The divine self-naming 'I AM' stands behind John's recurring ego eimi, here in v26. Faint at this point (the absolute uses come later in John), but Availability and Coherence with John's theme are real.

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and he said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”


'The Egyptians are flesh, and not spirit' gives the flesh/spirit contrast informing 'God is spirit' (v24). Faint and contested, but a plausible OT seed for the spirit-worship claim.

Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When Yahweh stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.


Nations stream to Zion, for 'out of Zion shall go forth the law' — backing 'salvation is from the Jews' (v22). Coherence good for the Jew-as-source-of-salvation claim; moderate Volume.

It shall happen in the latter days, that the mountain of Yahweh’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many peoples shall go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For out of Zion the law shall go out, and Yahweh’s word from Jerusalem.


Rebekah 'ran and told' her household after the well encounter; the woman leaves her water pot and runs to tell the city (v28-29), completing the betrothal type-scene's go-and-announce beat. Faint verbal contact but coherent with the type-scene already established.

The young lady ran, and told her mother’s house about these words.


Man lives not by bread alone but by what proceeds from God's mouth; Jesus' 'I have food you don't know about... to do the will of him who sent me' (v32-34) reuses this contrast of bodily food with God's word/will. Strong Coherence; moderate Volume.

He humbled you, and allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know; that he might teach you that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of Yahweh’s mouth.


'I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food' parallels Jesus' food-as-doing-God's-will. Faint, supporting the word/will-over-food motif.

I haven’t gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.


The eschatological harvest where 'the plowman overtakes the reaper' — sowing and reaping collapse together — underlies 'fields white for harvest already' and sower-and-reaper rejoicing together (v35-36). High Coherence with realized harvest; Volume strong on the compressed-harvest image.

“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the one treading grapes him who sows seed; and sweet wine will drip from the mountains, and flow from the hills.


'Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe' supplies the ripe/ready harvest call behind v35. Coherence is good, though Joel's harvest is judgment, making the transfer to mission-harvest somewhat contested.

Put in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.”


Those who sow in tears reap in joy, going out and returning rejoicing — matching 'he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together' (v36). Coherence good on the joint sow/reap rejoicing; moderate Volume.

Those who sow in tears will reap in joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed for sowing, will certainly come again with joy, carrying his sheaves.


'You shall sow but not reap' typifies the sow-one/reap-another proverb cited in v37. One of several covenant-curse/proverb backgrounds; faint individually.

You will sow, but won’t reap. You will tread the olives, but won’t anoint yourself with oil; and crush grapes, but won’t drink the wine.


'Let me sow, and another eat' is a close formal analogue to the proverb 'one sows and another reaps' (v37). Faint but apt for the sowing/reaping-by-different-parties saying.

then let me sow, and let another eat. Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out.


The Servant made 'salvation to the ends of the earth' / light to the nations stands behind 'the Savior of the world' confessed by Samaritans (v42), extending salvation beyond Israel. Strong Coherence with the universal-salvation theme; moderate Volume.

yes, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give you for a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.”


'A just God and a Savior... look unto me, all the ends of the earth' is the OT locus for God as universal Savior, reframed as 'Savior of the world.' Volume good on the Savior-for-all-earth formula.

Declare and present it. Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has shown this from ancient time? Who has declared it of old? Haven’t I, Yahweh? There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior; There is no one besides me. “Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.


'All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God' supports the world-wide Savior confession in v42. Faint but coherent with the universalizing of salvation.

Yahweh has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.


'After two days he will revive us' may color the deliberate 'he stayed there two days' (v40) before life/belief spreads, given John's symbolic use of time. Faint and contested.

After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before him.


The men of Jeremiah's own town Anathoth sought his life, illustrating the prophet dishonored in his own country (v44). Offered as an OT exemplar of the rejected-prophet motif rather than a verbal source; faint and contested.

Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying, You shall not prophesy in Yahweh’s name, that you not die by our hand;


Elijah revives the widow's dying son and the mother's faith follows; Jesus' word 'your son lives' (v50-53) reprises the prophet who restores a son at the point of death. High Coherence and a strong type for the life-giving prophetic word; the 'son lives' acclamation closely matches.

After these things, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so severe, that there was no breath left in him. She said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, you man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to memory, and to kill my son!” He said to her, “Give me your son.” He took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into the room where he stayed, and laid him on his own bed. He cried to Yahweh, and said, […]


Elisha restores the Shunammite's dead son, again a prophet giving life to a child amid a parent's plea. Reinforces (with 1 Kings 17) the son-restored-by-prophetic-word type; high Recurrence strengthens the channel.

