Life
and Death
by Lieut. Xander
Coleman An exploration of Jesus' 'I AM' statements in
the gospel of John
The 'I am' statements in John's gospel are a prominent
literary feature used to reveal who Christ is and give a
compelling insight into John's Christology.
Each 'I am' claim 'brings home an important aspect of
the person and the ministry of Jesus' (Morris, 1995: 324), not
least because of the overtones of divinity caught up in the
phrase 'I am' (Wiersbe, 1986: 78).
Another prominent feature of Johannine writing is the
contrast of polarised concepts, like light and darkness,
belief and unbelief, sight and blindness.
Life and death are particularly important ideas
throughout the gospel, and seem to be an especially prominent
feature of the discourses surrounding Jesus' 'I am' claims.
The
word 'life' appears 36 times, more than twice any other book
in the NT, accounting for a quarter of NT references to life
(Morris, 1995: 73).
Rendered from the Greek zoe (Strong's 2222),
meaning 'vitality' (Strong, 1990b: 79 (at 5590)), the idea
'includes all the positive aspects of social well-being and
fellowship with God' (Lindars, 1981: 85).
In the prologue, 'John is preparing the way for the
thought that he will develop throughout his Gospel, that Jesus
is the life-bringer' (Morris, 1995: 74, emphasis his):
'In him was life, and that life was the light of all people'
(John 1:4, TNIV).
The idea of 'eternal life' is meant when John refers to life
(Morris, 1995: 73):
The word rendered “eternal” (always in this Gospel used of
life) basically means “pertaining to an age.”...the adjective
was used of life in the coming age, not that of the present
age. “Eternal
life” thus means “the life proper to the age to come.”
It is an eschatological concept... Eternal life is life
in Christ... which removes a person from the merely earthly...
it originates in a divine action... wherein one is born anew.
(Morris, 1995: 201)
Through Christ, the vitality of heavenly life can be
experienced in the present (J. Painter, cited in Morris, 1995:
330n121). The concept of 'eternal life' and use of zoe
occur throughout the 'I am' statements, with the exception of
'I am the true vine' (John 15:1, TNIV), where they are
implied.
The theme of death contrasts that of life throughout John.
Throughout the seven 'I am' statements, three different
types of death are used to contrast with the zoe
offered, usually using more than one in each instance.
Firstly, Jesus refers to physical death: 'Lazarus is
dead' (John 11:14, TNIV).
Jesus differentiates between mere physical death and
spiritual death (Tasker, 1983: 138), which is the second
understanding of death; the kind of death implicated in the
vine-branch that is 'thrown away and withers; such branches
are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned' (John 15:6,
TNIV). This kind
of death visits a person who may be still biologically alive,
but whose spirit is severed from God because they fail to
recognise and appropriate the life Christ offers.
The third concept of death is that which Christ does
for us: the good shepherd who 'lays down his life for the
sheep' (John 10:11, TNIV).
Jesus 'is
ready and willing to lay down His life in perfect obedience as
a voluntary sacrifice' (Tasker, 1983: 129).
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet
they died. But
here is a bread that comes down from heaven, which people may
eat and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
Whoever eats of this bread will live forever.
This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life
of the world. (John
6:47-51, TNIV)
The
dominance of zoe in the 'I am' statements is clearly
demonstrated here.
Jesus is the bread of life, taken to mean 'bread
that gives life' (Morris, 1995: 324n99).
Using imagery from Exodus, where God provided manna for
Israel's hunger, Jesus likens himself to that manna, declaring
himself to be the 'bread that comes down from heaven' (John
6:50, TNIV).
Furthermore, he exposes the failure of manna to bring
everlasting life, claiming that only he can give 'eternal
life' (John 6:54, TNIV).
Jesus does not just sustain life, like manna, he
gives life (Wiersbe, 1986: 77).
This is a 'movement away from the old life with its
beggarly famine and its total inability to satisfy, and into
all that association with Christ means' (Morris, 1995: 324):
zoe, vitality, fullness.
The way to appropriate this life is clear: 'Whoever
eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them'
(John 6:56, TNIV)
In
this first of the 'I am' claims, Jesus conjures up all three
ideas of death: physical, spiritual and sacrificial.
'Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet
they died' (6:49, TNIV).
Morris asserts that “died” here refers to physical
death (1995: 330-331), but concedes that the same verb is used
in the following verse to indicate spiritual death.
Landers suggests that manna represents the Law,
impotent to change hearts and bring true life (1981: 265).
If physical death is what Jesus means in verse 49, the
idea of spiritual death is what he is moving towards.
'Here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which
people may eat and not die' (6:51, TNIV).
The life Jesus offers is not life without physical
death: his reference to the resurrection 'at the last day'
(6:54, TNIV) evidences this.
If a spiritual life in verse 51, then a spiritual death
also. Jesus
describes this condition as having 'no life in you' (6:53,
TNIV) and is clearly aimed at 'the Jews who began to argue
sharply' (6:52, TNIV): unless they ate Jesus' flesh – a
repulsive idea – they would remain spiritually dead.
The offer of Jesus' flesh points to physicality of his
gift of life (Morris, 1995: 331).
'Jesus is flesh offered in sacrifice' (Burge, 2000:
201), revealing his willing embrace of death in order to give
us life.
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 'I am the light
of the world.
Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have
the light of life.'
(John
8:12, TNIV)
He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near
the place where the offerings were put.
Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet
come. Once more
Jesus said to them, 'I am going away, and you will look for
me, and you will die in your sin.
Where I go, you cannot come.'
(John 8:20-21).
'Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have
the light of life' (8:12, TNIV).
Here, as in the prologue, 'light and life are again
connected' (Morris, 1995: 389).
'Rabbis sometimes used “light” as a name for the
Messiah' (Morris, 1995: 389n8), and this picture is of life
radiating from the Messiah like light.
'The light of life' according to Tasker, means 'the
light which comes from Him who is life' (Tasker, 1983: 115),
describing Jesus as the epitome of life.
Like sunlight is necessary for all earthly life, Jesus'
light makes 'eternal life' possible.
It is 'the life which frees a person from the sphere of
death' ('Schnackenburg, cited in Morris, 1995: 390n10).
Again, Jesus reveals how to appropriate this
life-light: 'Whoever follows me will never walk in
darkness but will have the light of life' (John 8:12, TNIV).
John contrasts light and darkness – the polarity
between truly following Christ and rejecting him like the
Pharisees. There
is no middle ground – 'Jesus is speaking of wholehearted
discipleship, not of casual adherence' (Morris, 1995: 389).
The light of life is promised as the 'alternative of
continuing to walk in darkness' (Lindars, 1981: 316), which
can be seen as a description of spiritual death.
'Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will
look for me, and you will die in your sin.
Where I go you cannot come”' (8:21, TNIV).
Without the light of life, the Pharisees experience
darkness, spiritually blind to Christ's light.
'Jesus said, “For judgement I have come into this
world, so that the blind will see and those who see will
become blind”' (John 9:39, TNIV).
Jesus looks toward Calvary and makes another contrast –
this time between his death, and the spiritual death of the
Pharisees. 'His
death is set in contrast to theirs.
They will die in their sins, and this will prevent them
from going where he goes.' (Morris, 1995: 395).
Jesus sacrificial death is bound up further with the
Pharisees' spiritual death.
John presents Jesus as in control of his destiny,
avoiding arrest here 'because his hour had not yet come (8:20,
TNIV).
Nevertheless he knew that the religious leaders would kill
him, prophesying to them, 'When you have lifted up the Son of
Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on
my own but speak just what the Father has taught me' (8:28,
TNIV). It is
ironic that the Pharisees' spiritual death precipitates Jesus'
self-sacrificial death, in turn unleashing spiritual life in
an unprecedented way.
Therefore Jesus said again, 'Very truly i tell you, I am the
gate for the Sheep.
All who have come before me are thieves and robbers,
but the sheep have not listened to them.
I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.
They will come in and go out, and find pasture.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I
have come that they have have life, and have it to the full.
I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
(John 10:7-11, TNIV)
Jesus uses a pastoral picture for two 'I am' claims:
'I am the gate for the sheep' (10:7, TNIV) and 'I am
the good shepherd' (10:11, TNIV).
