READ IT! - Introduction to John 2-8

Readings for this week

Monday: John 2
Tuesday: John 3
Wednesday: John 4
Thursday: John 5
Friday: John 6
Saturday: John 7
Sunday: John 8

Introduction to John 2-8

Chapter 2 

The second chapter of John begins with the miracle of Jesus turning the water into wine at a marriage at Cana. He is attending a wedding with his disciples and the hosts run out of wine. His mother is also there and asks him to help. He seems annoyed that she would ask him for a miracle and says that it is not his time yet. Nevertheless, she still tells the servants to do whatever he asks, so he tells them to fill up the empty wine containers with water…which miraculously turns into wine. Afterwards, the headwaiter of the wedding tastes it and remarks to the groom that they have saved the best wine for last. John tells his audience that the water was there for the Jewish rite of purification. According to John, this was his first miracle (in Cana). According to the hypothesis of the Signs Gospel, this miracle was originally in that document. 

Jesus goes to Jerusalem for the Passover, the first of three in John, the others being John 7, where he goes to the Feast of Tabernacles, and the final Passover during which he is crucified. He enters the Temple courts and sees people selling livestock and exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market! John says his disciples remembered Psalm 69:9, "zeal for your house will consumes me," perhaps a bit of wordplay interposing the ideas of "demanding all my attention” and “leading to my destruction." Whether the disciples remembered this during the incident or afterward is not clear. 

He is asked to perform a "miraculous sign" to prove he has authority to expel the money changers. He replies, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." The people believe he is talking about the official Temple building, but John states that Jesus meant his body, and that this is what his disciples came to believe after his resurrection. John then says that during the Passover Feast Jesus performed miraculous signs, but does not list them, that caused people to believe in him, but that he would "not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men." Perhaps John included this statement to show Jesus possesses a knowledge of people's hearts and minds, an attribute of God. 

John mentions the incident with the money changers as occurring at the start of Jesus' ministry, while the synoptic gospels have it occurring shortly before his crucifixion. Some scholars insist that this instead shows that Jesus fought with the money changers twice, once at the beginning and once at the end of his ministry. The incident in the synoptics occurs in Mark 11:12-19, Matthew 21:12-17, and Luke 19:45-48. Perhaps John has relocated the story to the beginning to show that Jesus' arrest was for the raising of Lazarus in John 11, not the incident in the Temple. 

Chapter 3 

The first part of the chapter begins with Nicodemus, said to be a member of the ruling council, secretly coming at night to talk with Jesus, whom he calls Rabbi. Jesus' "miraculous signs" have convinced him that Jesus is "...from God." Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be “born again” to see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus has known this his whole life, but he wants Jesus to take the answer in a different direction, so he’s like, “Born again? What’s that supposed to mean, anyway? How can I crawl back up into my mother’s birth canal?” 

And Jesus is like, “Don’t play stupid with me, Nicodemus. The case has always been that you must be ‘born again.’ That’s what I’m all about. The reason God sent me into the world was so that my death would bring new life to all the world. I’m going to be lifted up on a symbol of death, just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert – in order that you may experience new life, rebirth, resurrection.” Jesus says that God has sent his only son into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save it. He says that the Light has come into the world, but that people have loved darkness more than light because the darkness obscures their evil deeds. But those who live by the truth will step into the light. 

In the second part of the chapter John contrasts Jesus' talk of being born again with a scene of Jesus baptizing. Jesus goes into Judea with his disciples and baptizes. John the Baptist is also baptizing people nearby, at Aenon. John's disciples tell John that Jesus is also baptizing people, more than John it seems. John replies that "A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, 'I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.' The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less." He finishes by saying "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." This passage is meant to show John's acceptance of Jesus' superiority as well as a further emphasis on belief in him as the path to eternal life. 

Chapter 4 

The Pharisees learn that Jesus is baptizing more people than John the Baptist, although it says that "...in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples." Jesus learns this, leaves Judea, and returns to Galilee. Jesus then goes to the Samarian town of Sychar, and rests at Jacob's Well. His disciples go into the town to get food. While Jesus is waiting for them, a Samaritan woman comes to the well and Jesus asks her for a drink. The woman is surprised and says that Samaritans and Jews do not associate. Jesus responds that if she really knew who he was, she would have asked for the "water" that Jesus was offering. "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The woman asks for this "water" and Jesus tells her to go and find her husband and bring him back. The woman states she has no husband, and Jesus says that in fact she has had five husbands and is now living with a man who is not her husband. She then believes that he is a prophet. 

Jesus then teaches her about worshiping God, how it has been done in the past, at certain locations, and how it will be done properly in the future. "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." The woman then says that the messiah will come and explain all. Jesus declares that he is the messiah. 

