John 14-17 is after the Resurrection

John 14-17 mostly happened after Jesus was resurrected when the disciples saw him again in Galilee. This follows up and expands some ideas from my Good Novel post where I try to reconcile the accounts about what happened after the resurrection.

Acts 1 mentions that Jesus appeared to his disciples in the fourty days after his death and resurrection and taught them of the Kingdom. John 14-17 reads as if they were taught at this time, and I visualize the prayer in John 17 ending with Jesus rising into the air, and then the angels asking Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up in the heavens. In other words, John 17 takes place between Acts 1:8 and 1:9. as I have placed it in my gospel reader, The Good Novel.

Since my careful study of John recently I have become partial to the theory that John 14-16 fits better also just before the ascension:

1. Jesus teaches repeatedly that he is going to the Father with the words “hour” or “a little while”. We know from various sources that Jesus did not go to heaven while dead but went to the world of the dead, called, the underworld, Sheol, Hades (often translated as hell), or spirit prison. Yet he says I go to the Father, not I will go to the Father.

2. Jesus says he is now telling them everything the Father has told him (John 14:15, 15:15, 17:7), and they agree he is no longer speaking to them in proverbs (16:25).

3. “Because I live ye shall live” (John 14:19). This is a weird and soon to be demoralizing thing to say when he is about to die. When he has just resurrected, it’s profound and inspiring.

4. “My peace I leave unto you.” (John 14:27) If he says this right before his death, it makes his peace seem pretty fail, as the disciples were uncertain and fearful following this night. It fits better right before Pentecost.

5. John 14:30 Jesus says the prince of darkness and the world no longer have power over him. Compare this to what he says to Pilate (certainly of the world), “Ye would have no power over me, unless...

6. “the comforter will reprove the world” (John 16:7). As far as I can tell this happens through Peter and John, “Ye slew the trailblazer of the way of life.” (Acts 3:15)

7. “I have finished the work you gave me” (John 17:3) Compare to John 19:28-30, which says Jesus had done all to fulfill the scriptures and he said, ‘It is finished.’

8. “the son of perdition is lost.” (John 17:12) At the time of the last supper that was not yet entirely true.

9. Talking about the disciples bearing fruit in 15 and abiding in his love (via the Holy Ghost if I understand correctly) fits better with this being right before Pentecost, as they were not going to bear fruit when they are scattered and afraid, and have no way of abiding in him when he is not there without the Holy Ghost. The tone of these chapters is Jesus explaining why he has to go: to send the comforter, to prepare rooms, &c. Which does not make sense if the next thing to happen is he dies.

10. Mary Magdalene does not recognize Jesus as a supernatural being when she sees him in the garden, and thinks he is the gardener and that he may have removed the body he discovered someone had put in the fancy but not yet used tomb under his care. He tells her that she needs to stop clinging to him because he has to go to the father (he hasn’t yet). This means he is not yet glorified after his resurrection, and he 'goes to the father’ following this.

Passages that take place prior to the resurrection: My interpretation is that these are mixed into this passage for differing reasons:

1. “Rise, let us go from hence” (John 14:31) This maintains the transition between the end of chapter 13 when they are in the upper room and 18 when they are in the garden of Gethsemane. It doesn’t delineate a break in his teaching such as a structural marker or change of topic.

2. “Ye shall weep and the world will rejoice” (John 16:20) - I can see the disciples being sad the Jesus is leaving them to go the Father, but the world doesn’t know about this so it must be about the resurrection.

3. The disciples shall scatter (16:31-33). This happens when he is arrested. For both these passages I wonder if the author isn’t including them to juxtapose the certainty they felt just before his arrest with the certainty they felt when the resurrected Christ was preaching to them.

4. I consecrate myself that these also may be consecrated. (John 17:19) In my “Good Novel” I put “make holy” instead of consecrate for simpler language. Other translations vary but the problem is that this word has two meanings in the original language and the English doesn’t. The original means to make holy but it also means to dedicate or offer up. I’ve always read this as Jesus saying he is offering himself up the same way that things offered at the temple, so that his disciples might become holy. On further thought I think it reflects the message of these chapters, that Jesus has to become holy (holier or holiest by ascending to the Father and receiving his glory) so that he can send the comforter and then the disciples can offer themselves by being sent into the world.

The alternate explanation is the Jesus is speaking in the prophetic perfect tense throughout and is deliberately confusing his disciples one last time just before his death. We’d have to assume all the statements about telling them everything and not speaking to them in proverbs was also in the prophetic perfect tense and his disciples just didn’t get that.

Chapters 14-17 have no parallel in the synoptics. This is odd because they would naturally include his words at the last supper, and they all apparently were there or had sources there. I note that the synoptics all cut off with the first witnesses and then a conclusion that the disciples were to go preach the gospel to the world, or that this all happened according to scripture. If Ch14-17 were preached during the fourty days, it would be outside the general synoptic timeline except for Luke-Acts which puts the Great Commission in this space. And perhaps there was a general rule given to those present they were not to casually repeat the things they heard in that time frame.

What else might the Savior have taught during the fourty days? I assume he explained all his parables, taught the sermon on the mount, and probably taught most of the things he taught in 3 Nephi.