THE WITNESSES
FIRST SIGN
85
AND
Unless one can bring to the task unlimited time and patience, and
has available unlimited space, analysis of this formidable list is
doomed to failure. That these sentences, so solemnly introduced, are
of the greatest weight we have no doubt, and we shall better appreciate
their contribution to the great testimony of the whole if we note their
place and association as the story of this Gospel unfolds. We therefore
keep the list before us for future reference. There is no reason, of
course, why the reader should not make his own analysis. He will
soon discover that these statements of our Lord have to do with life
and death, the kingdom and service, or the Lord's own relationship
with the Father and the believer. For example, he may observe that the
fourteenth reference is the great `I am' passage (8:58). So far,
however, we have enough in hand to cope with the first of these double
Amens.
When attempting to show the way in which John refers to Christ as
the Word, and the Word made flesh, we said, speaking of the
philosophical use of logos and the failure of human wisdom,
`As we realize the immensity of the gulf that yawned between the
far-off Platonist God, and the things of time and sense, we may
perhaps better understand why the Lord used the figure of Jacob's
ladder as representing Himself in John 1:51'.
At the top, as it were, of Nathanael's opening confession stands
`The Son of God'. At the bottom stands the Lord's own assumption,
`The Son of man'. Jacob, before he became `an Israelite indeed' (for
he had manifested considerable guile), was vouchsafed the vision of
Bethel.
`... he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top
of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending
and descending on it. And, behold, the LORD stood above it' (Gen.
28:12,13).
The Rabbis have allowed their fancy full rein in connection with
Jacob's ladder, and while it would be waste of space to give quotations
from their speculations, their prevalence would make the Lord's
allusion to Jacob's ladder quite reasonable in Nathanael's ears. The
bringing of heaven and earth together, the placing of the Son of God at
the one extreme and the Son of man at the other, is perhaps the most
important feature of the imagery.