His disciples return and the woman returns to town, tells people that Jesus knew all about her, and wonders if he is the messiah. The people decide to go and see for themselves. The disciples meanwhile try to give Jesus some food but he refuses, saying that his food "...is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work." The people from town come and Jesus talks with them and they convince him to stay for two days teaching. His words convince them that he is "...the Savior of the world." 

Like the story of Nathanael sitting beneath the fig tree, this story also brings to mind the life of Jacob. This story takes place at Jacob's Well, and like Jacob, Jesus offers the young woman he finds there water... though not of the same variety. Now the Samaritans were, of course, half-breeds, being the descendants of Jews who’d intermarried with non-Jews. They continued to honor God, but they were banned from the Temple because of their lineage. Therefore, they’d kept the Torah, but treated Mt. Gerizim, in Samaria, as the place of the true temple. When the Jews overthrew Seleucid rule and gained a brief period of independence under the Hasmonean dynasty, they destroyed the Samaritan temple — making relationships between the temples all the more hostile. Thus, the Samaritan woman initiated a discussion about the proper place to worship — a question that would have been of intense interest to most Jewish rabbis. God may only be worshiped in Jerusalem! 

Jesus declares that in the new age, it will no longer be about worshiping in a particular place. Worship won’t be a matter of geography. Rather, the true test of worship will be whether it’s “in spirit and truth.”

Jesus then travels back to Galilee where the people welcome him. He goes to Canaan where a royal official asks him to heal his sick son. Jesus seems annoyed because people only seem to believe in him if he performs miracles. Nevertheless, Jesus says the boy will be healed. The official goes back home to find his boy well again. According to John, this is Jesus' second miracle (after Marriage in Cana).

Chapter 5

Jesus goes to Jerusalem for a feast. At the Pool of Bethesda he sees a paralyzed man. The ruins of the Pool of Bethesda are still standing in Jerusalem. Later editions of John’s Gospel state that an angel of God would come and stir up the water of the pool on occasion, and that the bubbling water had the power to heal people. This is why the paralyzed man was there in the first place. Jesus tells the man to pick up his mat and walk. This takes place on the Sabbath, and Jewish religious leaders see the man carrying his mat and tell him this is against the law. He tells them the man who healed him told him to do so, and they ask who that was. He tries to point out Jesus, but he has slipped away into the crowd. Jesus comes to him later and tells him, "Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." The man then tells the Jewish religious leaders it was Jesus who healed him.

People begin to persecute Jesus because he is working on the Sabbath and comparing himself to God. Jesus responds that his power comes from his Father, and that he has been given the power to judge men from the Father. This power is granted to the Son because he is the Son of Man, presumably meaning that because Jesus is fully human he knows all that is to be known about men and so can accurately judge them. He then speaks of the future when the dead will rise and the righteous will be given life and the evil condemned. 

Jesus then talks of John's testimony about him. He also says that people study the scriptures hoping for eternal life, but that the scriptures speak of him, and people still refuse to come to him for life. People accept people who preach in their own name but not in one who comes in the name of the Father. "How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?"

He then speaks of Moses as the accuser of humanity. "But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?"

These teachings of Jesus are almost only found in John. In the Synoptic Gospels Jesus only speaks of himself as the Messiah in such a straight forward way at the very end, shortly before his death. All this occurs in Jerusalem, whereas the Synoptic Gospels have very little of Jesus' teachings occurring in Jerusalem and then only before his death.

Chapter 6

At the beginning of this story, John mentions that the Jewish Passover Festival would soon take place. Jesus crosses the Sea of Galilee, but the crowds follow him around the lake because he had previously healed them. Jesus and his disciples go up on the mountainside and Jesus asks Philip for suggestions on where to buy bread to feed all these people. Philip says, “It would take half a year’s wages to pay for everyone to just get a bite!” Andrew’s like, “Here’s a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but what good will that do?” Jesus has the crowd sit down on the grass and he gives thanks and distributes what food they have to the crowd. By the end of the meal, the whole crowd of over 5,000 people has had enough to eat and the disciples pick up twelve basketfuls of leftovers. After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” The Prophet refers to the promise Moses had made that another person like himself would arise to lead Israel. Jesus knows that the crowd is about to declare him King of Israel and start a revolution, so he runs off and hides in the mountains.

That night, the disciples get back in their boat and cross back over the lake without Jesus. But the wind starts blowing hard and the water gets very rough. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

The next day when the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into some boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus says, “You’re looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Don’t work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” 

They then ask Jesus for a sign, and they hint not so subtly that they would prefer another bread miracle… like Moses did with the manna in the desert. Jesus said to them, “It wasn’t Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." He adds, “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” 

Then the Jews get cranky and they say, “How can this guy say he came from heaven? We know who his parents are!” Jesus tells them to stop grumbling, and says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” But this made the Jews even angrier, and they were like, “What’s this cannibalism nonsense he’s blabbing about?” 

