Messiah

According to Ashton, ‘The Messiah, properly speaking, is a man anointed by God and sent by him at the end of time to assist him in establishing his kingly rule . . . generally speaking, whenever Messiah is used without qualification in the New Testament . . . it is either as a proper name or else in reference to the kingly, Davidic Messiah.’

Smalley: ‘The background to the concept of ‘Messiah’ is obviously and intensely Jewish, and the Johannine portrait of Jesus as the Christ – like the synoptic – shares this fully. John is also aware, like any good Jewish person, of the kingly and triumphal implications of the figure of Messiah: whether these were by association political, or religious, or both. However, once more John’s Christology – while ultimately indebted to a Jewish-Christian tradition familiar to all the Gospel writers – is taken further. To this end John interprets the messiahship of Jesus by linking it to the notions of ‘derivation’ and, in a developed sense, ‘kingship’.

Messiah in John

Jesus is identified in John 1:17 as Jesus Christos (Jesus Messiah). This seems to be just an indication of the name by which Jesus became known rather than a stressing of messiahship, although soon after, John the Baptist denies that he is himself the Christ. This may be part of the Johannine Polemic, attacking those who may have accorded the Baptist messianic status. Two of John the Baptist’s former disciples, after meeting Jesus, tell Peter (Andrew’s brother) that they ‘have found the Messiah (which means Christ)’. Philip, also following Jesus, then finds Nathanael and tells him (1:45) they have found the one of whom Moses and the prophets wrote, which according to McGreggor, is a round about way of indicating the Messiah.

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Clearly there is no veiled messianic secret here, as Smalley writes: ‘John shares with the Synoptists the title of ‘Christ’ for Jesus; but the obvious difference is that the so-called ‘messianic secret’ of the first three Gospels does not appear as such in the Fourth Gospel. According to the synoptic tradition Jesus was only hesitantly confessed as Messiah, and he did not openly accept the title: presumably to avoid political confusion. In the Johannine account of the ministry, however, the messianic nature of Jesus seems to be openly acknowledged from the beginning.’

In the water to wine incident, ...

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