BEMA Episode Link: 87: John — Grafted
Episode Length: 40:35
Published Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2018 01:00:00 -0700
Session 3
About this episode:

Marty Solomon and Brent Billings spend time in the gospel of John, investigating the different tools he uses in speaking to his particular audience.

Discussion Video for BEMA 87

Map of Asia and Asia Minor

Transcript for BEMA 87

Notes

*Note: The following notes are handwritten by me, Adam, and I reserve the right to be wrong.

  • Review
    • Matthew: Mumzer; a Jew writing to Jews
    • Mark: Roman Gospel; a Jew writing to Romans
    • Luke: Ordered Gospel; a Jewish Convert writing to Jews
  • Order
    • Popular opinion argues that
      • Matthew was written first
      • Mark was written secondly
      • Both shared Q material.
      • Popular conservative evangelical opinion is that Luke was next and his purpose was to write a more orderly and accurate account of the gospel. This was challenged in the last gospel.
      • John comes along later and tells a gospel to fill in the gospel to fill in the gaps found in the synoptic gospels.
    • Marty’s opinion is that the order was Mark, Matthew, John, and then Luke. He also disagrees with the intent behind John’s gospel thinking he had something else in mind when he writes it.
  • Who?
    • John was a Jew.

    • Brent reads 1 John 1:1-4

      1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.

    • John is the pastor to Asia.
    • Jesus had Peter, James, and John as the three leaders of his church.
    • Peter led the entire church.
    • James led the church in Jerusalem.
    • Paul would take the gospel to Asia and Asia Minor. Asia is the coastline where all of the major cities lie. Everything else in Turkey would be Asia Minor.
    • 20% of the population of Asia and Asia Minor was Jewish.
    • There were two different kinds of Judaism though. Those in Jerusalem held tightly to that identity of strict Judaism. The Jews of the Diaspora were more Hellenistic and likely had a more assimilated world view.
    • John goes to Asia to Pastor the Greeks and the Hellenistic Jews.
    • This greek world is steeped in a unique world of paganism.
  • Grafted and Blended
    • During Bema 1.0, Marty used the word “blended” implying a blended family of Jews and Greeks.
    • He has since begun using the term “grafted” implying Greeks have been grafted into an existing family tree.
    • Brent reads John 1:1-5
      1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
    • John has two different kinds of audiences here: Jews and Gentiles.
    • The greek word for “word” was logos. In the non-biblical greek world, philosophers often discussed the world and are getting huge mileage out of the word “logos”. The greek idea was that there was something out in the universe that transcended the world and held everything together and this logos was it. Greeks would agree with verse 1. When they read “HE was with God in the beginning” that would be a completely brand new idea. Logos was NOT a person and would have caught them off guard.
    • The Jews speak of the word as “Torah.” In the beginning was Torah. Jews speak that Torah in its unwritten form has always existed. Jews would have heard/read verse 1 and completely agreed. However, when they read “HE was with God in the beginning” that would have been a completely brand new idea. Torah was NOT a person.
    • In the exact same paragraph, he’s able to speak to two groups simultaneously and make the exact same point from two entirely different perspectives.
    • John has a grafted audience and he has to figure out how to communicate the gospel in a completely unique way.
    • We as westerners like John like we do Mark and for a lot of the same reasons. John additionally uses a lot of images.
    • I Am Statements
      • 6: I am the bread of life
      • 8: I am the light of the world
      • 10: I am the gate for the sheep
      • 10: I am the good shepherd
      • 11: I am the resurrection and the life
      • 14: I am the way the truth and the life
      • 15: I am the true vine
    • These I Am statements were statements that were already made by pagan gods.
      • 6: I am the bread of life (Demeter/Sirius said this)
      • 8: I am the light of the world (Apollo is the best candidate for this)
      • 10: I am the door/gate for the sheep (Janus; this is tricky, Janus was the god of transitions. January, transition to the new year).
      • 10: I am the good shepherd (Pan is the half goat/man and overseer of the flocks)
      • 11: I am the resurrection and the life (Ascelapius the son of Apollo and given to the centaurs to learn how to heal and he then resurrected a ruler’s son. Zeus was furious and killed him. Ascellapius was then raised back to life.).
      • 14: I am the way, the truth and the life (Athena, the goddess of truth and of the way).
      • 15: I am the true vine (Dionesius, the god of wine).
    • Everything that you’re looking for in Demeter, Apollo, Janus, Pan, Ascelapius, Athena, Dionesus, etc. I can give you those things.
    • All of these statements have history in the scriptures as well.
      • 6: I am the bread of life (Torah was the bread of life).
      • 8: I am the light of the world (Your word is a lamp unto my feet; Torah is the light of the world).
      • 10: I am the door/gate for the sheep (Torah is the doorway to eternal life so the sages would say).
      • 10: I am the good shepherd (God is our good shepherd. A good shepherd leads with his voice. Torah is the voice of God. Torah leads us. Torah is the good shepherd.)
      • 11: I am the resurrection and the life (Torah is the resurrection and eternal life.)
      • 14: I am the way, the truth and the life (This is the way you see God. I am the way.)
        • Jesus may or may not be the only way to God but that is not what Jesus is saying, according to Marty.
      • 15: I am the true vine (Marty has not connected this to Torah but assumes there is a connection that he hasn’t found yet.)
    • There are many other sub-narratives in John.
      • He definitely plays off of the book of Genesis. Signs for instance. The first sign, the second sign, then stops enumerating, but there are seven signs total with the resurrection being the final sign. His resurrection happens in a garden. When he’s raised, a single woman, Mary, comes back to the garden and speaks to a gardener alluding to a new creation with Eve in Eden with God. We have a new creation on our hands. Garden imagery is blatant.
      • There is a Jacob subtext where the narrative of Jesus follows the lifetime of Jacob as though Jesus is the new Jacob.
  • Text-to-Context: The gospels authors are taking the text and lessons of their Rabbi and putting it into context.

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