Bible Study series: John 20:24-29. Doubting Thomas believes and confesses that Jesus is Lord and God, reflecting the opening to John’s Gospel. “The Word was God.” Then Jesus speaks to us: “Because you see me, do you believe? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
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For the Greek text, click here:
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In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: John 20:24-29
24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, the one called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples were telling him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he told them, “Unless I see his hands, the mark of the nails, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and in his side, I will in no way believe.”
26 And after eight days, again his disciples were inside, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, though the doors were locked, and stood in the middle and said, “Peace to you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Reach out your finger here and look at my hands. Reach your hand and put it in my side, and do not be faithless, but instead faithful!” 28 Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Because you see me, have you believed? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” (John 20:24-29)
Comments:
24:
Didymus simply means “twin,” so in this group, he was simply called “the twin.”
The Meaning of the Names of the Twelve Apostles
I wonder where the other half was? Was he a follower but not chosen to be one of the twelve? If so, was he jealous of this brother, or was he relieved that he could live a normal life? Was he a disbeliever? Did Thomas win him over later? Unfortunately, we will never know the answer to these questions this side of heaven.
Thomas was not with them for reasons we do not know. Bruce reasonably believes that he was grieving by himself, while the others were grieving together (comment on vv. 24-25). This is good enough for me.
“One of the twelve”: it is simply a title of the twelve apostles, to designate Thomas as being counted among their number. Paul himself names Peter as someone who saw the resurrected Jesus, and then Paul says that the twelve did too (1 Cor. 15:5).
25:
See v. 18 for other occurrences of the verb “see” (horao and pronounced ho-rah-oh). John uses it as a witness to the truth of the mighty resurrection. They were naturally interested in sharing their experience. Jesus really was alive. It must have been something to be the ones to see him right after the resurrection. Thomas wants ocular (eyewitness) and tangible (the sense of touch) proof. He even specifies that he must see and touch the wounds where the nails were and the spear pierced Jesus’s side. If he does not see and touch them, then he won’t believe. The Greek negation is emphatic: “in no way.” Apparently, just seeing Jesus as the other disciples would not be sufficient. The other disciples did not demand that they must see his hands and side, which he showed them anyway; for them, seeing was believing. No wonder he is called doubting Thomas.
26-27:
“after eight days”: they counted (our) Sunday as the first day, so eight days would mean the next first day or (our) Sunday, a week later.
Jesus is again appearing to his disciples just to meet Thomas’s demand. Evidently, because Thomas is one of the twelve (or eleven), he must be given the honor of ocular and tangible proof. How would it be if Jesus let one of his specially chosen disciples loose on to the world, when he is a skeptic or unbeliever? No. The eleven must be sure beyond all doubt. It is on them, plus Matthias later, that he will lay the foundation of his church (Eph. 2:19-20 and Rev. 21:14). Jesus made a special allowance for Thomas.
However, Jesus rebuked Thomas for putting this demand on Jesus. The ones who believe without seeing—those are you and me—are really blessed (v. 29). The term “faithless,” used only here in John’s Gospel, is used elsewhere in the NT to mean unbelievers (1 Cor. 7:12-15; 1 Tim. 5:8) (Mounce, comment on vv. 26-27). It could be translated as “Do not be an unbeliever, but a believer” or more expansively “Stop being unbelieving, but show yourself a believer” (Carson, comment on v. 27).
In v. 19 the door was also locked, but Jesus stood in the middle of them. Here it is the same. Let’s cover this appearing in a locked room, since for some reason, some theologians have difficulty with this. By the Father’s will he can translate anyone he wishes and anywhere he wishes if the party is willing, and Jesus was gladly willing. Evidently Jesus went into the spiritual dimension and appeared in their earth-bound dimension. Angels can do this, as seen in Acts 12:7, where Peter was in prison, guarded by two men and with sentries before the door, guarding the prison. Yet an angel appeared next to Peter in his prison cell and woke him up. If an angel can do this, then surely Jesus can too, even with his glorified body. Per the Father’s will, just appear!
“peace to you”: see v. 19 for more comments on the word “peace.”
Speaking of Jesus’s glorified body, it still retains the wounds in his hands and feet and side. God has chosen to keep the wounds there so that we can be reminded of the terrible and great price he paid to acquire our redemption. There is continuity between his body before and after the resurrection.
Yet Morris is right to point out that in continuity, there is something different about the resurrected body, so that it is not always recognized. On the road to Emmaus the two disciples did not recognize him (Luke 24:16). The disciples did not recognize him at the miraculous catch of fish (John 21:4). The disciples thought they saw a spirit (Luke 24:37 (comment on v. 14). In some of these cases, however, the disciples were kept from recognizing him.
Similarly, our glorified bodies will be like his glorified body; it will be recognizable to everyone; it will never die. But it will also have a mysterious aspect to it that we cannot yet understand.
Ten Biblical Truths about Your New Body
28:
Thomas made his great profession of faith. He was not talking to Father God in heaven, but he was addressing Jesus who was standing right in front of him, as the Greek clearly shows, “said to him.” It was a flash of inspiration that only the Spirit could give.
Notice what Jesus said to Peter when he recognized who Jesus was:
In reply, Simon Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 In reply, Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven has.” (Matt. 16:16-17)
The Father revealed to Peter who Jesus was before the resurrection, and now after the resurrection, Thomas has a fuller revelation of Jesus: “My Lord and my God.”
