CAF Bible Study - The Gospel of John

  • Thread starter Thread starter Church_Militant
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I’ve also heard from numerous sources, you’ve got to consider, why is the woman coming to the well at the hottest time of the day? Why wouldn’t she come to the well in the early morning when it’s considerably cooler? It’s often considered that she is of ill-repute, and doesn’t feel up to hearing the latest gossip about herself that the other women would be talking about each morning as they gather around the well (somethings haven’t changed, eh ladies? I kid, I kid ;)).
 
notworthy, I’ve heard that approach also. took a Bibletimeline seminar, Jeff Cavins created. You are so right when you state there is so many layers in Scripture. I choose to speak of one layer that I found was pretty much the way my conversion went. I love the fact that Jesus let the woman of samaria use her free will to make the decision to convert, he did not force her. I think so many times lots of catholics feel “forced” into things. And yet He isn’t forcing us to do anything, like a good parent He leads us.
 
notworthy, I’ve heard that approach also. took a Bibletimeline seminar, Jeff Cavins created. You are so right when you state there is so many layers in Scripture. I choose to speak of one layer that I found was pretty much the way my conversion went. I love the fact that Jesus let the woman of samaria use her free will to make the decision to convert, he did not force her. I think so many times lots of catholics feel “forced” into things. And yet He isn’t forcing us to do anything, like a good parent He leads us.
Yes, and did she get the message? Yes, you notice John feels the need to show that the woman left the jar of water behind?
 
John, chapter 4
28: So the woman left her water jar, and went away into the city, and said to the people,
29: “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”
30: They went out of the city and were coming to him.
Also you can sense the joy and the charity she must have felt because she went out to others to proclaim the good news. Because of her many came to witness for their own.
John, chapter 439: Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.”
40: So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days.
41: And many more believed because of his word.
42: They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
Interesting how this woman came to be the intrstument of the salvation of many souls. Little did she know that she was doing the will of God without realizing it. All she did was express the joy she had and believed and trusted in Jesus. She had no regard to how people would react to her since it seams she wasn’t readily accepted by her peers as was stating before by NotWorthy.
 
John, chapter 5
1: After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2: Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Beth-za’tha, which has five porticoes.
3: In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed.
1 5: One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
6: When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”
7: The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me.”
8: Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.”
9: And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked. Now that day was the sabbath.
10: So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet.”
11: But he answered them, “The man who healed me said to me, Take up your pallet, and walk.'" 12: They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, Take up your pallet, and walk’?”
13: Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.
14: Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you.”
15: The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
16: And this was why the Jews persecuted Jesus, because he did this on the sabbath.
17: But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working still, and I am working.”
18: This was why the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath but also called God his Father, making himself equal with God.
19: Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, that the Son does likewise.
20: For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all that he himself is doing; and greater works than these will he show him, that you may marvel.
21: For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.
22: The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,
23: that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
24: Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
25: "Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
26: For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself,
27: and has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man.
28: Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice
29: and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.
30: “I can do nothing on my own authority; as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
31: If I bear witness to myself, my testimony is not true;
32: there is another who bears witness to me, and I know that the testimony which he bears to me is true.
33: You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.
34: Not that the testimony which I receive is from man; but I say this that you may be saved.
35: He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
36: But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father has granted me to accomplish, these very works which I am doing, bear me witness that the Father has sent me.
37: And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness to me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen;
38: and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe him whom he has sent.
39: You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me;
40: yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
41: I do not receive glory from men.
42: But I know that you have not the love of God within you.
43: I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.
44: How can you believe, who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
45: Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; it is Moses who accuses you, on whom you set your hope.
46: If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me.
47: But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
 
A note on this chapter:
[1] The following part of verse 3 and all of verse 4 is retained in all the early English versions as well as the Spanish, French, Italian, and German Bibles. It is usually omitted in modern versions: waiting for the stirring of the water; 4: for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred up the water; whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well from whatever disease that person had.
 
