04_Parker_222_244_222-244 10/07/15 12:41 Pagina 243 243 IS THE SUBJECT OF tete,lestai IN JOHN 19,30 “IT” OR “ALL THINGS” ? 243 At the very end of this passage, Asterius quotes the words uttered by Christ as they are found in John 19,30 (tete,lestai). In the pas- sage above, he alludes to and quotes from Gen 2,2, as can be seen by the following textual comparison: Said of Christ (Asterius) Said of God (Gen 2,2) “rested” (kate,pausen) “rested” (kate,pausen) “on the sixth day” “on the sixth day” (evn th/| e[kth| h`me,ra|)| (evn th/| h`me,ra| th/| e[kth|) “from all his works” “from all his works” (avpo. pa,ntwn tw/n (avpo. pa,ntwn tw/n e;rgwn auvtou/) e;rgwn auvtou/) Christ said “finished” (tete,lestai) God “finished” (sunete,lesen) Just as God finished (sunete,lesen) “all of his works” at the cre- ation and rested, so Jesus rested from “all of his marvelous, evan- gelical works” and announced tete,lestai. Asterius appears to equate “all his works” with John’s “all things.” If, as we have ar- gued, “all things” encapsulates the passion, the “works” does not refer to the completion of the works done earlier in John (4,39; 5,36; 17,4.34), but rather to the work of the passion that comes to its com- pletion on the cross. When the hour had passed, the cup had been emptied, the Passover lamb had been offered, and the work of the cross had paved the way for the new creation, Jesus announced that moment with the cry, “All things are finished” (19,30). * * * Complex interpretive issues are rarely settled by a single argu- ment alone; it is best when they are based on the convergence of several lines of reasoning. In the first half of this study, syntactical, contextual, and stylistic arguments where combined to show that the phrase “all things” is more likely to be the subject of tete,lestai in John 19,30 than the traditional translation “it”. The second half of the study proposed that the two occurrences of “all things” (John 18,4; 19,28.30) establish the limits of the entire passion narrative. Therefore, the range of options for the referent of “all things” most likely corresponds to Johannine themes that match the timing and content of the passion narrative (i.e. the “hour”, the “cup”, Passover),