followHIM - John 1 Part 2 • Dr. Eric D. Huntsman • Jan. 16 - Jan. 22

Episode Date: January 11, 2023

Dr. Eric Huntsman continues to examine John 1 and shares his testimony of Jesus Christ.Please rate and review the podcast!Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.co/old-testament/Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/follow-him-a-come-follow-me-podcast/id1545433056Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15G9TTz8yLp0dQyEcBQ8BYThanks to the follow HIM team:Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsIgor Willians: Portuguese Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com

Welcome to part two with Dr. Eric Huntsman, John chapter one. If we could share screens here, I would show you how I lay this out in Greek. This Johannine scholar I mentioned, Raymond Brown, the late Father Brown, he made an argument back in the 70s, which I've really embraced, which is a lot of times things about Jesus or the discourses, the words of Jesus himself in the Gospel of John are either poetic or semi-poetic. In English, I've laid it out in the appendix of my little book on becoming the beloved disciple, but I've also done it in Greek and other contexts. Whenever the first 18 verses of John 1 are talking about Jesus, it's poetic.

But when it's ever talking about the witness that God sends to bear witness of the light, it's prose. So we have this very poetic beginning. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word is with God, and the Word was God. Those of you who were doing the Psalms with me see the parallelism there. If that same was in the beginning with God, all things were made by him. Without him was not anything made. In him was life. Life was the light of men. The light shineth in the darkness. The darkness comprehendeth it not. But then also in verses six through eight, it becomes very prosaic. Oh, by the way, there was a man sent from God. His name was John. This guy wasn't the light. He was sent as a witness of the light. So it's this very elevated, poetic, powerful discourse when it's talking about Jesus, the Word. But then, oh,

then there was a guy, John. He was sent to witness for him. Then we go back to Jesus, and it becomes semi-poetic again in 19 through 14. This was the true light which lighteth every human being that cometh in the world. I'm being gender-inclusive here because Anthropos is gender-inclusive in Greek. He, the Word, was in the world. The world being gender inclusive here because Anthropos is gender inclusive in Greek. He, the word, was in the world. The world was made by him, and the world knew him not. In this verse, I'm going to have to inflict some more Greek on you. Verse 11, he came into his own, and his own received him not. Now, in Greek, it says, estat idia elfen, he came to his own things. It's neuter plural in Greek. Kaihoi idioi auton u paralabon.

And his own people did not receive. Now, why that's so important is the elements, as we'll see in Water into Wine, the elements obey God. They obey the word, the divine word. They obey Jesus. But people have their agency and sometimes don't. I think it's in Helaman. Is it in Helaman where Mormon has this little kind of poetic aside? Dust of the earth thing? Yes, yes. He says, the dust of the earth moves hither and thither as the men of the almighty God, but man hearkeneth not. And that's what happens in John. And that's going to be this theme of encounter, discipleship. How do people respond?

We know the elements will respond, but how will people? But as many as received him, to him he gave power to become the sons and daughters of God, even to them that believe on his name. Now, you have to kind of unfold this. So I did something called the Divine Family of God and the Gospel of John. So that was my chapter, this last very volume. And I examined this, and it's really interesting because Latter-day Saints were raised singing, I am a child of God. We're already children of God. Why do we have to become the children of God? Now, Bob Millett, who both of you remember, former dean of religion, he says this is all about

alienation. We started out as children of heavenly parents, but we lost that status because of the fall, and then later by our own choices and spiritual death. Christ comes to help restore that. So that's really interesting. He gives us the power to become the children of God, as many of us as believe in his name. And then it goes on and says, which were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of men, but of God. When it says the will of man, it actually is masculine there. What we have here is born not of blood, that's normal human conception, nor the desires of the flesh, normal human conception, nor the will of man, a man as the agent of conception, but of God. It's a spiritual birth.

And of course, later when you read John 3, you read all about that. That's a very Book of Mormon principle as well. Mosiah 5, you are the sons and daughters of Christ. You have been begotten this day by him. Absolutely. And then this is the high Christology of John, this divine word that was the creator and the source of life and light, the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. This is what our Catholic friends would call the incarnation. Anyone who speaks Spanish can get the Latin there, carne asada, in the meat. Okay, so he's actually

