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 20:19-31, Locked doors, and my Lord and my God
On the evening of the first day Jesus stands among the disciples behind locked doors, shows his hands and side, sends them as the Father sent him and breathes the Spirit on them. A week later Thomas sees the wounds and confesses him as Lord and God.
John 20:19-31, in every translation this tool compares.
On Easter evening Jesus appears to his frightened disciples behind locked doors, greets them with peace and shows his wounds. He sends them out as the Father sent him and breathes the Spirit on them. Thomas, absent that night, refuses to believe without proof; a week later he sees Jesus and calls him Lord and God, and John says he has written so readers will believe and have life.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/resurrection-of-the-dead\/","n":"The resurrection of the dead","s":"Most Jews, with the Pharisees, expected God to raise the dead to bodily life at the end of the age. The Sadducees denied it. Nobody expected one man to rise ahead of everyone else.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/sent-agent\/","n":"The one who is sent","s":"Jewish law held that a man's agent was as the man himself, backed by his authority as long as he represented him faithfully. How people treated the agent showed how they treated the one who sent him.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/spirit-of-prophecy\/","n":"The Spirit of prophecy","s":"Jews of Jesus' day linked God's Spirit above all with prophecy. Many believed the prophets had fallen silent long ago, and they looked for the day God would pour out his Spirit again.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/imperial-cult\/","n":"Caesar worshiped as savior and lord","s":"Augustus and the emperors after him were hailed as savior, lord and son of a god, and in the eastern provinces they were worshiped. The titles the Gospels give Jesus were already being used for Caesar.","r":""}
The disciples would still be in Jerusalem, in the first heavy week of mourning and with the festival still going on (Keener and his notes). Peace be with you was the standard Jewish greeting, shalom (Keener and his notes), and Bailey reads the double greeting as reconciliation offered to men who had run away, before they are sent out. A commissioned agent acted with his sender's authority as far as he faithfully represented him (Keener and his notes). Breathing on them recalls God breathing life into Adam (Genesis 2:7) (Keener and his notes). Domitian, emperor when John probably wrote, reportedly wanted to be called Lord God, while readers of the Greek Old Testament knew my God and my Lord as a divine title (Psalm 35:23) (the cultural backgrounds notes); Wright hears Thomas's words as a direct challenge to the rising imperial cult. Carson, Moo and Morris argue from the syntax of 20:31 that the verse answers who the Messiah, the Son of God, is, namely Jesus, a question that Jews and proselytes who expected a Messiah would ask, and so read the Gospel as written to persuade them.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on John 20:19, 20:20, 20:21, 20:22, 20:24-25 and 20:27-28
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on John 20:19, 20:20, 20:21, 20:22, 20:25 and 20:28
- Kenneth E. Bailey, The Good Shepherd, ch. 7, The Disciples as Good Shepherds in Matthew 18:10-14
- N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God, ch. 17, New Day, New Tasks: John
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 5, John, Purpose
