Jesus in Judea

Abstract

Jesus’ mission in Judea (Jn 3:22–36) finds little attention paid to the geographical setting of this mission. Connected with this lack of interest is the question regarding a ‘Jew’ with whom the disciples of John the Baptist are reported to be in controversy according to John 3:25. A look at the geographical structure of Jesus’ mission in John 2:13–4:54 may throw new light on these issues. Apparently, the mission of Jesus in this section of the Fourth Gospel follows a geographical scheme similar to the one outlined in Acts 1:8: the disciples are to be the witnesses of Jesus in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and until the end of the earth. Different from this outline, Jesus’ mission, according to John, leads him to Galilee. All God’s people are to hear his preaching and come to faith before the great controversies with the leaders of the Jewish people in John 5–10. If a mission of Jesus in Judea forms part of his mission to Israel, the Ἰουδαῖος of John 3:25 should be understood rather as a ‘Judean’.Jesus in Judea. Daar is tot onlangs nie veel aandag aan die geografiese agtergrond van Jesus se sending in Judea geskenk nie. Saam met hierdie gebrek aan belangstelling is die vraagstuk ten opsigte van die sogenaamde ‘Jood’ wat volgens Johannes 3:25 in ’n argument met die dissipels van Johannes die Doper betrokke was. ’n Blik op die geografiese agtergrond van Jesus se sending volgens Johannes 2:13–4:54 kan meer lig op hierdie kwessies werp. Jesus se sending, soos in die Vierde Evangelie beskryf, volg klaarblyklik dieselfde geografiese struktuur soos dit in Handelinge 1:8 voorkom: die dissipels sal Jesus se getuies in Jerusalem, die hele Judea en Samaria, en tot aan die uithoeke van die aarde wees. Volgens Johannes lei Jesus se sending Hom egter na Galilea waar al God se volgelinge na sy leringe luister en tot geloof kom voor die verskeie konfrontasies met die Joodse leiers sou plaasvind soos in Johannes 5–10 beskryf. Indien Jesus se sending in Judea deel vorm van sy sending in Israel, kan die Ἰουδαῖος, soos inJohannes 3:25 beskryf, eerder as ‘Judeër’ verstaan word.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 7 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.