Seeing the humanity of Jesus in the Gospel of John.
by R. Herbert
In the first half of the prologue to his Gospel, the apostle John gives us seven names/titles of Jesus that show His divine nature as the Son of God (see “From the Beginning” in the January-February BA).
In the prologue’s second half John gives seven names/titles of Jesus that show His human identity and roles when He dwelled on earth. This article looks briefly at each of those titles.
Human identity
God’s Chosen One. “I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One” (John 1:34, emphasis added here and throughout). While some Bible versions translate part of this verse as “this is the Son of God” (KJV, etc.), recent translations have preferred to follow those biblical manuscripts that say “this is God’s Chosen One” for a number of reasons.
Additionally, when the Jewish religious leaders questioned John the Baptist, we are told “John replied in the words of Isaiah” (v. 23). In his reply, John said, “The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain . . . I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One” (vv. 33, 34). This seems to reference Isaiah’s words: “Here is my servant, . . . my chosen one . . . I will put my Spirit on him” (Isaiah 42:1). John’s Gospel shows in this title that Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy of a human servant chosen by God (Isaiah 42:6, 7; 61:1, etc.).
Lamb of God. “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’” (John 1:29). The title Lamb of God appears only in John’s Gospel and is of particular interest. The image draws on a number of symbols from the Old Testament, especially that of the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:1-6).
But there is another aspect to the Baptist’s words. When he said, “Look, the Lamb of God,” he doubtless used Aramaic, the language spoken by the people of Judea and Galilee at that time. The Aramaic word talya, which can mean lamb, also means child, son, or servant. But of the several meanings of the Aramaic word, the apostle chose “lamb” and tied it to the symbolism of Christ as the human Passover Lamb that John developed as one of the central themes of his Gospel.
Rabbi. “They said, ‘Rabbi’ (which means ‘Teacher’), ‘where are you staying?’” (John 1:38). Here, and in verse 49, John records Jesus being addressed with the title of Teacher or Rabbi by those who would become His disciples. Both of these individuals in John 1:38 came to Jesus, rather than respond to His verbal call, showing their perception of Him as an important teacher.
The word rabbi was comparatively unknown among the Gentiles when John wrote his Gospel. Therefore, he explains it for his readers, as he does with several other Hebrew words in this section (vv. 41, 42, etc.). In Jesus’ case, the title was given even more weight by the understanding, as shown by Nicodemus, that He was a “Rabbi . . . come from God” (3:2). When the enemies of Jesus tried to trap Him, even they hypocritically gave Him this title (Luke 20:21).
Jesus of Nazareth. “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote – Jesus of Nazareth . . .” (John 1:45).
The name Jesus (Hebrew Yeshua, meaning “Yahweh is salvation”) was popular in first century Judea, so additional identifiers were often added to it (as in the name Yeshua Bar Abba — Barabbas). But while the name Jesus alone had definite divine connotations — as Savior — the title Jesus of Nazareth clearly stresses the human aspect of a person with a home in a specific geographic location. This title was, of course, inscribed on Jesus’ cross, as only John’s Gospel records (19:19).
Son of Joseph (John 1:45). This title naturally follows Jesus of Nazareth and was the legal way in which Jesus would have been identified in the society of the time. The suggestion that John was admitting the human parentage of Jesus, as some Bible critics have claimed, is based on a complete lack of understanding. John, as any competent historian did, recorded what people said in such instances, whether or not they understood what was true at that time. In any case, this was a normal human title showing an aspect of the human Jesus as a person with a known family and social background.
King of Israel. “You are the king of Israel” (John 1:49). The title king of Israel (Zion) is found in Psalm 2:6, which, by the first century, was commonly known and quoted in Jewish discussions regarding the promised Messiah. The title is virtually identical to king of the Jews, which was used by Gentiles (John 19:3, etc.). John’s Gospel alone states that the title king of the Jews was affixed to Jesus’ cross (19:19), thus confirming the reality of His kingship, even if those hoping for a political messiah did not recognize it. In this regard, it is interesting that only John records Jesus’ declaration to Pilate that He indeed was a king, but not a political one (18:36).
Son of Man. “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51, ESV).
The double truly at the beginning of Jesus’ words in this verse is found only in the Gospel of John, where it occurs twenty-five times — always spoken by Christ when He stressed things of particular importance. The title Son of Man is also used only in the Gospels by Christ when referring to Himself. In the Old Testament, the title is used in three ways:
1) of the ideal man (Psalm 8:4-8, ESV, etc.); 2) of Ezekiel, when God addressed the prophet (2:1, etc.); 3) in Daniel, where the prophet is said to have seen “one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. . . . and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13, 14). But Son of Man was not a common term for the expected Messiah (John 12:34). Jesus seems, in fact, to have consistently used the title to signify His own humanity.
This is an important fact because we often tend to think of John as the Gospel that shows Jesus’ nature as the Son of God. In the seven titles he uses, however, John shows us that Jesus’ humanity was just as important as His divinity.
Unique humanity
We see this throughout John’s Gospel, both in his continued use of the Son of Man title and in the way that he includes several unique accounts in which Jesus’ humanity is made explicit.
An example is in the story (which only John records) of the woman Jesus met at the well in Samaria. John begins the story by stating “Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon” (4:6). John could have omitted all these details — Jesus’ weariness, His need to sit down, His need for water in the heat of the day — and still have told the story of the Samaritan woman. But he consciously included them to affirm, and even emphasize, the humanity of Jesus.
This may be partly because, soon after the formation of the early church, many early Christians who had accepted that Jesus was God struggled with the idea that He was also fully human. In fact, one of the first heresies that entered the Christian church was that of Docetism, which taught that Jesus was God appearing in human form and not truly a man. John presents evidence against that idea throughout his Gospel and continues to argue against it even more directly in his epistles (1 John 4:2; 2 John 7).
Completeness
John uses additional names and titles for Jesus in the course of his Gospel (6:14, etc.). But the seven titles in the prologue stressing aspects of Jesus’ divinity and the seven stressing aspects of His humanity clearly fit the apostle’s pattern of showing completeness. He does this by means of groups of seven: the seven miraculous signs done by Jesus, His seven “I am” statements, the seven testimonies, etc., as well as the many examples in Revelation. Because the prologue of John’s Gospel uses precisely seven divine and seven human titles, he clearly intended to show Jesus as the completely divine Son of God who also came to earth and became the completely human Son of Man.
