Sunday, April 2, 2023

Jeffrey Bradshaw on John 3:13 and "which is in heaven"

Commenting on John 3:13 (cf. Moses 6:57), Jeff Bradshaw wrote:

 

A disputed phrase in John 3:13 (“which is in heaven”), generally accepted as a late gloss, becomes more intelligible n context if we conjecture the possibility that an editor may have intended its referent to be “Man” rather than “Son of Man.” Note that the referent appears with two definite articles (ho huious tou anthrōpou), that is, “the Son of the Man” (English capitalization added), giving the reading “the Son of the Man which is in heaven,” which can be taken as meaning that “the Man,” rather than “the Son” is the one who is currently “in heaven.” Other scholars who accept the phrase “which is in heaven” (for example, R. L. Overstreet, John 3:13) have interpreted it differently as a witness to the omnipresence of Jesus, that is, that He is simultaneously on earth and in heaven. (Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Enoch and the Gathering of Zion: The Witness of Ancient Texts for Modern Scripture [Orem, Utah: The Interpreter Foundation, 2021], 286-87 n. 863)