Journal: Bulletin for Biblical Research
Volume: BBR 17:2 (NA 2007)
Article: New Wine in Old Wineskins: Bursting Traditional Interpretations in John’s Gospel (Part Two)
Author: Robert H. Gundry

BBR 17:2 (2007) p. 285

New Wine in Old Wineskins:
Bursting Traditional Interpretations
in John’s Gospel
(Part Two)

Robert H. Gundry

Westmont College

This article, begun in the preceding issue of BBR, offers disparate exegetical notes on passages in the Fourth Gospel. The present Part Two argues (1) that in John 9:4b the night when no one can work refers to the darkness of eternal damnation; (2) that in John 11:26a those who live, believe in Jesus, and will never die are the believers who have not died prior to the second coming; and (3) that in John 19:30 τετέλεσται should be translated “they are finished” with probable reference to Jesus’ signs, works, and words.

Key Words: night, darkness, day, light, work, world, damnation, resurrection, live/life, die/death, second coming, finished, all things, signs, works, words

To replace inadequate if not erroneous traditional interpretations, the following exegetical notes propose nontraditional interpretations of three passages in John’s Gospel.

The Night of Eternal Damnation (John 9:4b)

In John’s story of the man born blind, Jesus says, “We must work the works of the one who sent me as long as it is day” (John 9:4a; compare Ps 104:23: “People go out to their work and to their labor until the evening” [nrsv]). Most commentators regard the following statement, “Night is coming, when no one can work” (9:4b), as a piece of proverbial wisdom that applies to everyone, Jesus and the disciples included, with respect to their individual lifetimes: “Your life is a workday; so do now what you need to do, because your death will bring for you a nighttime of no possible work.”1

BBR 17:2 (2007) p. 286

But then Jesus’ next statement, “Whenever I am in the world, I am [the] light of the world” (9:5), becomes problematic, because it correlates daytime with Jesus’ presence in the world, seemingly exclusive of the disciples’ longer-lasting lifetimes. Consequently, the statement that night is coming when no one can work no longer looks like proverbial wisdom that alludes to everyone’s departure in death. Rather, it looks like a denial that anyone, including the disciples, can work once Jesus is no longer in the world as its light. This impression gets support from 12:35-36, where he says, “Yet a li...