Jesus declares that everyone who doesn’t eat his flesh and drink his blood is dead. So many of Jesus’ disciples were offended by this that they stopped following him and left. Jesus then turns to the twelve disciples and asks them if they want to leave too. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)

Chapter 7

After this, Jesus hangs around in Galilee because he wants to avoid the Jewish elders in Judea who wanted to kill him. But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” For even his own brothers did not believe in him. But Jesus tells them that his time hasn’t come yet, and they go on up without him. After they leave, Jesus actually does go up for the festival, but he does so in secret, and he listens to all the rumors that the crowds are whispering about him there – some people say he’s a good man, and other people say he’s a liar. Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach.

The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?” Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own." He then accuses them of breaking the law Moses gave them by trying to kill him. They accuse him of being demon-possessed, and are like, “Who do you think is trying to kill you?” Jesus reminds them of how shocked they were the last time he performed a miracle there because he had done it on the Sabbath. He then points out that they care more about making sure they’re boys get circumcised than they do about the healing of a cripple… even though both events took place on the Sabbath. And Jesus is like, “How is circumcision better than healing a whole person?” The elders ignore him, so the people begin to wonder if the elders are actually considering that Jesus might be the Messiah after all. But they are also confused because they believe that when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from… and they know where Jesus is from.

Jesus then starts shouting in the Temple courts, “Yes! You know me! And you know where I’m from! I’m not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true! You don’t know him, but I know him because I am from him and he sent me!” At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. Still, many in the crowd believed in him, and they said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?” The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him, so they sent temple guards to arrest him. Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.” The people were confused by this and were like, “Where’s he going? Is he going to go teach the Greeks now?” 

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. The crowd was divided – some people thought he was the Prophet, some thought he was the Messiah, and others thought he was a fraud and wanted him arrested. Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied. “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

Chapter 8

In your Bible, when you come to chapter 8 in the Book of John, you’ll probably see a special note at the beginning. This is because the translators want you to know that the earliest known manuscripts of John’s gospel as well as many other ancient witnesses did not originally contain John 7:53—8:11 – the story of the woman caught in adultery. This story was a late addition to the Gospel. It was likely a part of the early church’s oral tradition about Jesus that wasn’t committed to writing until after all four gospels were written. But the story was just too good not to include in one of the gospels so they decided to add it in. Some churches began adding it as special bonus material at the very end of both Luke’s and John’s Gospels as a sort of appendix. Other churches included it between the stories of the fig tree and the last supper in Luke’s Gospel. But eventually the church as a whole landed on including it right at the beginning of John chapter 8.

Jesus goes to the Temple early in the morning to teach, and after he arrives, the Torah-teachers and the Pharisees bring to him a woman that they caught in the act of adultery. Note that they didn’t bother to bring the man as well. They remind Jesus that Moses commanded that such a woman be stoned to death, and they demand Jesus give his opinion. 

Jesus’ first response when the woman was brought to him was to bend over and write with his finger in the dust. He continued doing this, even as they questioned him. Which begs another question –what did he write? However, it is the very act of writing in the dust itself that is the point here… because it brings to mind the words of the prophet Jeremiah: 

Which begins…

"I the LORD search the heart

and examine the mind,
to reward a man according to his conduct,
according to what his deeds deserve.
Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay
is the man who gains riches by unjust means.
When his life is half gone, they will desert him,
and in the end he will prove to be a fool." 

And the passage ends with…

"A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning,
is the place of our sanctuary.
O LORD, the hope of Israel,
all who forsake you will be put to shame.
Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust
because they have forsaken the LORD,
the spring of living water."

So, from the verses surrounding the phrase “written in the dust” what can we conclude?

Well, we don’t know for sure what Jesus wrote, but based on the reference to Jeremiah, some scholars believe that Jesus was writing down the names of the people standing around him. But even if he wasn’t, the simple act of writing in the dust would have called the Jeremiah passage to their minds.

And what does Jeremiah say is the sin of those who have turned from God?

He says it is “the man who gains riches by unjust means.” 

And so, after writing in the dust, Jesus tells the men: “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her…” Which in the context of stoning someone, would be, “If any one of you is without this specific sin…”

But which sin is Jesus referring to? 

Possibly the sin of injustice – which is what Jesus was referencing when he wrote in the dust. 