going to be in the flesh and dwelt among us. Once again, a little bit of a Greek here, kaiho logos sarxigenito kaioskenosin. The word for dwelt among us in Greek comes from the word for tent, literally meant he pitched his tent or tabernacle. Now, how did the pre-mortal word, the divine word live with the children of Israel in Exodus? In the tabernacle. How is the incarnate word going to dwell with his people? He's going to dwell in the flesh of the man, Jesus. So just like you have the pillar of fire and cloud on the tabernacle in Exodus, you've got the divine word in Jesus. And the word became flesh well among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten

of the Father. And then this last part ends with John, once again, a little prosaic aside, John bear witness of him and cried, this is he of whom I spake. He that came after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. And then I think, at least in my, I'm working on the BYU New Testament commentary volume for John, In my translation and analysis of 16 through 18, I think 16 through 18 is your narrator or the beloved disciple speaking here. The fullness we have all received, grace for grace. The law was given of Moses. That was grace.

That was a gift. But grace and truth as it's ongoing comes by Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten God or the only begotten son who is in the bosom and the embrace of the father. He's the one who declared him. We ended up reading all 18 verses. That's fantastic. When I was a kid, my mom did not like fake swearing.

Oh, my gosh. You know, but anyway, I remember I was probably on my mission when I thought we probably shouldn't say, oh my word, because that was one of Jesus's names. I haven't been able to ever since then because it's capitalized and it means, ooh, that's his name. Anyway. That's great, John. These verses, the first 18 verses is the first half of the prologue. And as I've suggested, it's introducing the primary theme of the Gospel of John. It's high Christology.

The fact that the man Jesus of Nazareth was Jehovah. He was the incarnate Jehovah, the divine Son of God. Is he going to continue to use light throughout the gospel? Because he uses it so much in this prologue. Yeah, we're getting a little ahead of ourselves. But 7, 8, 9, and the first half of chapter 10, all of those discourses of Jesus to the quote-unquote Jews, the leaders in Jerusalem, are at the Feast of Tabernacles. And the Feast of Tabernacles, the Jewish festival Sukkot, has two main themes, water and light.

So you have in Chapter 7, it's the fall festival, and they're praying for rain for the next year, and they actually go down the Gihon Spring, fill up silver things of water, bring it up to the temple, pour the water on the altar, and pray for rain. At that moment, the incarnate Jehovah is standing in the temple portico saying, hey, you're praying for rain? I'm right here. If anyone wants water, come get it. In the evenings, they would light the big, huge candelabra in the courtyards. And they would actually have torch dances. And they would dance

all night by torchlight. So the Feast of Tabernacles had this image of light in darkness. And that's why you have that one sixth miraculous sign, the healing of the man born blind. Someone who's always been in darkness is going to be enlightened by Jesus. I'm the way and the truth and the light. Yeah, it's all through it. And he goes and washes in water. So there's water and light, the man born blind. It's perfect. On my mission, and maybe others have experienced this, people who knew their scriptures a little bit, if you told them about the first vision, they would say, wait a minute, it says in John that no man has seen God at any time.

And I know there's a JST reference there down below in the footnotes, but I'm sure there's more. What can you tell us? Yeah, I guess what we could, one way we kind of approach that is what does it mean? The only begotten son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him? What does it mean to declare Him? Exegesato, I think is what it is in the Greek, means literally to lay it out, to show Him. Okay? So one could almost make the argument, we can only come to the Father or see the Father through the Son. Now, I know that's almost

reverse of what we have at the baptism, the transfiguration, the first vision, where the Father is introducing the Son. But those are singular episodes. I think by and large, the way we get back to the Father, right, since the Father was separated by the Father, the Son brings us to the Father. So you can make the argument that you can't see the Father until you know the Son, and then the Son brings him to you. And that actually is consonant or goes along with what the JST rendering is. I remember when I was trying to figure out that same thing, in those days, we'd go back to Rousseau-McConkie's Doctrine of the New Testament commentary, and he would cite

the JST, no man has seen God at any time except he has borne record of the Son, for except it is through him no man can be saved. So I think unless you bear record of the Son, you can't see God. And then when you know the Son, the Son himself bears record of the Father. I mean, the way we always explained it when I was trying to study this out, is you can't be in the presence of the Father in a mortal state. You have to be literally transfigured to be in his presence. And once again, that's done through the agency of the Son. And I like what you said about some of Jesus's titles imply three parties. If he's an advocate, he is advocating for us, advocating for us to someone else, to the Father. He's our advocate. I think my favorite title for the Savior, and I might change my mind tomorrow,

but I love advocate, that He is our advocate before the Father. He stands beside us. And this verse reminds me of those other titles like advocate or mediator or intercessor. He's the one that will bring us back to the Father. And so no man has seen God at any time. And then it goes right to about the Son. He's the one who will bring us back to the Father. And so no man had seen God at any time. And then it goes right to about the Son. He's the one who's going to take us there again. Well, and since you brought up advocate, of course, you start thinking of, is it section 42 again, where the risen Lord is talking to Joseph Smith and says,

listen to him who is the advocate before the Father. 45. 45, thank you. Father, behold the suffering and blood of thy son. Death of him who did no sin. So here's an interesting, once again, theological gee whiz moment. So advocate, it's a Latin term, advocatus, which means being called to one side.

