Jesus' Words after the Last Supper
by Jacques Beaulieu
Jesus' Last Talk at Table
I will break Jesus' first talk to His disciples
in short sections, often just a verse long. I will
examine and comment them in their order of
appearance.
A. «Glorification»
I cannot understand Jesus' introduction to His first talk
as it is translated in the King James
Version:1
Therefore, when he [Judas] was gone out,
Jesus said,
Now is the Son of man glorified,
and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him,
God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall
straightway glorify him.2
I take for granted that Jesus is referring to
Himself as the «Son of Man», something
He has done consistently in this Gospel. In fact,
it cannot possibly refer to anyone else in the
context of this Gospel.
This statement about «glorification» has the
following logical structure:
- The «Son of Man», Jesus, is «glorified» now.
- His «glorification» causes God to be «glorified».
- Because of this «glorification» of God through Jesus',
- God Himself will «glorify» Jesus, and this, right now.
The Oxford Dictionary states that «glorify» means
«make glorious», «exalt to the glory of heaven»
where «glory» means «exalted renown», «honourable
fame», «special distinction», «subject for boasting»
and so on. A paraphrase based on this definition
would be something like: «I am
now going to become a subject of boasting; My exalted
fame will give God a special distinction in the eyes of
humans. Because of this exalted renown I will give God,
He will immediately make Me a subject of
boasting.»3
I must say that I do not find this at all clear!
So perhaps it would be useful to go back to the original
Greek text and see if there is another possible
translation for the term «glorify».
The Greek verb translated by «is glorified» in the first verse
of this segment is «edoksasthè» (ed??as??), the passive
(aorist) form of the verb «doksazô» (d??a??). In its active
form, its first meaning is «have an opinion», «believe»,
«think», «judge». In its passive form, it would thus mean:
«to be known as», «to be thought of as», «to be judged as»,
«to be believed to be». The problem then becomes
«to be known as» what? This is not expressed
in the sentences where these words appear.
Part of the idea behind the normal understanding
of «glory» is «fame»: a public understanding of
someone or something.
Jesus saying about «glorification» would have the following translation:
-
The coming events will permit people to make a judgment on Him.
- This judgment on Him will affect people's judgment on God.
- This will cause God to Himself make a judgment on Jesus
- which will follow there and then.
I think we could all agree on the fact that any judgment,
opinion, belief of God on Jesus must be a correct and
truthful one. So, surely, there must be in the use of this
term here the idea that the judgment that will be made
is a correct and truthful one. If this is the case, the most
reasonable translation would be «to be known
correctly», «to be judged correctly». This sort of
fame has to do with accuracy, correct knowledge.
So our segment could be translated quite differently as:
«It is now that I am really
going to be known for Who I am, and Me being really
known will mean that God will also be really known for
Who He is; furthermore, as God will be really known
in Me, He will make sure that His knowledge of Me
is proclaimed right away.»
From this, I understand Jesus to be saying
that the coming events, His handling of the
ordeal to come, His passion and death, which
His disciples will be witnesses to, are going
to clearly define Who He is and thus Who
God is. God will vouch for this affirmation of
Who He Is through Jesus' actions by His own
corroboration that He is indeed like Jesus says.
This corroboration of God will be Him raising
Jesus from the dead, Him bringing Jesus
back to life, another event which the disciples
will witness.
This interpretation seems to make sense since
Jesus earlier in this Gospel made it clear that His
«glorification» was related to His death, as He
mentions it immediately after.4
This text as last interpreted is a fitting
introduction to Jesus' first talk as it contains its major theme in a nutshell.
B. Jesus' farewell
Jesus then gives to His disciples His farewell message:
«Little children, yet a little while
I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews,
Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to
you.».5
After what can be described as a term of endearment
applied to His disciples, Jesus tells them that He is
leaving them for somewhere they cannot go, as He had
told them and others many times before. They will look for
Him and will be unable to find Him. He neither tells them
where He is going or why they cannot
go with Him (probably as He assumes that they will have
worked it out by what He had said on other occasions).
He then goes on to say: «A new
commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as
I have loved you, that ye also love one
another.».6
This is His last will and testament, His «new
commandment»: love one another like He loves them.
1 Jesus' words will be in red
throughout as is often found in Protestant Bibles;
all biblical quotes are from the King James Bible
recognized by Protestants as the Bible in English.
2 John 13:31b-32
3 My paraphrases of Jesus' words will be in
purple throughout.
4 «And Jesus answered them, saying,
The hour is come, that the Son of man
should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn
of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die,
it bringeth forth much fruit.» (John 12:23-24)
5 John 12:33
6 John 13:34
7 John 13:35
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Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th, 2004
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