Friday, September 4, 2015

Jesus "came into the world", i.e., he was born.


“The earth is frequently referred to as the dwelling place of humanity in language that is paralleled in Jewish idiom: coming into the world (John 6.14; 9.39; 11.27; 18.37), being in the world (9.5a), departing out of the world (13.1; 16.28b). While some of these [Johannine] sayings acquire theological significance because of the context in which they are used, the idiom itself is familiar Jewish terminology. To come into the world means merely to be born; to be in the world is to exist; and to depart from the world is to die [H. Sasse, TDNT 3:888; see also 1Jn. 4.1,17; 2Jn7; Heb 10.5; 1Tim 1.15].”
G.E. Ladd, A Theology of the NT, 1993, p. 261.