Why were the signs so controversial at that time? John uses the term Semeia meaning signs, to describe the miracles Jesus performed.

        This controversial point is also seen in the healing of the Official’s son. An Official would have collaborated with the Romans and therefore, to not only perform a miracle on an Official’s son but to offer him eternal life was challenging to Jews.   Jesus was showing in this sign that he had come to offer salvation to anyone, including Gentiles. The Jews thought that they were God’s chosen people and so therefore to say that salvation was for anyone was very controversial. Jesus was saying once again that Judaism was wrong and Christianity was here to overrule.            The laws were very important to the Jews and in the cripple at the pool sign, this is what Jesus is emphasising. John writes about the fact that there were five covered colonnades, which “John intended to signify the five books of Moses which were ineffective for salvation” (Marsh). In the sign John also writes about how the crippled could only be healed if they touched the water when it stirred. The man was never able to get to the water and was therefore never healed. But John puts across, as Marsh describes, that “Jesus has made it plain that he provides a ‘water’ that quenched the deepest thirst once and for all”. This is hard for the Jews to accept because the sign is saying that it is through Jesus that eternal life is given and that Judaism cannot offer salvation. Another point in the sign that Jews would have immediately recognised and found controversial is that the cripple had been at the pool for thirty-eight years. Glasson says, “In John, Exodus motifs abound”. This is proved true because this is how long the Israelites were in the desert waiting for God’s law to save them. Jesus is showing that he has come to set them free without the law that they have been living under. This is going against all that Jews believe in. The last part of the sign also shows controversy as Jesus tells the cripple to “Get up and walk”. It was a Sabbath day and so to walk with a mat was against the law. Jesus said “Sabbath is made for man, not man for Sabbath”, showing how the Sabbath is there to help so that the man can pick up his mat and walk. Again here Jesus is showing that he has come to rule over the laws that Judaism takes so seriously.

        When Jesus fed the five thousand, he was preaching on a mountain, which is symbolic of Moses. He was showing that he was a new Moses, and like Moses, he fed his people. This was the forerunner to the messianic banquet and the bread that Jesus offered would lead to eternal life. This would have been offensive to the Jews who thought that Moses was the most important human, and that the only way to God was through the law.

        The sign when the man who was born blind was healed again was controversial to Jews. In this sign Jesus was showing that, like with the cripple at the pool, he was healing on the Sabbath, and therefore breaking the law. He says that the man was sent blind, by God the Father so that he could perform the miracle so others would believe. This is mirrored in Isaiah 35:5 “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped”. This was blasphemy to Jews and was controversial as in this sign he was simply saying that he was the Son of God and that, in him the Old Testament was fulfilled.

        In the raising of Lazarus, Jesus marks the end of the old Israel, and the birth of the new: Lazarus died as a member of the old Israel and came back to life through Jesus. In the same way, the death and resurrection of Jesus would enable readers and watchers to rise from death to eternal life. This, like in the other signs, was controversial for Jews because it went against all they believed in and meant that effectively God’s laws, and therefore Judaism itself was ineffective.