John’s Gospel: Trial, Testimony, Structure, and Minor Characters

John’s Gospel is a gospel of trial and testimony. Trials take place: Jesus on trial, his followers on trial, the world on trial, the Pharisees on trial, the Jews on trial, the reader on trial – it is a book of trials. It is also a book of testimony – legal witness that Jesus is …

Water from Jesus’ “belly/womb?” – John 7.38

John 7.38 is one of those passages in Scripture over which scholars go back and forth; for example both Craig Keener and D.A. Carson write that it is "difficult" and end up coming down on different "sides."  Do the waters of life flow from the believer's "belly" ("heart" in NIV, ESV, etc) or Jesus' "belly?"  Where …

Lincoln on the Heart of John’s Gospel

Some critics say that the story of Jesus walking on the water in John 6.16-21 is out of place or the work of a later redactor.  Lincoln thinks not: "What has already been said about  the distinctives of John's account makes plain the force of this epiphany miracle for his narrative.  The unlimited power of …

A. T. Lincoln: The Law and Jesus

Here's a nice statement on biblical hermeneutics. "This narrative's [John 5.1-18] point of view is that, because of who he is, Jesus is not subject to the law but instead fulfills all that the law previously stood for.  The law, then, is to be judged in the light of Jesus and his mission and not the other …

Lincoln, Testimony, and Criticism

A. T. Lincoln, in his book emphasizing the trial/witness motif in John's Gospel, has some helpful comments concerning critics of the biblical canon.  He talks about testimony, and how everyone relies on quite a bit of testimony without evaluating in full the scientific truth of the testimony.  (Example: a person asks "Where is the Post …