Texts in Conversation
John 12 echoes Job 37 in connecting the voice of God with the sound of thunder. In Job, thunder is described as the mode of divine speech, itself an echo of ancient Near Eastern traditions that describe a storm deity.
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Job 37:1
Hebrew Bible
1 At this also my heart pounds and leaps from its place. 2 Listen carefully to the thunder of his voice, to the rumbling that proceeds from his mouth. 3 Under the whole heaven he lets it go, even his lightning to the far corners of the earth. 4 After that a voice roars; he thunders with an exalted voice, and he does not hold back his lightning bolts when his voice is heard. 5 God thunders with his voice in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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John 12:28
New Testament
27 “Now my soul is greatly distressed. And what should I say? ‘Father, deliver me from this hour’? No, but for this very reason I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that stood there and heard the voice said that it had thundered. Others said that an angel had spoken to him. 30 Jesus said, “This voice has not come for my benefit but for yours. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.
Date: 90-110 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The pairing of a sound from heaven and the quaking of the earth emphasizes the cosmic dimension of the scene. What does Noah hear from heaven? Is it a voice or a sound or noise? ... For thunder as the voice of God, see Job 37:1-5... For a sound from heaven perceived both as thunder and as the voice of an angel, see John 12:28-29. For the voice of God from heaven in the context of cosmic catastrophe, see 1 Enoch 102:1-2. That the author does in fact think of the sound as God's voice is indicated by Noah's response. Like Enoch and Noah respectively in the epiphany scenes in 14:8-14 and 60:1-3, here Noah prostrates himself ..."
Nickelsburg, George W. E.
A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 37-82
(p. 282) Fortress Press, 2012
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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