Bible Study series: John 20:19-23. The first was Mary Magdalene. Now the disciples enjoy the privilege of his appearance to them
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For the Greek text, click here:
At that link, I provide a lot more commentary.
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: John 20:19-23
19 Then, while it the evening of that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were because of fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the middle of them and said to them, “Peace to you.” 20 When he said this, he showed his hands and side to them. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus again said to them, “Peace to you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you.” 22 And when he said this, he breathed and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 And if you forgive the sins of any people, they will be forgiven them. If you retain (the sins) of any people, they have been retained.” (John 20:19-23)
Comments:
19:
It was evening of (our) Sunday, and (our) Monday had not yet begun because the sun had not set, plus an hour. In this context, the Jews were the Jewish authorities who undoubtedly had sympathetic townspeople to act as lookouts. Times were tense.
Jesus spoke peace into his disciples’ lives and souls twice already (14:27 [twice] and 16:27). Now, he saw their fear, so he spoke it again, and will do so twice more (v. 21, 26).
“Klink calls this meeting the first “meeting of the church” (comment on v. 19). I prefer to think that the church was born at Pentecost in Acts 2, but maybe the Johannine Pentecost here is the first one (“Johannine” is an adjective for “John”).
Jesus is bequeathing his disciples his peace. Morris rightly reminds us that the peace which Jesus bequeaths and gives is “the natural result of the presence within people of the Holy Spirit of whom Jesus has been speaking” (comment on 14:27). So Jesus’s peace does not come by sheer willpower, but by the Spirit, which is one of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22).
Let’s explore more generally the peace that God brings.
It speaks of more than just the absence of war. It can mean prosperity and wellbeing. It can mean peace in your heart and peace with your neighbor. Best of all, it means peace with God, because he reconciled us to him.
This word in Hebrew is shalom and means wellbeing, both in the soul and in circumstances, and it means, yes, prosperity, because the farm in an agricultural society would experience wellbeing and harmony and growth. The crops would not fail and the livestock would reproduce. Society and the individual would live in peace and contentment and harmony. Deut. 28:1-14 describes the blessings for obedience, a man and his family and business enjoying divine goodness and benefits and material benefits. Peace is a major reality of the messianic kingdom anticipated in the OT (Num. 6:26; Ps. 29:11; Is. 9:6-7; 52:7; 54:13; 57:19; Ezek. 37:26; Hg. 2:9) and partly fulfilled or alluded to in the NT (Acts 10:36; Rom. 1:7; 5:1; 14:17).
With that background, let’s explore the Greek word, which overlaps with shalom. It is the noun eirēnē (pronounced ay-ray-nay, used 92 times, and we get the name Irene from it). One specialist defines it: “Peace is a state of being that lacks nothing and has no fear of being troubled in its tranquility; it is euphoria coupled with security. … This peace is God’s favor bestowed on his people.” (Mounce, p. 503).
Do I Really Know God? He Is the God of Peace
This verse reminds me of these two verses in the Epistle to the Philippians.
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:6-7, NIV)
So how do we get and maintain peace? We pray.
What Is Biblical Intercession?
20:
When he said those two words (in Greek), he showed them the injuries in his hands and his side. This showing or demonstration amounts to evidence that they could believe with their eyes. It was not too good to be true. It was so good that it had to be true. Of course the disciples rejoiced when they saw him.
Beasley-Murray reminds us that both in Hebrew and in Greek the words can include the wrist, “so a loose translation could be as follows: “Jesus showed his hands and wrists” (p. 366, note i).
Morris: In their rejoicing, “we should certainly see in this the fulfillment of our Lord’s prophecy that the disciples would have sorrow while the world rejoiced, but that they would see him again and their sorrow would be turned to joy (16:20-22)” (comment on v. 20).
21:
Jesus spoke peace to them because he commissioned them. In Jesus’s high priestly prayer, he also commissions them, but as he addresses his Father: “Just as you have sent me into the world, I also am going to send them into the world” (17:18). Recall that the world is a dark place, and Jesus brings light to it. Now he commissions his disciples to penetrate the dark world, so he must give them his shalom (peace). They will encounter opposition, as they do, for example in Acts 5, so they must have his peace. Remember the verses in Phil. 4:6-7.
Being a disciple and fulfilling the mission is hard work! It can be scary, so he provides us with supernatural peace, which transcends or rises above our own understanding and which will guard our hearts and minds—in Christ Jesus. We must remain in him. He is our peace.
Now we can ask how Renewalists interpret this verse. We believe that we are Christ’s representatives or ambassadors (2 Cor. 5:20). We proclaim the ministry of reconciliation and the gospel of salvation and forgiveness of sins. Also, we incorporate the healing and demon-expelling ministry of Jesus, as well. He sends these original disciples into the world, just as Jesus entered the dark world. Now we today carry on his full-gospel ministry, which includes healing and demon expulsion because the rest of the Gospels shows us that these are signs for the advancement of the kingdom. We believe and practice, by God’s grace, the full commission and the full gospel, here in v. 21, and the other commissioning passages at the end of the other Gospels and the entire Gospels themselves. He empowers us to carry on his ministry.
