SON OF GOD – often – including Mk 1:1; Lk 1:35; Jn 1:49; Ac 9:20, Rom 1:4; 2 Cor 1:19; Gal 2:20
SON OF THE MOST HIGH -Mk 5:7
SON OF THE HIGHEST – Lk 1:32
SON OF THE LIVING GOD – Mt16:16; Jn 6:69
SON OF THE BLESSED – Mk14:61
SON OF THE FATHER – 2 Jn1:3
SON OF MAN – often
SON OF MARY – Mk 6:3
CARPENTER’S SON – Mt 13:55
SON OF JOSEPH – Lk 3:23; Jn 1:45; 6:42
SON OF DAVID – Mt 1:1; 15:22; 20:30; 21:15
SON OF ABRAHAM – Mt 1:1
‘Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.’ 2 Pet 1:12-21
There are two main themes in these four verses; remembrance and Peter’s forthcoming death. The fact that he will die soon makes it important that the believers keep his teaching in mind. Each of the themes is mentioned three times.
REMEMBRANCE (12, 13, 15)
PETER’S DEATH (13, 14, 15)
These verses are an example of a genre known as ‘testament.’ This is a written farewell speech in which the author predicts his death, emphasizes his legacy as a teacher and warns that some will come after his death and attack his memory and teachings. For other New Testament examples see: Jn 15;1-17:26; Acts 20:17-38; Phil 1:12-30.
[12] ‘these things’ i.e. Peter’s teaching in the previous section.
‘I intend to keep on reminding you of these things’ Since Peter will soon be dead, he must mean that his letter will be an ongoing reminder of him and his teaching. He encourages his readers by saying that they are already familiar with the truth and need to be established in it. The other uses of words in the same group (from sterixo, ‘to make fast’) at 2:14; 3:16,17 suggest that some of these believers were vulnerable and unsteady.
[13-14] In 2 Peter ‘tabernacle’ or ‘tent’ is a metaphor for ‘body’ (1:13-14), the word only occurs elsewhere in the NT in Acts 7:43, 46. The use here conveys the thought that our lives on earth are transitory.
This reminds me of the refrain of hymn No. 48 in The Believer’s Hymnbook:
Here in the body pent,
Absent from Him I roam,
Yet nightly pitch my moving tent
A day’s march nearer home.
Peter, too, was aware that he would soon die, in fact he says that the Lord Jesus Christ had made it clear to him. Two other references relating to predictions about Peter’s death are Jn 13:36-38 and Jn 21:18-19.
[15] Peter speaks of his death as an ‘exodus’. Within the space of just a few verses we learn that for the believer death is not just an éxodos (departure 1:15) from this life but also an eísodos (entrance 1:11) into the eternal kingdom.
In this section Peter uses the Transfiguration as proof of the reliability of Christ’s future power and coming and emphasizes that he, with other apostles, was present:
They saw Christ’s ‘majesty.’ Verses 17-18 expand on this vision of Christ’s megaleiótēs (‘greatness’)
Peter maintains that the Transfiguration was not a cleverly devised fable but a genuine historical event that foreshadowed Christ’s parousia. The teaching about Christ’s power (dúnamis) and coming (parousía) is therefore said to be reliable. ‘Power’ is linked with Christ’s resurrection in Rom 1:4. In the New Testament ‘parousia’ never refers to Christ’s first coming (Incarnation) but always to his Second Coming, e.g. Mt 24:3. 37, 39; 1 Thess 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23; 2 Thess 2:1, 8; Jas 5:7,8; 1 Jn 2:28.
[17] ‘excellent (majestic) glory’ i.e . God.
[18] ‘voice which came from heaven’ i.e. the voice of God.
The above are examples of a type of synecdoche known as abstractum pro concreto, when an abstract concept is used for something concrete.
Not only does the trustworthy testimony of apostles who have seen Christ’s majesty and heard God’s voice declare that Jesus is the Son of God confirm the reliability of the teaching about the parousia but the teaching is also founded upon the reliability of scripture.
[19] ‘We have also a more sure word of prophecy’ What Peter had seen and heard on the mountain is confirmed by the Scriptures. The identity of the Prophetic Word is not given. The term may refer to the Old Testament scriptures as a whole, because they speak of Christ. Verse 20, however, would imply that a particular prophecy is in mind. Since it is not specified it must have been well-known to the original readers of the letter. A couple of possibilities are Num 24:17 and Dan 7:13-14.
