Texts in Conversation
John’s description of those who oppose Jesus mirrors the Wisdom of Solomon, where a righteous person is hated for calling God his father and punished for what he says. Both describe hostility toward someone who claims to have a special divine connection.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Wisdom of Solomon 2:16
Deuterocanon
14 He became to us a reproof of our thoughts. 15 He is grievous to us even to look at, because his life is unlike other men’s, and his paths are strange. 16 We were regarded by him as something worthless, and he abstains from our ways as from uncleanness. He calls the latter end of the righteous happy. He boasts that God is his father. 17 Let’s see if his words are true. Let’s test what will happen at the end of his life. 18 For if the righteous man is God’s son, he will uphold him, and he will deliver him out of the hand of his adversaries. 19 Let’s test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and test his patience. 20 Let’s condemn him to a shameful death, for he will be protected, according to his words.”
Date: 50 BCE – 50 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
John 5:18
New Testament
13 After this Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “Look, you have become well. Don’t sin any more, lest anything worse happen to you.” 14 The man went away and informed the Jewish leaders that Jesus was the one who had made him well. 15 Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began persecuting him. 16 So he told them, “My Father is working until now, and I too am working.” 17 For this reason the Jewish leaders were trying even harder to kill him because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God. 18 So Jesus answered them, “I tell you the solemn truth, the Son can do nothing on his own initiative, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.
Date: 90–110 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The principle of Daniel 7:22 shows the King of Kings brings judgment in favor of the holy ones of the Most High so the holy ones may assume kingship. The structure of this verse is a vertical parallelism which connects the Sons of God with divine kingship. Apocalyptic literature connects heaven and earth as is done in liturgical temple and church practice. The concept of an enthroned wisdom teacher is from Wisdom 5:16; 6:18 and 2 Timothy 4:8. The teaching which comes from Wisdom 2:16, 2:20, 3:8-9 is also located in John 5:18, 15:9-10; 1 Corinthians 6:2; Matthew 19:28, 27:43. In Tobit 12:15 and Rev 8:2, Seven Angels are to praise the Holy One ..."
Tom Roberts, The Prefiguring and Exaltation of Wisdom in the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha (Hellenic Orthodox University, 2016), 24.
* 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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