Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- Contents
- List of Tables
- AUTHOR'S NOTE
- INTRODUCTION
- PART I THE NARRATIVE
- A THE PASSION NARRATIVE
- B THE MINISTRY
- 1 Prelude to the Passion
- 2 Stories of Healing
- 3 The Feeding of the Multitude, and contiguous matter
- 4 The Miracle of the Wine and the Raising of Lazarus
- 5 Transitional passages and topographical notices
- C JOHN THE BAPTIST AND THE FIRST DISCIPLES
- PART II THE SAYINGS
- SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
- Index Locorum
- Index Nominum
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- Contents
- List of Tables
- AUTHOR'S NOTE
- INTRODUCTION
- PART I THE NARRATIVE
- A THE PASSION NARRATIVE
- B THE MINISTRY
- 1 Prelude to the Passion
- 2 Stories of Healing
- 3 The Feeding of the Multitude, and contiguous matter
- 4 The Miracle of the Wine and the Raising of Lazarus
- 5 Transitional passages and topographical notices
- C JOHN THE BAPTIST AND THE FIRST DISCIPLES
- PART II THE SAYINGS
- SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
- Index Locorum
- Index Nominum
Summary
The work of Jesus as healer, which bulks so large in the Synoptic narrative, and has a place also in the traditional summary of his Ministry in the kerygma of Acts x. 38, is but feebly represented in the Fourth Gospel. Three miracles of healing, at Cana, at Bethesda and at Siloam, are evidently selected for the use that can be made of them in the exposition of Johannine theology. To these may be added the story of the raising of Lazarus, but this, though it has obvious affinities with the healing miracles in general, demands special treatment. All are presented as σημεῖα, that is, actions significant or symbolical of profound doctrinal truths; but this does not settle the question whether the evangelist composed them with this purpose in view, or drew them from the Synoptic Gospels or from some other traditional source. It is this question that we have now to consider.
The Healing at Bethesda (John v. 1–9)
The general pattern or form of the Bethesda story, like that of several pericopae in the Synoptic Gospels (see Table 4), is determined by a feature common to them all: that Jesus takes action on his own initiative, without any appeal either from the patient or from his friends.
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- Historical Tradition in the Fourth Gospel , pp. 174 - 195Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1963