An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 203: Water and Light Metaphors Aplenty (John 1-5)

John 1-5
Water and Light Metaphors Aplenty.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT
For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

John 1

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

As I recall, John’s gospel is a very different animal to the preceding three, couched much more in mystical terms, and right at the beginning here we can see that; John moves from the creation of everything, conflating the “Word of God” and the “Light of God” as concepts that are more than the words “word” and “light” generally mean, straight to John the Baptist.

Not for John the Evangelist any nativity scenes; John the Baptist is the important starting point, being the one who first points to Jesus as being the Messiah (also “Lamb of God”, giving John the gospel writer one of his set of characteristics for future representational art – the lamb and flag). John the Baptist pronounces Jesus to be the Messiah, and then Jesus gathers together His followers. Here Simon Peter is instead named “Cephas” (also meaning “stone”) – but no reason is given, no pun on being a “rock on which to build a church”. One other thing of note in this chapter is the concept that Jesus would grant the power to all who believe to “become the sons of God”. Which makes me wonder once again if the term “Son of God” is meant to imply devotion rather than an actual filial relationship with a supernatural being. A son (or daughter) of God, therefore, could be meant in a similar fashion to the term “muslim”; one who submits [to the Will of God]. If all followers of Jesus can become “sons” of God, then His position as “son of God” is not, perhaps unique. Interesting.

John 2

“And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there”

For the first and only time in the gospels, the wedding at Cana gets a mention but, oddly, Jesus’ mother isn’t given a name. It is she who points out that the wine has run out, and Jesus’ reply seems to be very rude; “Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come”. That’s not “honouring thy father and mother”. Nevertheless, Jesus turns water into wine, although only the servants know that this has happened. The “ruler of the feast” complains to the servants that they have kept back the best vintage until now, and I smell a metaphor – Jesus is the “good wine”, compared to the merely passable wine that is peoples’ relationship with God up until now.

And then John jumps straight to Jesus casting out the moneylenders from the temple, making a prophecy that the temple will be destroyed and rebuilt in three days (the “temple” in this case being His own body, as guessed at by the disciples). Which leaves me to wonder if John is going to jump back and forth in time and fill out some of the earlier incidents in the life of Jesus, or if his main interest is in the time spent in Jerusalem.

John 3

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

The philosophies of this chapter are framed as two conversations, one between a Pharisee called Nicodemus and Jesus, the other between John the Baptist and his followers. They both, essentially, put forth the idea that Jesus is the route to God, but also that a person needs to be “born again” to find the Kingdom of Heaven. Not an earthly rebirth, but one of “water and of the spirit”, highlighting baptism as important (not so far mentioned as necessary for followers of Jesus in the previous gospels). The rebirth of spirit is a more subtle thing, but its meaning is pretty evident.

Here, Jesus is mentioned as giving baptisms as well as John (and at the same time), but John is magnanimous, saying that Jesus is the true “way to God” and not himself.

Already much is made in this chapter of the Christian beliefs about Jesus being the “way to God”, and also very much confirmed here as the Son of God, in stark comparison to the prior gospels where Jesus spends a lot of time down-playing that title until right near the end and the entry to Jerusalem.

John 4

“Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.”

Okay, first of all this chapter corrects a misperception from the previous chapter – the disciples do the baptising, not Jesus. All the same, He leaves for Samaria to avoid attention from the Pharisees (despite a relatively rational discourse with Nicodemus before). In Samaria, Jesus waits by a well while the disciples go to get food, and meets a Samaritan woman from whom He demands water. Jesus then gives some metaphor about being able to offer “water” that will be the “well of water springing up everlasting life”. He’s also able to tell about the woman’s personal life, and for that she treats Him as a prophet and Messiah.

Other Samaritans come to listen to Jesus, and as well as everlasting water He also speaks of “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work” and refuses food from the disciples. Which is all very well, but not recommended from a nutritional stand-point.

After spending a few days teaching in Samaria, Jesus returns to Cana in Galilee where he heals a sick boy from afar; this detail is recounted in the other gospels although sometimes it’s a mother rather than a father who appeals to Jesus to help.

John 5

“Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.”

There’s a somewhat uncomfortable sentiment in this chapter. It begins fine, with a group of sick people waiting by a pool at Bethesda that has randomly occurring healing properties. One man is unable to make use of it because he can’t walk and no-one is willing to take him down to the pool during its healing time, so Jesus grants him the power to walk. However, the Pharisees are annoyed because this was done on a Sabbath, and eventually they catch up with Jesus (who blends into the crowd at first) and accuse him.

Jesus gives a lengthy rebuttal that takes up the length of the chapter, although I don’t think He does Himself any favours with it, since by claiming the title of Son of God He angers the Pharisees further by putting Himself as an equal to God. It then takes on a hint of megalomania – “That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him”. Not content with claiming the worship due to God, Jesus also claims the divine right to judge people – “And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man”. This is tempered somewhat, I must admit, by the later claim only to be a conduit for God’s will – “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me”. Because this is Jesus saying this it’s accepted as a good thing, but imagine how many other people in history have done terrible things because they’ve claimed to be following the “will of God”. As I said, there’s definitely something uncomfortable about the sentiments expressed here.