When the child was grown, one day he went out to his father to the reapers. He said to his father, “My head! My head!” He said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” When he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died. She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door on him, and went out. She called to her husband, and said, “Please send me one of the servants, and one of the […]


'He sent his word, and healed them' precisely captures the healing-at-a-distance by bare word (v50-53), where the father believes 'the word that Jesus spoke.' Strong Coherence on word-as-healing-agent; moderate Volume.

He sends his word, and heals them, and delivers them from their graves.


Naaman, a Gentile official, is healed at a distance through the prophet's word without the prophet's presence — paralleling the royal official whose son is healed by Jesus' remote command. Coherence good on official-faith-by-word; moderate Volume.

Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him Yahweh had given victory to Syria: he was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. The Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maiden; and she waited on Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “I wish that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would heal him […]


Hezekiah is 'sick unto death' and healed by the prophet's word, with the recovery confirmed by a sign tied to a precise hour — echoing the son 'at the point of death' (v47) and the verified 'seventh hour' of recovery (v52). Coherence good on the point-of-death/hour-confirmed pattern.

In those days was Hezekiah sick to death. Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘Set your house in order; for you shall die, and not live.’” Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to Yahweh, saying, “Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” Hezekiah wept bitterly. Before Isaiah had gone out into […]


The man has been infirm 'thirty-eight years.' Volume: the number is exact and otherwise unmotivated, and Deut 2:14 marks precisely thirty-eight years from Kadesh-barnea until the wilderness generation that could not enter the land had died off. Coherence: John repeatedly frames Jesus' signs against an exodus/wilderness backdrop (manna in ch. 6, water in ch. 7, serpent in 3:14), so a paralytic stranded thirty-eight years beside healing water he cannot reach evokes the generation barred from the promised land's rest. Recurrence: low (the figure is unique to this scene), and many read the number as merely realistic, so contested but the coincidence with the sole OT '38 years' is striking.

The days in which we came from Kadesh Barnea, until we had come over the brook Zered, were thirty-eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were consumed from the midst of the camp, as Yahweh swore to them.


Healing water by the temple/sheep gate, a pool whose stirring brings cure, faintly recalls Ezekiel's eschatological river flowing from the temple that heals all it touches. Volume is low (no shared wording) and Recurrence weak, but Coherence with John's temple-and-water typology (cf. 7:38) gives it some force. Faint and contested; the immediate Bethesda tradition is folk-medical rather than scriptural.

He brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward; (for the forefront of the house was toward the east;) and the waters came down from under, from the right side of the house, on the south of the altar. Then he brought me out by the way of the gate northward, and led me round by the way outside to the outer gate, by the way of the gate that looks toward the east; and behold, there ran […]


The gathered 'blind, lame, paralyzed' and the command to the lame man to rise and walk echoes Isaiah's promise that in the day of salvation 'the lame shall leap like a deer.' Volume thematic only; Coherence high with the sign's meaning (Jesus as the one who fulfills the healing of the eschaton). Recurrence low within John. Honestly faint.

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.


'I am the LORD who heals you' stands behind the whole motif of God as healer at the waters; the angel-stirred pool offers a counterfeit/lesser healing that Jesus' word transcends. Volume low, Recurrence low; included as a maximal, faint candidate for the divine-healer background.

and he said, “If you will diligently listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, and will do that which is right in his eyes, and will pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you, which I have put on the Egyptians; for I am Yahweh who heals you.”


The objection 'It is not lawful for you to carry the mat' on the Sabbath rests directly on the prophetic Sabbath law forbidding bearing a burden on the Sabbath day. Volume: the specific prohibition of carrying a load on the Sabbath is verbal and conceptual bedrock here; Jeremiah is the sharpest scriptural articulation. Coherence: the entire pericope turns on Sabbath legality. Recurrence: the same burden-bearing prohibition recurs (Neh 13:15-19), so the charge is grounded in available scripture, not later tradition alone.

Thus says Yahweh, Be careful, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; neither carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do any work: but make the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers.


