragraph of the Epilogue 
 is even more appropriate as the conclusion of the fourfold Gospel, Matthew, Mark, 
 
42 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Luke, John. It says in effect to those who had previously been accustomed to 
 read one or another of the. earlier Gospels, do not wonder at finding in this group 
 of Gospels words and acts of Jesus that you never heard of before. He did more 
 things than even these four narratives contain, and if all he did were recorded, you 
 would be overwhelmed with the books that would be needed to contain them. 
 
 The Gospel which, since about 180 a.d. at least, has gone by the name of John 
 has had a profound influence, first upon Christian theology, which hastened to 
 enter upon the Greek lines it opened to it; then upon Christian devotion, which 
 found the evangelist's lofty and beautiful expression of his Christian experience 
 and hope wonderfully helpful and congenial; and finally upon the making of the 
 New Testament collection into which entered at its very beginning the fourfold 
 Gospel of which John formed the crown. Historically and ethically the earlier 
 Gospels surpass it, but no Gospel is in all respects supreme. Mark is nearest to 
 the facts of Jesus' ministry, Matthew richest in his teaching, Luke most serious 
 in historical purpose, John boldest in its theological recast and greatest in its 
 spiritual insight. It is the gospel message interpreted in the light of Greek thought 
 and Christian experience. It is above all the Gospel of profound religious experi- 
 ence, the charter of the privilege of inward companionship with Jesus of all those 
 beloved disciples who through the centuries have not seen, yet have believed. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 
 
 i . What important episode in the story of the arrest of Jesus does the Gospel 
 of John omit ? 
 
 2. How does it differ from other Gospels in its representation of the attitude 
 of the disciples ? 
 
 3. Name some ways in which the impression of Jesus' mastery of the situation 
 during his trial is given. 
 
 4. Mention the successive steps of Jesus' trial as related in this Gospel. 
 
 5. What omissions in the account do you find as compared with the Synoptic 
 Gospels ? 
 
 6. Why did not the Jews kill Jesus at once, without trial before a Roman 
 official ? 
 
 7. Why was the manner of death of Jesus crucifixion ? 
 
 8. Why did not the Jews themselves take Jesus into Pilate's judgment hall ? 
 
 9. Was the attitude of the Jews that of religious fanaticism or wanton cruelty ? 
 Give your evidence. 
 
 io. Does true religion in this day suffer from fanaticism? State instances. 
 
 11. In the work of this month how many allusions did you find to fulfilmei t 
 of Old Testament prophecies. 
 
 12. Is this common in John? 
 
THE DEPARTURE AND RETURN OF JESUS 43 
 
 13. Describe the impression of Jesus which you receive from this account of 
 his arrest, trial, and death. 
 
 14. How does this Gospel differ from the others in the relation of the time 
 of Jesus' death to the time of the Passover supper in Jerusalem. 
 
 15. How did this affect the character of the Last Supper as recorded in 
 chap. 13 ? 
 
 16. What is the teaching of this Gospel concerning the resurrection of those 
 who die in Christ? 
 
 17. What essential difference does the writer of the Gospel feel between the 
 resurrection of Jesus and that of faithful followers of Jesus? 
 
 18. In the thought of faithful Christians the second coming of Christ was an 
 important item. Do you think this evangelist looks for a second coming ? Give 
 a reason for your answer. 
 
 19. What event does chap. 21 record, and what relation has this chapter to 
 the rest of the Gospel ? 
 
 20. What is the greatest thing which the study of this Gospel has contributed 
 to your own religious thought and life ? 
 
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