John 8: The Tyranny of Language and the Coming of the Good King, part 2
John 8 and the Tyranny of Language
John 8:52-56 Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.
Continuing from the last post, the Tyranny of Language, I left you some key verses from John. I asked what it was that Jesus was preaching that was so different from the linguistic dissimulation that has covered the Bible in confusion and obscurity, that we like to call clarity, for so many centuries. What have we missed?
Everything is a parable
Just about every word that Jesus spoke was a parable. However, none of our exegetes pick up on this and consistently apply it (Mat 13:13, 34, Mark 4:2,11-12,34). The Parable of the Sower is the parable, but parabolic speech is denied for such passages as John 8 and John 9. This despite the fact that in both Jesus tells his audience that they are effectively listening to parables by their inability and refusal to understand.
39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.40 And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.
Veiled speech (see John 8:43). As for what this veil is hiding before them, Jesus quotes Psa 78: “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.”
Well, what’s so parabolic about Jesus telling the Pharisees “you do the deeds of your father” and “you are of your father the Devil?” Well, I’ll tell you.
According to our interpreters and theologians, what is most important about these passages is always taken from v.58: “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” Jesus was saying that he is preexistent? Indeed he is, but that is not the first meaning that Jesus is wanting to push home here.
Jesus is not putting the fact that the Pharisees were not accepting him as God as the main problem with their faith. This is a conclusion to be made following on Jesus’ fulfillment of very old biblical texts of the Messiah to come, some in the yet future in the resurrection. The Messiah must engage and confront faith before one finally realizes that he is the Messiah, and then that he is God, and there is no way to do that but to know the words of the prophets, put them as the most important motivations of your religion, fairly examine them in light of Jesus, and make the decision a decision. All of the oracles have to have been fulfilled that speak of messiah’s office as a healer, the minister of the Good News, discloser of hidden truths, and his death and resurrection. Its the fulfillment of all the texts that are in the first place here. That is the entire corpus of the messianic oracles. Jesus = the words of the prophets, the Word the father of the PW of God before he is God to faith.
The cart before the horse
It is a critical error of the Church to put the conclusion of God before the certainty that, to faith, Jesus must first be the Messiah. If he fails to have the credentials of Messiah he is neither. If he is God he is the Messiah, but he is not God or Messiah to faith unless God enters the world and fulfills the messianic mandates. The regard for the office of Messiah stands between the potential believer in God and God himself, but that regard can come only from that unique revelation that stands between the Messiah and the believer.
When reading this, lets just experiment and follow what I assume to be Jesus’ parabolic logic pertaining to him as the Word of God. If Jesus was equating himself biblically with the Prophets and faith of the Prophets, the religious motivation by the words of the Prophets alone, Jesus wants us to transpose his personal symbol with its meaning of the whole testimony of the prophets concerning him, the Prophetic Word (PW):
John 8:52-56 Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that [the fulfillment of the PW] has a devil. The [human faith father of the PW] is dead, and [his faith children in the PW]; and [you, the PW] sayest, If a man keep [my, the PW’s] saying, [he, those who believe the PW] shall never taste of death. Art [you, the fulfillment of the PW] greater than [the human faith father of the PW], which is dead? and [his faith children in the PW]: whom makest [you, the fulfillment of the PW]? [the fulfillment of the PW] answered, If I, [the fulfillnent fo the PW]. honour [myself, the fulfillment PW], [my, the fulfillment of the PW] honour is nothing: it [my, the PW’s] Father [of the PW] that honoureth [me, the PW]; of whom [you, those who do not believe the PW] say , that [the Father of the PW] is your God: Yet [you, those who do not believe the PW] have not known him; but [I, the PW] know him: and if [I, the PW] should say, [I, the PW] know him not, [I, the PW] shall be a liar like unto [you, those who do not believe the PW]: but [I, the PW] know him, and keep his saying. Your [faith human father of the PW] rejoiced to see [my day of the fulfillment of the PW]: and [the faith father of the PW] saw it, and was glad.
“Before [the faith father of the PW] was, [the PW was established as the only basis for the religion of man].
This renders the meaning of this and hundreds of other passages that are taken for granted as to claims of theological propositions and turn them to the scriptural bases of all theological propositions, the oracles themselves.
