Jesus as Prophet and The Personal Salvation Debate Among Jews in the First Century

In these notes, I first show the point of John 3:1-2 by offering a biblical apologetic for Jesus as having the authority of a prophet to reveal new revelation. Then, I explore the theological environment of First Century Judea in order to provide historical context for Jesus’s conversation with Nicodemus. It is no surprise that a large part of the debate among Jews was the degree or mode of human free will and God’s sovereignty. While the Sadducees (akin to Arminians or Fundamental Baptists), who believed righteousness depended on the ability of people to keep the Law, both Pharisees and Essenes believed that God was entirely sovereign in salvation. They believed differently about the way God’s sovereignty and human will related. Pharisees believed more like Southern Baptists and classical calvinists–that God regenerates the heart of people who are condemned because of their own sin, thus bringing people to desire and choose him. Essenes believed more like neo or hyper calvinists–that from the foundation of the world God has chosen some for salvation and some for condemnation in like manner. Jesus blatantly affirms the soteriology of the Pharisees but does not argue against the soteriology of the Essenes. Instead, he also calls the Essenes righteous. Though they disagree on the particulars, they agree that God is the one who must save. Jesus spends John 3 informing the Pharisee doctrine of personal salvation.

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We’ve heard the story. God is supposedly renewing the world. He created it in order to establish it. His work of establishing and renewing is accomplished in Jesus Christ. This works out not only for the personal salvation of individuals who believe in Jesus but for the whole world. When we say Jesus is saving the whole world, we don’t mean that every human person will go to heaven. Instead, we mean that the whole of the cosmos is redeemed in Christ. This works out for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

Why can we believe Jesus? Jesus came claiming to save the whole world. He came offering eternal life to those who believe in Him. What makes Jesus different from any other person who claims to be a savior? What makes Him different from any other religious leader or cultural figurehead? For Nicodemus, it ultimately came down to the miracles.

Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him” (John 3:1-2).

  Nicodemus is a ruler, or leader, of the Jews. He is a  Pharisee. He comes to Jesus and calls Jesus by an official title, “Rabbi,” recognizing Jesus as a colleague. He tells Jesus that they (he and his group) know Jesus has come from God as a teacher because of the signs Jesus performs. Not every teacher performed signs. Most simply read their Bible and sought to explain certain passages. That’s what teachers of the Bible do in our own day. When Nicodemus refers to Jesus as a teacher because of Jesus’s signs, He is referring to Jesus as a certain type of teacher—one that requires signs as validation of his message.

Nicodemus is a Pharisee. Pharisees believed that the entire Old Testament—Law, Writings, and Prophets—were valid as Scripture. As we read through the prophets in particular, we see that many signs, miracles, accompanied the messages of the prophets.

• Moses brought plagues on Egypt, parted the red sea, caused water to come from a rock, and saw fire come from heaven (Exodus).
• Elijah caused drought, multiplied food, raised people from the dead, brought rain, brought fire from heaven, and parted the Jordan river (cf. 1 Kings 17; 2 Kings 1-2).
• Elisha parted the Jordan, healed Jericho’s waters, called bears to maul people, raised people from the dead, rendered poisonous stew harmless, cured leprosy, multiplied food, causes an axe head to float on the water, healed blindness (2 Kings).
• Samuel called thunder and rain (1 Samuel 12; 1 Kings 13).
• Daniel miraculously survived a den of hungry lions (Daniel 6) and was able to correctly describe and interpret the King’s dream.
• Isaiah caused the sun to move backward (2 Kings 20:9-11).
• Jonah escaped the belly of a fish (Jonah 1-2).

These prophets did more than merely explain the Scriptures. They were providing new revelations from God. Nicodemus, being a Pharisee and treasuring the entire Old Testament as divinely inspired connects Jesus’s miracles to His teaching. Many of Jesus’s miracles have been like those of the Old Testament prophets. When Nicodemus says that they know Jesus’s teaching is from God because of His miracles, he is placing Jesus alongside the prophets of the Old Testament. Jesus is providing new revelation. He is proving that He has the authority to do so by performing miracles that have, according to the Old Testament, historically accompanied such prophetic messages to Israel. This is why, later in John’s Gospel, Jesus in defending His message against the accusation of blasphemy, says to His Jewish audience,

“If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father” (John 10:37-38). 

Jesus agrees with Nicodemus. The signs He does prove His authority to remit new revelation.

Sources:

• Bible
• https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/pharisees-sadducees-and-essenes
• Josephus. Antiquities XVIII. 1.