Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 66:4 (Dec 2023)
Article: On Account Of My Name: An Ecclesial Shift Through Righteous Suffering In John 15–16
Author: Cory M. Marsh

JETS 65:4 (December 2023) p. 671

On Account Of My Name: An Ecclesial Shift Through Righteous Suffering In John 15–16

Cory M. Marsh*

^* Cory M. Marsh is Professor of New Testament at Southern California Seminary, 2075 E. Madison Avenue, El Cajon, CA, and Scholar in Residence at Revolve Bible Church, 27121 Calle Arroyo #2200, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675.

Abstract: By surveying ancient Jewish literature against the backdrop of John 15–16, this article argues that the promise of suffering for the church is a distinction in the history and literature of God’s people. It demonstrates that the phenomenon of righteous suffering, which in the Gospels is promised on account of Jesus’s name only in John 15, suggests an ecclesial shift from the people of God in the Old Testament and between the testaments to the people of God in the New Testament. In other words, the phenomenon of righteous suffering distinguishes different peoples of God throughout history with the church being unique in being explicitly promised suffering for obedient faith. The article concludes by noting modern-day relevance as Christian suffering reveals God’s glory and is the natural result for those who have exchanged their life and death for Christ’s life and death.

Key words: Gospel of John, Fourth Gospel, Second Temple Judaism, suffering, ecclesial shift, multiple peoples of God

A survey of ancient Jewish literature reveals a significant progression in the theme of the suffering of the righteous. From the Old Testament through Second Temple Judaism, the literature underscores that suffering, while always normative for believers in God, was never a promised consequence of one’s faith in God before the New Testament. Beginning with Jesus in the New Testament, however, affliction is promised for God’s people explicitly as a consequence of their obedient faith. Such promised suffering finds its most definitive expression in terms of persecution and affliction in the upper room discourse of the Gospel of John.

By surveying the relevant literature and highlighting John 15–16 as a backdrop, this article demonstrates that Jesus’s promise of suffering for Christians is a distinction in the history and literature of God’s people.1 Specifically, it argues that the phenomenon of suffering—which in the four Gospels is promised on account of Jesus’s name only in John 15—suggests an ecclesial shift from the people of God in the OT to the people of God in the NT, as well as from believers living in