The Good and Evil Serpent (167 page)

53
. See now esp. G. Theissen,
The Gospels in Context
, trans. L. Maloney (Minneapolis, 1991).

54
. Athenagoras the Athenian,
A Plea for the Christians
29:10; trans. B. P. Pratten, “A Plea for the Christians by Athenagoras the Athenian: Philosopher and Christian,”
ANF
2, p. 144.

55
. Tertullian,
Apology
14; see the translation by S. Thelwall, “Tertullian: Apology,”
ANF
3, pp. 29–30.

56
. See also Tertullian,
Apology
15; trans. S. Thelwall, “Tertullian: Apology,”
ANF
3, pp. 29–30.

57
. On how Asclepius healed a youth who had been virtually mortally wounded, see Lactantius,
The Divine Institutes
1.17.

58
. Athanasius,
On the Incarnation of the Word
, 49; trans. A. Robertson, “On the Incarnation of the Word,”
NPNF2
4, p. 63.

59
. Clement of Alexandria,
The Stromata
16; trans. Coxe, “The Stromata, or Miscellanies,”
ANF
2, p. 317.

60
. Pindar,
Pythian Odes
1.6–7. For the Greek and English translation, see J. Sandys,
The Odes of Pindar
(LCL; Cambridge, Mass., London, 1968) pp. 184–85.

61
. Tertullian,
Apology
23; trans. Thelwall, “Tertullian: Apology,”
ANF
3, p. 37.

62
. Tertullian,
The Chaplet
8; trans. S. Thelwall, “Tertullian: The Chaplet, or De Corona,”
ANF
3, p. 97.

63
. Origen,
Against Celsus
3.23; trans. F. Crombie, “Origen Against Celsus,”
ANF
4, p. 472.

64
. See the texts cited in Appendix IV on the Rotas-Sator Square.

65
. Justin Martyr,
First Apology
22; trans. Coxe, “First Apology,”
ANF
1, p. 170. Also see Justin Martyr,
First Apology
14 and 60.

66
. Angus,
The Mystery Religions and Christianity
, pp. 307–9.

67
. E. Dinkler,
Christus und Asklepios
(Heidelberg, 1980); see Tafel II.

68
. K. H. Rengstorf,
Die Anfänge der Auseinandersetzung zwischen Christusglaube und Asklepiosfrömigkeit
(Münster, 1953).

69
. D. M. Smith,
John
, p. 98.

70
. One of the major studies on typology is by L. Goppelt. He, however, does not discuss the serpent in Jn 3:14. See Goppelt,
Typos
(Darmstadt, 1969). Although G. W. Buchanan has focused only on the Synoptics, his work is helpful; see his
Typology and the Gospel
(New York, London, 1987).

71
. Suetonius,
The Twelve Caesars
, trans. R. Graves, rev. with an intro. by M. Grant (London, New York, 1989) pp. 104–5.

72
. Suetonius, “Augustus,” 94.

73
. It is possible that Suetonius’ statement, “Everyone believes this story,” refers not only to the astrologer’s claim about Augustus, which immediately precedes it, but also to the story of the birth of Augustus from a snake. Suetonius, “Augustus,” 94 (in Graves and Grant,
The Twelve Caesars
, p. 105).

74
. Later, sometime in the second century CE, some words were altered and 7:538:11 was interpolated.

75
. On the date of the first edition of the Fourth Gospel, see Charlesworth, “The Priority of John? Reflections on the Essenes and the First Edition of John,” in
Für und wider die Priorität des Johannesevangeliums
, ed. P. L. Hofrichter (Zürich, New York, 2002) pp. 73–114.

76
. For the Greek and English see Attridge and Oden,
Philo of Byblos
, pp. 64–65.

77
. The Greek verb means “become young again.”

78
. For the Greek and English see Attridge and Oden,
Philo of Byblos
, pp. 64–65.

79
. Paul (and his school) used it thirty-seven times. See R. Morgenthaler,
Statistik des Neutestamentlichen Wortschatzes
(Zürich, Frankfurt am Main, 1958) p. 103.

80
. See Appendix III.

81
. See Charlesworth, “Reinterpreting John: How the Dead Sea Scrolls Have Revolutionized Our Understanding of John,”
BRev
9 (1993) 18–25, 53.

82
. Josephus,
War
5.108; H. St. J. Thackeray,
Josephus
(LCL 210; Cambridge, London, 1968) vol. 3, p. 232.

