October 29th, 2022

This is the Sunday when the Reformation is celebrated. And for the last three weeks, we have been looking at some of the connections between two sets of things, and both those sets have a connection to the word ‘gospel’, a very important word during the Reformation.​

The word ‘gospel’ in the Old Testament meant the important news that goes from one important place to another, such as the news from a battlefield to a nation’s leader (see 1 Samuel 4:17). For the last three weeks, we have been connecting the first three living creatures of the LORD’s throne mentioned in the first chapter of Ezekiel—the man, lion, and ox—to the first three gospel accounts—Matthew, Mark, and Luke. If you have not read those writings from earlier this month, they may be helpful. And as the first three living creatures are quite similar—they all stay on the ground—the first three gospel accounts are also similar. They are even called the ‘synoptic’ gospels, having a similar view. But now both the fourth creature and the gospel account are significantly different. You might even want to call them ‘dysoptic’.

Since the fourth gospel account is not like the other three, many questions have arisen: Was this written early, late, or with the others in mind? These questions and many others are more historical in nature and would be difficult to answer without some hard evidence. A better and more solid direction of study would be to look at the more literary issue at hand. And the living creature of the LORD’s throne that is usually connected to this account is a significantly different one, that of the eagle.

JOHN AND EAGLE

Where the man, the lion, and the ox are all (usually) confined to the ground, that is certainly not the case with the eagle. And this gospel account has a much broader perspective.

If one lives in the United States of America, one is usually familiar with the characteristics of the eagle. But even within this country, one usually does not have a close relationship with such an animal. It is certainly a memorable day when I see one. And I have always seen just one at a time. And it is usually a long time until I see another. And because of this, it is difficult to list the characteristics of such a rarely seen animal. But the fact that it is able to fly makes this animal stand out among the others.
Isaiah 40:31 makes a connection of the eagle to strength. Here is a somewhat-literal translation of that verse:

And the ones hoping of Yahweh, they will renew strength; they will ascend, wing, as the eagles; they will run, and they will not be weary, they will walk, and they will not be faint.

With such a different gospel account, it should not be too surprising that an article has been written about the historical presents in the Gospel according to John—and such a thing is frequent in this account. The following article is helpful and will be quoted below. Mavis M. Leung, “The Narrative Function and Verbal Aspect of the Historical Present in the Fourth Gospel.” In Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society; Volume 51, Issue 4 (December 2008); pages 703-20: “More specifically, the Gospel’s historical presents are generally located at key junctures of the story where new participants come into scene or existing participants begin to speak. The appearance of the historical present might, then, signal changes to the narrative scene (page 710).”

One might compare this ‘newness’ to the eyesight of the eagle. In this case, its strength comes from its height advantage. For the eagle to see something new, something different, this is a definite strength, an advantage. And it may be this that comes across deliberately in the historical presents within this gospel account.

Later in the article mentioned above, the focus is on the first historical present in this gospel account, that of the word meaning ‘witness’. Unlike other instances, this one does not introduce something new or different. What could be behind such a use of the historical present?

Since the first historical presents were significant in the other gospel accounts and connected more strongly to the living creature of that account, one could connect this historical present to the eagle in the sense that, flying high overhead, it would support and confirm what is being seen on the ground, the perspective of the other living creatures. The sense of ‘witness’ is a supportive one, as it would be in a courtroom or another important place—such as before a king.
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The word ‘witness’ is an important one throughout the history of Christianity. And this is a good reminder that the fourth account works together with the others to support the others. That is certainly appropriate when it comes to speaking about a fourfold gospel.