John 12:41 reads:
Isaiah
said this because he was his glory and spoke about him (Greek: αῦτα εἶπεν Ἠσαΐας
ὅτι εἶδεν τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐλάλησεν περὶ αὐτοῦ) (NRSV)
Commenting on this verse, Johan
Ferreira noted that:
The
pronoun ταυτα refers not only to the
immediate quotation from Isaiah but to the chapter as a whole, specially to the
house of Jesus’ glorification, for he says Isaiah ειδεν την δοξαν αυτου. The reference is to Isaiah 6 where the prophet had
the vision of Yahweh sitting on the throne in the temple. It is interesting to
note here that the author may be reflecting on the Targum Onqelos which
reads in Isa. 6.5, ‘My eyes have seen יקר שכינת מלך עלמא’ (Kittel and von Rad
1964: 245). Isaiah saw the Lord in the temple, the place where his כבוד was
manifested, and the temple was ‘filled with smoke’, which evidently came from
the burning altar. IT may be that the author saw that burning altar as anticipating
the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, for herein, he says the prophet saw his δοξα. Also in 2 Chron. 7.1-3 it appears that the
glory cloud which filled the temple came from the smoke of the sacrifices which
were ignited by the fire from heaven. The imagery may have provided the
background of John’s association of Jesus’ cross with his δοξα. Therefore, the suffering that the Johannine
Jesus endured is an important element of his mission (being sent) into the
world. Since his elected ones will obtain salvation through his suffering, it
constitutes a crucial element of his glory. Therefore, in Riga’s words:
When
the Jews seemed about to extinguish and destroy the work of Christ, at that
moment, St. John tells us, comes the very moment of his glorification
(death, resurrection, and ascension as one whole, one ‘entity’ of salvation) as
the Son of God (1963: 424).
This
aspect of suffering in the glory of Jesus is significant for Johannine
ecclesiology. The community’s struggle is the moment of glorification. As such
the community’s struggle is crucial for being Christus prolongatus. The Sitz
im Leben of the Johannine community may well have shaped this understanding
of glory. (Johan Ferreira, Johannine Ecclesiology [Journal for the Study
of the New Testament Supplement Series 160; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic
Press, 1998], 156-57)