The Sabbath controversy ('because he did these things on the Sabbath') invokes the Decalogue Sabbath command. Volume: foundational; the legal framework the Jews enforce is the fourth commandment. Coherence: high, the dispute is explicitly about Sabbath observance. Recurrence: the parallel Deut 5:12-15 reinforces availability. This is the law Jesus is accused of breaking, making it load-bearing for the whole chapter.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. You shall labor six days, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed […]


'My Father is still working, so I am working, too' answers the Sabbath charge by appeal to creation: God rested on the seventh day, yet (so the live Second-Temple debate, e.g. Philo, Leg. All. 1.5-6; later rabbinic discussion) God never ceases the works of giving life and rendering judgment, which alone are his prerogative even on the Sabbath. Volume: the rest of Gen 2:2-3 is exactly the premise Jesus' claim contests. Coherence: very high — it generates the equal-with-God charge in v.18 and the life/judgment exposition that follows. Recurrence: the creation Sabbath underlies the whole Bethesda-on-the-Sabbath structure. Availability: the 'God works even on the Sabbath' tradition is attested in Second-Temple/early-rabbinic sources.

On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work of creation which he had done.


Jesus 'called God his own Father, making himself equal with God,' provoking a death plot — closely paralleling the ungodly in Wisdom who plot against the righteous one precisely because 'he calls himself a child of the Lord' and 'boasts that God is his father.' Volume: strong conceptual and near-verbal overlap on the Father-claim provoking lethal hostility. Coherence: high with John's righteous-sufferer framing. Recurrence: the Wisdom passage informs passion narratives broadly. A deuterocanonical source, hence flagged but well-grounded.

We were accounted of him as worthless metal, And he abstains from our ways as from uncleannesses. The latter end of the righteous he calls happy; And he vaunts that God is his father. Let us see if his words be true, And let us try what shall befall in the ending of his life. For if the righteous man is God’s son, he will uphold him, And he will deliver him out of the hand of his adversaries.


The charge that Jesus made 'himself equal with God' could be heard against the background of the proud one who said 'I will make myself like the Most High' — the accusers frame Jesus' self-equation as that blasphemous presumption. Volume low and the resonance is in the accusers' mouths, not the narrator's. Coherence moderate; included as a faint, contested candidate for the 'equal with God' polemic.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High!”


'As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life' draws on the Song of Moses' exclusive divine self-claim, 'I kill and I make alive,' which makes giving life and putting to death God's sole prerogative. Volume: strong conceptual identity (raising the dead / making alive). Coherence: very high — this is the theological warrant for the equal-with-God claim, transferring the uniquely divine life-giving power to the Son. Recurrence: the make-alive formula recurs (1 Sam 2:6; cf. v.21,24-29 below).

“See now that I myself am he. There is no god with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.


Hannah's confession 'The LORD kills and makes alive; he brings down to Sheol and raises up' supplies the same death-and-resurrection-as-divine-act idiom undergirding 'the Father raises the dead.' Volume: shared raise/make-alive language. Coherence: high. Recurrence: reinforces Deut 32:39; together they establish that life-giving is an exclusively divine work now exercised by the Son.

“Yahweh kills, and makes alive. He brings down to Sheol, and brings up.


'The Father... has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father' reflects Daniel's one like a son of man to whom is given dominion and the worship/service of all peoples. Volume: conceptual (universal honor/authority granted by God to a son-of-man figure), made explicit when v.27 names him 'son of man.' Coherence: high with John's transfer of judgment and honor. Recurrence: Danielic son-of-man framing recurs across the Gospel tradition; here it grounds the demand that all honor the Son.

I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.


'All who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment' is John's closest verbal-conceptual echo of Daniel's 'many who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.' Volume: high — the two-outcome resurrection of the dead is distinctively Daniel's. Coherence: very high with the life/judgment theme. Recurrence: Daniel 12 is the seminal OT resurrection text and is the available source for the double resurrection.

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.


'He gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man' explicitly grounds the Son's judging authority in the Danielic son-of-man who receives dominion and an everlasting kingdom from the Ancient of Days. Volume: the anarthrous 'son of man' plus granted judging authority is a direct Danielic signal. Coherence: very high. Recurrence: ties the resurrection-judgment scene to the dominion granted in Dan 7. This is the clearest figural citation in the discourse.


The dead hearing the life-giving voice of the Son of God and coming alive from the tombs resonates with Ezekiel's valley of dry bones, where God's word/breath summons the dead to life and opens the graves ('I will open your graves and raise you'). Volume: shared open-graves and voice-summons imagery. Coherence: high with the resurrection theme. Recurrence: Ezekiel 37 is a stock resurrection-of-Israel text; somewhat less verbally precise than Dan 12, hence medium.