Positioned between these two claims, the promise of
zoe life: 'I have come that they may have life, and have
it to the full' (10:10, TNIV), or, 'and have it abundantly'
(NASB); the Message paraphrases, 'I came so they can have real
and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed
of'. The
shepherding metaphor shows us 'fat, contented, flourishing
sheep' (Carson, 1991: 385).
Jesus the gate protects the sheep and allows them to
access pasture.
'The gate is the sole means by which the sheep may enter the
safety of the fold (v. 9a) or the luxurious forage of the
pasture (v. 9b)' (Carson, 1991: 385).
This is no prosperity gospel – Jesus is not offering
physical longevity or abundance of material possessions, 'but
the possibility... of a life lived at a higher level in
obedience to God's will and reflecting His glory' (Tasker,
1983: 130, emphasis mine).
The Greek for this abundant life is zoe (Strong, 1990a:
624), but when Jesus says, 'I lay down my life for the
sheep' (10:15, TNIV), he uses psuche (Strong's 5590)
meaning breathing, physical life (Strong, 1990a: 624).
The physicality of Jesus' death is again emphasised,
not to be understood metaphorically but literally.
As Jesus moves toward the cross, John shows him laying
down his life as a 'voluntary sacrifice for the sheep'
(Tasker, 1983: 129).
'He did not die as a martyr, killed by men; He died as
a substitute, willingly laying down His life for us.'
(Wiersbe, 1986: 123).
This self-sacrifice for the sheep is 'the most
important feature of Jesus' role as shepherd' (Burge, 2000:
291), for
'it
is because the good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep
that abundant life is made available for them' (Tasker, 1983:
132). Jesus'
death brings life to the sheep, making the concepts of death
and life ambiguous and intermingled.
John's gospel abounds with contrasts between Jesus and the
religious leaders; between true and false, good and bad, light
and darkness.
Here the contrast is between Jesus the gate, protective and
providing, and the damage the thieves are inflicting:
stealing, killing, destroying (10:10).
These thieves may represent the religious leaders
(Wiersbe, 1986: 121) – they refuse true life from Christ, and
damage those who would accept it.
Spiritual death begets spiritual death.
However Carson suggests they represent anything which
sets itself up as an alternative saviour:
The world still seeks its humanistic, political saviours – its
Hitlers, its Stalins, its Maos, its Pol Pots – and only too
late does it learn that they blatantly confiscate personal
property (they come 'only to steal'), ruthlessly trample human
life under foot (they come 'only... to kill'), and
contemptuously savage all that is valuable (they come 'only...
to destroy').
(Carson, 1991: 385)
In either case, death and destruction contrasts with the
abundant life enjoyed by Jesus' flock.
Jesus said to her, 'Your brother will rise again.' Martha
answered, 'I know he will rise again in the resurrection at
the last day.' Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection
and the life.
Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die; and
whoever lives by believing in me will never die.
Do you believe this?' 'Yes, Lord,' she told him.
'I believe you that you are the Messiah, the Son of
God, who was to come into the world.'
(John 11:23-27)
In
the context of Lazarus' death, Jesus reveals himself as the
epitome of 'eternal life' the personification of resurrection.
'I am the resurrection and the life' (11:25, TNIV).
The reader is reminded that 'in him was life' (John
1:4, TNIV), and only in him.
'Through the miracle of [Lazarus'] restoration Jesus
desires to manifest Himself as the resurrection and the
life' (Tasker, 1983: 138).
Jesus raised Lazarus from physical death to physical
life, but the truth taught through that miracle is even
greater, more profound, more powerful: 'the life he brings is
the life of the age to come.
It is the “eternal life” of which he speaks
elsewhere...Those who believe on Jesus...will live even though
they die' (Morris, 1995: 488).
Believer may experience resurrection life now.
Jesus moved 'the doctrine of the resurrection out of
the future and into the present... wherever He is, God's
resurrection power is available now' (Wiersbe, 1986:
137). The key
here is belief, Jesus challenging Martha, 'Do you believe
this?' (11:26, TNIV).
