In yesterday’s review of D A Carson’s The God Who Is There I mentioned being struck by the echoes of Exodus 32-34 he found in the prologue to John’s Gospel, specifically John 1:14-18. For those interested, I’m listing the 5 he discusses on pages 111-117.
1. Tabernacle & Temple: John 1:14 states, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” ”Made his dwelling” can also be literally translated as “tabernacled.” In the next chapter of John (2:19-21) Jesus refers to Himself as the Temple. The choice of wording in both places is not accidental, as the Tabernacle and Temple were where God’s presence dwelt.
2. Glory: John writes in v14, “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son.” This recalls Moses’ prayer, “Now show me your glory” (and Moses only sees the “backside of his glory,” to use a Caedmon’s Call lyric).
3. Grace and Truth (Love and Faithfulness): John, again in v14, describes Jesus as “full of grace and truth.” When God passes by Moses, who is hiding in a cave, he is described as “abounding in [or full of] love and faithfulness,” (the bracketed portion is Carson’s insertion) which could also be translated “grace and truth.”
4. Grace and Law: In vv16-17, John writes, “Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” This recalls the given of the law to Moses (which first happens in Exodus), which was a gracious gift, but surpassed by the grace that comes through Christ.
5. Seeing God: John writes in v18, “No one has ever seen God,” which recalls Exodus 33:20, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” The implications for Jesus’ divinity are strong. This shouldn’t be a surprise, of course, because John already said the “Word was God” (v1) and “the Word became flesh” (v14). Jesus is God in the flesh. This is why Jesus can later say, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (14:9).
It would be a fun exercise to sit down and come up with all the echoes of the Old Testament in John’s Prologue (1:1-18) as there are many. While his discussion was relatively brief, Carson encouraged me to think more deeply as I read through these familiar passages and look for ways the writer is pulling from the Old Testament.
danny
bmarchio
I think that one of the biggest gains in recent scholarship has been the growing recognition of Old Testament echoes throughout the New Testament. I think that such an exercise would be excellent. We did a couple of exercises like this in the biblical theology class I took last year (One on Galatians 3:7-4:7, the other comparing Genesis 1-3 and Revelation 21-22). It was so helpful and really enriched my understanding of those passages.
Nick Perrin from Wheaton has a book coming out in the next year or so (it’s already been submitted to the publisher) on the Jesus/temple parallel – I believe heavily pulling from the gospel of John. It’ll be worth checking out when it comes out.
I agree, the use of the OT in the NT is one of the better recent developments. Well, the subject isn’t recent, but the quality of scholarship on the issue sure has increased.
I’ve done the Revelation 21-22 example before in classes at church and it’s always been fun. I think I may implement John 1:1-14, too (hint for anyone reading this, you can cheat and get started). I’ve done it with Matthew 1-4, too.