There are 6 parties: the Father, Jesus, the mainstream religionists the Jews, Abraham and the Prophets. These are symbolically rendered, respectively, the Father of the Word of God [the PW], the fulfillment of the Word of God [the PW], those religiously unmotivated by it as an ultimate concern, the human faith father of the Word of God [the PW], and those motivated by the Word of God [the PW]. When we look at it this way, the entire confrontation is about Jesus confronting not a claim around a religious conclusion, but around confronting a whole prophetic premise. That premise states that it is preferable that the entire driving interest in any religious conclusion is to put’s as its main justification that which is not required to be scripturally and miraculously demonstrated.
Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s Word, and therefore the Son of God, and therefore he is that Word. Abraham, who lived long before the Law was founded, was the original prototype of the future prophetic faith that Jesus preached, of a new religion, established and driven exclusively upon the anticipation of that future Savior. This made Abraham the father of many nations of people who would come to faith by that Word. In like manner, Abraham’s children after him included the prophets. But the world’s religious intelligentsia and constituency effectively reject this interpretation. In fact, their aim is not only to deny these scriptures through their pretended support but to kill them.
This is easily paraphrased:
John 8:52-56 “Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself?”
Paraphrase: “Those of the religious principle and an interpretation of the scriptures that go against the authority of the messianic prophecies inquired of those same prophetic scriptures, ‘now we know that you, the oracular religious principle, are an evil to religion. The prophecies state that the father of that faith in the oracles is dead, and those that preached exclusively a faith founded on them are dead, and did not see them fulfilled. But you, those same prophecies, propose that they are being fulfilled now. Is the mere claim of fulfillment only by some miracles greater than the scriptures that promised them? To what level of authority in religion do you assume? You cant be of such importance unless you fulfill them in a way that supports our faith paradigm, which demands that we see only the prophecies of a messiah triumphant messiah who takes the Law as the way to righteousness.”
But the fulfillment is not just a claim now, its a reality. Messiah must fulfill the prophecies of his office of Redeemer, priest, and preacher of good news before he comes as a conqueror.
“Jesus answered, If I, honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.”
Paraphrase: “The prophetic scriptures said, if the PW makes a claim that is not demonstrated in its entirety, the claim is nothing. If the PW comes to fulfill itself by the force its own power, as you take the Law, the claim of the fulfillment of King Messiah is nothing, just as your claim of righteousness by the Law. It is the Author of these scriptures that honors them in his power to bring them to fruition. This is the same Author that you say is your vital religious center. You don’t know the Author, but the real Oracles that have come to pass, and are coming to pass now, speak of Him authoritatively, and if these same oracles should be interpreted to say that he is not their Author, they would be false prophecies, like you are false prophets. The Oracles know that Author, and they are fulfilled in their entirety and alone prepared for for the faith. The one whom you claim to be your personal faith principle, the biblical type of Abraham, is not your father as the Author is my father, because that faith principle saw in that same oracular Word of God that which is being fulfilled now, and expressed great joy in it.”
V. 58: “Before [the human faith father of the PW] was, [the PW was established as the only religion of man].
This whole exchange, and all of them, are Jesus’ teaching of a certain kind of spiritual and religious law (Jer 31:31) or his confronting its detractors. He is not making claims of himself by himself, but all claims are made through the prophets (Luke 24:44, John 5:39, John 14:10), as all the prophets were told what to speak not by their own authority (2Pe 1:21), but by the Father Author of the scriptures (2Pe 1:21). Moreover, he expects faith not to take to itself righteousness by force (John 16:30-32, Mat 11:12-19,), but only thorough the messianic predictions fulfilled in Jesus.
The Word of the Prophets is Jesus. So is our faith.
There is nothing about either Jesus the person or the Word of God of the prophets that cannot be taken as interchangeable, and the invitation by Jesus to do so is by his use of parabolic speech. This is why John’s logos theology was divinely codified and works flawlessly. The PW can be abused, humiliated (John 19:2), spat upon, tortured (John 19:1), killed (apparent failure of fulfillment, John 19:30), and it can rise again (vindication of God’s righteousness) when all of it is fulfilled. It can be incarnated (fulfilled), it can speak, it can walk (is carried through the world by its relational power), it can heal, and, by being realized hundreds of years after declaring the future, miraculous. Jesus is its Person, its reason for existing, its originator, its Author, its maintainer, its interpreter, its ultimate steward, its fulfiller. If we are his, what we are, or should be, are the people of the Prophetic Word. Not our own word, not the word of other people, or the culture, or a denomination, or our feelings, or any doctrinal conclusion that we use as an idol.
Everything is a parable, even “you do the works of your father.” Fail to see through that one and repent and nothing is more fatal.
Christ and the Norming of Transcendence: Passing by Nehushtan
Matthew 5 and the Adultery of the Heart: Passing by Nehushtan