Well, the Greek version of that is parakletos. Once again, being called to someone's side to represent that person, to intercede for that person. That's what's translated in John 14, 15, and 16 as comforter, parakletos. In some translations, you'll see it rendered as just another Greek word, paraklet. Sometimes it's called the paraklet sayings. So when he says, I will send you another comforter, the word is actually, I will send you another advocate, another helper, another person to represent in your seed for you. The reason it turned out to be comfort is the King James translators in

older English, comfort meant to give support in a real way. I mean, it's true the Holy Ghost and Jesus comfort us in an emotional sense, but it's more like treason laws don't give any aid or comfort to the enemy. So when it says, I will give you another comforter, I will give you someone to give you what you need physically. I will stand up for you and I will intercede for you. I will represent you. And in fact, in that passage, I know we're a long way from John 14, but he actually says, I will not leave you comfortless. And verse 18 is at 14, 18. I'll not leave you comfortless. I will come into at 14, 18, I will not leave you comfortless.

I will come into you. The word comfortless in that verse is orfanus. He says, I will not leave you orphans. See, an orphan is someone without any source of support, no comfort in the archaic sense. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come and be your father. So just as our heavenly parents are our spiritual parents and gave us spiritual life, and our earthly parents gave us physical life, Jesus Christ comes to us as our covenant father and gives us eternal life. Anyway, we'll do that when we get to John 14, 15, 16 later in the year. But it ties into what's happening here. We can't do anything without Jesus in the Gospel of John, and I think that does help with that difficult verse, verse 18, about not being able to see the Father without the Son. Yeah, and I put my margin Acts chapter 7, you know, the stoning of Stephen, where I saw

the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God and thought, well, that's what Stephen saw, the Father and the Son. And what's interesting is if he doesn't declare him, so when Stephen sees the Father and the Son, Jesus actually says this in the Gospel of John. I bear witness to the Father, the Father bears witness to me, and the Holy Ghost bears witness of us. So you can't get any of those three without the other. And since this is primarily a book about Jesus, you can't get to the Father without the Son. And what's really interesting is even though the Holy Ghost is operating in his normal role as a witness of truth, etc., when we get to those chapters 14, 15, and 16, when Jesus is present, the Holy Ghost lets him do the stuff.

So what's really interesting is for the disciples, they knew Jesus first. When Jesus is gone, he sends the Holy Ghost to be the comforter. Now we start out with the Holy Ghost, but eventually Jesus comes and is our comforter. And that's, I think, what Joseph Smith's doing with John 14 about the second comforter. So once again, the original disciples started with the man Jesus. When he goes, they get the Holy Ghost. We start with the Holy Ghost, but we're working up to getting the presence of Jesus just as the disciples had him in the first instance. Interesting. It's all in John.

I mean, if you had to have only one book of Scripture, I think you'd have to go with John. Well, Book of Mormon. But next with John. Well, Book of Mormon, but next John. Now it switches from verse 18 to verse 19. It makes a change. Eric, what is that little symbol there? Yes. So you have this up to about halfway through Acts. You've got that little, looks like a backward P with two stems. That's a paragraph mark. So that is the editorial convention in many editions of the King James to let you know where paragraphs begin and end. It stops about halfway through Acts, so it doesn't help you with Paul, which is exactly where you'd need it to kind of unravel Paul. So that's letting you know you're moving into a new section. The technical term is pericope.

We would just say paragraph. You've actually had several paragraphs in that first section. You had one at six, you had one at 15, and now you have one at 19. But 19 is a bigger change for reasons I've laid out. I think verses 1 through 18 are the primary theme of the divinity of Christ, the high Christology of John. And then 19 through 51 is the secondary theme of encounter, the theme of discipleship. Here comes the disciples. Yeah. And the first disciple, interestingly, is the man sent by God already in the first part of it, which is John the Baptist.