‘I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.’ Num 24:17
‘I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.’ Dan 7:13-14
The latter passage is used eschatologically in Mt 26:64; Mk 13:26; 14:62; Rev 1:7, so it may be the most likely candidate.
The Christians in Asia Minor to whom Peter is writing are advised to pay attention to the message of prophecy as it is like a lamp shining in a dark world ‘until day dawns’ and the morning star arises in their hearts. Since there is no article preceding ‘day’ the reference is not to a specific day (e.g. The Day of the Lord) but just a contrast between darkness and dawn. When day dawns darkness will vanish!
In Lk 1:78 Jesus is called ‘the dawn from on high’ and in Rev 22:16 ‘the bright morning star.’
‘in your hearts’ Peter talks about the effect the parousia will have on believers. It will banish all doubt and uncertainty and for them the light from the lamp of the prophetic word will give way to the glorious illumination of eternal day. A new future age will begin.
[20-21] These verses emphasize that scripture is divinely inspired.
‘no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation’ Who is the individual doing the interpreting? The reader or the prophet? Both are possible.
1. The reader: no individual is permitted to interpret scripture according to their own ideas but in accordance with what is intended by the Holy Spirit.
2. The prophet: what any genuine prophet prophesies does not come from himself but God.
The reason is given in v. 21. Prophecy came via human beings, but they were moved by the Holy Spirit. What the prophets spoke and wrote was prompted by God.
Peter stresses the reliability of the teaching of the apostolic witnesses and of the Old Testament scriptures about the Lord’s parousia and coming judgement because he is about to deal with the topic of false teachers who scornfully reject these promises.
‘the fact that the light has never been quenched is proved by the witness of the prophets, above all by the witness of John the Baptist, the last of the prophets and the herald of Christ. But his function as a witness has to be clearly distinguished from that to which witness is given – the light, which became flesh in Jesus Christ.’
The Fourth Gospel identifies the purpose of John the Baptist’s appearance and ministry as that of ‘witness’. In the Prologue the two mentions of John as witness are inserted at strategic points, reinforcing what has been said. Verse seven (‘to bear witness of the light’) harks back to what is said in verse five about the coming of the light and verse fifteen to what is said in verse fourteen about what Ridderbos (1997, p.42) calls ‘Jesus’ antecedent transcendent glory.’
Trites (2004, p.78ff.) argues convincingly that the Fourth Gospel ‘presents a sustained use of juridical metaphor’. She maintains that ‘in the Fourth Gospel God Incarnate has a lawsuit with the world’ (p.79). She indicates that in the first twelve chapters, which deal mainly with the conflict between Jesus and “the Jews”, John is stating a case, advancing his arguments, challenging his opponents and presenting his witnesses. She understands the idea of witness in John’s gospel in terms of Old Testament legal language and points out that other juridical words such as judge, judgement, cause, accuse and convince are also used in a context of debate or hostility.
Her assessment of John the Baptist as witness (p.91) is insightful:
‘John is the first and one of the most important witnesses to Jesus and his testimony is a threefold one, as the Prologue makes clear: (1) He is not the Light. (2) He is sent to bear witness to the Light. (3) The purpose of his witness-bearing is that all may believe in Christ (1:6-8). This pattern is followed in subsequent sections dealing with the Baptist. John is mentioned at the beginning of the Fourth Gospel , for he is the first to point his fellow men to Jesus, and in that sense all believers have been brought to Christ through him (1:7b). While there had been other men sent from God, John’s task was unique. He bore witness to the incarnate Word, to his superiority to himself, and to his prior existence.’
Others said to be witnesses in the Fourth Gospel include: Jesus Himself (3:11; 5:31; 8:13-14; 18:37), the Samaritan woman (4:39), God the Father (5:32,34,37; 8:18; I John 5:9), Scripture (John 5:39), the works of Christ (5:36), the crowd at the raising of Lazarus (John 12:17), the Spirit (15:26-27; I John 5:10,11), the disciples (John 15:27; 19:35; I John 1:2; 4:14), and the author himself (John 21:24).
