John. Jey J. Kanagaraj
Mark 14:62; Rev 12:1; 15:1; etc.). It will see the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man, just like Jacob saw (Gen 28:12–17). Jacob saw the angels of God ascending and descending on a ladder and at the top of it he saw the Lord God, who revealed himself to Jacob as the God of his fathers.
The Johannine Jesus replaces Jacob’s ladder with the Son of Man on whom the angels were ascending and descending. This means that just as Jacob’s ladder was the means of communication between earth and heaven, John portrays the Son of Man, Jesus, as the way from earth to heaven (John 14:6) and the means of communication with God. Moreover, there is no reference in John for the presence of God who revealed himself to Jacob (Gen 28:13–15). However, for John one can see the same God in the Son of Man. Thus Jesus, the Son of Man, becomes to all people both the way to heaven and the revelation of God’s glory.
The idea of the Son of Man as the mediator between heaven and earth is based on Daniel’s vision of “one like a son of man,” who is the representative of both God and the saints of the Most High and through whom God’s people will possess God’s kingdom, dominion, and authority (Dan 7:9–27). It is possible that Jesus picked up the title “Son of Man” for himself from Daniel 7 to denote the communication between God and humanity.43 At the same time, the term “son of man” was used to refer to the “man of God’s right hand,” implying the “anointed one of God” (Ps 80:17). When John was written, the Jews understood the title “Son of Man” in terms of the “Elect One” of God or the “Christ” (1 En. 37–71; 4 Ezra 12–13). In John, “Son of Man” is spoken by the people on par with “Messiah” (12:34). Thus, the “Son of Man” in 1:51 refers to Christ, who came from heaven to reveal God, his love and life-giving power. He is the place where one can see God’s glory in human form on earth (John 19:5; cf. Ezek 1:26–28). This could be a polemic against the Jewish mystics who claimed that one can see the kingly glory of God in human form only by ascending to heaven (cf. John 3:13).
The whole Gospel of John hereafter will show how Jesus’ promise in 1:51 was fulfilled in the life and ministry of Jesus and how God was creating a new covenant community in the Son of Man. In this sense, 1:51 is a springboard for studying the Gospel of John.
1. Dunn 1989: xxviii.
2. Hengel 2008: 268–89.
3. Schnackenburg 1980–84: 1.234.
4. Contra Haenchen 1984: 1.108, 110. The Greek word theos never means “divine.”
5. Neyrey 2007: 43.
6. While the reference to the blood and flesh indicates mortal humanity (Matt 16:17; 1 Cor 15:50), the expression “the will of man” reflects the Jewish belief that a woman begets a child by a man’s initiative.
7. Kanagaraj 2005: 53.
8. Kanagaraj 1998b: 80–81.
9. Käsemann 1968: 4–26.
10. Milne 1993: 46.
11. Keener 2005: 1.408–9.
12. Cf. Keener 2005: 1.409.
13. Cf. Bultmann 1971: 63–64.
14. Barrett 1978: 514.
15. Bratcher 1991: 23.
16. Pamment 1983: 14–15.
17. Kanagaraj 1998a: 214–47.
18. Dodd 1958: 305 n. 1; Barrett 1978: 166.
19. “Fullness” (plērōma) means “the totality of divine powers and attributes” revealed in Jesus; see Lightfoot 1997: 48, 78.
20. Cf. Edwards 1988: 8–9.
21. Lindars 1957: 27; Kanagaraj 2005: 61.
22. Sandmel 1979: 95; Kanagaraj 1998a: 72.
23. Possibly the “Bethany beyond Jordan” was on the eastern side of Jordan up in the northern end of Peraea, closer to Aenon (near Salim), a place of springs in the western bank of Jordan.
24. For various shades of meaning of the term “the Jews” in John see Griffith 2008: 185; Brown 2010: 157–75. The term also refers to the Jews who genuinely believed in Jesus after seeing Jesus’ sign (11:45).
25. Cf. Dunn 2003: 265–70.
26. John 6:14; 7:40; 9:17 do not prove that the Johannine community had developed a prophet Christology.
27. This reflects the current belief that the Messiah is concealed in the presence of God’s power from the beginning (1 En. 62:7; 4 Ezra 13:2–4, 52; Dan 7:13–14).
28. Barclay 1957: 1.62.
29. For other arguments against the background of Revelation see Ridderbos 1997: 72; Keener 2005: 1.452.
30. Cf. Michaels 2010: 113.
31. The word “to remain” (menein), which is used about forty times in the Gospel, indicates the intimate union that exists between Jesus and the Father and also between Jesus and his followers.
32. Neyrey 2007: 53.
33. Kanagaraj 2005: 84–85.
34. Cf. Carson 1991: 154–55.