WHAT MOSES STARTED – JESUS FINISHED! (PART 2) John’s deeply personal yet supernatural revelation synergizes these dimensions, focusing with greatest intensity on the Person of Jesus Himself, as very much Human and very much God: the God Man or THEANTHROPOS The beloved disciple’s portrait of Jesus, has been offered freely to our whole world for all these many centuries by this most well informed, enlightened, and matured eyewitness of the highest quality. In his attempt to describe Who Jesus is, our fourth Gospel writers’ own exhaustive understanding of the whole breadth of disparate historical source materials is also clearly revealed. These include the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament writings) and Rabbinical sources (Talmud, Mishnah, Midrash, etc.), along with a profound supernaturally guided recognition of how these many prophetic symbols and foreshadows were brought into incredible fulfillment in both Jesus’ own Person and through His Messianic mission! Most startling is John’s unique use of these many reference points, drawn from his very broad range of knowledge concerning these Old Testament personages and historical periods. John takes a much more subtle and synergistic approach than is typical all the other New Testament writings, by submerging these many references directly into the unfolding story line he was relating. Among these would be Matthew’s Gospel, which appears to be the most obviously focused on Jesus, as the ultimate fulfillment of the hopes and desires of the Israelite people. Included also is the book of Hebrews, which compares Jesus as eternal High Priest to the Aaronic priesthood. Additionally, Romans and Galatians showcase Paul’s perspective regarding the progressive revelation of God, from the early Old Testament writings through the ministry of Jesus. Paul also takes the completion of Israel’s by Jesus even further, as his letters focus us into the establishment of the church communities embedded within the ongoing advance of Jesus’ divine Kingdom, elucidating Old Testament references with his New Testament commentary, standing in contradistinction to the Rabbinical commentaries of his day. It is equally fascinating to note that John, guided by the Holy Spirit of Prophetic Revelation (Revelation 19:10-16), was able to blend all of this Hebraic material and sourcing into a story that is so fresh and seemingly ever contemporary, universally applicable to any audience and every time period. John was also writing to the Greek and Latin students of western philosophic traditions, and to the Gnostic mystics of his day, who are easily representative of so many varieties of spiritualizing, monistic groups existing in almost any timeframe. Knowing this, John actively engaged in the translation of ideas and experiences which had been accumulated over previous centuries, from the special revelation to the Hebrew prophets and writers, as embodied in Jesus and His ministry, out to the spiritual, philosophical, and theological world at large. We then come to understand that the framework of the Gospel of John, is an elaborate and sophisticated argument in the western philosophic style, so that the Person of Jesus of Nazareth is clearly shown to be the divine God the Son, fulfilling every Messianic aspect of the Old Testament, by seamlessly embedding Hebraic information into the narrative itself.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Nov 2013 19:28:12 +0000
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