Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Craig A. Evans on the Background to John 5:39: Further Evidence for ἐραυνᾶτε as being indicative, not imperative

  

Pharisaic or early rabbinic exegesis is known in the Fourth Evangelist as well. Twice there is reference made to ‘search’ the Scripture. The first occurrence is found on the lips of Jesus: ‘You search (εραυνατε) the Scriptures, because you suppose that in them you have life; these are what testify concerning me’ (5.39). This comment refers to rabbinic interpretation known as ‘midrash’. The principal purpose of searching the Scriptures was to find life. This idea is rooted in Scripture itself, for keeping the commandments of Torah meant life: ‘You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances, by doing which a man shall live’ (Lev. 18.5; cf. Bar. 4.1-2). Hence the principal aim of ‘building a fence’ around Torah (Ab. 1.1) was to gain life. According to Hillel, ‘If a man . . . has gained for himself the words of the Law he has gained for himself life in the world to come’ (Ab. 2.7) (In one midrash, Moses refers to ‘the Torah, the while of which is life’ (Deut. R. 9.9 [on Deut 31.14])). The Johannine saying undoubtedly reflects this perspective, which evidently reached back well into the early first century, if not earlier, and apparently was not only held by Hillel, but by Jesus also. After the Law is summed up by the Two Great Commandments, Jesus tells the legist: ‘Do this and you will live’ (cf. Lk. 10.28). Because Jesus’ answer to a question tat asked how to obtain eternal life (Lk. 10.25), it is probable that the eschatological interpretation is found in the targum preserves an ancient interpretation of Lev. 18.5: ‘If one practices them, he will live by them in the future world’ (cf. Targ. Onq. Lev. 18.5; also in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, but adding ‘with the righteous ones’). This targumic paraphrase coheres with the midrash found in the Tannaic commentary on Leviticus, where it is reasoned that since people die in this life, ‘live by them’ must refer to life in the world to come (Sifra Lev. §193 [on 18.5]). Both the synoptic and Johannine traditions seem to reflect this understanding of the passage (cf. Jn 12.50). Thus, the Johannine statement, ‘You search the Scriptures’, is not merely a formal parallel with rabbinic exegetical method, but a reflection of a significant struggle between the Johannine community and the synagogue over soteriology. Is eternal life found in Torah or is it found in Christ? (Craig A. Evans, Word and Glory: On the Exegetical and Theological Background of John’s Prologue [Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series 59; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1993], 151-53, emphasis added)

 

Further Reading


Not by Scripture Alone: A Latter-day Saint Refutation of Sola Scriptura