Episode 14 - Time for a challenge

I want to do something different in this episode. Instead of explaining Scripture in this episode, I want to give you an assignment. The purpose is to help you grow in your skills for Bible study and interpretation. One should never take another individual’s personal interpretation of Scripture as absolute truth. What I say should never be in contradiction with the most important tenets of the Christian faith that have been held by the Church at large since the time of Christ. Obviously, Christians will vary on the interpretation of some passages and minor things. But, even then, if someone has an interpretation that is unique or never considered by anyone before, it’s probably wrong. My hope here is to encourage you in thinking about things that apply to interpret all kinds of literature. In other words, what I’m asking you to do here is not unique or “rocket science.” It’s normal. 

In a few moments, I’m going to read the full account of the event of Jesus coming to John the day after he tells the religious rulers that his role is simply to point people to Jesus. What I want you to do is to listen and take note of things that you think might be important. Do you remember how I pointed out in Episode 2 that “repetition” is a characteristic in literature that shows us importance?

In the first verse of John’s gospel, we saw the repetition of the “to be” verb “was.” It emphasized what “the Word” was. For the rest of John’s prologue, forms of the verb “ginomai” was used nine times in those relatively few verses. It means to “become or to be created.” In the light of the evidence that John was making a connection to the Creation account in Genesis 1, that would be important, wouldn’t it? 

So, listen and/or read through John 1:29-34 multiple times and make notes about what is repeated. Whether it be a word, a phrase, or even just an idea, write that down and ask yourself if you think it could be important. It’s not important to necessarily answer that question right now. What is important is that if there is a truth, an idea or theme that the author wants us to discern through repetition, perhaps we’ll be more sensitive to its occurrences when we see them.

When you’ve done this and if you have time and interest, go back to the beginning of this book and read starting in verse 1 and see if any of these words, phrases, or ideas have already been mentioned. If so, add those to your notes. 

Here is the full text of this event. When I’ve finished, I’m going to give you a hint to get you started. Then in the episodes to follow, I’ll point out some of the things I’ve noticed and suspect is important to what the author wants us to understand.

John 1:29   The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

Ok. Do you need some help getting started? Does it seem like the idea of “seeing” is important? Does it only mean observing with one’s eyes? What could it mean?