Date

8-9-2024

Department

Rawlings School of Divinity

Degree

Master of Arts in Biblical Studies (MA)

Chair

Leo Percer

Keywords

temple, water imagery, Gospel of John, replacement, fulfillment, temple imagery in John, Garden of Eden, Revelation 21-22, Ezekiel's temple vision, living water, temple Christology

Disciplines

Religion | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion

Abstract

This thesis highlights the richness of the New Testament Christological truths in the Fourth Gospel by tracing the connections John made to the Old Testament history and traditions. John wrote his Gospel account after nearly a lifetime of reflection on the Christ-event and its significance. What had been misunderstood while Jesus walked among his disciples had been illuminated by the Spirit through many years of reflection and study. The New Testament, including the Fourth Gospel, was not written in a vacuum, but drew on a rich and colorful history of Yahweh’s revelation to his people that spanned millennia. The Evangelist’s deep knowledge of Israel’s history and traditions is applied in his Gospel as he explains to his first century audience the many ways in which Christ fulfilled, replaced, and completed all that the Old Covenant had pointed to. Neither was John’s account received by its original readers in a vacuum. Many details were not included in the narrative because the writer and readers shared a plethora of common cultural and linguistic knowledge that is less accessible to the modern reader. This thesis will attempt to bridge that gap by expounding on one example of John’s allusion to Old Testament history and traditions, namely the significance of water throughout the Gospel narrative, with particular attention to its role in the Temple rituals.

The question is explored: What does John’s use of water imagery in the context of the Temple motif explain to his audience about the role of Jesus? This study proposes that John portrays Jesus as the living water depicted by the rivers in Eden, Ezekiel’s temple vision, and John’s own eschatological temple vision in Revelation. Those who abide in Christ (cf. John 15) are planted by this river (cf. Psalm 1) and enabled by his Spirit to be fruitful (cf. John 15). This gift of the life-giving Spirit, offered by the Incarnate Christ and symbolized by ‘living water,’ opens the way for God’s presence to dwell with humankind and for his blessing to flow to and through his people, the original intent of Eden and the end goal for when all things are made new in the Eschaton.

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