He who comes from above is above all others.
He who is from the Earth belongs to the Earth and uses earthly speech. He who comes from Heaven bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his witness.
To accept his witness is to attest that God speaks true--For he whom God sent utters the words of God, so measureless is God's gift of the Spirit.
The Father loves the son and has entrusted him with all authority. He who puts his faith in the son has hold of eternal life; but he who disobeys the son shall not see that life; God's wrath rests upon him.
3 comments:
Merely a nasty bit of "My big brother is bigger than yours!"? Or "We're so right and you're so wrong!"? And what's this bit about "disobeying the son"?
"God's wrath" seems clear enough... but does the loving Father who, according to Jesus, gives both "the Just" and "the Unjust" what they need, really let his wrath rest on any wretch who disobeys... who? Some hearsay about that same Jesus? If not that, what?
Joseph Tyson (The New Testament and Early Christianity) thinks that this emphasis on the divine sonship of Christ is born out of the Johannine author's influences in Hermetic, Platonic, and Stoic sources. The emphasis in this Gospel is far less on the historical/human nature of Jesus of Nazareth and far more on the divine and transcendent nature of the Christ. In this way, it is leaning a bit toward Docetism. The christology is really ahistorical especially when contrasted to the synoptic texts.
Yeah, this is a rather obvious example of that sort of editorial aside...
For the sake of fairness, not missing anything potentially worthwhile in it, I was hoping we could tease out some better interpretation. But probably we should move on.
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