Now, let me clarify that. He's never called John the Baptist in the fourth gospel. Okay. He's John the Baptist in the synoptics. And what's really interesting about this is even though John's baptism of Jesus is implied as you turn the page, when he says, when I saw the Spirit descending upon him, that was the one, and we all know that's the dove, blah, blah, blah. You actually don't see John baptize Jesus in John, because I argue the primary role of John, the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth in the fourth gospel is not as a baptizer, it's as a witness.

In fact, in my little book, Becoming a Beloved Disciple, I always call him the prophet John rather than John the Baptist. Because he's the man sent by God to bear witness of the light. So we shift in verses 19 through 28 to John's witness to the Pharisees and the Levites who are sent from Jerusalem to say, who are you? And then you get this whole business of him bearing his witness. So we are promised in verses 6, 7, and 8, and then in verse 15, that God is going to send a witness, and then we see that witness in verses 19 through 28 as he bears witness by the side of the Jordan to those sent by Jerusalem to find out who this Jesus is. But that's actually not the important witness of the prophet John. The important witness that makes a difference is the witness he bears in verses 29 through 40. Let's do 29

through 34 and then 35 through 40. 29, the next day, John sees Jesus coming unto him and say, we don't know who he's talking to, just anyone around him, behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. So this is the real witness of the prophet John. Not just what he's saying to the priest and Levites, oh, this guy, he came before me and I can't lose his latchet on his sandal. The real witness is this is the lamb of God. And in fact, when we get to the passion narratives in John,

John, more than the other gospels, really portrays Jesus as the Paschal lamb who's going to be offered. Now notice it says the sin of the world, not sin. Years ago, we were recording the Messiah with the Tabernacle Choir, and Mack Wilberg had done a very scholarly and careful edition of it, and he's just a master, and he was just rehearsing this, rehearsing this, rehearsing this. And we're recording it. When you record, you take after take after take. And he said, wait, you're doing it wrong. You're saying sins of the world. So the singers were all saying, behold, the Lamb of God.

It's a beautiful chorus of Messiah. Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away. They were all saying sins of the world. And Matt kept getting on the speaker saying, no, it's sin. And I finally told my fellow baritones later, you're saying sins of the world because you're all busy thinking of your individual sins. But what John's doing is more global. Sin of the world means the fallen state of the world. And it's not just the world, the people in the world. It's the entire fallen creation.

By the way, just gee whiz for when you get to Paul. In the early letters of Paul, the secure letters of Paul, sin is singular. In the later letters of Paul, when he's dealing with the nitty gritty of people, it's sin. What John and the early Paul are focusing upon is a state of sin, which comes from living in a fallen world and being born separated from our heavenly parents. Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden. They were cast out. We were simply born into this state. So he has come to take away the fallen state of the entire world. That's fantastic. Now, I've never seen that before. The sin of the world, singular. Right. It reminds me of the Ether 12 about I give unto men weakness.

People say weaknesses. No, it says weakness. It sounds like a more global. Right. And if you need a confirmation of that, I think it's in the book of Jacob. There's also discussion of weakness. So I always tell people he has given us our fallen state where we need strength. That strength is grace. Now, we have all kinds of individual weaknesses. And he does say, I'll make weak things strong to you. So our individual weaknesses will be strengthened. But we're missing the global picture.

The global weakness. Exactly. Well, since we mentioned Lamb of God, skip ahead to this next section, 35 through 40. On the next day, again, John stood and two of his disciples, and we'll find out who they are in a moment. And looking upon Jesus as Jesus walked, he said, behold, the Lamb of God. He says it again. From that moment, the two disciples heard him speak. They followed Jesus. So John had followers, people who were watching him and supporting him and learning from him, had been baptized by him. Two of them hear this testimony from the prophet John, that this

is the Lamb of God, and they follow Jesus. And Jesus turns and sees them following and says, what are you looking for? Sorry, I'm translating on the fly here. And they said, teacher, rabbi, where are you staying? Where do I sell? And he says, come and see. I remember years ago, I think it was the top of President Monson. Come and see. If you want to know the truthfulness of the gospel, come and see. Just give it a try. Jesus says, come and see. And they stayed with him that day. One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. So you've got the prophet John as the first witness, and now Andrew is going to be the second. Now, by the way, we don't name the other

disciple. We don't know, but it could be the beloved disciple. But at this point, he's not trying to insert himself into the story, because what's important is what Andrew does, not what the other disciple does. What does Andrew do? Simon Peter's brother, verse 41 to 42. First, he finds his own brother, Simon, and says, we have found Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ. We found the anointed one. And he brought him. He brought Peter to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, thou art Shimon.

