Discuss the Nature and Purpose of the Signs in John's Gospel.

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Gabriela Belmar-Valencia 13CA                                     24th September 2003

Discuss the Nature and Purpose of the Signs in John’s Gospel

The word used by John for signs was “semeia” as opposed to “dunamis” used in the Synoptic Gospels. “Semeia” literally means signpost, meaning that signs point towards a spiritual truth. The signs are heavily laden with symbolism and serve John’s Gospel almost as the parables do in the Synoptic Gospels. For example the changing of water into wine at the Wedding at Cana is symbolic of Jesus transforming the inadequacy of Judaism into Christianity. The Wedding Ceremony itself is symbolic, as Israel is often depicted as being an unfaithful bride which Jesus as the true bridegroom, has come to claim. Barrett backs up this point maintaining that signs are marks or signals.

The signs in John’s Gospel are characterised by being especially spectacular. For example feeding a crowd of five thousand people from five loaves and two fish and still having twelve baskets to spare is fairly impressive. Hunter explains that this is because signs are tokens of the Messianic Age. The signs are intended to reveal the glory of God through Jesus. The scholar Marianne Thompson supports this defining a sign as being “a manifestation, through the person of Jesus, of God’s work in the world.” The signs are also spectacular as they reveal the glory and divinity of Jesus himself. This is also exemplified in the Wedding at Cana John 6 “He thus revealed his glory”. John Russell supports this claiming that the signs lead to an unfolding Christology where if one appreciates the signposting, one can, through faith, grasp that such signs manifest Jesus’ glory.

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The signs for John also carry the theme of realised eschatology. John believed that the Kingdom of God had come through Jesus and his miraculous signs giving people access to salvation and eternal life. An example of this is the healing at the Pool where Jesus heals a paralytic sinner warning him to stop sinning or “something worse will happen to you”. Jesus has not simply given the lame man a new physical life in that he can now walk, he has also given the man access to eternal life. Jesus himself states that “he who believes has everlasting life”.

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