FINACIAMIENTO COSTO

John 6 repeatedly, and in various ways, characterizes the death of Jesus in terms of both the Passover sacrifice and the Isaianic new exodus. I will treat these twin themes separately before stepping back to consider how precisely they are interrelated. Though mentioned expressly only at 6:4, the immanent Passover festival supplies a pivotal component to the symbolic background for both the feeding narrative and for the discourse that follows. Though somewhat overstating the matter, the oft- quoted words of Hoskyns point in the right direction: “the movement from the miracle to the discourse, from Moses to Jesus...and, above all, from bread to flesh, is almost unintelligible unless the reference in v. 4 to the Passover picks up i.29, 36 and anticipates xix.36...and governs the whole narrative.”225

To begin with, the narrative flow in verses 4-5 rather naturally connects the meal Jesus provides with the Passover festival: verse 4 mentions that “Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand”; verse 5 follows directly with “then as Jesus lifted up his eyes and saw that a great crowd was coming to him”, at which point he asked Philip how they might feed the people.226 Moreover, Jesus and the people ascend a mountain at the same time myriad pilgrims are ascending the Temple mount for the festival in Jerusalem.227 The mention of “much grass” implies Passover season.228 The people “recline” (avnapesei/n

/ avnakeime,noij) in a manner to be expected at the Passover meal in Jerusalem.229 Finally, though not

225

Hoskyns, John, 281. He notes further (289), verse 4 “was not introduced in order to assist the readers of the gospel to make out a chronology of the life of Jesus, but to provide them with the proper background of His acts and words.” More specifically, Keener, John, 665, concludes, “the most important function of John’s mention of Passover is thus that it sets the rest of the chapter in the context of the pascal lamb”. Cf. also Westcott, John, 1.211; Marsh, John, 283; Bruce, John, 143; Meeks, Prophet-King, 92; Brown, John, 245; Lincoln, John, 211;

Köstenberger, John, 200; L. Witkamp, “Johannine Features in John 6:1-21,” JSNT 40 (1990) 48.

226 _{The term evggu.j is used with reference to each of the three Passovers in John’s Gospel (2:13; 6:4; 11:55) as well as} the feast of Tabernacles (7:2-3). In each case the term denotes sufficient temporal proximity that those who plan on attending begin the journey to Jerusalem. It seems a reasonable inference that the people still in Galilee when the festival is “at hand” do not plan to attend.

227 _{Jane S. Webster, Ingesting Jesus: Eating and Drinking in the Gospel of John, (Society of Biblical Literature} Academia Biblica, No.6. Atlanta, Georgia: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003), 67.

228 _{Noted in Westcott, John, 1.214; Schnackenburg, John, 2.14; Kerr, Temple, 223; Lincoln, John, 212; Carson,} John, 270; Beasley-Murray, John, 84; Witkamp, “Features”, 58 n.3.

229

Cf. m. Pes. 10.1. So, cautiously, Keener, John, 666. Reclining, of course, was not distinctive to Passover, nor is there unambiguous evidence of legislation mandating the practice in connection with Passover during this period. On the requirement of reclining for the pascal meal in m. Pes 10.1, David Brewer concludes that “although it was undoubtedly the custom before 70 CE to recline at Passover, this passage does not provide any evidence that a ruling about it originated before 70 CE” (Feasts and Sabbaths: Passover and Atonement, Traditions of the Rabbis from the Era of the New Testament 2a, (Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 2010), 174; cf. 172). Nevertheless, though not required, it was likely customary, not least due to its associations with free persons in Greek culture (from which the custom was borrowed). Cf. Keener, John, 900 n.17, and literature cited.