22:
Jesus blew or breathed (either English verb is fine, per Liddell and Scott and BDAG), but it does not say “on them.” The Septuagint (pronounced sep-TOO-ah-gent) is a third to second century, B.C., translation of the Hebrew Bible into English. The verb emphusaō (pronounced em-foo-sah-oh) appears in Gen. 2:7, where God breathed into Adam’s face the living breath, and then the man became a soul. The verb also appears in Ezek. 37:9, which says that God tells the prophet to prophesy to these dead that the breath or wind may bring them to life. In a Jewish writing that is not found in the Bible, it says that God breathed into Adam and infused him with an active soul breathed in him a life-giving spirit (Wis. 15:11).
So what do these OT (and Wisdom) data points mean here in v. 22? It seems that something was missing in these disciples’ lives—the power of the Spirit. Jesus had already commissioned them in a prayer (17:18), but he had not empowered them with this direct commissioning. Therefore, he needed to empower them with the Spirit. Let’s not overlook the fact that Thomas was not in this room (v. 24), so let’s call the number of disciples “the ten,” just for convenience.
These verses are about all of humanity:
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus was standing up and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 The one believing in me, just as the Scripture says: Out of his inner most being rivers of living water will flow. 39 But he said this about the Spirit whom those believing in him were about to receive, for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:37-39).
I believe this passage speaks of Acts 2:1-4, where the Spirit is poured out and empowers the disciples, beyond the breathing here in v. 22.
Yet here in v. 22, he is talking to the ten. Yet in all of the next verses he is also talking to the eleven disciples, in the upper room discourse.
Recall these verses in John 14:16-17:
I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, so that he may be with you forever, 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not perceive him nor knows him. You know him because he dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:16-17)
And these verses:
25 I have spoken these things to you while residing with you. 26 But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name—he will teach you all things and will remind you of everything which I have told you.” (John 14:25-27)
Here are others:
26 When the Paraclete comes, whom I will send to you from my Father, the Spirit of truth who goes from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 You also will testify because you have been with me from the beginning. (John 15:26-27)
Finally, here are other verses that talk of the Spirit coming:
12 I still have many things to say to you, but you are unable to bear them now. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own, but whatever things he will hear he will speak and announce to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me because he will receive from what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All the things the Father has are mine. Because of this, I have said that he [the Spirit] receives from what is mine and will declare it to you. (John 16:12-15)
The Spirit will teach the disciples everything (14:26), he will bear witness or testify about Christ (16:8), he will guide the disciples in the way of all truth (16:13). The Son came to glorify the Father (7:18; 17:4), and soon the Spirit will glorify Jesus by unfolding and revealing the meaning of Jesus’s person and work while he was on earth.
All of the above verses in the upper room discourses and prayer indicate that the Spirit had not yet been given, except 14:17, which uses the present tense “dwells,” as if the Spirit is dwelling with them at that moment. However, John often—very often—uses the present tense for narrative effect. In fact, even in this chapter he uses the present tense, which in English is usually translated in the narrative past. “Jesus says to them” becomes “Jesus said to them” (and so on), which professional grammarians call the historical present. So let’s not make too much of “dwells” in 14:17. However, it could be that the present tense of “dwells” really does mean that the Spirit was dwelling in them or with them on some level in the upper room in 14:27.
The bottom line so far is that in all these verses the sending and impartation of Spirit is in the future, and it seems that that the future is right now in v. 22.
So now the questions of interpreting the breathing becomes: (1) Are the ten disciples being born again for the first time (John 3:3, 5)? (2) Or are they receiving the Spirit to be empowered for their commission to be sent into the world? (3) Or are they being born again for the first time and being empowered for their mission? (4) Is this a foretaste or preparation for the wider and more spectacular of the empowerment in Acts 2:1-4, at Pentecost? (5) It is a symbolic gesture, referring back, in John’s own theology, to the powerful infilling at Pentecost, which happened long before John wrote his Gospel and which John himself experienced.
Before we select an interpretation, let’s factor in Thomas’s absence from the commissioning here in v. 22 and Matthias being the replacement of Judas, much later (Acts 1:12-26).
Thomas was not in the upper room when Jesus came to them and stood in their midst and breathed on them. Thomas seems to have been born again in v. 28, when he proclaims “My Lord and my God!” and Jesus said that Thomas believed. This belief must have been saving faith, for him to proclaim such profound words.
Matthias was selected by God to replace Judas. We must not believe that he was less empowered than the ten were, because he was not with them at this time. Matthias must have received his new birth and empowerment at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-14) or his new birth occurred at a time we do not know about.
So which option, given all these data points, is the best one or ones? I like the second and fourth and fifth ones. I also like Morris’s reminder, just below. But you can choose which one you like or come up with your own Bible-based interpretation. Klink counts seven of them (pp. 855-57). Research them in his commentary. I’m satisfied with limiting the interpretations to five and selecting the fifth one, which Carson came up with (pp. 652-54). John is simply compressing the time and reminding his community of an event that happened several decades ago. Yes, Jesus actually breathed, but it is a symbolic gesture. It cannot be equal to the powerful Pentecost which radically changed the disciples, for John 21 shows the disciples as returning to their regularly work.
