Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
John 12:20-50, Greeks at the feast, and the ruler of this world cast out
Some Greeks who came up to worship ask to see Jesus. He says his hour has come, that the ruler of this world will be driven out, and that when he is lifted up he will draw everyone to himself; many leaders believe but stay silent.
John 12:20-50, in every translation this tool compares.
When some Greeks ask to meet Jesus, he takes it as a sign that his hour has arrived. He speaks of a seed that must die to bear fruit, a voice from heaven answers his prayer, and he says that being lifted up will draw everyone to him, pointing to the way he will die. John closes the public ministry by noting that many did not believe, and that some leaders who did kept silent out of fear.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/proselytes-and-god-fearers\/","n":"Converts and God-fearers","s":"Gentiles drawn to Israel's God stood at two distances. Converts took on the whole law, circumcision included, and became Jews. God-fearers worshiped Israel's God, gave to the synagogue and kept some customs, but did not convert.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/son-of-man\/","n":"The Son of Man","s":"Plain Aramaic for a human being, and also the figure in Daniel 7 who comes on the clouds and receives a kingdom. It is Jesus' favorite way of speaking about himself in the Gospels.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-satan\/","n":"The satan, the tempter","s":"The accuser, tempter and deceiver of Jewish belief, seen as the power behind human and political evil. In the Gospels he tests Jesus and is the strong man Jesus binds, and John calls him the ruler of this world.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/put-out-of-the-synagogue\/","n":"Put out of the synagogue","s":"A Jewish community could punish a member by shutting him out of its life for a time or for good. Since the synagogue was the center of town life, expulsion cut a person off from neighbors and worship, and often from a living.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/honor-and-shame\/","n":"Honor before a crowd","s":"Public standing was the currency of the ancient Mediterranean. People competed for honor and dreaded being shamed in front of others.","r":""}
The Greeks were probably Gentiles who worshiped Israel's God without converting, though Keener allows they could be Greek-speaking Jews of the East, and in Palestine and Syria the two peoples were notorious for disliking each other (Keener and his notes; the CSB Study Bible). Philip is one of the few disciples with a Greek name, and Bethsaida lay near the Greek cities of the Decapolis (Keener and his notes). Lifted up plays on exaltation and on hoisting a body onto a cross, and echoes the servant of Isaiah 52:13 (Keener and his notes; the ESV Study Bible). Jewish texts recognized Satan's rule over the world, but the cultural backgrounds notes find no surviving Jewish use of this title for him. The word for glory can also mean honor or reputation, the goal of high society (Keener), and Keener reads the silent believers among the leaders as a sign that not all synagogue leaders of John's day were hostile. Whoever rejects Jesus rejects the one who sent him, since an agent or ambassador was received with the honor due his sender and was to speak the sender's message, not his own (Keener and his notes).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on John 12:20, 12:21-22, 12:28-30, 12:31, 12:32-33, 12:34, 12:39-41, 12:42, 12:43 and 12:48-49
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on John 12:20, 12:21, 12:31, 12:32, 12:34 and 12:50
- CSB Study Bible, note on John 12:20
- ESV Study Bible, study note on John 12:32