69

indicative of Passover specifically, yet several features of the scene cast Jesus in the form of a gracious host at a formal meal.230

The conclusion of the opening narrative with the people’s desire to make Jesus their king is also suggestive of (or at least consonant with) a Passover theme throughout the account. I argued above that Passover was a time of heightened nationalistic expectation as witnessed to by the occurrence of riots at several festivals. Moreover, the history of Galilee and Judea in the decades between the death of Herod the Great and the war with Rome (4 B.C.E. – 66 C.E.) witnessed the rise of many Moses-type prophets who led crowds of people to various locales with promises of “signs” portending a new exodus/conquest-type deliverance.231 Though there are no accounts of such figures arising during a Passover festival, the heightened sense of eschatological fervor could reasonably be expected to have disposed celebrants to recognize a prophet who comes with exodus-type signs as the bringer of national deliverance.232

The Passover festival, in other words, “was a rallying point for intense, nationalistic zeal. This goes some way to explaining the fervor that tried to force Jesus to become king”.233 The response of the crowd is fully consonant with the association of sign-prophets with Passover and the expectation of

230 _{E.g., the blessing (6:11) and, especially in light of the earlier provision-narrative of 2:1-11, the abundant leftovers} signaling a provident host (cf. Keener, John, 667-668). Some of the features listed above have been regarded as allusive of other Old Testament backgrounds. For example, some scholars have detect resonances in John 6:9-13 with 2 Kgs 4:42-44 in which one hundred men are fed from just twenty loaves of bread with some to spare (e.g., Schnackenburg, 2.16; Brown, John, 246; Wengst, Johannesevangelium, 220; Whitacre, John, 145; see further the literature cited in Moloney, Signs, 34, and Keener, John, 667, 668). Others detect echoes of Ps 23:1-2 in the grassy setting, the command to recline, and the abundant provision by Jesus (see esp. Moloney, Signs, 34-35;

Schnackenburg, John, 2.16; Brodie, John, 261). The former suggestion has some merit on both verbal and thematic levels, suggesting “Der Anklang an 2Kön 4 lässt Jesus in biblischer, prophetischer Tradition stehen” (Wengst, Johannesevangelium, 220), or even that “Jesus far surpasses the Old Testament man of God” (Schnackenburg, 2.16). By contrast, however, an allusion to Ps 23 lacks any verbal basis whatever (as Moloney concedes), and the thematic correspondence with Jesus’ abundant provision is better explained with reference to Num 11 (see below), and perhaps 2 Kgs 4:42-44.

231 _{For helpful summaries of the evidence, see Richard Bauckham, “Messianism According to the Gospel of John,”} in Challenging Perspectives on the Gospel of John (ed. John Lierman; WUNT 219, Tübingen: Mohr, 2006) 42-49, and John Dennis, “The Presence and Function of Second Exodus-Restoration Imagery in John 6,” SNTU 30 (2005) 109-114. Bauckham points out that the absence of reports in Josephus of Moses-type prophets in the years prior to Theudas (45 C.E.) ought not to be regarded as evidence of the absence of such figures (“Messianism”, 49). In the first place, Josephus could not draw upon personal memory from this period to supplement a paucity of sources. Nor would minor movements that were quickly suppressed necessarily have been prominent enough to have been reported in Josephus’ accounts. Finally, it must be remembered that John the Baptist himself needs to be understood in similar terms to later Moses-type prophets, even if differing in important ways. See Webb, John, ch 10. 232 _{See Hylen, John 6, 121-123.}

233

Carson, John, 269, and cf. Webster, Ingesting, 68; Borchert, John, 1.257; Yee, Feasts, 65; Bruce, John, 144, observes “these 5,000 men would have constituted a ready-made guerilla force to anyone willing to become their leader, and verse 15 suggests a leader is just what they were looking for.”

70

eschatological deliverance in the early- to mid-1st century C.E..234 The denouement of the feeding narrative, then, confirms the importance of the pascal setting of the scene.

In summary, though the meal Jesus provides is not a formal Passover meal, many features of the narrative invite the reader to view the meal in pascal terms. As Jewish pilgrims make their journey to Jerusalem for the festival, these crowds come to Jesus to receive a symbolic paschal meal.235