83
. The pool is not yet identified. It may be the Birket Mamilla, which is the Pool of Suleiman the Magnificent that is west and a little south of the western walls of Jerusalem. See J. J. Rousseau and R. Arav,
Jesus and His World: An Archaeological and Cultural Dictionary
(Minneapolis, 1995) p. 180. For the claim that the Serpent’s Pool is not the “Dragon Well,” see J. Simons,
Jerusalem in the Old Testament: Researches and Theories
(Leiden, 1952) pp. 162–63.

84
. The use of
kathös
and
houtös
to clarify a comparison appears elsewhere in the New Testament; often in the first line Jonah or Noah appears and in the second the Son of Man Christology (see esp. Lk 11:30, 17:26).

85
. The argument was presented by Bernard,
Gospel According to St. John
(Edinburgh, 1928) pp. 112–13.

86
. T. Zahn,
Das Evangelium des Johannes
(Wuppertal, 1983 [reprint of 1921: 5th and 6th ed.]) p. 204.

87
. My translation is intentionally idiomatic. R. Schnackenburg, “Die ‘situationsgelösten’ Redestücke in Joh 3,”
ZNW
49 (1958) 95 (italics mine).

88
. The translation seems misleading. Bultmann wrote “Jn V. 14 ist allein die Erhöhung genannt.” In light of other comments by him, Bultmann may be including both the crucifixion and the exaltation in the ambiguous German noun that means “raised” or “elevated.” See Bultmann,
Das Evangelium des Johannes
(Göttingen, 1959 [16th printing; 10th ed.]) p. 110. In Bultmann’s
Das Evangelium des Johannes: Ergänzungsheft
(Göttingen, 1959) he added, rightly against Dodd, that the “Erhöhte” of v. 14 “ist doch der KaxaßÄc, von v. 13” (p. 23).

89
. I agree with Bultmann that there is a discernible flow of thought from 3:13 to 3:16. Other scholars see 3:14–15 either as originally a separate logion (Colpe, Schulz) or as a dialogue with a loose structure (Meeks). See the insightful discussion in H. Maneschg,
Die Erzählung von der ehernen Schlange
, p. 388.

90
. Bultmann,
The Gospel of John
, trans. G. R. Beasley-Murray (Philadelphia, 1971); the quotations are from pp. 151–53.

91
. M. Hengel,
The Johannine Question
(London, Philadelphia, 1989) p. 189 n. 69.

92
. G. R. Beasley-Murray,
John
(Waco, Tex., 1987) p. 50.

93
. H. Weder, “L’Asymétrie du salut: Réflexions sur Jean 3, 14–21 dans le cadre de la théologie Johannique,” in
La communauté Johannique et son histoire
, ed. J.-D. Kaestli et al. (Geneva, 1990) 155–84; the quotation is on p. 161.

94
. F. Hahn,
Theologies des Neuen Testaments
(Tübingen, 2002) vol. 1, p. 631. Hahn correctly claims that “lifting up” includes not only the crucifixion but the exaltation: “Hier ist mit dem ‘Erhöhtwerden’ nicht nur der äußere Akt der Befestigung am Kreuz gemeint, sondern das ‘Erhöhtwerden von der Erde,’ die Aufnahme in den Himmel, die mit Jesu Tod beginnt” (vol. 1, p. 650; also see vol. 2, pp. 246–47).

95
. As L. Zani states, “l’evangelista Giovanni e i primi cristiani utilizzino l’Antico Testamento per riflettere sul mistero della vita, della morte e della risurrezione del Signore.” Zani, “Il serpente di rame e Gesè,” in
La storie de Jesu
(Milan, 1984) p. 1339.

96
. Basil,
On the Spirit
14.31; the translation is by B. Jackson, “Basil: The De Spi-ritu Sancto,”
NPNF2
28, p. 20. In
Letters
260.8, Basil again takes up the typos of the serpent for Christ; each time he is clearly influenced by the LXX’s
sëmeion
for “staff.”

97
. E. Haenchen,
John 1
, trans. R. W. Funk (Hermeneia; Philadelphia, 1984) p. 204.

98
. Westcott,
The Gospel According to St. John
(London, 1919) p. 53.

99
. R. J. Burns, “Jesus and the Bronze Serpent,”
TBT
28 (1990) 84. Perhaps Burns sees this connection because she is primarily an Old Testament specialist.

