36 Cornelis Bennema drama unfolding before them” (5). Accordingly, Palestinian messianic apocalypticism expected God’s cataclysmic liberation of his people to happen through his messiah. It is against this background that we shall understand Jesus and his movement. This raises various questions. What was Jesus’ concept of liberation? Whom and from whom did he liberate? How did Jesus accomplish his goal? Were Jesus and his followers quietists or activists? We will address these questions from the perspective of the Fourth Gospel. Hence, the aim of this article is to elucidate how the Johannine messiah will liberate God’s people and establish a new age of justice and peace. As far as I am aware, in the past thirty years, only a few works have contributed to the subject of liberation in the Fourth Gospel (6), and the Johannine concept of Jesus’ “sword” as the means of liberation is an entirely untouched subject. We shall argue that, within the historical-political context of revolutionary Judaism and the literary context of Palestinian messianic apocalypticism, the Fourth Gospel presents Jesus as a messiah who liberates the world at large by means of his Spirit-imbued word and who hands over this “sword” to his followers to continue his mission in the world. We shall start to examine the concept of the messiah as a liberator in the Palestinian apocalyptic traditions (section I) as a possible background against which to understand the Johannine Jesus. Then, in section II, we will turn to the Fourth Gospel and elucidate the concepts of oppression, liberation and Jesus’ “sword”, as well as the transfer of this “sword” to the disciples. Finally, we shall make some conclusions. (5) ROWLAND, Origins, 99. Sociologically, the apocalyptic literature came from the oppressed or a group in crisis rather than from the ruling class (G.W.E. NICKELSBURG, “Social Aspects of Palestinian Jewish Apocalypticism”, Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World and the Near East [ed. D. HELLHOLM] [Tübingen 21989] 641-654). (6) F. HERZOG, Liberation Theology. Liberation in the Light of the Fourth Gospel (New York 1972); J.P. MIRANDA, Being and the Messiah. The Message of St. John (Maryknoll 1977); S. RAYAN, “Jesus and the Poor in the Fourth Gospel”, Bible Bhashyam 4 (1978) 213-228; D. RENSBERGER, Johannine Faith and Liberating Community (Philadelphia 1988); R.J. KARRIS, Jesus and the Marginalized in John’s Gospel (Collegeville 1990); W. HOWARD-BROOK, Becoming Children of God. John’s Gospel and Radical Discipleship (Maryknoll 1994); S. MOTYER, “Jesus and the Marginalised in the Fourth Gospel”, Mission and Meaning. Essays Presented to Peter Cotterell (eds. A. BILLINGTON – T. LANE – M. TURNER) (Carlisle 1995) 70-89.