Conservative Friends Bible Study of The Gospel of John #6

#6 Gospel of John 2:12-3:19Henry begins this session by a discussion of the Greek word, “semeion” in the Gospel of John which in the King James Version of the Gospel of John is translated as “miracle”. However, the word, “semeion” means in Greek means a “sign, or an indication by which something is known”.  Our word, semiotics comes from this Greek word.  John 2:12-25  There are frequent usages in John’s Gospel of personal details, such as John’s mention that Jesus’ mother, brothers and disciples travelled with Him to Capernahum. In John’s Gospel, there is mention of the cleansing of the Temple at the beginning of His ministry, indicating that the Temple, (and our bodies) must be pure. Other gospels put this event at the end of His ministry. Henry believes that the placement of incidents in Jesus’ ministry at different times in each of the Gospels occur because the writer of that Gospel wanted to make a particular point at that point of that event in Jesus’ ministry. A discussion also ensues about destroying ”this temple”, and that He would raise it again in three days.   John 3:1-8It is notable that Nicodemus, as a leader of the Jews, came to Jesus by night, perhaps because as a member of the Sanhedrin he wanted not to be seen by anyone as going to Jesus. Nicodemus, by taking an outward, literal meaning to being “born again” misunderstands Jesus’ inward, spiritual meaning. This misunderstanding frequently happens in Jesus’ conversations with others that the inward (spiritual) is much more important than the outward (literal, physical). Quakers frequently use the word, “regeneration” for the experience of being born again. Henry emphasizes that being spiritually born again is essential for us.John 3:9-Belief (Greek: pisteo) in John 3:16 is not just a token acceptance of Jesus, but a deep, inward, trusting, transformative, spiritual understanding of who Jesus is and can be in one’s life. The advice in our introduction is from page 32 of the Ohio Yearly Meeting's Book of Discipline.A complete list of our podcasts,  organized into topics, is available on our website.We will be publishing video interviews with Conservative Friends on YouTube.  See our YouTube channel.  The first interview is with Susan Smith. To learn more about Ohio Yearly Meeting (Conservative) of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), please visit  ohioyearlymeeting.org. Those interested in exploring the distinctives of Conservative Friends waiting worship should consider checking out our many Zoom Online Worship opportunities during the week here. All are welcome! We also have several Zoom study groups.  Check out the Online Study and Discussion Groups on our website.   Advices read in these podcasts can be found on page 29 in our Book Of Discipline.We welcome feedback on this and any of our other podcast episodes.   Contact us through our website.