The hand of Yahweh was on me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of Yahweh, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass by them all around: and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and behold, they were very dry. He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? I answered, Lord Yahweh, you know. Again he said to me, Prophesy over these bones, and tell them, you dry bones, hear Yahweh’s word. Thus […]


'Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise... the earth will give birth to the dead' is another available resurrection oracle behind 'those in the tombs will come out.' Volume thematic; Coherence high; Recurrence modest. A genuine but secondary candidate to Daniel 12, flagged faint.

Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast out the departed spirits.


The whole witness section ('If I testify about myself, my witness is not valid... It is another who testifies about me') applies the Torah's rule that a matter is established only by two or three witnesses. Volume: the legal principle is structurally determinative — Jesus marshals multiple corroborating witnesses (John, the works, the Father, the Scriptures) precisely to satisfy this requirement. Coherence: very high. Recurrence: the two-witness rule recurs (Deut 17:6; Num 35:30) and is invoked elsewhere in John (8:17).

One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.


'You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form' inverts and presupposes the Sinai tradition that no one can see God's face/form and live, and that Israel heard the voice but saw no form (Deut 4:12). Volume: the voice/form pairing is a deliberate scriptural touchstone. Coherence: high — the point is that the accusers, unlike the Son, have no immediate access to the Father. Recurrence: the no-form motif is firmly grounded in the Sinai narratives.

He said, “You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live.”


John the Baptist as 'the burning and shining lamp' may echo the prepared 'lamp for my anointed' set before the messianic king, casting John as the lamp pointing to the coming one. Volume low (single image), Recurrence low; Coherence moderate with John's witness-to-the-light theme (cf. 1:8). Faint and contested.

There I will make the horn of David to bud. I have ordained a lamp for my anointed.


'Moses wrote about me... if you believed Moses you would believe me' centers on the Pentateuch as christological witness, with the prophet-like-Moses promise the prime text Jesus claims Moses 'wrote' concerning him. Volume: conceptual but specific — the expectation of a coming prophet whom Israel must heed. Coherence: very high; the chapter's climax makes Moses Jesus' chief scriptural witness and accuser. Recurrence: Deut 18 is the standard prophet-like-Moses proof-text in the NT (cf. Acts 3:22).

Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from your midst, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him. This is according to all that you desired of Yahweh your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, “Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I not die.” Yahweh said to me, “They have well said that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a prophet from among their […]


Among the things 'Moses wrote' about Christ, the protoevangelium (the seed of the woman crushing the serpent) is a candidate text for what Jesus claims the Pentateuch foretells of him. Volume: low (not quoted); the verse names no specific passage. Coherence: moderate within a figural reading of Genesis as messianic. Recurrence: low in John. Included as a maximal, contested specification of 'he wrote about me.'

I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”


'There is one who accuses you, even Moses, on whom you have set your hope' ironically reverses Moses' role as Israel's intercessor who pleaded for the people; the very mediator they trust becomes their accuser. Volume low, Recurrence low, but Coherence moderate with the reversal motif. Faint and contested.

Moses returned to Yahweh, and said, “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold. Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written.”


Moses as accuser fits the Torah's own provision that the book of the law be placed 'as a witness against you' because of Israel's rebellion. Volume: conceptual but apt — Moses' writings testify against unbelief, exactly Jesus' charge ('if you don't believe his writings'). Coherence: high with the witness/accusation framing. Recurrence: moderate; strengthens the figural reading of Moses-as-witness.

“Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of Yahweh your God, that it may be there for a witness against you. For I know your rebellion, and your stiff neck. Behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, you have been rebellious against Yahweh. How much more after my death?


'You don't have God's love in yourselves' and 'how can you believe, who... don't seek the glory from the only God' resonate with the Shema's call to love the one God with whole heart. Volume low (no quotation), but Coherence moderate: the indictment is that those who recite love of the one God fail to love and honor him. Faint, contested, included for completeness.

Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.


The wilderness feeding of a great multitude with miraculous bread sets the controlling type that the chapter will name explicitly in v.31. High Volume and total Coherence with the manna economy (bread, gathering, leftovers, no waste); the feeding scene is the narrative enactment of the manna gift Jesus later interprets.

Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from the sky for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law, or not. It shall come to pass on the sixth day, that they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.” Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, “At evening, then you shall know that Yahweh has brought […]


Philip's 'Where are we to buy bread... not sufficient' (v.7) closely mirrors Moses' despairing 'Where am I to get meat... shall flocks and herds be slaughtered to suffice them?' Strong structural and verbal Coherence: a leader confronted with an impossible crowd, mountain setting, and divine provision overriding human arithmetic.

