John communicates the aim of his gospel as belief and life (John 20:30–31). Moreover, what has become one of the most quoted verses in the Bible, John 3:16, identifies the one who believes as the one having eternal life. So, what does it mean to believe? In order to reach a deeper understanding of what John meant with “believe,” this blog will survey some snapshots of belief in John’s Gospel, illustrating that we might be missing the mark if we approach the task with a “minimum criteria” approach.[1]
John’s Gospel is unique in that he uses the verb πιστεύω (“I believe”) three times more than the Synoptics combined (Schneiders 2003, 51). John seemingly uses different expressions for different types of belief. For example, he uses the expressions πιστεύ- + dative (“believe a, b, c”) and πιστεύ- + ὅτι (“believe that a, b, c”) to refer to a conviction that something is true or reliable. John also uses the unique expression πιστεύ- + εἰς + accusative (“believe in a, b, c”), which many deem as an expression of true belief (the “real deal,” if you will). If someone is said to believe in Jesus, the Father, or his Name, we can be sure that they were true disciples. This was my understanding until I started comparing different snapshots of Johannine belief and realized that things were more complex than I wanted them to be.
A good example of contradicting snapshots can be found in John 2. Jesus’s disciples are the first to believe in him after (and because of) his first sign (2:11). Later, John tells us of many (πολλοί) who believe in Jesus’s Name because they saw the signs that he was doing (2:23). John uses “believe in” language for both groups and their belief is grounded in exactly the same thing: Jesus’s sign(s). However, Jesus’s response to the latter group is a negative one as he does not entrust himself to them. This is baffling seeing that the two scenes of belief (the disciples in v. 11 and the “many” in v. 23) are described in identical terms in the Greek text. Yet, one is acknowledged by Jesus and another not. We can speculate why the belief of the “many” fell short. Some argue that it was because it was grounded in Jesus’s signs. However, Jesus does not seem to be opposed to this in 2:11—he even encourages it in a later conversation with his disciples (14:11; see also 10:38).
Another interesting comparison is that of Nicodemus and Nathanael. The former enters the scene recognizing Jesus as coming from God (3:2)—a weighty confession. Jesus places great emphasis on the fact that he has come from the Father. Nicodemus thus affirms an essential theological truth as he approaches Jesus. Additionally, he calls him, “Rabbi” (v. 2), the same title used by Jesus’s disciples (e.g., 1:38, 49; 4:31; 9:2). However, Jesus’s response to him implies that Nicodemus is not yet regarded as one who believes. On the other side of the coin, we have Nathanael, who, upon hearing of Jesus, initially replies in confessional disbelief—essentially uttering the opposite of what Nicodemus proclaimed (Nathanael exclaims, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”—1:46). After seeing something akin to a sign by Jesus (v. 48), Nathanael erupts in a confession, identifying Jesus as the Son of God, King of Israel (1:49). John does little to paint Nathanael’s response to Jesus as anything more than a grand confession, yet, Jesus’s reaction to him illustrates that something existential had just taken place—Nathanael has become a true believer. How and why, we are not told.
In John 8, Jesus engages with Judeans who believed in him (v. 30) and believed him (v. 31). Now this sounds like an ideal group of disciples. John even uses “believe in” language, which is Johannine codeword for a true disciple, right? Wrong. In an exchange with Jesus, he labels these believers as children of the devil (v. 44)! Others are seemingly passive and even “helped” by Jesus to believe. In a confession initiated by Jesus, the formerly blind man in John 9 communicates the desire to believe in “the Son of Man” (9:36) but reserves his belief for when the identity of this person is clear. After Jesus confirms that he (the blind man), indeed, has seen him and that the Son of Man is the one speaking to him (v. 37), the man responds with πιστεύω (“I believe”). What does this man believe? We simply do not know. The section contains no confession as to who this man understands Jesus to be or what he specifically believes, but his affirmation is followed by the public act of worship (v. 38), indicating that, while he, unlike Nathanael, may not have had the vocabulary to eloquently demonstrate his belief in confessional terms, his life was dramatically altered.
Perhaps this is why Powell (2018, 184) describes the Gospel of John as an ideal companion to believers in different stages of maturity. While such a perspective is helpful, the messy (and contradictory) portraits of belief are also due to the different lived realities embodied by those who believed in Jesus and those who did not. In some contexts, a mere confession was, in fact, a demonstration of someone “believing in” Jesus. For instance, to the Jewish audience member, believing the “I am” statements connects Jesus to Yahweh, which means that the appropriate response to him would be that reserved for the God of Israel. This had drastic consequences, one of these being their expulsion from the Jewish synagogues. To these believers, being distanced from the Jewish community was to be cut off from a group in which they placed their identity and heritage. Nathanael’s confession of Jesus as “the Son of God, the King of Israel” is thus far more than a mere confession and cannot be used to justify that believing in Jesus today is making a public confession only. For Nathanael, confession was action—he could not confess and return to the way things were.
So, what am I getting at here? Before undertaking this study, I thought that I could analyze true and false belief in John’s Gospel and so distill a clear set of criteria for us today. Underlying this exercise was perhaps the search for a bare minimum. This is a human tendency that we all wrestle with. We make checklists like the sinner’s prayer, baptism, public confession, and others. We look at Nathanael’s confession and conclude that we just need to confess Jesus publicly. This was enough for Nathanael, right? Or look at the blind man and conclude that God does not want confession, but devotion and worship. However, we can also look at the Judeans in John 8 and conclude that, even if one identifies as a believer, your deeds will show whether you truly are one. Additionally, we don’t read of Nathanael’s suffering for Christ, his daily denial of his flesh, discipleship of those around him, and intimacy with Jesus and his disciples that was at work until his very last breath.
Rather than summarizing belief based on one event, or searching for the common denominator between various expressions, the Johannine examples can only be seen as snapshots of a changed life. All expressions of belief thus work together to weave in us an understanding of a life dramatically changed by our Lord and Savior and preserved by our remaining in him and his community (John 15). We are called to stare at the bigger picture—without reducing it to a list of bare minimums—knowing that, while we may have confidence in our belonging to God’s family (John 1:12), “being a believer” is never a finished task.
Works cited
Powell, Mark A. 2018. Introducing the New Testament: A Historical, Literary, and Theological Survey. 2d ed. Grand Rapids: Baker.
Schneiders, Sandra. 2003. Written That You May Believe. Encountering Jesus in the Fourth Gospel. New York: Crossroad.
Van Deventer, Cornelia. 2020. “The Mosaic of Belief.” Neotestamentica 55(1):156–170.
Short Biography: Cornelia obtained her PhD in New Testament from the University of Stellenbosch in 2018. She is currently the Associate Editor of Conspectus and works for the South African Theological Seminary as a lecturer and postgraduate supervisor. Her research interests lie primarily in the Letters and Gospel of John.
[1] This blog is based on a recently published article (van Deventer, Cornelia. 2020. “The Mosaic of Belief.” Neotestamentica 55(1):156–170).
