OT in NT (4b): Examples — Luke 23:46; John 2:17

2010 January 23

by Sam Freney

Here are a couple of more in-depth discussions of how Jesus is shown as the righteous sufferer par excellence, the anti-type of David.

Luke 23:46

εἰς χεῖράς σου παραθήσομαι τὸ πνεῦμά μου·

Into Your hand I entrust my spirit;

Psalm 31:5 (LXX 30:6)

πάτερ, εἰς χεῖράς σου παρατίθεμαι τὸ πνεῦμά μου.

Father, into Your hands I entrust My spirit.

Luke 23:46

Psalm 31 represents an ongoing trust in God’s faithfulness. A combination of future and stative verbal concepts are combined: He will be set free from the trap set from him; the Lord is (stative aorist) his refuge (31:4). This statement of entrusting his spirit to the Lord in coming times of trial is for the psalmist a perfective view on God’s relationship to him.

Luke’s version of Psalm 31:5 is a clear move from perfective to imperfective aspect (i.e. an ‘external’ to an ‘internal’ viewpoint). The context makes this decision clear: Jesus is thoroughly ‘in the moment’. He does not view the situation from afar, but is entirely part of the unfolding action at the cross. This is the point at which he utters this expression of righteous faith. Throughout the gospels Jesus is not distant from suffering or the depths of human experience. Even with his divine knowledge of his ultimate resurrection and vindication, he is seen here to be truly human.

Just as he was moved by Lazarus’ death (John 11:33, 38), as he suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt 26:36—39; Mark 14:32—36), as his life was characterised by cries of sorrow (Heb 5:7), on the cross Jesus is seen as the paradigmatic human. At this stage of Luke’s Gospel his remarks are typico-prophetic, not only calling to mind David’s trust in the Yahweh’s faithfulness through suffering, but bringing that to a point in his obedience on the cross as the righteous suffer par excellence.^[1]

John 2:17

ὅτι ὁ ζῆλος τοῦ οἴκου σου κατέφαγέν με,

because zeal for Your house has consumed me

Psalm 69:9 (LXX 68:10)

ὁ ζῆλος τοῦ οἴκου σου καταφάγεταί με.

Zeal for Your house will consume Me

John 2:17

Jesus’ dismay to find the temple a place of commerce rather than worship leads to his clearing of the temple courts, events which call to mind in the disciples the Davidic Psalm of the righteous sufferer. John’s text introduces the quotation as an explicit scriptural reference (John 2:17a), yet alters the verb from an aorist to a future indicative.

Under Con Campbell’s aspect system both aorist and future forms are perfective in aspect—they view the action as a whole—but the future is marked by having actual future tense. The effect is therefore that John casts Psalm 69 as a forward-looking statement. The Psalm is thus seen not only as a statement of David but as prophecy finding its fulfilment in Jesus. In John’s account, clearly, the function of this verse is to characterise Jesus’ actions in scriptural terms by linking him with the righteous sufferer.^[2] This is part of a pattern throughout the fourth gospel of typology, aligning Jesus’ ministry with the experience of a zealous king and/or prophet who then suffers humiliation by his own people.^[3]

[1] Darrell L. Bock, Luke 9:51–24:53 (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament Series; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1996), 1862. ↩

[2] Andreas J. Köstenberger, John (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament Series; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2004), 107; Andreas J. Köstenberger, ‘John’ in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (ed. G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 433.↩

[3] Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of John: A Commentary (2 vols.; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003), 528; Köstenberger, ‘John’, 434. ↩