Her response is an emphatic confession of faith: 'Yes,
Lord...I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who
was to come into the world' (11:27, TNIV)
Jesus declares Himself to be 'the resurrection and the life'
(11:25, TNIV), and speaks of believers who 'will never die'
(11:26, TNIV).
Obviously he does not mean that they will escape physical
death ('even though they die' in the preceding verse evidences
that). But such
will be the life lived in them that mere physical death
becomes inconsequential. 'The paradox brings out the great
truth that physical death is not the important thing...they
will not die in the fuller sense.' (Morris, 1995: 488).
Wiersbe observes, 'When we know Him by faith, we need
not fear the shadow of death... When you belong to Him, you
have all that you ever will need in life, death, time, or
eternity!' (1986: 137).
Physical death is of little import, and spiritual death
may be avoided by grace through faith in Christ.
Spiritually dead humanity needs to be resurrected in
Christ the Resurrection and sustained by Christ the Life: both
are gifts given by grace
(Jean Calvin cited in Morris,
1995: 488n55).
My children, I will be with you only a little longer.
You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I
tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
(John 13:33, TNIV)
Thomas said to him, 'Lord, we don't know where you are going,
so how can we know the way?' Jesus answered, 'I am the way
and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.
From now on, you do know him and have seen him.'
(John 14:5-7)
Jesus again foretells his death, yet declaring himself to be
'the life'. If 'I
am' insufficiently shows Christ's divinity, further evidence
is found in his claim of likeness to the Father: 'If you
really know me, you will know my Father as well' (14:7, TNIV).
The characteristics seen in Christ reflect the
Father's; the life Christ gives is an extension of God's life.
'Jesus Himself is therefore the way, because He
is the embodiment of the truth about God and His
relationship with men; and by reason of this, the life,
that is inherent in His own words and actions, the very life
of God Himself, is available for all mankind' (Tasker, 1983:
165, emphasis his).
Like the Gate, Jesus the Way is the only way to
salvation.
Unsurprisingly, 'some expositors find the emphasis on “life”:
“I am the true way to life.”' (Morris, 1995: 570n18).
Jesus embodies 'eternal life', resurrection life – that
life of the age to come – being
both life itself and the source of life for believers (Morris,
1995: 569).
This revelation of self and Father happens under the shadow of
a conversation about Jesus' immanent death.
Though not explicitly mentioned, and the word 'death'
not used, there are clear undertones of foreboding
anticipating Christ's self-sacrifice:
We should not overlook the faith involved both in the
utterance and in the acceptance of these words, spoken as they
were on the eve of the crucifixion.
“I am the Way,” said one who would shortly hang
impotent on a cross.
“I am the Truth,” when the lies of evil people were
about to enjoy a spectacular triumph.
“I am the Life,” when within a matter of hours his
corpse would be placed in a tomb. (Morris,
1995: 570).
Jesus is amongst his disciples, so there seems no need to
speak of spiritual death (although that comes up in the True
Vine discourse (15:1ff)); Jesus' upcoming sacrificial death
overshadows his teaching, despite the disciples' failure to
understand. He
would shortly give up his life to bring 'eternal life' –
'the life of the age to come that is offered by Jesus in the
present'
–
to a humanity dead in sin
(J. Painter, quoted in Morris, 1995: 330n121).
I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,
while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it
will be even more fruitful... I am the vine; you are the
branches. If you
remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart
from me you can do nothing.
If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that
is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up,
thrown into the fire and burned.
(John 15:1-2, 5-6)
While neither life nor death is explicitly mentioned in this
discourse, the imagery is bursting with those themes.
Fruitfulness is 'every demonstration of vitality of
faith, to which... reciprocal love above all belongs'
(Bultmann, cited by Morris, 1995: 595) – the outworking of
'eternal life'.
'The branch cannot produce its own life; it must draw that
life from the vine' (Wiersbe, 1987: 41).
Through intimate relationship with Jesus – remaining in
him – we both receive the necessary life and exhibit fruit.
'To abide in Christ' –
who is the 'Way, the Truth and the Life' (14:6, TNIV),
'the Resurrection and the Life' (11:25, TNIV), 'the Good
Shepherd' (10:11, TNIV), 'the Gate for the Sheep' (10:7,
TNIV), 'the Light of the World' (8:12, TNIV) and 'the Bread of
Life' (6:48, TNIV) – 'is the necessary prerequisite of
fruitfulness' (Morris, 1995: 595).