You are Simon, the son of Jonas. Thou shalt be called Cephas or Cephas, which is by interpretation of stone. And we all know that in Greek, Petros means rocky. And I know there's JST here, and we talked about seer stone and Peter will be a seer. But we also have the sense that this man is going to become a rock solid disciple. So we have the prophet John bear testimony. We have Andrew then go and bear test to his disciples. Then we have Andrew go and bear testimony to a brother. This begins what I call in my book, the great chain of witnesses. All of us got our testimonies

from somewhere. It might've been our mom. It might've been our father. It might've been the missionaries. It might've been president Monson. It might've been a teacher. And then we go and share it with someone else. And who is it we first want to share it with? It's our family. So Andrew goes and finds Peter. And then what happens next? The antecedents are a little unclear in verse 43. The next day following, Jesus would go forth in Galilee and find a Philip and say to Andrew, follow me. It could actually be that Andrew or Peter finds Philip. So the antecedent of the verb in Greek findeth is unclear. We find out later that Andrew and Philip are actually very good friends. They appear together throughout

this gospel. There's a passage in John, I think it's 12, when some Greeks come to the temple, want to see Jesus. And who do they go to first? They go to the ones with Greek names. Andrew means manly in Greek, and Philip means I love horses. So they go to some people from Bethsaida, which was a Hellenized city who know Greek. Anyway, this is an example of how Andrew and Philip are together. Oh, they're also the two are together at the the feet of the 5,000 in John 6. Right.

So we have Andrew go to his family, his brother, and then we have him go to a friend. And then what does Philip do? He goes and finds Nathanael. We have found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets, the Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. So we go and find another friend. And Nathanael says unto him, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip says, come and see. That's just what Jesus had said earlier to Andrew and the

other disciples, come and see. Jesus sees Nathanael come unto him and saith of him, behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile. Now, because of good Bishop Partridge, Edward Partridge, in whom there was no guile, I think we are always predisposed to interpret this positively, that Nathaniel is just a guileless guy. I wonder if maybe there's a little sarcasm going on here, because Jesus knows that Nathaniel has just dissed his hometown. Can any good come out of Panguitch? No offense, Panguitch people. But, you know, can any good come out of a little town? So Jesus, pangwich people. But, you know, can any recover a little town? So Jesus is showing him he knows what he had said, right?

It's not just what he had said. It's what he had felt and seen. Nathaniel says, how do you know me? And Jesus says, before Philip came to thee, when you were under the fig tree, I saw thee. We have to kind of fill in the gaps. And some of this is just guesswork. But there was something about saying, when you were under the tree the other day, I saw you. And there's something Nathanael was saying or doing there, and this converts it.

I think in some versions of this, I think the Chosen does this. I think the Chosen has them praying under the tree and sees the light. For some reason, I want to compare them to Oliver Cowdery. Remember that wonderful passage where Oliver hasn't succeeded in translating. And the Lord says, you remember in the night when I spoke peace to your soul, Nathaniel was praying about something. And I suspect, I do not know. I'll always say what I'm just guessing.

I do not know, but I suspect he was praying about when the Messiah was going to come. When are we going to be liberated? When are we going to be free? When are we going to be saved? And the fact that Jesus knew both what he had said about his hometown and what he had been praying about converts him. And what does he say in verse 49? Rabbi, thou art the son of God, thou art the king of Israel. In other words, you're the Messiah, the one I was praying for. Now here's something interesting. So we have this chain of witnesses, a prophet to a disciple, to a family member, to a friend, to another friend. And the

application section of this chapter in my little book is, what are our chain of witnesses? Where have we gotten our testimony? Where are we going to share our testimonies? But in terms of Christology, for those of us who are interested in that, for us biblical studies geeks, I've mentioned that John has a high Christology. You go chapters and chapters and chapters, most of the gospel in Mark, Matthew, Luke, before anyone says you're the son of God, right? It's not until Caesarea Philippi in Mark, Matthew, and Luke that Peter says you are the Christ, the son of God.