Jesus affirms to the disciples in a prayer, that the Father showed them more fully who Jesus was in the power of their ministry.
21 At that very time, he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden this from the wise and intelligent and revealed it to children. Yes, Father, because this way is your good will for you. 22 Everything has been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is, except the Son and to whomever the Son wills to reveal him.” (Luke 10:21-22)
And here in Thomas’ case, the Son did reveal who he was more fully.
Thomas’s confession corresponds to the opening verses in John 1: The Word was with God and the Word was God (v. 1-2); the Word became flesh (v. 14).
Beasley-Murray goes deep into theology:
This revelation of the Father in the Son reaches its apex in the ‘hour’ of Jesus, which in light of Easter proves to be his death-resurrection-ascension to the presence of God. The eschatological nature of that event (cf. 12:31-32) means that the ‘return’ to the Father entails the assumption of sovereignty with the Father. It is not an accident that the status of Jesus as ‘Messiah’ is emphasized in his Passion; it is as King of the Jews that he lifted up and enters on his reign at the right hand of God, where he is King not alone of Jews, but of all nations. Jesus thus is seen to be Mediator between God and man—in revelation, redemption, and rule. (p. 390).
But Borchert summarizes the other titles of Jesus and concludes that Thomas’s confession is the highest of all and is a fitting ending to the Gospel (or the first-stage ending).
Thomas’s response forms the high point of confession in the Gospel. What it does is bring the Gospel full circle from the Prologue, where it is emphatically said that the “Word was God” (1:1) to this confession, “My Lord and my God.” In the process of writing this Gospel the evangelist has proclaimed that Jesus was active in creation (1:2), the Word who became incarnate / enfleshed (1:14), the sin-bearing Lamb of God (1:29, 36), the Messiah (1:41; 4:25–26), the Son of God (1:48), the King of Israel (1:48), the new Temple (2:19–21), a teacher sent from God (3:2), a new symbol of God’s power exhibited through Moses (3:14), the evidence of the love of God (3:16), the Savior of the World (4:42), equal with God (5:18), the authority in judgment (5:27), the agent of God (5:30), the fulfillment of Scripture (5:39), the expected prophet (6:14), the “I am” (6:35, etc.), the supplier of living water (7:38), the one who was from God (9:31–33), the Son of Man (9:35), the consecrated/Holy one (10:36), the lifted up one (4:14; 12:32–34), the glorified one (13:31), the preparer of his followers’ destiny (14:2), the non-abandoning one (14:18), the one in whom we must abide and who is the basis for the fruitfulness of his followers (15:5–7), the sender of the Paraclete (15:26), the bearer of truth (18:37), the crucified King (19:15), the risen Lord (20:20) and God (20:26). The list can be expanded greatly, but the point is that when this list is compared to the designations of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels, the other presentations of Jesus pale in significance before these magnificent confessions about him in John. In the years of contemplating the significance of Jesus, the Johannine evangelist in the context of that early community has supplied for the church of all ages a truly masterful statement about Jesus—Jesus is indeed Lord and God! (Comment on v. 28)
Sorry, but Borchert is excellent here, so I cannot resist quoting him in full again. He continues:
The confession of Thomas is not unlike the attribution to “my God and my Lord” in Ps 35:23 and to a lesser extent is somewhat similar to Pss 29:3 and 86:15. But more pointedly it also touches directly upon the daily Jewish reciting of the Shema, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deut 6:4). The early Christians thus claimed for Jesus attributes akin to Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament. To suggest that such a confession might go unnoticed by the Jews would be highly naive. Moreover, since the Roman Emperors took to themselves designations of divinity, it meant that the early Christians were caught in a grip between two hostile forces. Indeed, Suetonius, the Roman historian, reports that Domitian claimed the title “Dominus et Deus noster” (“Our Lord and God,” Dom. 13). This confession epitomizes the highest declaration Christians could make concerning Jesus and brought them into a direct challenge with their contemporaries. (Comment on v. 28)
29:
Jesus calls us blessed when we believe without seeing him after his resurrection, yet we still believe. We are not like skeptical Thomas.
Let’s explore the word “blessed” more thoroughly.
The more common adjective, which appears here, is makarios (pronounced mah-kah-ree-oss) and is used 50 times. It has an extensive meaning: “happy” or “fortunate” or “privileged” (Mounce, pp. 67-71).
Further, let’s dig into Hebrew roots. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, and the main word for blessing is the verb barak, used 327 times throughout the Hebrew Bible: Genesis 76 times, Deuteronomy 40 times, and Psalms 76 times. Each time it is people-related. The noun is beraka, used 71 times, and “denotes the pronouncement of good things on the recipient or the collection of good things” (Mounce, p. 70).
So speak blessing to yourself and to others. Jesus is now speaking it over you. You are blessed because you believe without seeing him after his resurrection.
Go here for a word study:
Do I Really Know God? He Is Blessed
GrowApp for John 20:24-29
1. Are you like Thomas who doubts and insists on proof? Or do you easily believe in Jesus, after you heard the gospel?
2.. That is, did the gospel go directly to your heart, or did it first have to go through your head and then reach your heart?
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14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
12. Eyewitness Testimony in John’s Gospel
4. Church Fathers and John’s Gospel
3. Archaeology and John’s Gospel
SOURCES
For the bibliography, click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:
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