Friday, May 24, 2024

John Paul Heil on John 19:30 and τετελεσται

  

In the previous B scene the soldiers took (ελαβον) the clothing of Jesus and thus enabled the scripture (Ps 22:29) to be fulfilled (19:23-24). In development Jesus now took (ελαβεν) the vinegar the soldiers offered him and enabled τηε scripture to be completed, declaring, “It is accomplished,” as he died (19:30). Jesus thus completes the scripture not only of Ps 22:19 with Ps 22:16 but also of Ps 69:10 with Ps 69:22. His thirst in fulfillment of Ps 22:16 completes the soldiers’ fulfillment of Ps 22:19 by taking his clothes. And by taking the vinegar as he dies in fulfillment of 69:22, Jesus completes the scripture of Ps 69:10, he dies in fulfillment of Ps 69:22, Jesus completes the scripture of Ps 69:10, “Zeal for your house will consume me” (2:17), that his disciples remembered when he drove the sacrificial commerce from the temple (2:13-16). The soldiers play their part in fulfilling the scripture, but it is Jesus himself who brings the scripture to completion. Jesus is the speaker of Ps 22:19 (“my clothes; my clothing”), the one who says, “I thirst” (Ps 22:16 in 19:27), the one who predicts that zeal for God’s house “will consume me” (Ps 69:10), the one who takes the vinegar (Ps 69:22), and the one who climactically pronounces the final accomplishment (19:30). No one takes Jesus’ life from him. As the good shepherd, he lays down his life on his own in accord with the command of his Father (10:18; 18:11), as recorded in the scripture.

 

Now that the scripture has been completed (τελειωθη), Jesus authoritatively announces, “It is accomplished” (Τετελεσται). Not only does this powerful pronouncement indicate the completion of scripture, but is also climactically reinforces the narrator’s report that everything the Father has given Jesus do to (13:3) has already been accomplished (τετελεσται) (19:28). Jesus has done the will of the one who sent him and completed (τλειωσω) his work (4:34). He has accomplished the works the Father gave him to complete (τελειωσω), the works that testify that the Father sent him (5:36). Having completed (τελειωσας) the work the Father gave him to do, Jesus has glorified the Father on earth (17:4). Now those who believe in him, including the audience called to believe through the word of the disciples (17:20), can be “completed” or “brought to perfection” (τετελειωμενοι) as “one” final and absolute unity, so that the world may know that the Father sent Jesus and loves them as he loved them (17:23). (John Paul Heil, Blood and Water: The Death and Resurrection of Jesus in John 18-21 [The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 27; The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1995; repr., Eugene, Oreg.: Pickwick Publications, 2023], 101-2)

 

Further Reading:

 

Full Refutation of the Protestant Interpretation of John 19:30