We have people from the get-go, chapter one, saying things such as this is the Messiah. This is the one who was promised. But look at this Christological confession. You're the son of God and the king of Israel. No one says anything like that for chapters and chapters and chapters in the other gospels. By the way, just because I never want to speak without giving our sisters a shout out. You know who else has one of the strongest Christological confessions in the Gospel of John? Martha. She says in chapter 11, she actually uses words that you're used to hearing Peter say when she says, yea, Lord, this is 1127, yea, Lord, I believe and know that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, who shall come into the world. So people are bearing powerful testimony

of Jesus right and left in this gospel. And it starts in chapter one with this chain of witnesses, which shows how people respond to Jesus when they encounter him. And what I ask your listeners to do as they read the rest of this gospel is every time someone encounters Jesus, ask, how is this person reacting to Jesus? How is this person getting a testimony? And what testimony is this person bearing? And then in terms of takeaway and application, do I identify with that person? Do I identify with that character? And even if I don't, do I know someone who does? Do I know someone like the woman at the well who has been ostracized because she's a woman and she doesn't get to draw water at the other women at the town and she's a Samaritan? Or do I know someone who's

too big for his britches and a professor? Read Crucible of Doubt by the Gibbonses. Some of us have a hard row and our crucible shrinks the weaknesses to being a questioner. Some people have simple faith. How many of us are like Peter and Thomas? Thomas gets a bum rap for not believing what the other apostles say when he just wants the same sure witness and the physical thing that he needs as an apostle. And Peter denies three times. But Thomas and Peter are the ones that are at the appearance in Gal name in chapter 21. And then, of course, Peter has the threefold affirmation of love that rehabilitates him for the threefold denial that he knew Jesus. So we've got fallible but faithful disciples, impulsive but devoted disciples. And, you know, if any of our leaders say or do something we think isn't perfect or is a mistake, well, guess what?

Our leaders are in great company. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, Peter, they're fallible. Sure, occasionally, but not in their teachings, but they're faithful. Sometimes we all get a little animated. The apostle Paul shot off the mouth all the time. Paul was the fireiest dude. I identify as Paul. I want to be the beloved disciple. I'm really Paul. Okay. I speak too fast. I'm too passionate. And I have to take back my word sometimes. Doesn't take away from the strength of his testimony or the power of his teaching. So you've got all these characters in this gospel and chapter one has prepared us to find them. And I hope you just embrace this gospel and find these characters. You find soulmates in them.

You find kinsmen in them, kinswomen in them. But most of all, come back to the beginning of what we did in chapter one, you find Jesus in this gospel. Yeah, that's beautiful. John the Baptist, it seems that he has a better sense for mission of the Savior when he talks about him being the Lamb of God. Lambs are sacrificed. This is the first time that title's ever used. Yeah. Right? Lambs are sacrificed. Right.

You've got John later saying, we did not yet know that he would rise from the dead or that in Luke, you've got other disciples saying, well, he died. That wasn't supposed to happen. But do you feel like John the Baptist here has a better sense

for what the future holds for Jesus with this title? You kind of put me on the spot because so I haven't given this any thought, so I'm excogitating here. But in the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus says there was never a greater prophet than John. My gut reaction, since you're putting me on the spot, is to say, John, the son of Zechariah, John the Baptist in the Synoptics, is the greatest witness of Jesus up to that time.

By the way, I just mentioned this, and some people are aware of this, section 91, all of this is kind of echoed in there. And you're going to have the fullness of the witness of John, etc. There's a real question, this wonderful, I use that word logos, or logos, the logos hymn, that poetic first part of chapter one. There's a real question, who wrote that? Is that John the Beloved, the apostle, the source or author of this text? Or is it the prophet John when we know he's from the Baptist? I have a working idea. Listeners, this is just Book of Huntsman.

This is not gospel. It's just an idea. I like to compare the prophet John and the apostle John to Lehi and Nephi. So Lehi has this dream, this prophetic dream of the tree of life, and it's powerful and symbolic. But then Nephi, when he asks about it, when he hears his father preach that dream, he gets the most unbelievable apocalyptic vision in chapters 11 through 14 with more detail. And section 93 presents it, maybe the concepts, the principles that we read in the beginning of John chapter 1 now were first preached by the

prophet John, but then the apostle John, when he was writing it down, had it revealed to him even more fully and expansive. So rather than try to take a side in the section 93 debate, is this John the Baptist or John the Beloved who wrote this hymn, I'm going to split the difference and say they've shared it. If the other disciple with Andrew was in fact John the later apostle, he would have heard John the Baptist, whom I call the prophet John, preach these things all the time. And then as he grows in faith and knowledge and comes to know Jesus personally, and then later when he's preaching this and then writing it down, he writes it in this beautiful poetic format. I just feel like John the Baptist,