A note on this chapter:
[1] The following part of verse 3 and all of verse 4 is retained in all the early English versions as well as the Spanish, French, Italian, and German Bibles. It is usually omitted in modern versions: waiting for the stirring of the water; 4: for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred up the water; whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well from whatever disease that person had.
I wonder why?
 
I wonder why?
This is what the NAB says about it:
Toward the end of the second century in the West and among the fourth-century Greek Fathers, an additional verse was known: “For [from time to time] an angel of the Lord used to come down into the pool; and the water was stirred up, so the first one to get in [after the stirring of the water] was healed of whatever disease afflicted him.” The angel was a popular explanation of the turbulence and the healing powers attributed to it. This verse is missing from all early Greek manuscripts and the earliest versions, including the original Vulgate. Its vocabulary is markedly non-Johannine.
 
John, chapter 5

3: In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed.
5: One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
Hmmmm, the man had been paralyzed for 38 years. Israel, after refusing to cross the Jordan, was forced to wander in the dessert for 38 years (basically paralyzed until this generation died off).

Coincidence? Or “God-incidence”?

You be the judge!
 
Also, many people thought this pool was fiction, until recently (I think within the last 80 or so years) when archaeologist found the five portico pool, which was rather unique in design in the ruins under Jerusalem.
 
John, chapter 5

31: If I bear witness to myself, my testimony is not true;
32: there is another who bears witness to me, and I know that the testimony which he bears to me is true.
33: You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth…
36: But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father has granted me to accomplish, these very works which I am doing, bear me witness that the Father has sent me.
37: And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness to me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen;
When you read the many dialogs between Jesus and the Jews (in John’s Gospel), it helps to understand that John represents his whole Gospel as a Jewish Trial of Jesus. In the Jewish Law, a person needed the testimony of two witnesses in order for his innocence to be declared. That’s why Jesus is always providing the testimonies of John, God the Father, and such.

So, who’s the Jury in John’s Gospel?

Why, its you and me, the reader!
 
New Advent’s Catholic Encyclopedia.
V. CRITICAL QUESTIONS CONCERNING THE TEXT
As regards the text of the Gospel, the critics take special exception to three passages, 5:3-4; 7:53-8:11; and 21.
John 5:3-4
The fifth chapter tells of the cure of the paralytic at the pool of Bethsaida in Jerusalem. According to the Vulgate the text of the second part of verse three and verse four runs as follows: “. . . waiting for the moving of the water. And an angel of the Lord descended at certain times into the pond, and the water was moved. And he that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water, was made whole, of whatsoever infirmity he lay under.” But these words are wanting in the three oldest manuscripts, the Codex Vaticanus (B), Codex Sinaiticus (aleph), and Codex Bez (D), in the original text of the palimpsest of St. Ephraem (C), in the Syrian translation of Cureton, as well as in the Coptic and Sahidic translations, in some minuscules, in three manuscripts of the Itala, in four of the Vulgate, and in some Armenian manuscripts. Other copies append to the words a critical sign which indicates a doubt as to their authenticity. The passage is therefore regarded by the majority of modern critics, including the Catholic exegetes, Schegg, Schanz, Belser, etc., as a later addition by Papias or some other disciple of the Apostle.
Other exegetes, e.g. Corluy, Comely, Knabenbauer, and Murillo, defend the authenticity of the passage urging in its favour important internal and external evidence. In the first place the words are found in the Codex Alexandrinus (A), the emended Codex Ephraemi (C), in almost all minuscule manuscripts, in six manuscripts of the Itala, in most of the Bodices of the Vulgate, including the best, in the Syrian Peshito, in the Syrian translation of Philoxenus (with a critical mark), in the Persian, Arabic, and Slavonic translations, and in some manuscripts of the Armenian text. More important is the fact that, even before the date of our present bodices, the words were found by many of the Greek and Latin Fathers in the text of the Gospel. This is clear from Tertullian [De bapt., i (before 202)], Didymus of Alexandria [De Trin., II, xiv (about 381)], St. John Chrysostom, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine [Sermo xv (al. xii), De verbis Evangelii S. Joannis), although the last-mentioned, in his tractate on the Gospel of St. John, omits the passage.
The context of the narrative seems necessarily to presuppose the presence of the words. The subsequent answer of the sick man (v. 7), “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pond. For whilst I am coming, another goeth down before me”, could scarcely be intelligible without verse 4, and the Evangelist is not accustomed to omit such necessary information from his text. [COLOR=“Red”]Thus both sides have good grounds for their opinions, and no final decision on the question, from the standpoint of the textual critic, seems possible.
I have always liked this passage. I think I’ll go with it.
 
