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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
The prophet like Moses
Moses promised that God would raise up a prophet like him. In Jesus' day people asked whether a new preacher was the Prophet, and some expected the manna and the wonders of the exodus to return with him.
The founder said someone like him would come after him, and the members keep checking every new face. In Deuteronomy Moses tells Israel that God will raise up a prophet like him and that they must listen to him. By Jesus' day that promise had become a hope. People asked whether this or that preacher was the Prophet. Some expected him to bring back the bread from heaven that fed Israel in the desert, and some were ready to follow anyone who promised signs like the ones Moses did.
The Prophet in John's Gospel is the prophet like Moses promised in Deuteronomy 18:15-18. Some first-century Jews held the Prophet and the Messiah to be different persons, and Keener's notes have the Prophet and Elijah coming before the Messiah. Samaritans looked for the Taheb, a restorer who was a prophet like Moses, not a son of David. Moses' day was remembered for bread from heaven, so many Jews expected the manna to be restored in the world to come. Some writers, Philo and the rabbis among them, viewed Moses as a king. In this period several prophets promised signs like those of Moses or Joshua and drew thousands. Most of these movements ended with Romans killing the followers. Josephus tells of Theudas, who led a crowd to the Jordan, for "he told them he was a prophet, and that he would, by his own command, divide the river". The governor Fadus sent cavalry, killed many and had Theudas beheaded. Under Pilate a Samaritan gathered people at Mount Gerizim, promising to show them sacred vessels Moses had buried there. Pilate's horsemen and foot soldiers fell on them. Wright counts such leaders among the popular prophets who copied Moses or Joshua and tried to lead a movement of liberation. Hebrews 3:2-6 sets Jesus beside Moses through Numbers 12:7, where God calls Moses faithful in all his house. Many Jewish traditions ranked Moses above everyone else in history, or below Abraham alone.
An analogy: a movement that keeps an empty chair for its founder's true successor. Every time a strong new leader appears, someone asks whether he is the one for the chair.
When people ask a preacher whether he is the Prophet, as in John 1:21, they mean the one Moses promised. A sign that repeats the exodus, such as bread in the wilderness in John 6:14, raises the same hope. In Acts 3:22 Peter applies Moses' promise to Jesus.
Not a seat the movement fills by its own choice. A movement picks its founder's successor. The Prophet was promised by God through Moses, and the crowds who decided for themselves that a leader was the one, as with Theudas, mostly ended under Roman swords.
Whether the Prophet and the Messiah were one figure. The ESV Study Bible says some held them to be different persons, and Keener's notes have the Prophet with Elijah coming before the Messiah. In John 6:14-15 the crowd moves straight from calling Jesus the Prophet to making him king, which Keener explains from traditions of Moses as a king and Wright describes as a jump from prophet to Messiah. The ESV Study Bible adds that Jesus' kingship at his first coming was spiritual.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-4-1-42\/","n":"John 4:1-42, A Samaritan woman at Jacob's well","s":"Tired at noon, Jesus sits on Jacob's well and asks a Samaritan woman for a drink. They talk about living water, her husbands and the right mountain for worship, and her town comes out to meet him.","r":"John 4:1-42"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-6-1-21\/","n":"John 6:1-21, Bread in the wilderness and a walk on the sea","s":"Near Passover Jesus feeds five thousand men from five barley loaves and two fish. The crowd hails him as the Prophet and wants to make him king, and that night he comes to his disciples walking on the sea.","r":"John 6:1-21"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-6-22-71\/","n":"John 6:22-71, The bread from heaven","s":"In the synagogue at Capernaum the crowd asks for a sign like the manna. Jesus answers that he is the bread of life come down from heaven, and his hard words about eating his flesh drive many disciples away.","r":"John 6:22-71"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-7-37-52\/","n":"John 7:37-52, Rivers of living water on the last day","s":"On the great last day of the feast Jesus cries out that the thirsty should come to him and drink. The crowd divides over whether he is the Prophet or the Messiah, and the Pharisees scorn a prophet from Galilee.","r":"John 7:37-52"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-3-1-26\/","n":"Acts 3:1-26, The lame man at the Beautiful Gate","s":"At the afternoon hour of prayer Peter heals a man lame from birth who begged at the temple gate, then tells the gathering crowd that Jesus is the prophet Moses promised.","r":"Acts 3:1-26"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/hebrews-3-1-4-13\/","n":"Hebrews 3:1-4:13, Moses the servant, and the rest still open","s":"Moses was faithful in God's house as a servant; Jesus is faithful over it as the Son. Psalm 95's warning not to harden hearts as in the wilderness still speaks today, because the rest God promised was never reached under Joshua and remains open for God's people.","r":"Hebrews 3:1-4:13"}
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on John 1:21, 4:25, 6:14, 6:15, 6:30 and 7:40
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on John 1:19-28 (comment on 1:20-21), 4:25-26, 6:14, 6:15 and 6:30-31
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on John 6:15, 6:31 and 7:40-41
- CSB Study Bible, note on John 6:31
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 18.4.1 and 20.5.1, trans. William Whiston
- N. T. Wright, John for Everyone, Part One, comment on John 6:16-25
- N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, ch. 5, The Praxis of a Prophet
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Hebrews 3:2 and 3:3-4