he was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. I feel like he was just at a different place from the beginning. He didn't have the learning curve that the others did. And I like calling him John the prophet. It's not John merely the Baptist. He's John the prophet too. He's a powerful witness. And I love later on how he'll say, he must increase, I must decrease. And he just seems to get it from the very beginning. I'm impressed with John the prophet here. It says he has his disciples in verse 35 and look at him saying, go to him. He turns them over. Yeah. Yeah. In fact, in the application section of my chapter on the great chain of witnesses and

becoming the beloved disciple, I actually use the example of how hard it was for me for just a few days when President Hinckley died. Because I knew and loved President Hinckley so long. And we have a shift in profits, and it takes a while to kind of transfer the loyalty. Or I grew up with Spencer Kimball, and then when it was President Benson. And what happens is you have to realize is you're facing your loyalty as much as you love the individual. it's not to that person, it's the person he represents. Sometimes we have a hard time transferring our loyalty, yet Andrew and the other disciples did it, just as President Hinckley wanted us to transfer our support to President Monson, and as President Nelson will want us to support the next president of the church,

because they're all serving the same Lord. So when we come and see, it doesn't matter who the prophet is at the moment. Eric, we have had a fantastic day here in the Gospel of John and John chapter one. If I'm at home and I'm a listener and I'm so comfortable with the Book of Mormon, how do I become that comfortable with the New Testament? I made it through the Old Testament last year, and my default zone is, let me go back to the Book of Mormon. Yet, here's a New Testament scholar saying, probably going to tell us, don't do that. Stick through the New Testament. What are we going to find? Since you've framed this in terms of the Book of Mormon and so many of our members being familiar with that, remember what we terms of the Book of Mormon and so many of our members being

familiar with that, remember what we read in the Book of Mormon. Don't say a Bible, a Bible. We have a Bible. The Lord gives his word to one people and to another. You can never have too much word of the Lord. And if we remember the Old Testament's the First Testament, and then the New Testament is the Second Testament in as much as it's new, and the Book of Mormon is the Other Testament, we have three members of the Godhead.

There you've got three pillars right then, and then you layer on that the Doctrine and Covenants and the Procurement Prize. I guess I never understood this feeling, I only need to like one book of Scripture, I only need one book of Scripture, when we have been given such a gift. Years ago, I heard Brother Porter was traveling with us in the choir. He was our General Authority Chaperone. We were in Washington, and he shared something with me I've used in my teaching a lot. He said, the New Testament gives us the facts of the atonement, what Jesus Christ did to bring about our salvation. The Book of Mormon so clearly gives us the doctrine, and the Holy Ghost gives us the application. So you read about Jesus and what he's done, and that's got its own power.

And then the Book of Mormon focuses that with giving us the doctrine behind it. But in the end, neither of those are fine on their own. We need to have that witness in the Spirit. It's true. And then the direction of the Holy Ghost and the channeling to the Holy Ghost of that grace. It's a narrative. And you've heard me talk about my son before, but one of the great gifts, if I can call it a gift, of having a special needs child is it's forced me to approach the

gospel in a very direct and simple way. I mean, your listeners have heard me spout off about Greek and exegesis and symbolism and yada, yada, yada. But when it's me and Sam studying the Book of Mormon or the New Testament or finishing seminary, we're about to start doing Preach My Gospel, it's just simple and it's basic. And one of the things Sam really needs is narrative. He needs the story to make it real. Of course, it's dovetailing because we've got him here with us in the Holy Land, and we go to the places where Jesus was. In the beginning of our new Easter book, we talk about using the New Testament Gospels to walk with Jesus through his final week. Here we have the text, and we can actually walk where Jesus walked.

But I just think the New Testament can draw people, and particularly the Gospels. We'll leave the Pauline epistles and the other things for later in the year. With the Gospels, it's a chance to really just join the world of Jesus, to imagine, even if you can't come to the Holy Land, most people don't have that opportunity, to imagine what it was like to be with him and talk with him. I mean, you get that in 3 Nephi, and I think that's one of the reasons people love 3 Nephi so much, is the Lord finally makes his appearance. I just hope that people will make the Lord real in their lives. And of course, he was real to the people in the Book of Mormon. And of course, he was real to the

doctrine and covenants. But there's a reason we call it the meridian of time. It's kind of that focal point where everything came together. Here's another thing that I've learned from our Christian friends of other faiths. Our church doesn't do this as much. A lot of the churches, they have what's called a liturgical calendar. And we do it at Christmas and to some extent at Easter. I'm encouraging people to do it the whole week before Easter. They'll kind of mark through the seasons what Jesus did in the seasons of his life. There's a real power to that, I think, because you take a sacred text and you take sacred place, even if the space is in your mind, as you're imagining Galilee and Jerusalem, and you've sacred time, you're taking yourself back to where Jesus was. And it just becomes very real to me, at least.

