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 5:19-47, The Son sent by the Father, and his witnesses
Jesus answers the charge of making himself equal with God: the Son does what he sees the Father doing, gives life and judges, and has witnesses in John, in his works, in the Father and in the Scriptures.
John 5:19-47, in every translation this tool compares.
Charged with claiming equality with God, Jesus explains how he relates to the Father: the Son acts only as he sees the Father act, and the Father has handed him the power to give life and to judge. He knows his word alone would not count as proof, so he lists other witnesses, John the Baptist, his works, the Father and the Scriptures. He ends by saying that Moses, whom his hearers trust, will be the one to accuse them.
- {"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\/witnesses-and-advocates\/","n":"Witnesses and advocates in court","s":"Jewish law convicted no one on a single witness: it demanded two or three, examined them closely and gave little weight to the word of women. Courts also had accusers and advocates, and Jewish pictures of God's heavenly court gave those roles to Satan and to defenders of Israel.","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\/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":""}
It was common wisdom that sons imitated their fathers (Keener), and Bailey describes Middle Eastern craftsmen who guard their trade secrets and show them only to their sons. Raising the dead and judging belonged to God alone, rehearsed daily in Jewish prayer (Keener and his notes; the CSB Study Bible). In Daniel 7:13-14 the Son of Man reigns on God's behalf, and to reign was also to judge (Keener). Jesus speaks as the Father's faithful agent, under the Jewish rule that a man's agent is as the man himself (Keener and his notes; the CSB Study Bible). Two or three witnesses were needed to prove a case (Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15), and the ESV Study Bible sees a trial running through John in which, in the end, the world and not Jesus is on trial. The hand lamps of the Herodian period gave about as much light as a candle, so calling John a lamp is modest praise (Keener and his notes). Moses was thought of as Israel's intercessor; here he becomes their accuser (Keener and his notes).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on John 5:19-20, 5:21-22, 5:27, 5:30, 5:31, 5:33-35 and 5:45-47
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on John 5:21-22, 5:30, 5:31-32, 5:35 and 5:45
- CSB Study Bible, notes on John 5:21, 5:22 and 5:23
- ESV Study Bible, study note on John 5:31-47
- Kenneth E. Bailey, The Good Shepherd, ch. 8, The Good Shepherd Amid Thieves and Wolves in John 10:1-18, section Rhetoric
