The coming of Jesus into the world simply reveals who belongs — and who does not belong — to his Father, the God of Israel. If the Gospel of John reveals who the Son is and who the Father is, it also tells its readers who they are and where they stand with the Father and the Son.
J. Ramsey Michaels, The Gospel of John, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2010), p. 42
September 17, 2012 at 11:19 am
This is indirectly related, but as I traveled these last two days I was pondering how helpful it might be to describe John’s Christology as “apocalyptic” not in the eschatological sense, per se, but aligning with the nature of apocalyptic discourse itself–i.e., this is what is true in the heavenly realm beyond what you can see and know with nature perception. The Book of Revelation is apocalyptic because it says, “Christian, see how it seems you are a conquered sect under the mighty hand of Rome? In reality, you are part of God’s victorious movement in Christ. Believe!” Could the Fourth Gospel be doing the same thing with the person of Christ in a way that goes beyond the Synoptics?
September 17, 2012 at 2:17 pm
That’s an interesting insight and I think it that as a Gospel written a few decades after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, it could very well be within apocalyptic discourse as you’ve defined it. I tend to think that the Gospel message itself is focused more toward challenging its audience to respond with belief in Christ as God’s Son. This does in some way refer to the truth of the heavenly realm beyond what is perceptible in the temporal through the natural sense.