Sunday, July 26, 2020

John 16:2--"sacred service to God"?

John 16:2 (THGNT): ἀποσυναγώγους ποιήσουσιν ὑμᾶς· ἀλλ᾽ ἔρχεται ὥρα ἵνα πᾶς ὁ ἀποκτείνας ὑμᾶς δόξῃ λατρείαν προσφέρειν τῷ θεῷ.

While reading this verse for the daily text one day, I started wondering if the infinitive προσφέρειν might have sacrificial connotations in this verse, especially since it's paired with λατρείαν and modifies that noun. Compare Mark 1:44; Luke 5:14; Heb. 5:1, 3, 7; 8:3-4; 9:25, 28; 11:17.

John Paul Heil thinks that John 19:29, framed as ironic worship, evokes Jesus' utterance at John 16:2. Moreover, he connects the action described in 19:29 with Passover: see Heil, The Gospel of John: Worship for Divine Life Eternal, page 132.

B.F. Westcott shows that the LXX employs προσφέρειν "for the 'offering' of sacrifices and gifts," and the Epistle to the Hebrews employs the verb quite frequently (some 19 times) in a similar fashion. See Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews: The Greek Text with Notes and Essays, page 120.

Westcott makes this observation for Epistle to the Hebrews: "This usage of προσφέρειν [in Hebrews] appears to be Classical and not Hellenistic" (ibid.).

I think John P. Lange gets a little off-track with differing forms of fanaticism (Gentile versus Jewish), but he associates λατρείαν προσφέρειν τῷ θεῷ with "Cherem" (herem), which he translates as "curse-sacrifice."

Meyer's NT Commentary: πᾶς ὁ ἀποκτ., κ.τ.λ.] that every one, who shall have put you to death, may think that he offers a sacrificial service to God (namely, through the shedding of your blood). On λατρεία, cultus (Plat. Apol. p. 23 C, Phaedr. p. 224 E; Romans 9:4), here, by means of the προσφέρειν, the standing word used of sacrifices (see Matthew 5:23; Matthew 8:4; Acts 7:32; Hebrews 5:1; Schleusner, Thes. IV. p. 504), in the special reference of sacrificial divine service, comp. Romans 13:1; Hebrews 9:1; Hebrews 9:6.

Henry Alford GNT for John 16:2: προσφέρειν, the technical word for offering a sacrifice

But see Alford's cautionary remark for λατρείαν in John 16:2. Compare https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.15699/jbl.1342.2015.2850?casa_token=XQ5C0tcZ9I0AAAAA%3A6eNYlKNS9gsyTYhm9onQbavu9VA0p6o04pHHGt17YQXpjpSGeIGgVdKcafAN4jJZcBqNO6HH5g1gT76VEU3xSyrOr_73yl9_IvCgH0nkBHqI0cVKVXrO#metadata_info_tab_contents

Craig S. Keener (The Gospel of John: A Commentary, page 1027): "The behavior of the believers' enemies itself condemns them. The believers' opponents believe that the death of Christians offers priestly sacrifice to God (16:2), no doubt pleasing to God the way Phinehas's execution of an Israelite idolater had been.360 In fact, however, they think in this manner precisely because they have never genuinely known God or his agent (16:3)."

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