Philipp F. Bartholomä, «John 5,31-47 and the Teaching of Jesus in the Synoptics. A Comparative Approach.»
Within Johannine scholarship, the assumed differences between Jesus’ teaching in John and in the Synoptics have frequently led to a negative judgment about Johannine authenticity. This article proposes a comparative approach that distinguishes between different levels of similarity in wording and content and applies it to John 5,31-47. What we find in this discourse section corresponds conceptually to a significant degree with the picture offered in the Synoptics, though couched in a very different idiom. Thus, the comparative evidence does not preclude us from accepting this particular part of Johannine speech material as an authentic representation of the actual content of Jesus’words.
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                     JOHN 5,31-47 AND THE TEACHING OF JESUS IN THE SYNOPTICS
                                                        [Luke 24,44]
             [5,39]
                                                        These are my words that I
             You search the scriptures
             because you think that in                  spoke to you while I was still
                                                [0/2]
             them you have eternal life;                with you— that everything
             and it is they that testify on             written about me in the law of
             my behalf.                                 Moses, the prophets, and the
                                                        psalms must be fulfilled.
                                                        [Luke 18,31]
                                                        See, we are going up to
                                                        Jerusalem, and everything that
                                                [0/2]
                                                        is written about the Son of Man
                                                        by the prophets will be accom-
                                                        plished.
                                                        [Matt 23,37 par.]
             [5,40]
                                                        Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city
             Yet you refuse [ouv qe,lete] to    [1/2]
                                                        that kills the prophets and
             come [evlqei/n] to me to have
                                                        stones those who are sent to it!
             life.
                                                        How often have I desired to
                                                        gather your children together
                                                        as a hen gathers her brood
                                                        under her wings, and you were
                                                        not willing [ouvk hvqelh,sate]!
                                                        [Luke 15,28]
                                                        Then he became angry and
                                                [1/2]   refused to go in [ouvk h;qelen
                                                        eivselqei/n].
                                                        See also the parable of the
                                                        great banquet in [Matt 22,2-14
                                                        par.].
                                                        Cf. also [Matt 7,14; 11,28; 19,29
                                                        par.].
                                                        [Luke 4,24 par.]
             [5,41]
                                                        Truly I tell you, no prophet is
             I do not accept glory from
                                                [0/1]   accepted in the prophet’s
             human beings
                                                        hometown.