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<\/a><\/p>\nQ. I have always thought that at least sometimes, and particularly in John 11, the phrase \u2018the Jews\u2019 means the Jewish officials who attended Lazarus\u2019s period of mourning, and if Lazarus is the BD, he is well known to Caiaphas and has access to his house, as a known person, that Peter does not have.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think the Fourth Gospel is anti-Semitic, nor anti-OT, for Christ is busy fulfilling the Scriptures, but of course it was horribly used for anti-semitic and anti-Judaism purposes later.\u00a0 Surely we must distinguish between the later misuse of this Gospel, largely by Gentile Christians, and the original in house debates and hostilities between Jews who followed Jesus and those who were strongly opposed to Jesus. Would you not agree?<\/p>\n
A. Well, that\u2019s the subject of a whole chapter in my book called \u201cLet Us Go to Judea Again: John\u2019s Gospel and the Jews.\u201d You\u2019re correct in saying that we must distinguish between the way that John\u2019s Gospel uses the term hoi Ioudaioi<\/em> (the Jews) and the way that the portrayal of the Jews in John\u2019s Gospel (and in the Synoptics in places) was later used\u2014to some tragic, horrible and lethal ends.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nAt the same time, as I mention in the book, the term appears more than 70 times in John\u2019s Gospel, almost always negatively, usually in reference to \u201cthe Jews\u201d being in opposition to Jesus and his disciples.\u00a0 By contrast, it appears only 16 times in Mark, Matthew and Luke combined, and chiefly during the Passion narratives.<\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s important to say that John obviously knew that Jesus and his disciples were Jewish.\u00a0 But for many reasons (which I elaborate in the book) by this time there seems to have been more antipathy between the Johannine Christians and \u201cthe Jews.\u201d So the key is noticing that and being careful how we interpret those passages.<\/p>\n
Now, I know this is not something you asked, but I want to say publicly\u2014as I do in my book\u2014how grateful I am for your scholarship and for your help on this book. You have a way of looking at the Gospel that I very much appreciate, and which I share: which I might describe as \u201cscholarly belief.\u201d\u00a0 You tease out possibilities, make connections and raise questions that few other scholars do, and I find your work not only informative and inspiring but altogether delightful.\u00a0 And to fans of Ben Witherington, you\u2019ll find plenty of him in my new book, which I hope you enjoy!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Q. I have always thought that at least sometimes, and particularly in John 11, the phrase \u2018the Jews\u2019 means the Jewish officials who attended Lazarus\u2019s period of mourning, and if Lazarus is the BD, he is well known to Caiaphas and has access to his house, as a known person, that Peter does not have.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":59594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13841],"class_list":["post-59705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-who-are-the-jews-in-john-11"],"yoast_head":"\n
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