28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
In the new rendition of the Sherlock Holmes films, Holmes and Dr. Watson are recast in a very different and one might add, a refreshing way. Their friendship is redefined on a more or less equal basis and benefit relationship. However, even in this recast of the original, Homes gets to share his brilliant thoughts with his faithful companion. In one of the episodes, Holmes critiques Scotland Yard’s approaches to investigation. He says: “People most often are trying to fit the facts into their theories. They should do it the other way around instead.”
Systematic theology is a human (I mean this in a positive sense) attempt to summarize in a systematic way a variety of scriptural witnesses about variety of topics discussed in the Bible. However, being a human attempt, even the best systematizing of the Bible is still based on theories.
There is of course no problem with theories as such. We need theories, because it is theories and systems that help us humans to make sense of things around us. We need cohesion and wholeness. In other words, we do need theories. The question is not if, but which theory do we accept and how do we test it to make sure that it is in fact accurate and true. If Holmes is right, then we tend (not only in criminal investigation) to try and fit the available facts into our theories, instead of adopting a posture of being willing to fit our theories to the available facts. In this sense, theology is no different from criminology.
Let us turn to John 6.28-31. These verses are regularly used, in Protestant circles in particular, to support and illustrate the historical reformation doctrine of “Justification by faith alone” as scriptural. The Westminster Shorter Catechism (a collection of questions and answers that was once used for children’s instruction and now is used for the preparation of ministers) asks, and then answers, the question about justification in the following way.
Question 33: What is Justification?
Answer: Justification is an act of God’s free grace in which he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight for the sake of the righteousness of Christ alone, which is credited to us and received by faith alone.
Most modern churches in the Protestant tradition would whole-heartedly agree with this statement and subscribe to the core Protestant doctrine that is called “Salvation by faith alone.” I would like to point out, however, that interpreting John 6.28 as scriptural proof of this theological construct (no matter how accurate) is nothing less than reading a later theological system, born from Catholic-Protestant debates of the 16th century, back into 1st century Jewish document. The first century context was clearly not aware of the theological tensions of the 16th century.
I will use italics to show the variety of available textual emphasis so that you can see how easily the meaning can change. Pay careful attention, because the nuances here make a major interpretive difference.
A Protestant version:
28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” – Viewed through the lenses of 16th century Catholic-Protestant debate this means “By what works of ours can we be saved from God’s wrath?”
29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. – Once again, viewed through the lens of 16th century Catholic-Protestant debate, this means “God grants people ability to believe and in this way justifies the believer – by faith alone”.
A likely original version:
28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” – Viewed through the lens of the first century’s Jewish movements, this means “How can we be faithful to the Covenant God of Israel?”
29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. – Once again viewed through the lens of the first century’s Jewish religious context, this means “You can be faithful to the Covenant God of Israel only by believing in his authorized representative (Jesus vs. hoi Ioidaioi leaders).
To receive more information about learning Biblical Languages with Hebrew University of Jerusalem/eTeacher Biblical program online at affordable cost, please, click here.
30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?”
Now the truth comes out. The questions that sounded pious and sincere turn out to be the very same questions with which the hoi Ioudaioi in Judea and their Galilean representatives had already challenged Jesus. Note that according to this narrative, these are the very people who, a short time before, had seen the sign of the feeding of the 5000 men on the south shore of Sea of Galile.
So, it is not as if Jesus was refusing to substantiate his claims and his teaching ministry by miracles and signs. He showed them to the Galilean Jewish people of the Land, but not to the Jerusalem Temple authorities. The refusal to submit his candidacy for Messiahship to the Jerusalem authorities was at the core of this polemic.
31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
As was had already happened many times and will continue as we follow the story of Jesus, the Gospel of John will portray a variety of the representatives of the hoi Ioudaioi system as clueless and insensitive to the truth. Jesus will set the record straight.
First, he will argue that hoi Iudaioi do not understand the basic facts of the Torah they claim for their own – it was not Moses who gave bread to people, but Moses’ God.
Second, that the manna that God gave the ancient Israelites through Moses was but a picture of the real sustenance for the human soul – the incarnate, crucified and eventually resurrected Logos of Moses’s God. Jesus called the manna simply – the Bread of God.
As we reread and reconsider John 6.28-31 in as much as we are able within the context of intra-Jewish polemic of the first century, we must be disciplined and adjust our theories to fit the facts, not the facts to our theories. We must learn to live with this methodology. As a result, our interpretations will be better, more faithful, and more true.
To receive more information about learning Biblical Languages with Hebrew University of Jerusalem/eTeacher Biblical program online at affordable cost, please, click here.
© By Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg, Ph.D.
To sign up for weekly posts by Dr. Eli, please, click here. It is recommend by Dr. Eli that you read everything from the beginning in his study of John. You can do so by clicking here – “Samaritan-Jewish Commentary”.
