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Art, Bible Study, Bible themes; Revelation;, children, Creation by Christ, faith, foreign living, Gospel of John, Holy Spirit, Jesus the Evangelist, Leland Ryken, Musée d'Orsay, New Creations by Christ, Philip Graham Ryken, Prologue to John's Gospel, Richard D. Phillips, Scripture, The Literary Study Bible
I enjoy going to Art Museums and Galleries and examining the multitude of treasures found there. I took my children to explore them from the time they were little ones in strollers, and endeavored to make the visits interesting to them too. We love to tell the story of how on our first family visit to Paris, we let each child choose a destination and our 10 –year-old son chose Musée d’Orsay, a gallery of Impressionist art!
What I find makes a visit more enjoyable is to know something about the artist and what he wanted to convey with his artwork. Was he trying to show something at its imagined best, or comment about a flaw? Was there an overarching theme to her artwork? How did his style help to convey a message?
The same principles hold true in Bible Study. There is another depth of understanding added as we look at the writer’s style and the theme of his writing, and how this helps convey the message of the passage. I often read from The Literary Study Bible, edited by Leland Ryken and Philip Graham Ryken, which gives insight into the literary form of the passage, and how this informs our interpretation of it.
I learned some profound things along these lines about the Gospel of John while preparing to teach a Bible Study from the book Jesus the Evangelist by Richard D. Phillips. First I learned that the beautiful opening of the gospel, which we call the prologue, was written as poetry. This is really not too surprising, when we consider all of the images and symbols used.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-5)
What amazed me to see, was that just as John, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, mentions Jesus role in creation in these opening verses, he organizes the beginning of Christ’s ministry in a six day pattern, to show us that Christ is the beginning of the new creation.
Beginning in John 1:19-28, we first see John the Baptists witness about Jesus to those sent by the Scribes and Pharisees to investigate what John was doing. In John 1:29, we read, “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” I had always read the next words of John the Baptist as though they were describing something happening at the time, but if you read them carefully, they are in the past tense.
And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”(John 1:32-34)
The actual baptism of Jesus would have occurred 40 days earlier, because we know that immediately after his baptism, Jesus was driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.(Mark 1:12-13) So John has presented us with Jesus who is ready to begin his ministry.
John 1:35 and 43 also being with the words, “the next day”, giving us the third and fourth days of the narrative, when Jesus begins to call disciples to follow him. The fifth day is implied when John 2 begins with “On the third day”. This is an example of when the chapter divisions break up what was meant to be seen as a whole story, for here begins the story of Jesus turning water into wine, symbolizing the transformation of the old created order into the new through the salvation Christ will bring.
If you go back and read the creation account in Genesis, and then read John 1:1-2:12, I am sure you can see these beautiful parallels.
Don’t you love the riches and depths of Scripture?
Soli Deo Gloria,
Diane