Gospel of John 09.vp

Session 5 The Good Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Life, and the One Who Came to Die (John 10-12)

Divine “Show and Tell”: How Does the Bible Communicate Truth?

The Power of Pictures and Stories. Because of the predominantly theological and devotional purposes to which Christians put the Bible, it is almost impossible not to slip into the error of looking upon the Bible as a theological outline with prooftexts attached. Yet the Bible is much more a book of images and motifs than of abstractions and propositions. This is obscured by the way in which preachers and theo logians gravitate so naturally to the epistles. A biblical scholar has correctly said that the Bible speaks largely in images. . . . The stories, the parables, the sermons of the prophets, the reflections of the wise men, the pictures of the age to come, the interpretations of past events all tend to be expressed in images which arise out of experience. They do not often arise out of abstract technical language. . . . The Bible is a book that images the truth as well as stating it in abstract propositions. Correspondingly, the truth that the Bible expresses is often a matter of truthfulness to human experience, as distinct from ideas that are true rather than false. The Bible here follows a common pattern. A noted theologian has stated it thus: We are far more image making and image-using creatures than we usually think ourselves to be and . . . are guided and formed by images in our minds. . . . Man . . . is a being who grasps and shapes reality . . . with the aid of great images, metaphors, and analogies. These images, in turn are important to a person’s world view, which consists of images and stories as well as ideas.

~ Leland Ryken, James C. Willhoit, Tremper Longman III. eds. The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery . Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998, p. xiii .

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I. I Am the Good Shepherd, 10.1-21

John 10 relates to the incident with the blind man for several reasons. The comment about opening the eyes of the blind in verse 21, the indictment of those who refused to believe in him in verses 26-27 suggest similar audiences as John 9. Furthermore, the multiple rejections of Jesus, beginning with 8.59 and ending with 10.31, 39 which nearly results with the stoning of Jesus, reveal a common thread of animosity and hatred toward the Lord.

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