Where could I get meat to give to all this people? For they weep to me, saying, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. If you treat me this way, please kill me right now, if I have found favor in your sight; and don’t let me see my wretchedness.” Yahweh said to Moses, “Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people, and officers over […]


Elisha multiplies twenty barley loaves to feed a hundred with leftovers, dismissing a servant's 'How can I set this before a hundred?' John alone specifies 'barley loaves' and 'what are these among so many?', and adds the leftovers motif. High Volume and verbal Recurrence make this the closest single OT analogue to the miracle's mechanics.

A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. He said, “Give to the people, that they may eat.” His servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give the people, that they may eat; for thus says Yahweh, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’” So he set it before them, and they ate, and left some of it, according to […]


Asaph's 'he rained down manna... gave them grain of heaven... bread of the angels' is the psalm John will quote at v.31; its presence governs the feeding as the eschatological manna. High Coherence: the crowd reads the sign as a renewed wilderness banquet.

He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky. Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.


'He gave them bread from heaven in abundance' — a second psalmic celebration of the manna, reinforcing the satisfied-fullness motif ('when they were filled,' v.12). Lower distinctiveness than Ps 78 but adds Recurrence to the manna tradition active here.

They asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of the sky.


The crowd's acclamation 'This is truly the prophet who comes into the world' (v.14) invokes the promised prophet-like-Moses. The Mosaic feeding miracle triggers a Mosaic-prophet expectation; high Coherence with John's prophet-and-king Christology.

Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from your midst, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him.


John's editorial note 'Now the Passover was at hand' (v.4) frames the whole chapter under the paschal lamb, preparing the flesh-and-blood discourse (vv.51-56). Availability and Coherence are strong; the Passover anchor is authorial, though the feeding scene itself does not verbally cite Exodus 12.

Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, “This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household; and if the household is too little for a lamb, then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take one […]


Jesus 'went up into the mountain and sat there with his disciples' (v.3) before a meal faintly recalls Moses ascending Sinai where the elders 'beheld God and ate and drank.' Suggestive of a covenant-meal-on-the-mountain pattern but low Volume; contested.

He said to Moses, “Come up to Yahweh, you, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship from a distance. Moses alone shall come near to Yahweh, but they shall not come near, neither shall the people go up with him.” Moses came and told the people all Yahweh’s words, and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, “All the words which Yahweh has spoken will we do.” Moses wrote all Yahweh’s […]


The crowd's move to 'take him by force, to make him king' (v.15) faintly evokes Israel's improper demand for a king, which the LORD treats as rejection of his rule. Thematic rather than verbal; offered as a contested background to Jesus' refusal of a politicized kingship.

and they said to him, “Behold, you are old, and your sons don’t walk in your ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” Samuel prayed to Yahweh. Yahweh said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they tell you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them.


Jesus' 'It is I (ego eimi); do not be afraid' atop the storm reads, in John's idiom, as the divine self-naming 'I AM.' High Coherence with the chapter's later absolute 'I am' sayings; the theophanic-on-the-water setting elevates the otherwise ordinary phrase to divine self-disclosure.

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and he said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”


'who alone... treads on the waves of the sea' ascribes sea-trampling to God alone. Jesus 'walking on the sea' enacts a prerogative the OT reserves for the Creator; strong Volume and Coherence with the I-AM disclosure that accompanies it.

He alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea.


'Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters, yet your footprints were unseen' — a hymn of God's exodus march across the deep. Coheres with Jesus pathless on the water; the psalm's exodus frame fits John's Passover setting.

Your way was through the sea; your paths through the great waters. Your footsteps were not known.


'Fear not... when you pass through the waters I will be with you' pairs the precise reassurance ('Don't be afraid') with passage through threatening waters. Coherence with the disciples' deliverance; the chapter's I-AM resonates with Isaiah 43:10 below.

But now thus says Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, and flame will not scorch you.


'that you may... believe me and understand that I am he (ani hu / ego eimi)' supplies the LXX 'I am' that stands behind Jesus' words on the sea. Strengthens the case that v.20's ego eimi is theophanic rather than mere identification.

“You are my witnesses,” says Yahweh, “With my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither will there be after me.


Seafarers in a wind-tossed storm cry out and God 'made the storm a calm' and 'brought them to their desired haven' — strikingly close to the boat reaching land 'immediately' (v.21). Good Coherence though John gives stilling-by-arrival rather than rebuke of the storm.

Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business in great waters; These see Yahweh’s works, and his wonders in the deep. For he commands, and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up its waves. They mount up to the sky; they go down again to the depths. Their soul melts away because of trouble. They reel back and forth, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end. Then they cry to Yahweh in their trouble, and he brings them out of their […]


Under the Passover frame, a nighttime deliverance over/through the sea recalls the Red Sea crossing where Israel 'feared' then was saved. Typological rather than verbal; coheres with the exodus pattern saturating the chapter.

Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Yahweh caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. The children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand, and on their left. The Egyptians pursued, and went in after them into the midst of the sea: all of Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. In the […]


'He gave them bread out of heaven to eat' (v.31) is a formal citation ('as it is written') closest in wording to LXX Psalm 78:24 ('arton ouranou edoken autois'). The chapter's hermeneutical hinge; maximal Volume.

He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky.


'I am about to rain bread from heaven for you' is the originating text behind the v.31 citation; Jesus directly contests its meaning ('it was not Moses who gave...'). The quotation conflates Exodus 16 with Psalm 78, so both are primary sources.

Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from the sky for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law, or not.


'You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger' is a third witness to the formula the crowd cites, showing the manna-from-heaven line was a fixed liturgical commonplace (Recurrence) rather than a single text.

and gave them bread from the sky for their hunger, and brought water out of the rock for them for their thirst, and commanded them that they should go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them.


'Why spend money for that which is not bread... eat what is good... that your soul may live' undergirds Jesus' contrast between 'food which perishes' and 'food which remains to eternal life' (v.27). Coherent invitation-to-true-nourishment background.

“Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? listen diligently to me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Turn your ear, and come to me; hear, and your soul shall live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with […]


The manna that bred worms and stank when hoarded overnight gives concrete force to 'the food which perishes' (v.27). A plausible but faint verbal-conceptual link within the active manna matrix; contested as deliberate.

Moses said to them, “Let no one leave of it until the morning.” Notwithstanding they didn’t listen to Moses, but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and became foul: and Moses was angry with them. They gathered it morning by morning, everyone according to his eating. When the sun grew hot, it melted.


Wisdom's invitation 'Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed' stands behind 'I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger.' Strong Coherence: Jesus speaks as personified Wisdom hosting a banquet that confers life.

“Come, eat some of my bread, Drink some of the wine which I have mixed!


Wisdom says 'Come to me... those who eat me will hunger for more, those who drink me will thirst for more.' John inverts it ('will never hunger... never thirst'), a deliberate transformation signalling Jesus surpasses Wisdom/Torah. High Availability and Coherence; the inversion is the point.

Come to me, you that are desirous of me, And be you filled with my produce. For my memorial is sweeter than honey, And my inheritance than the honeycomb. They that eat me will yet be hungry; And those who drink me will yet be thirsty.


'They shall not hunger or thirst... he who has pity will lead them' supplies the hunger-and-thirst-abolished promise of the eschatological return. Coheres tightly with v.35's double negation; an exilic-restoration backdrop to the bread of life.

They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun strike them: for he who has mercy on them will lead them, even by springs of water he will guide them.


The repeated 'I will raise him up at the last day' (vv.39-40) draws on the clearest OT resurrection text, 'many who sleep in the dust shall awake... to everlasting life.' Provides the Availability for John's last-day raising; recurs across the discourse.

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.


'The Jews therefore murmured concerning him' (v.41,43) deliberately casts the audience as the wilderness generation that 'murmured against Moses and Aaron' over bread. High Volume and Coherence: the same verb-of-grumbling against the same gift (bread from heaven).

The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness; and the children of Israel said to them, “We wish that we had died by the hand of Yahweh in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots, when we ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from the sky for you, and the […]


'It is written in the prophets, They will all be taught by God' (v.45) formally cites Isaiah 54:13 ('all your children shall be taught by the LORD'). A second explicit citation in the chapter; high Volume.

All your children shall be taught of Yahweh; and great shall be the peace of your children.


'They shall all know me, from the least to the greatest' (new-covenant interiority of divine teaching) reinforces the 'taught by God' citation and the drawing/learning that brings one to Jesus (vv.44-45). Strong Coherence as a secondary new-covenant source.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh; for they shall all know me, from their least to their greatest, says Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin […]


'Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died' (v.49) recalls the wilderness generation that craved, ate, and perished. The manna's described provision (Num 11:7-9) plus the death of that generation give Volume to Jesus' contrast with bread that lets one 'not die.'

