04_Parker_222_244_222-244 10/07/15 12:41 Pagina 242 242 FLOYD O. PARKER JR. 242 rative is played out against the backdrop of this feast. The Passover is referenced in the time leading up to (12,1; 13,1) and during the passion account (18,28.39; 19,14). The Passover is even mentioned once in the same verse as the “hour” (13,1). Moreover, Passover imagery is specifically applied to Jesus in the passion narrative. The hyssop (John 19,29) recalls the plant used to apply the lamb’s blood to the doorposts and lintels during the first Passover (Exod 12,13) and, like the Passover lamb, Jesus’ legs were not broken (John 19,36; Exod 12,46; Num 9,2; Ps 34,20). These Passover al- lusions occur in proximity to Jesus’ climactic declaration that “all things” were completed (19,30), thereby suggesting that the offer- ing of Jesus, the lamb that would take away the sins of the world (1,29.36), had been finished 65. The final theme to explore is the “new creation” as it relates to John 19,28.30. Several scholars have suggested that Jesus alluded to Gen 2,2 with his last word tete,lestai 66. In this view, “It is fin- ished” announced Jesus’ completion of the work the Father had sent him to do (4,39; 5,36; 17,4.34). To be sure, several creation themes seem to be sounded at the end of John, such as the “Sabbath” (19,31; Gen 2,2), a “garden” (19,41; Gen 2,8), and the breathing of the Spirit upon men (20,22; Gen 2,7). Long before the “new creation” theology emerged in contem- porary scholarship, Asterius the Sophist (d. 341 CE), in a homily on the Psalms, had already explored the typological relationship between the days of creation in Genesis and the days of Christ’s final week. In his treatment of the events of the sixth day and the sixth hour, he wrote the following: Th|/ e[kth| evstaurw,qh dia. to.n a;nqrwpon. Kai. ouv mo,non h`me,ra| e[kth|, avlla. kai. w[ran e[kthn evpi. to. xu,lon evkre,mato, evpeidh. avrch. a`marti,aj w[ra| e[kth| avpo. tou/ xu,lou ge,gonen, o[te vAda.m to.n qa,naton hvri,sthsen, ei=ta evpeidh. evn th|/ e[kth| h`me,ra| kate,pausen avpo. pa,ntwn tw/n e;rgwn auvtou/ tw/n euvaggelikw/n qauma,twn, o[te kai. to. o;xoj e;pie kai. ei=pe í Tete,lestai 67. 65 BROWN, The Death of the Messiah, II, 1078. 66 WRIGHT, Challenge of Jesus, 175-177; KÖSTENBERGER, Theology, 352- 353; BROWN, “Creation’s Renewal”, 175-290. 67 ASTERIUS, Commentarii in Psalmos, Homily 21.13.36. For the Greek text see M. RICHARD, Asterii sophistae commentariorum in Psalmos quae su- persunt (Symbolae Osloenses fasc. suppl. 16; Oslo 1956).