Tasker links the True Vine to the Bread of Life through
the idea of intimacy of abiding or remaining (Tasker, 1983:
174): 'Whoever
eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in
them,' (John 6:56, TNIV) finds obvious parallels with, 'If you
remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit (John
15:5, TNIV). In
both instances the living union with Christ is the source of
true life.
Wiersbe connects this with another of the 'I am' statements,
the Good Shepherd.
The idea is the similarity between the relationship of
vine to branch and shepherd to sheep in terms of 'union and
communion' (Wiersbe, 1987: 41).
'When believers abide in Christ and Christ's words
abide in them, they live as close to Christ as well may be'
(Morris, 1995: 596). Is is in proximity that Christ's life may
be lived out in them.
Jesus' statement that 'apart from me you can do nothing'
(15:5, TNIV) is a 'emphatic declaration of human helplessness
apart from Christ' (Morris, 1995: 596).
This is the same kind of spiritual death that the
Pharisees suffered.
It refuses to acknowledge spiritual weakness and need
for Christ. Jesus
likens such people to a useless 'branch that is thrown away
and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire
and burned' (John 15:6, TNIV).
This is a severe warning for those who reject the life
that comes from intimacy with Christ: they will experience
spiritual death.
Jesus' thoughts again turn to his crucifixion, now immanent.
'Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's
life for one's friends' (15:13, TNIV).
Clearly an allusion to what is to come, Jesus again
foretells his death once more in terms of voluntary sacrifice
(Morris, 1995: 598-599).
His motivation is love for his friends, and his
friendship extends to all who 'do what I command' (John
15:14).
'Jesus is willing to die because of his profound commitment to
the ones he loves' (Burge, 2000: 291).
He
is aware that his physical death brings spiritual life to the
world, and he willingly goes to the cross to prove his
commitment to providing life for us.
As the prophet said, 'by his wounds we are healed'
(Isaiah 53:5, TNIV).
That this idea of eternal, full, abundant, resurrection zoe
life appears throughout Jesus' self-revelatory statements
in John's gospel, shows a Christ wholeheartedly committed to
providing zoe for a humanity that is dead in sin.
The consistency with which the idea appears around the
'I am' claims is striking, and points to how John wants to
portray Christ.
His claim in the prologue, 'in him was life, and that life was
the light of all people' (1:4, TNIV) becomes an important
interpretative key to understanding John's Christology.
Christ did not just create biotic life in the physical
world, but embodies everything it means to be truly alive.
His mission was to make this zoe available to
people in the present, that they may participate in his
resurrection life – the life of the age to come – now.
And 'the
moment we put our trust in Jesus we begin to experience that
life of the age to come which cannot be touched by death'
(Morris, 1995: 488-489).
In true Johannine style, this zoe is contrasted with
various ideas of death.
Mere physical death is of little consequence to those
that already enjoy a deeper life.
Spiritual death is more of a concern, standing in
direct opposition to the spiritual life which Christ offers.
The red thread running through these 'I am' statements,
though, is Christ's self-giving death.
He is the willing sacrifice, embracing physical death
so that we may know spiritual life.
'The story of the 'passion' in John is not an account of what
men did to Jesus, but rather the story of what he did for
them' (Marsh, quoted by Morris, 1995: 453).
Because of his death, we may truly 'have life, and have
it to the full' (John 10:10, TNIV).
This exploration has grown out of a series of
I preached on the 'I am' statements.
Week by week as I prepared my material, this concept of
true life kept emerging as key part of my sermons.
The concept of life in all its fullness (John 10:10)
had captured me some years before, but as I preached through
the gospel I found it to be a major theme of Jesus' teaching
in John.
Knowing John's penchant for
contrasts, I looked for where ideas of death might come into
the stories. I
discovered that physical death happens, and for those left
behind, that hurts.
Even Martha mourned when the Resurrection was standing
in front of her face. Yet
the overwhelming hope in
physical death is this: the life we experience in Christ far
supersedes mere physical death.
