John

18:1-11

The Glory of the Messiah, 18:1-20:31

1. The trial and passion of Jesus, 18:1-19:42

i] The arrest of Jesus

THESE NOTES AWAIT COMPLETION

Synopsis

 
Teaching

 
Issues

i] Context: See 1:1-13/14. In Dodd's structural arrangement of John's gospel, he follows the Book of the Signs with the Book of the Passion. As with the Book of the Signs, he argues that the Book of the Passion consists of discourse + narrative. For the discourse he has Jesus' farewell discourse with his disciples, 13:1-17:26, serving to interpret the following narrative, 18:1-20:31, Jesus' trial, passion and resurrection. The problem with this arrangement is that the upper room discourse tends to look both backward and forward, indicating that John sees it more as a peroratio, recapitulating the main themes of the Signs of the Messiah and leading into the Passion / Glory of the Messiah. For this reason, these notes leave the Farewell Discourse as a major unit in its own right rather than treating it as an interpretive discourse on the passion of Christ.

The narrative stands in its own right as an account of the arrest, trial, crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus. As such it stands in parallel with the synoptic gospels, while at the same time reflecting Johannine theology. The most obvious difference between John and the Synoptic gospels is the date of Jesus crucifixion. The synoptic gospels record the last supper as a Paschal meal, but for John, Jesus is crucified on Nisan 14, the day the Paschal Lamb was killed. Another major difference can be noted at the last supper. In John we have a foot washing minus the eucharistic interpretation of the meal. We also have the strange observation that at the point of Jesus' death, the spear thrust produced blood and water, clearly significant, although we would love to know in what sense!

Throughout the narrative, John provides a very straightforward account. He emphasizes the fact that Jesus defended himself at the various trials rather than remaining silent. He also emphasizes the voluntary nature of Jesus' sufferings. He leaves out some obvious pieces of information: the cross carried by Simon of Cyrene; the mocking of Jesus; the charge of blasphemy; the cosmic events. He also leaves out the quirky events recorded in the synoptic gospels, eg., Matthew's reference to Pilate's wife; the bribery of the guards; .....

It seems likely that the differences between John's narrative and that of the Synoptic gospels is simply down to John's source. As Carson notes, the differences between John's gospel and the synoptic gospels are "often overstated." In the end, the passion and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah stands in its own right as the climx of the gospel.

 

The Glorification of the Faithful Son of Man.

The focus for faith is the faithfulness of Christ

The arrest of Jesus, 18:1-11

The pretrial and Peter's denial, 18:12-27

Jesus before Pilate, 18:28-40

The humiliation of Jesus, 19:1-16a

The crucifixion of Jesus, 19:16b-30

The burial of Jesus, 19:31-42

The empty tomb, 20:1-10

Jesus appears to Mary, 20:11-18

Jesus appears to his disciples, 20:19-31

 

ii] Background:

 

iii] Structure: This narrative, Back to Jerusalem, presents as follows:

 

iv] Interpretation:

 

v] Synoptics:

 
Text - 18:1

The arrest of Jesus, v1-11:

 

John Introduction

Exposition

 

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