Although John the Baptist was sent from God as a witness to the Light he is portrayed as insignificant in comparison with the Light itself. Jesus called him a ‘lamp’ (5:35) but he was certainly not the Light. The writer of the Gospel asserts John’s subordination to Jesus (1:20, 27, 29, 33, 36) and strongly denies that John the Baptist is the Messiah. According to Luke 3:15 some people thought that John the Baptist might be the Messiah’. In the Prologue John gives no information on John the Baptist but concentrates only on his function as a witness to the Light.
‘It is employed with two different nuances in this verse. In the first two instances the reference is to the created world, the world that constitutes humanity’s environment and that includes humanity itself. In the third instance – the world did not know him- the reference is to the world of humanity that by its response reveals its devastating plight of having become alienated from and hostile to the Word/Light that sustains it. It is this second negative connotation of ‘world’ that will become dominant in the Fourth Gospel.’
(1) THEMES IN THE PROLOGUE TO THE FOURTH GOSPEL.
(2) THEMES IN THE PROLOGUE TO THE FOURTH GOSPEL.
(4) THEMES IN THE PROLOGUE TO THE FOURTH GOSPEL.
Ngewa (2003, p.10) says of the background to Logos:
‘If Semitic, then the main idea is that God communicated himself through Jesus Christ. If the background is Greek, the central idea is that Jesus holds things together. Neither of these ideas is excluded in what John says about Jesus in this passage. ‘
In the Prologue the author presents three views of the Logos:
1) In verse one he presents the Logos as being with God and within this expresses three important ideas.
– The eternal existence of the Logos (‘In the beginning was the word’).
– The eternal relationship of the Logos (‘with God’).
– The eternal status of the Logos (‘was God’).
The Logos exists before creation, enjoys a special, intimate relationship with God and in his very nature is God. The writer is thus claiming that Jesus who lived on earth was in fact the eternal Word, God himself. The idea is repeated in verse two, emphasizing the point.
2) In verse three he talks about the Logos and Creation and emphasises the divinity of the Word by stating that he was God’s agent in creation . This is put both positively (‘Through him all things were made’) and negatively (‘without him nothing was made that has been made.’).
3) In verses ten to fourteen he speaks of the Logos in the world and deals with the rejection of the Logos (1:10-11), the new birth of those who accept him (1:12-13) and with the Incarnation (1:14).
The word ‘logos’ (word) is employed thirty-nine times in John’s Gospel but it is only in the Prologue, where it occurs four times, that ‘logos’ is used as a Christological title. The term ‘Logos’ is never again applied to Jesus in John’s Gospel. Jesus later identifies himself as ‘Light’ (Jn 8:12; 9:5), as ‘Son’ (Jn 5:19-24), and as ‘Life’ (Jn 11:25) etc. but never says ‘I am the Word.”
This is because from chapter 1:14 on, he is no longer called ‘the logos’ but ‘Jesus’ Jesus and ‘the logos’ are one and the same; ‘the logos’ is the pre-existent Christ.
Christ’s pre-existence is not only mentioned in the Prologue but also on several occasions throughout the Gospel of John there are references to his life before Creation. He speaks of himself as having ‘come down from heaven’ (3:13; 3:31; 6:33; 6:38; 6:62). He says: ‘before Abraham was born, I am!’ in 8:58 and, in the prayer of chapter seventeen, ‘And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began’ and ‘you loved me before the creation of the world.’ (17:5, 24).
Kysar (1993, p.31) maintains that the affirmation that Jesus existed from the beginning is ‘one of the highest claims that the Christian has made for Christ’. He observes:
‘The pre-existence of the Logos affirms not only that he existed before creation itself, but that he existed ‘before all things began’. His existence goes back into that mysterious time before time – into the realm of temporality that eludes human conceptuality. While we cannot fathom what it would mean to exist before all else, we can try to fathom what the author is trying to affirm by saying this. Christ is so important that he could not simply have come into being like any other person or object. Christ is made to transcend beings and things by the assertion of his pretemporal existence….Christ is no created being. He is before creation.’
(1) THEMES IN THE PROLOGUE TO THE FOURTH GOSPEL.
(3) THEMES IN THE PROLOGUE TO THE FOURTH GOSPEL.
(4) THEMES IN THE PROLOGUE TO THE FOURTH GOSPEL.
Written Exposition 