However, it may also be the sin of adultery – since it is reasonable to assume that the men who caught her in the act were somehow complicit in her crime. If she was a prostitute, what were they doing spying on her? Also, why did they choose only to prosecute the woman and not the man as well? What kind of justice is that? Unless, of course, they themselves were engaged in the soliciting… 

Again, when someone was stoned, the two witnesses who saw the sin were the ones who were traditionally supposed to push the sinner off the cliff before everyone else dropped rocks on them. How would they have witnessed this secret sin if they themselves were not somehow participating, either actively engaged or as some sort of peep-show?

At this point, the men begin to slowly slip away – the oldest and supposedly the wisest leaving first, followed by the youngest. And then, when Jesus is alone with the woman, he gives her his ruling, as well. Without any witnesses as accusers, she had no one to condemn her. And so, Jesus sent her away, telling her not to sin any more.

Later Jesus speaks to the people in the temple near where people put their offerings, and he says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” When Jesus says he is the Light of the World, he referring back to passage from Isaiah the Prophet, which says: “I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.”

What Jesus is doing here is claiming himself to be “Israel.” Israel had been charged by God with the task of being the light to the nations, but as we know from Israel’s history they more than often failed miserably at doing this. So Jesus is essentially saying, “I am the true Israelite. I can fulfill the role God gave to Israel to be a light to the rest of the world, and to show the world what God is truly like.” And so Jesus declares that those who follow him, rather than following the corrupt Pharisees, will be able to walk in the light.

And the Pharisees challenge his testimony, claiming he is his own witness. And Jesus says even if he is his own witness, that’s not a problem because his father whom they claim to know but obviously don’t is the one who sent him. And he says, “In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.” 

Then they asked him, “Where is your father?” “You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” And the text says, “no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.” The Pharisees had previously given orders to the Temple guards to go arrest Jesus, but even the guards were so amazed by his teachings that they refused to do so. The people hung on his every words.

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.” This makes the Jews wonder if Jesus is threatening to commit suicide. So he continues, “You are from below; I am from above. And I told you before you will die in your sins if you do not believe in me.” “Who are you?” they asked. And Jesus says, “I’ve been telling you all along! I speak to the world the words of the one who sent me, but I don’t have any good words for you… They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. So Jesus said, “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. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” And John tells us that even as he spoke, many believed in him. 

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” But they then suddenly become offended by what Jesus is saying, believing he is making a mean slavery joke about them. And they’re like, “Set free from what? We’ve never been slaves! We’re Abraham’s children!” Jesus replied, “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”

The people, and especially the Pharisees, recognized that Jesus taught with great authority, but his words of truth were offensive to them, because he was calling them out on their own shortcomings and sinful choices. Jesus, being the true Light, has exposed the darkness in their hearts. And this makes them mad. In this light, we can see the truth. The truth is that they were not truly obedient to God the Father as Jesus was. And Jesus tells them that they have been listening to another father – the father of lies. And they say, “Abraham is our father!” And Jesus responds: “If you were Abraham’s children, then you would do what Abraham did. As it is, you’re looking for a way to kill me... Abraham didn’t do stuff like that. No. You act like your true father.” But this they find even more offensive and so they start shouting, “How dare you call us bastards! The only Father we have is God himself!” Then Jesus says to them: “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. Do you not get what I’m saying? You belong to your father, the devil, and all you want to do his to please him. He was a murderer from the very start. He couldn’t stand the truth because there wasn’t a shred of truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth… you don’t believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? But if I’m telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? …The reason you can’t hear God is because you don’t belong to him.” 

They then call Jesus a demon-possessed Samaritan. See, because their hearts were hard they couldn’t respond well to these hard teachings that Jesus was offering to them. Instead, they show the true nature of their hearts, by responding to the truth of Jesus with lies and slander and insults. And Jesus says: “I’m not possessed by a demon. I simply honor my Father… and you dishonor me. I’m not seeking glory for myself… but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. I tell you the absolute truth, whoever obeys my word will never see death!” At this they exclaimed: “Now we know that you’re demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death! Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?” Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” And they said to him, “You’re not even fifty years old… and you claim to have seen Abraham!” “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” That did it—pushed them over the edge. They picked up rocks to throw at him. But Jesus slipped away, getting out of the Temple.

It is at this point in the conversation – more of an argument really – that Jesus makes one of his seven famous “I am” declarations that appear in John’s Gospel. Since the expression "I am" recalls the name of God, who is the "I AM Who I AM" (see Exodus 3:14), these seven “I am” declarations emphasize that Jesus is God's Word in the flesh. Also, the fact that John uses seven of them (John likes the number seven a lot; e.g. the seven signs of Jesus, the seven titles/names of Jesus, etc.) further emphasizes that Jesus is the Son of God, as the number seven was associated in that culture as being tied to God and his perfection, holiness, and his absolute and complete nature.