THE OLD TESTAMENT IN JOHN'S WRITINGS

The Gospel of John

As expected, John's Gospel strikes out in a different direction from the Synoptic writings in a number of ways. One of these is his much less reliance on direct quotations from the Old Testament. John employs about half the number as Mark does and only a fifth of the number that Matthew has. But as Raymond Brown, probably the premier commentator on John's Gospel, explains, mere statistics are very misleading because major OT themes are even more represented by him.

The allusions to the Old Testament start at the beginning of John's Gospel, which is a reworking of the first verses of Genesis 1. In John 1:1-3 we are thus first introduced to a key theme found throughout this Gospel: the identity of Christ with the Father. This is also stressed in the seven “I am” statements in the first half of the book, all alluding back to Moses' encounter with God in the burning bush where He reveals His name as Yahweh, The I Am. Then there is the replacement theme throughout the first half of the book whereby Jesus, in one way or another, brings out the true significance of the various Jewish feasts (see my post on Jewish Festivals in John's Gospel for details).

Certain OT patriarchs are picked out by John for special notice. John 8:31-59 centers around a discussion between Jesus and the Jews in which they brag about being sons of Abraham. This encounter ends in an attempt by them to stone him when he declares, “Amen, I tell you that before Abraham was, I am.” The famous passage John 3:16 can be viewed as an allusion back to the story of Abraham's abortive sacrifice of his beloved son. Only in the case of Jesus, the sacrifice actually takes place. John 4:1-15 takes place at Jacob's well and is a deliberate retelling of the story found in Genesis 29:1-12. In both cases, the male protagonist provides water for the woman involved, only the water that Jesus provides is living water. In each case, Jesus is shown to be superior to the patriarchs.

John's Gospel is also noteworthy in not recording any parables of Jesus. But to compensate for that fact, he provides three examples of extended discourses that are somewhere between parables and allegories. There are definite OT overtones in these three. The first is found in John 6:25-59 where he calls his body the bread of life in comparison to the manna that God provided the Israelites in the wilderness. John 10 is the allegory of the sheep and the shepherd, and it is discussed in some detail in my post on that chapter. The third is John 15:1-11 in which Jesus is pictured as the vine and the Father as the vinegrower. This can be profitably compared with the Old Testament parables utilizing the vine(yard) analogy and found in Isaiah 5:17; Psalm 80:8-16; and Ezekiel 19:10-14. For a further discussion of these those passages, see the post on “Three Vineyard Parables.”

John's Epistles

Definite allusions to the Old Testament in these three letters are few and far between, and certainly no direct citations appear there. One could point to the image of light as representing the holiness of God in I John chapters 1-2. Similar use of this symbol is found in Psalm 4:6; 27:1 and Isaiah 60:1-2. References to the commandment to love one another in 2:7-11 can be traced all the way back to Leviticus 19:18. Next, Perkins notes that references to the antichrist(s) in I John 2:18 appear to combine the characteristics of the mythical chaos monster that God defeats during the creation, Satan, various OT human rulers who embodied evil, and false prophets such as mentioned in Deuteronomy 13:2-6 and 18:20. Finally I John 3:12 utilizes the story of Cain and Abel as an example of one following the way of the evil one.

The Revelation

Although scholars have identified up to 1,000 references to the Old Testament in John's Revelation and whole portions of that book appear to have been structured after OT passages, there is not one direct quotation found there. The pervasive influence of the Old Testament on that book is such a large subject that there is no space here to discuss it in depth. However, I would recommend that you read my post entitled “The Old Testament in the Book of Revelation” if you want to learn more.