I think that's why so many people are drawn to The Chosen. I know we don't just endorse one particular portrayal of Jesus or a particular show. But I think people are really moved by The Chosen because it's just making Jesus and the apostles so real, and Mary and all those figures. Well, one of the reasons I always encourage my kids to read, and with Sam, it's like pulling teeth sometimes, but if you just go and see the movie rather than reading the book first, you don't have to exercise a lot of imagination. But reading is a much more active engagement because you have to imagine the things you're reading. And I wonder if there's something, that's why we're taught to read scripture and study scripture rather than just watch videos of it. Because it's not just your imagination that

you're using as you're trying to work through and recreate what the scriptures are portraying, the Spirit's there as well. For me, my scripture study time is a sacred time, and it's a very personal time. And I try to close off the rest of the world, and I open those pages, and it's just like I'm there with them. One of the great strengths of doing Come Follow Me is it's got so many people in the church, in the scriptures, and in the scriptures together. Even if you don't have a family, you're doing it with your word family. For instance, when you get to the last supper, when we get close to Easter, it's not Jesus and the apostles at the last supper, it's all of us. And we talked earlier in this discussion about John being kind of a type

and leaving himself anonymous. When the beloved disciples leaning in the arms of the Savior, I mean, that's you. That's you in his arms. And I do that a lot of times when the sacrament's being passed. I try to imagine myself in the upper room and walking the Kidron Valley and in Gethsemane and following Jesus to the cross. It's like Peter and John were following him when he was arrested, and John and the mother of Jesus and the other Mary were there. I'm just kind of talking in abstract terms here. I just hope the scriptures can become real to people. That's beautiful.

Yeah, just that whole idea of looking at how different people encountered him and everything. The very first paragraph in the Come Follow Me manual says, Have you ever wondered whether you would have recognized Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God if you had been alive during his mortal ministry? For years, faithful Israelites, including Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathaniel, had waited and prayed for the coming of the promised Messiah. When they met him, how did they know he was the one they had been seeking? The same way all of us come to know the Savior by accepting the invitation to come and see for ourselves. We read about him in the scriptures. We hear his doctrine. We observe his way of living. We feel his spirit. Along the way, we discover, as Nathaniel did, that the Savior

knows us and loves us, wants to prepare us to receive greater things. So I think reading it with your imagination and imagining what if you're one of these characters, a perfect way to put that and to make the New Testament alive. The Book of Mormon is the resurrected Christ. This was the mortal Christ in the Gospels that some recognized him, some didn't. And that's why I like the intrigue of that, what I believed it. And that's what our manual kind of talks about there. You know, as you were speaking, John, I just want to bring one more thing, because we've talked a lot about imagining and finding him in text. One other very famous passage in John, this is John 7, 17. If any man will do his will,

he will know the doctrine, whether it be of God or I speak of myself. So it's not enough for us just to revel in the text and use the Spirit to aid our imagination and encounter him that way. When Jesus said, come and see, we've got to do it. We've got to walk with him and do the things that he would do and see him in the poor and the marginalized and the hurting and the happy and the successful and the fed. Sometimes we only talk about the marginalized. I mean, it's to find Jesus in everyone. And that's what we actually read in the synoptics, right? If you've clothed the naked and visited the prison, I mean, you've done it unto him if you've done it to the least. We need to come and see and then do. Remember what I said about discipleship.

It's not just learning from the master. It's becoming an apprentice and striving to be like the master. Beautiful. We want to thank Dr. Eric Huntsman for being with us today and sharing with us all this knowledge. I am so excited to continue

reading the gospel of John. John. Because with all this introductory information now, I feel like, okay, I know what I'm looking for. With this 30,000-foot view, now I can zoom in on these subchapters and really find the Lord. So, Eric, this has just been wonderful.

Thank you for being here. Thanks again for having me. Yeah. We want to thank our executive producer, Shannon Sorenson, our sponsors, David and Verla Sorenson. And we always want to remember our founder, the late Steve Sorenson. We hope you'll join us next week. We're coming back with more New Testament on Follow Him. Today's transcripts, show notes, and additional references are available on our website followhim.co followhim.co and you can watch the podcast on youtube with additional videos on

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