Pastorally, this is great hope for the bereaved, and
can be celebrated, as it was with Lazarus, in the midst of
mourning. We
speak so seldom of resurrection, we must not pass up the
opportunity to preach it at a funeral.
More important, though, is helping people experience
the reality that 'everlasting life' begins on earth.
Our eschatology is already inaugurated, and we are
waiting, with all creation, 'in eager expectation' for it to
be fully established (Romans 8:19).
Far worse than physical
death, though, is spiritual death, which involves rejection of
Christ, withering of spirit, death in sin.
This death is no less real (perhaps considerable more
real) than physical death.
Perhaps we play this down in our pluralist postmodern
society; we are uncomfortable about declaring society
spiritually dead, and certainly not individuals.
Meanwhile, millions attempt a spirituality without
Christ, or live a ritualistic form of Christianity devoid of a
living relationship with the Saviour.
But life without Christ, however 'spiritual', is
spiritually dead.
There is only one Gate, and only one Way to the Father.
Jesus is the only way to fullness of life, and we must
take our role seriously in seeking to introduce people to him.
The stakes are high – it is a matter of life and death!
There is only one cure for
spiritual death – another kind of death, by someone else:
Jesus sacrificing himself, substituting out spiritual death
for his physical death.
As his followers, it is our privilege to follow him to
the cross.
Captain David Kinsey says that true Christian ministry looks
like this: 'whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but
whoever loses their life for me will find it' (Matthew 16:25,
TNIV). Like
Christ, we bring life to other people by laying down our lives
for them.
And, because Jesus is the
personification of resurrection, through his death we are
resurrected to zoe life.
Where Jesus the Resurrection is, there is
resurrection-life also.
That the Resurrection lives in my heart is ample proof
that 'eternal life' can be lived here and now.
Helping people to experience this life is, for me, a
mission imperative.
The idea is holistic, ministering to the whole person,
and is Christocentric, focussed on, reliant on and emanating
from Jesus.
The idea of losing your life
to find it, and of death bringing life, points to a delightful
ambiguity between death and life.
A friend of mine has a pair of matching tattoos, one on
each arm. Viewed
from one angle, the tattoo says 'life.'
Viewed from the other, it says 'death'.
My friend got them to remind herself of Jesus, who
epitomised life, yet
voluntarily died to bring that life to others.
Having received his love, she wants to lay down her
life to bring his life to others.
This is where the disciple walks, living resurrection
life here on earth but laying down that life for others.
What a joyful thing to be counted amongst 'the living
dead'.
Bibliography
2007
New Revised Standard Version Bible Anglicized
Edition. London, HarperCollins
2007
The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible New International
Version.
Indianapolis: B. B. Kirkbride Bible Co.
2005
The Holy Bible, Today's New International Version.
Grand Rapids: Zondervan
1995
New American Standard Bible – Updated Edition.
Iowa Falls: Word Bible Publishers
Beasley-Murray, George R.
1991
Word Biblical Commentary John.
Milton Keynes: Word
Burge, Gary M.
2000
The NIV Application Commentary: John.
Grand Rapids: Zondervan
Carson, D. A.
1991
The Gospel According to John.
Leicester: IVP
Ellis, E. E.
1982
'Life'. In
New Bible Dictionary.
Second Edition.
Ed J. D. Douglas.
Leicester: IVP, 1982: 697-701
Lindars, Barnabus
1981
The Gospel of John.
London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott
Morris, Leon
1995
The Gospel According to John.
Revised.
Cambridge: Eerdmans
Peterson, Eugene H.
2003
The Message Remix.
Colorado Springs: NavPress
Strong, James
1990a
The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.
London:
Thomas Nelson
1990b
'A Concise Dictionary of the Word in The Greek Testament; With
Their
Renderings in the Authorized English Version'.
In The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the
Bible.
London: Thomas Nelson
Tasker, R. V. G.
1983
The Gospel According to
St. John
An Introduction and Commentary.
Leicester: IVP
Wiersbe, Warren W.
1987
Be Transformed John 13-21.
Amersham-on-the-Hill, Bucks: Scripture Press
1986
Be Alive John 1-2.
Amersham-on-the-Hill, Bucks: Scripture Press
|