Johannine Usage of Agency

From Keener, A Commentary on the Gospel of John, 2 vols. introduction.

John portrays Jesus as God’s agent, his authorized, reliable representative. Although John’s Christology is incarnational, it is also a “sending” Christology,312 the latter theme reflecting the divine love that originates the sending.313 Like the prophets of old, Jesus was an agent not of humans but of God. In the case of the Johannine Jesus, images of God sending divine Wisdom forth from his holy heavens to instruct the wise314 (or, less closely, angels sent from God)315 are a still nearer part of the context. The Jesus tradition and early Christianity already included the portrait of Jesus as the Father’s agent (e.g., Mark 9:37; 12:6; Matt 10:40; 15:24; 21:37; Luke 4:18, 43; 10:16; Acts 3:26; Rom 8:3; Gal 4:4),316 but John emphasizes this motif more fully.

Another important element in the significance of the sending motif is that messengers even in the OT were often servants.317 The servant of a king held a high position relative to those the servant addressed (albeit a sometimes uncomfortable one when the people were in rebellion, 2 Kgs 12:18), but was always subordinate to the king. Although commissioned agents in the first century were not always of lower social status (especially in betrothal arrangements), they relinquished their own status for the commission given them, in which they were authorized by the status of their senders. Equally, when one sent one’s son (Mark 12:6), the messenger position was necessarily one of subordination to the sender. Al- though the concept of agency implies subordination, it also stresses Jesus’ functional equality with the Father in terms of humanity’s required response: he must be honored and believed in the same way as must be the Father whose representative he is (e.g., John 5:23; 6:29).

Jesus is the Father’s appointed agent, but at his return to the Father he commissions the Paraclete and his followers to continue this mission.318 Jewish agents could sometimes appoint agents themselves, and some scholars suggest that this background is in view here.319 Because this practice was so rare, however, the allusion may not have been immediately obvious to the readers, who would have viewed the succession in terms closer at hand.320

A survey of the usage of the two Greek verbs by which John articulates agency indicates that John employs them interchangeably (as, e.g., in Wis 9:10), as is particularly obvious in 1:19, 22, and 24. Some writers make slight distinctions, claiming, for example, that "apostle" often has God as the sender whereas "sent" normally identifies the sender, but the distinction does not hold well.321 Both identification at times in immediate con- texts and uneven distribution by placement rather than category render distinctions be- tween the terms doubtful. Thus, for example, the last discourse employs only "sent," whereas the prayer of ch. 17 employs only "apostle." The "as" of 20:21, however, forces us to identify them. Their significance, therefore, lies in the nuances associated with the concept of sending in the culture, and their specific function in the Fourth Gospel. The commentary will address the latter further in relevant passages. The Fourth Gospel applies the terms "apostle" and "sent" in the following ways:

1. The Jewish custom or institution322

a. “The Jews” send priests and Levites

apostles: 1:19

sent: 1:22, 24 b. Pharisees send officers apostles: 7:32

c. Mary and Martha send messengers apostles: 11:3

2. God sent his Son

apostle: 3:17, 28[323], 34; 5:36, 38, 6:29, 57; 7:29; 8:42; 10:36, 11:42; 17:3, 8, 18, 21, 23, 25; 20:21

sent: 4:34; 5:23, 24, 30, 37; 6:38, 39, 44; 7:16, 18, 28, 33; 8:16, 18, 26, 29; 9:4; 12:44, 45, 49; 13:16, 20; 14:24; 15:21; 16:5

3. The Spirit is sent “in his name”

a. By the Father

sent: 14:26; 15:26

b. By Jesus

sent: 16:7

4. Disciples and others are sent

a. John the Baptist, by God an apostle: 1:6; 3:28

b. Disciples

apostles: 4:38; 6:57;324 9:7;325 17:18 sent: 13:16, 20; 20:21

In most cases these terms include the connotation of representation and delegated authority, that is, more than the usual nuance of the English term “sent” or even of the phrase “sent as a messenger.” Several texts clearly associate the sending of Jesus with that of the disciples (13:20; 17:18; 20:21), an association also extant in the Synoptic tradition (Matt 10:40; cf. Luke 10:16; Mark 10:37). This “sending” Christology emphasizes the subordinationist aspect (the Son subordinate to the Father) of John’s Christology.

Footnotes

312 Cf. Becker, “Auferstehung,” emphasizing the latter. Mercer, “Apostle,” correctly argues that John’s sending motif is incarnational, not docetic.

313 See Waldstein, “Sendung.”

314 Wis 9:10. Cf. the late parabolic comparison of Torah and prophets to a king’s agent in Song Rab. 1:2, §2; cf. also the heavenly agent (in Philo, esp. Israel) in Borgen, “Agent,” 144–47; cf. Borgen, “Hellenism,” 101–2. A “sending” Christology fits a sapiential emphasis well; see Manns, “Evangelio.”

315 E.g., Tob 12:20. Cf. Abel and Enoch in T. Ab. 11:2–10B; and the role accorded angels representing God in earlier tradition (e.g., Gen. 32:30; 33:10, if the angel was viewed as Esau’s guardian).

316 Thus Coppens, “Logia,” roots the motif in Christian tradition notably expressed in the Synoptics.

317 For an example of subordinate status, cf. P. Ryl. 233.14, 16 (2d cent. C.E.), where an agent addresses his master as "lord."

318 Cf. 1 Clem. 42.

319 Burge, Community, 201–2, following Borgen, “Agent,” 143.

320 See on the Paraclete and succession narratives in the commentary.

321 Mercer, “APOSTELLEIN.” Seynaeve, “Verbes,” may be right about general patterns, but admits that each is used elastically. Rengstorf, “apostle,” 404, acknowledges the general interchangeability but draws a distinction which in some cases we would regard as coincidental or probably habitual rather than semantically significant (26 of 33 "sent" passages refer to God as sending Jesus).

322 Probably although not certainly this involves the idea of the shaliach.

323 By implication.

324 By possible implication from the kajwq6 and the partial parallelism.

325 By implication for a prospective disciple from the term “Siloam.”