Also, many people thought this pool was fiction, until recently (I think within the last 80 or so years) when archaeologist found the five portico pool, which was rather unique in design in the ruins under Jerusalem.
The pool, which is described in John was discovered near St. Annes church. It is 220 feet wide and 315 feet long. Colonnades on all sides frame the porch. Stairways at the corners fascilitated entrance into the pool. Springs were probably the source of the water. Changes in water pressure could cause the stirring or bubbling effect noted by the Gospel.
 
Such a theme of water in John’s Gospel. The baptist preached that Jesus would baptize with water and the spirit. Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed the personal change that would be caused by rebirth in water and the spirit… The water for washing was changed into wine, forecasting the Euharistic blood of Jesus which would cleanse souls of sin. The conversion of the Samaritan woman occured when the waters of grace warmed her heart. Now by a pool famed for it’s healing qualities Jesus cured this man.
Water is absolutely necessary for life. Today we are aware of the polutions in our waters. We worry about lead in our water doing physical harm to our bodies. We worry of acid rain that kills trees and plants. We demand water that is healthy for our well being, not unhealthy water that can harm us.
I imagine in Jesus’ time clean water was a very valued resource. He took this simple fact of life and used it to portray that His “water” of love and grace was absolutely necessary for spiritual life, which gives purpose and meaning to physical life.
This reminds me of a story a friend of mine, who is a priest, told us one night at dinner. His parents were both terribly afraid of water. They did not want their children to experience this same “terror” of water so all of his brothers and sisters were expected to take swimming lessons, and they all ended up on the local high school swim team. They, as a family, participate in iron man competitions, where they are required to swim 3 miles, bike 100,and the run 26 miles… He stops in the middle of the story and says with a smile…“I see a Homily in that story”!!!
 
39: You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me;
40: yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
41: I do not receive glory from men.
42: But I know that you have not the love of God within you.
43: I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.
44: How can you believe, who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

This verse struck me again today. What do Bible only believers think of this verse. It seems to me that Jesus is saying there is more than just what the Bible says. You must come to Him to have life. How do I as a Catholic come to Him to receive life? I have only one answer and that is in the Eucharist. Pretty profound if you ask me.
 
John, chapter 5
6: When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”
7: The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me.”
8: Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.”
9: And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked. Now that day was the sabbath.
10: So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet.”
11: But he answered them, “The man who healed me said to me, Take up your pallet, and walk.'" 12: They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, Take up your pallet, and walk’?”
13: Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.
14: Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you.”
15: The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
16: And this was why the Jews persecuted Jesus, because he did this on the sabbath.
I have to admit, the guy Jesus heals in this passage strikes me as one of the most annoying people in the Bible. When Jesus asks him if he wants to be well, he whines about how he has no one to help him. That probably wouldn’t bother me, except that when Jesus heals him, he just gets up and goes without any thanks. Then, as soon as he gets the chance, he gets Jesus in trouble for helping him. He doesn’t seem at all willing to take responsibility for himself. I don’t know why he annoys me so much, but he does.
 
That is certainly one possibilty, but maybe he was bewildered by the whole thing. His behavior after Jesus healed him isn’t very creditable, tho.😦 That seems to be how people often act. I will try to remember to thank Jesus and not behave like that. I hope. Most of the time. If I remember. Rats.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top