Was John serious with this statement?
By cook4t7
@cook4t7 (202)
United States
July 7, 2007 10:03pm CST
Jesus had done so many other things that if they were written down the world couldn't contain the books. John 21:25 Now could any one tell me how this could be since he was only on Earth 3 1/2 yrs. and if he did something every hour the books could contain them, and not too many books at that, compared to how many books are in the world even at that time.
1 person likes this
3 responses
@vivienna (582)
• Venezuela
8 Jul 07
As occurrs so frequently in Bible texts, John's statement belongs to the figures of speech, this one called "Hyperbole". The contrary of the understatement, this kind of exaggeration is used to indicate a very great measure. You could say, for instance: "This lecture was endless", and everybody will understand that of course the lecture had an end, but had been very long for your patience.
When John uses this hyperbole, he wants to tell us that neither he nor the other three evangelists had written an exhaustive diary of Jesus' teachings, preachings, miracles and goings, but that in the course of only three years and something, they had seen many, many very important things coming from the Lord.
The many authors of the Bible were indoubtedly inspired by God's Spirit, but they were humans that expresses themselves according to their culture, education, etc. We must not forget this!
1 person likes this
@peavey (16936)
• United States
8 Jul 07
Another thing to remember is that there were not many books on the earth at that time. There's such a glut of the printed word today that it's hard to imagine, but when each manuscript (the term means "hand writing") was copied by hand on materials that took time to create, there were precious few books in the whole world.
@cook4t7 (202)
• United States
9 Jul 07
The Library of Alexander was tramendous and each major city in the world had many books they just kept them from the peasants to keep them oppressed. But what about a Biography of a persons life in one book so how could so many things in three years be accomplished as to not fit in all the books in the world?
@vincent380 (84)
• Philippines
10 Jul 07
The verse that you have mentioned, together with 20: 30-31, affirms that the gospel of John is a record of selected things that serve the purpose of testifying to the matter of life and building.
The Lord's ascension is not mentioned in Matthew or John. The reason is that today, after His resurrection, the Lord is still on the earth to be with His believers, and He will be with them until the end of this age, when He will be manifested in His visible glory, that is when He will come back to the earth in His visible presence to establish His visible kingdom.
Literally, i would say this, the verse means that Jesus did so many things even until now that if it were written the world could not contain it.
@revdauphinee (5703)
• United States
8 Jul 07
whi had been on earth 31/2 yrs not jesus he lived to be in his 30s who are you refering to??