100
. Beasley-Murray,
John
, p. 50.

101
. Bernard,
Gospel According to St. John
, p. 113 (italics mine).

102
. The Lord said to Moses: “Make yourself a serpent and put it on a staff” (
). Most likely Justin Martyr is influenced by the LXX when he interprets Jn 3:14–15; cf.
Dialogue with Trypho
92 and 94.

103
. Frey, “Die
‘theologia crucifixi’
des Johannesevangeliums,” in
Kreuzestheologie im Neuen Testament
, ed. A. Dettwiler and J. Zumstein (Tübingen, 2002) pp. 169238; see esp. pp. 223–24.

104
. J. Asurmendi contends rightly: “[E]n el evangelio de Juan, la serpiente sirve de tipo para simbolizar la nueva y definitiva salvación.” Asurmendi, “En Torno a la Serpiente de Bronce,”
EstBib
46 (1988) 283–94; the quotation is on p. 294.

105
. Augustine, “On the Gospel of John,” 12.11; the quotation is from
NPNF1
7, p. 85. As P. Th. Calmes perceived, there is a clear “relationship between Jesus’ crucifixion and the elevation of the serpent in the wilderness” (“rapprochement entre le crucifiement de Jésus et l’élévation du serpent d’airain”). Calmes,
L’Évangile selon Saint Jean
(Paris, 1904) p. 187.

106
. J. P. Gabler, “An Oration,” p. 141.

107
. The symbols of an anchor, a shore, a harbor, a sunset, the completion of an
inclusion
in writing, a concluding summary by a chorus in a Greek tragedy—all portray or indicate closure. See D. H. Roberts, F. M. Dunn, and D. Fowler, eds.,
Classical Closure
(Princeton, 1998).

108
.
Parallelismus membrorum
, or
isocolon
, is thought, written or oral, that is focused on coordinated lines of similar length within an isolated linguistic group of words. See the reflections by W. G. E. Watson, “Hebrew Poetry,” in
Text in Context
(Oxford, 2000) pp. 253–85; see esp. pp. 260–61.

109
. See now the excellent study by K. Seybold,
Poetik der Psalmen
(Stuttgart, 2003); see esp. pp. 83–127 and the publications cited by him.

110
. I shall not discuss meter since Freedman has convinced me that Hebrew poetry has quantity, but not meter (as in Greek and Latin and today in English and other modern languages). See D. N. Freedman, “Another Look at Biblical Hebrew Poetry,” in
Directions in Biblical Hebrew Poetry
, ed. E. R. Follis (Sheffield, 1987) pp. 11–27; esp. see p. 27.

111
. M. Hengel, “Die Schriftauslegung des 4. Evangeliums auf dem Hintergrund der urchristlichen Exegese,” in
“Gesetz” als Thema Biblischer Theologie
(Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1989) pp. 249–88.

112
. D. N. Freedman, “Pottery, Poetry, and Prophecy: An Essay on Biblical Poetry,” in
The Bible in Its Literary Milieu
, ed. V. L. Tollers and J. R. Maier (Grand Rapids, 1979) pp. 77–100. As Freedman states: “[P]rose and poetry are basically two different ways of using language. Each has its own rules of operation, and it is obligatory to understand each category according to its own pattern, even if the dividing line is not always certain” (pp. 78–79).

113
. The translators of the RSV (2nd ed.) erred, “He has risen,” but the NRSV has translated the verb correctly: “He has been raised.”

114
. See LSJM, p. 1910.

115
. Often
ioudaioi
in the Fourth Gospel should be translated as “Judeans.” See Charlesworth, “The Gospel of John: Exclusivism Caused by a Social Setting Different from That of Jesus (John 11:54 and 14:6),” in
Anti-Judaism and the Fourth Gospel
, ed. R. Bieringer et al. (Leuven, 2001) pp. 479–513.

116
. See esp. H. Leroy,
Rätsel und Missverständnis: Ein Beitrag zur Formgeschichte des Johannesevangeliums
(Bonn, 1968). Also see T. Nicklas,
Ablösung und Verstrickung
(Frankfurt am Main, New York, 2001) pp. 232–37.

117
. Also see the discussion by Y. Simoens in
Secondo Giovanni
, trans. M. A. Cozzi (Bologna, 2002) p. 255. Simoens sees a triple entendre in
anothen:
“The new, the first (or beginning), and the above” (“di nuovo, dal principio, dall’alto,” p. 251).