The bottom line, in my opinion. is that John 20:22 seems to be a commission and empowerment from Jesus and a foretaste of the bigger and more spectacular Pentecost, with the possibility that they were also being born again. It seems that John 20:22 here is personal for the ten, so this is their personal empowerment, which will carry them through to the empowerment for the 120 in the upper room in Acts. Of course the ten would need extra-authority and power to get to Pentecost about fifty days later. And the same is true of Thomas.
I really like Morris’ broad perspective:
It is the teaching of the New Testament that ‘There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit’ (1 Cor. 12:4), and the problem is probably to be solved along these lines. It is false alike to the New Testament and Christian experience to maintain that there is but one gift of the Spirit. Rather the Spirit continually manifests himself in new ways. Subsequent to the gift at Pentecost the Spirit fell on all who heard the word in the house of Cornelius (Acts 10:44), just as ‘on us at the beginning’ (Acts 11:15). On several occasions believers are said to have been ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’ (e.g. Acts 4:8, 31; 9:17; 13:9; cf. Rom. 5:5; 1 Cor. 2:12, etc.) … John tells us of one gift of the Spirit and Luke of another. (comment on v. 22)
As a Renewalist, I like the idea that this is one encounter with the Spirit among many others the disciple have throughout Acts and some teachings in the epistles.
Whichever option you choose, God is in charge of it all. He empowers and causes new birth in everyone who believes in Jesus. The more I think of it, the more I like Morris’s excerpt.
But see the addendum below v. 23, next, for more ideas.
23:
The verb tenses “are forgiven” and “are retained” are actually in the perfect tense, but the conditional “if” puts it in a continuous, static condition (Novakovic, pp. 302-03). Note that the verbs are also in the passive voice. In contexts like these, passive voices are called the divine passive, which means that the implied subject of the verbs is God, who is the one who forgives or retains sins. His disciples are merely his human agents, and the message which the Spirit anoints is the gospel for the forgiveness of sins (see Luke 24:47, below).
This verse also corresponds to two verses in Matthew’s Gospel in the context of church discipline.
Jesus talking to Peter:
And whatever you have bound on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you have loosed on earth will have been loosed in heaven (Matt. 16:9)
Jesus to the entire community (or at least to the leaders over the community):
18 I tell you the truth: whatever you have bound on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you have loosed on earth will have been loosed in heaven. (Matt. 18:18)
We also see the divine passives in those two verses. God is the one who binds or forbids (retains) and looses or permits (forgives). We humans are just his down-on-earth agents.
Addendum to John 20:19-23
It is widely acknowledged that John 20:19-23 corresponds to Luke 24:26-49, despite the incidental differences in details. Luke’s version is greatly expanded, while John’s is greatly compressed.
36 Now, while they were speaking about these things, he stood in the middle of them and said to them, “Peace to you!” 37 They were terrified and became filled with fear and were thinking they were seeing a spirit. 38 He then said to them, “Why are you disturbed and why are doubts rising up in your hearts? 39 Look at my hands and my feet because I myself am he! Touch me and look, because a spirit does not have flesh and bones, just as you perceive me having. 40 And saying this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 While they were still not believing from joy and were astonished, he said to them, “Do you have food in this place here?” 42 They gave him a portion of broiled fish. 43 And he took it and ate in front of them. 44 Then he said to them, “These were my words which I have spoken to you while I was with you, because it was destined that all the things written in the law of Moses and the Prophets and Psalms about me be fulfilled. 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. 46 And he said to them that in this way it was written that Christ must suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and in his name repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses to these things. 49 Now be attentive. I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But you settle in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. (Luke 24:36-39)
Here is how I interpret these verses and John 20:19-23. First, the breathing or blowing on the ten in v. 22 may be merely a foretaste of Pentecost, just as Jesus is telling them here in Luke 24:26-49. The deeper empowerment will happen in Acts 2:1-4. Second, Thomas received his commission in Luke 24:46-49, and the eleven received another one in Acts 1:8-9. In all, there are three commissionings (20:22; Luke 24:46-49; Acts 1:8-9) or four if we count John 17:18. Fourth, the forgiving or loosing of sins and retaining them is seen Luke 24:47. The gospel gives the disciples the power and authority to release or retain sins, but God is the one who works behind the scene actually doing the releasing and forgiving.
Borchert believes the breathing empowered them: “So, just as God, who in Gen 2:7 (cf. also Ezek 37:9) breathed into man the breath of life and he became a “living being” (nephesh hayyah), Jesus also breathed into his followers the new breath and let the Spirit loose among his followers so that they might be empowered to do his will” (comment on v. 22).
GrowApp for John 20:19-23
A.. Jesus spoke peace to the disciples because they were afraid of the Jerusalem religious establishment and because he was commissioning them to go out into a hostile world. Has God ever given you deep peace during your time of fear and worldly hostility? Tell your story.
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SOURCES
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