DBRP_172 2SA.22 JHN.3

2SAMUEL 22:

We near the end of David’s story. God gave him victory over Sheba and the house of Saul. The killing of seven of the descendants of Saul seems harsh and past the ‘statute of limitations’ to us. But God arranged that revenge in response to untold injustices that were wreaked by Saul against the Gibeonites. Note: God takes notice of covenants made and wants us to do what we promise in His name.

David’s song of praise in today’s chapter includes ideas from the Psalms, but does not seem to be an extended quote from any of them, as far as I can find in my sources. Because of this long poetic section today, we skip a day reading from the Psalms.

We turn for the first time to JOHN 3.

John’s Gospel is unique in having the story of the wedding at Cana, which we heard yesterday in chapter 2. The coming to Galilee and working a miracle there seems to have been significant for John, as he later highlights when this happens a second time. John moved the story of the cleansing of the temple to the beginning of his Gospel. I think that this is because he wanted highlight the conflicts between Jesus and ‘the Jews’. Note that in verse 19, Jesus doesn't say, “I will destroy...” but “Destroy” (imperative), as a challenge to the Jewish leaders. NET's note indicates that this is a form that reminds one of some words of the prophets.

Translation notes:
14  As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the desert, in the same way [I,] the Son of Man[,] must be lifted up,
[Exegetes and commentators disagree on where to stop Jesus’ quoted conversation with Nicodemus. Ancient Greek didn’t have mark quotes. GNT stops the quote at the end of 13, which is quite early compared with other translations. Note that inserting unmarked parenthetical comments or teachings is a feature of John’s style. To me, I feel it makes most sense that John 3:16 is John’s explanation of Jesus’ very figurative saying in verse 14-15. There is another example of the difficulty of placing quote marks in this chapter. I think that John the Baptist’s quote ends at verse 30 not at the end of the chapter. So I differ with NLT’s quote marks for the last paragraph.]
32 He tells what he has seen and heard, yet [so few accept//no one accepts (hyperbole)] his message.

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