in the Second Temple period.95 In addition, he argues that there was a close resemblance to contemporary Gentile cults of heroes, sovereigns, and divinities so that the cult of Christ was essentially a “Gentilized manifestation of Christianity.”96
It is not easy, therefore, to define the meaning of the christological terms employed in the Gospel to depict the Johannine Jesus without prior understanding of the terms in relation to the Jewish and the Graeco-Roman,97 or other cultural backgrounds.98 The meanings of the terms have been originated, developed, and changed in various different contexts through the hybridization of various cultures.99 It is important to know, however, that even though the terms in the different contexts could convey different nuances of meanings, there must be common meanings, which penetrate the terms in general.100
For example, the term “the Christ” is closely related to the kingship of Jesus in the Gospel, although it could be understood as having different meanings in different contexts.101 To begin with, the meaning of “the Christ,” namely “the Messiah” in Hebrew, might be defined slightly differently in Jewish society from that of other societies. In Jewish society after the Exile the political features of the term had been emphasized more and more. Under the oppression of foreign powers, the Jews had anticipated a Messiah as the descendant of King David, who would emancipate them from oppressive foreign powers.102 The concept of the Messiah had emphasized the kingly messiah of the Jews as a savior in Jewish society. In the Gospel of John, however, the term “the Christ” is not only an indicator of the Jewish messianic king, but also when the term is applied to Jesus it is used to describe Jesus as the universal king who could unite all the differences of the colonial world into one harmonious whole.103 The Johannine Jesus, therefore, rejects his earthly kingship but affirms his higher kingship in front of Pilate (18:33–38), and also that people such as John the Baptist (chapter 1), Andrew and Philip (1:41), the Samaritan woman (4:29), the crowds (chapter 7), and Martha (11:27) who meet Jesus and confess him as the Christ are not only the Jews in this Gospel. The more important thing is that they are mainly people on the margins of society who cannot go into the center of the colonial environment. It is important, therefore, to understand the kingship of the Johannine Jesus in a multicultural and hybridized society, rather than simply according to ethnic or religious backgrounds. In the Graeco-Roman world, on the other hand, the concept of the Christ had no special religious significance prior to the influence of ancient Jewish and Christian usage.104 To understand the proper meaning of the Christ in the Gospel of John, therefore, knowledge about the Jewish term “the Messiah” is needed.
In the Graeco-Roman background, however, “the Savior of the World” was used to designate kings and generals, including Roman emperors, who were victors in ancient wars.105 The term “the Savior of the World” (4:42), which is employed to confess the identity of the Johannine Jesus from the lips of the Samaritans,106 is closely linked to the term “the Messiah” in the context (4:29, 42). If this is accepted, therefore, those terms which point to the identity of the Johannine Jesus as king could be understood in relation to kingship.
In short, my argument is that the author presents Jesus as the universal king using terms the meaning of which a variety of readers from various backgrounds could understand when they read the Gospel of John. Therefore, to justify my argument, we need to survey two backgrounds of this Gospel: the Jewish and the Graeco-Roman.
The Kingship Motif and the Jewish Background
Among a variety of terms in the Johannine Gospel, which imply the kingship of Jesus, many of them might come from the Hebrew Bible and other Jewish sources.107 Particularly, Davidic royalty (cf. John 7:42) and the Jewish messianic expectation form a major area of research into the background of the kingship motif in Jewish literature.108 In Jewish literature, kingship is closely related to God and his representatives who ruled ancient Jewish society. Furthermore, this term was also used for the redeemer king.109 Although for nearly 500 years after the fall of Jerusalem there was no king, the Jews expected the emancipation of Israel from foreign power and looked to a leader to come, the Messiah, to be their king in the restoration of the nation. Predictions of the coming king, which includes that of a religious and political leader, are referred to in the Hebrew Bible and Davidic royal terms are employed in passages referring to Israel’s restoration.110 Consequently, the anticipated king would be the political and religious head of the people, as well as a representative of God in order to emancipate them. Some examples in the Hebrew Bible, particularly prophetic passages, are relevant to the discussion in my book.111
Firstly, in Isaiah 9:1–7 the king as the powerful and mighty ruler will establish his kingdom and will sit and reign on the throne of David over his kingdom forever.112 He is “a great light” who will come to the people who walk in darkness (Isa 9:1–2). He will deliver them from the oppression of their oppressor and will end war by destroying the instruments of war (Isa 9:3–4). The Johannine Jesus can be matched to this Davidic kingly figure. As “the light of the world,” Jesus comes to the world in darkness to rescue the people in darkness by non-violent means.113 The Johannine Jesus shows how to be free from oppression (8:32), promises peace which the world cannot give (14:27; 16:33; 20:19, 21),114 and will sit on the throne by glorification through the cross. Moreover, a Davidic Messianic figure in Isaiah 11:1–10 (a shoot from the stem of Jesse115 and a branch from his roots in Isa 11:1, the root of Jesse to whom the Jews and the Gentiles will resort in Isa 11:10) stands for the representative of an enormous social transformation.116 The utopian description in Isaiah 11:1–10 represents a reformed community and a true kingdom of God on earth which is reminiscent of the new world of the Johannine Jesus: the new world in which the center and the margins can live in harmony. Like the king of this utopian nation (the shoot, the branch or the root) who will unite both Jews and Gentiles, the Johannine Jesus comes to his world (1:10) to assemble his flock from among the Jews as well as from amongst other sheep (10:16), and will receive them into heavenly dwelling places (14:2–3).
Secondly, Haggai and Zechariah also describe the king as a religious and political leader.117 Haggai is concerned with the building of the temple by Zerubbabel who is a Davidic prince and the natural leader of the nation. Zerubbabel is made the signet of God (Hag 2:23) and foreign powers would be defeated. Similarly, in Zechariah a man called “the Branch” will build the temple of God and he will be a ruler (6:12–13; cf. 3:8118). The role of the Branch, Zerubbabel, is that of the king. In addition, the king, mounted on a donkey will come to Israel (Zech 9:9), speak peace to the Gentiles and rule the whole world (9:10).