The mixed multitude that was among them lusted exceedingly: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, “Who will give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we ate in Egypt for nothing; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic; but now we have lost our appetite. There is nothing at all except this manna to look at.” The manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like the appearance of bdellium. […]


'Not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from God' (v.46) reprises the Mosaic axiom 'no one shall see me and live.' Coheres with John's recurring claim that the Son alone has seen God (cf. 1:18); moderate Volume here.

He said, “You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live.”


'The bread which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh' (v.51), under the Passover frame, fuses bread with the slain paschal lamb whose flesh is eaten and whose blood saves. Typological Coherence prepares the eat-flesh scandal of the next pericope.

and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at evening. They shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they shall eat it. They shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs. Don’t eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with […]


'Drink his blood' (v.53) collides head-on with the absolute Levitical prohibition: 'I will set my face against any who eats blood... the life is in the blood.' The scandal of vv.52-53 is unintelligible without this law; high Volume and Coherence as the offense John exploits.

“‘Any man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live as foreigners among them, who eats any kind of blood, I will set my face against that soul who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life. Therefore I have said to the children of Israel, “No person […]


'They shall eat the flesh that night' — the paschal lamb whose flesh is consumed. Jesus' demand to eat his flesh, set 'at Passover,' identifies him as the lamb; high typological Coherence binding the discourse to the chapter's opening note (v.4).

They shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs.


'You shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood' is the primal Noachic blood prohibition predating Sinai, broadening the scandal of v.53 beyond Israel to a universal taboo. Adds Recurrence to the blood-prohibition background.

But flesh with its life, that is, its blood, you shall not eat.


'Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life' restates the prohibition with the life-in-the-blood rationale that John ironically affirms (the blood gives life). Reinforces the contested commandment behind the discourse.

Only be sure that you don’t eat the blood; for the blood is the life. You shall not eat the life with the flesh.


Wisdom's 'those who eat me... those who drink me' returns here with literal eating and drinking, deepening the Wisdom-banquet identification of Jesus. Coheres with v.35; the eat/drink pairing strengthens the Sirach link.

They that eat me will yet be hungry; And those who drink me will yet be thirsty.


'Eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed' — Wisdom's bread-and-wine banquet underlies the flesh-as-food/blood-as-drink doubling of vv.53-56. Lower distinctiveness than the Leviticus collision but adds the sapiential meal frame.


'Not as our fathers ate the manna, and died' (v.58) closes the discourse by again invoking the heaven-bread of Exodus 16, now surpassed. Recurrence of the governing manna text rather than a fresh allusion.

Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from the sky for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law, or not.


'What if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?' (v.62) trades on the Danielic Son of Man who comes with the clouds before the Ancient of Days; John reverses the vector to ascent. Provides the title's apocalyptic Availability.

I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.


'It is the spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing' (v.63) echoes the valley-of-bones promise 'I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live.' Coherent spirit-gives-life theology; the dry-bones spirit animates dead flesh.

Thus says the Lord Yahweh to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will bring up flesh on you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am Yahweh. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, an earthquake; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I saw, and, behold, there were sinews […]


'The Egyptians are flesh and not spirit' supplies the flesh/spirit antithesis behind 'the flesh profits nothing' (v.63), where flesh is the weak human plane and spirit the divine. Conceptual Coherence; moderate Volume.

Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When Yahweh stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.


'The spirit who gives life' (v.63) may glance at the breath of life by which the LORD made the man a living being. Foundational but diffuse; offered as a faint creational backdrop to life-giving Spirit.

Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.


Peter's 'you are the Holy One of God' (v.69) resonates with 'you will not let your Holy One see corruption,' a key resurrection/messianic title. Coheres with the chapter's raising-on-the-last-day refrain; the holy-one designation is OT-rooted.

For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption.


Aaron is 'the holy one of the LORD' — the only OT figure given nearly this exact title, offering a priestly alternative background to Peter's confession (v.69). Lower Volume than Psalm 16; contested as the operative source.

They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron, Yahweh’s saint.


'You have the words of eternal life' (v.68) faintly recalls Moses' 'it is no empty word for you, but your very life.' The word-as-life motif suits John's Mosaic typology; diffuse and contested.

For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it.”


The whole chapter is framed by 'the Feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths' (v.2), the pilgrimage festival Leviticus institutes with its seven days of dwelling in booths and rejoicing 'before the LORD your God.' Availability and volume are high: the named feast supplies the liturgical theater (water-libation, temple lights) that every subsequent saying exploits. John deliberately stages Jesus' self-disclosure against this Mosaic ordinance.

Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of tents for seven days to Yahweh. On the first day shall be a holy convocation: you shall do no regular work. Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. On the eighth day shall be a holy convocation to you; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. It is a solemn assembly; you shall do no […]


Deuteronomy's parallel legislation makes Booths a mandatory pilgrimage to 'the place the LORD will choose' (Jerusalem/temple), explaining the pressure to 'go up to the feast' (vv.3,8,10). The Deuteronomic command to 'rejoice in your feast' undergirds the brothers' urging that Jesus 'reveal yourself to the world' at the festival. Coherence with the going-up-to-Judea motif is strong.

You shall keep the feast of tents seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your wine press. You shall rejoice in your feast, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates. You shall keep a feast to Yahweh your God seven days in the place which Yahweh chooses; because Yahweh your God will bless you in all your […]


'Even his brothers didn't believe in him' (v.5) coheres with the psalm of the righteous sufferer, 'I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother's children' — a psalm John cites elsewhere for Jesus' zeal and rejection. Recurrence of Psalm 69 in the Fourth Gospel raises the plausibility that the brothers' unbelief is read figurally through the estranged sufferer.

I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s children.


'When his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up' enacts the Deuteronomic requirement that every male 'appear before the LORD' three times a year, Booths being one. The going-up language and the search 'at the feast' (v.11) presuppose the pilgrim crowds the law gathers. Coherence with the festival frame is strong though the verbal contact is general.

Three times in a year all of your shall males appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he chooses: in the feast of unleavened bread, in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tents. They shall not appear before Yahweh empty.


'My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me' (v.16) and 'he who sent me is true' echo the prophet-like-Moses who speaks only what God commands, into whose mouth God puts his words. The sending/speaking-not-from-self language is the diagnostic mark distinguishing the true prophet (Deut 18) from one who speaks presumptuously. Strong coherence with John's prophet-Christology, reinforced by v.40 ('truly the prophet').

I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you. I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him. It shall happen, that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.


Moses' self-authentication, 'the LORD has sent me to do all these works, and I have not done them of my own accord,' supplies the precise idiom of vv.17-18 ('if I am speaking from myself... seeks his own glory'). The criterion of not seeking one's own glory but the sender's marks divine commission. Availability and verbal coherence are good even if the contact is unmarked.

Moses said, “Hereby you shall know that Yahweh has sent me to do all these works; for they are not from my own mind.


'Didn't Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law?' (v.19) directly invokes the Mosaic Torah as a body, with the Pentateuch as availability. The argument turns on the law's own internal logic, and John names Moses three times in this unit. Quotation-strength reference to Torah as institution rather than a single verse.

Moses commanded us a law, an inheritance for the assembly of Jacob.


'On the Sabbath you circumcise a boy' (vv.22-23) rests on the law that a male child is circumcised 'on the eighth day,' which can fall on a Sabbath, overriding Sabbath rest. Leviticus 12:3 is the explicit eighth-day legislation Jesus reasons from a fortiori (if circumcision overrides Sabbath, how much more healing a whole man). High volume and coherence.

In the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.


'Moses has given you circumcision (not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers)' (v.22) corrects the attribution to the Abrahamic covenant, where God commands circumcision on the eighth day as the sign 'between me and you.' The patriarchal origin ('of the fathers') points precisely to Genesis 17, prior to Moses. Direct conceptual citation.

This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your seed after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin. It will be a token of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old will be circumcised among you, every male throughout your generations, he who is born in the house, or bought with money from any foreigner who is not of your seed.


'Don't judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment' (v.24) echoes the Holiness Code's command, 'you shall do no injustice in judgment... in righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.' The pairing of forbidden partial judgment with commanded righteous judgment matches Leviticus closely. High coherence; the verse recurs as a juridical touchstone in this chapter (cf. vv.51).

“‘You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor show favoritism to the great; but you shall judge your neighbor in righteousness.


The charge to judges, 'judge righteously... you shall not be partial in judgment... you shall not be afraid of the face of man,' undergirds 'judge righteous judgment' (v.24) and anticipates Nicodemus' procedural appeal (v.51). Recurrence within the chapter strengthens the figural reading of impartial judgment. Verbal overlap is with the 'righteous judgment' idiom.

I commanded your judges at that time, saying, “Hear cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the foreigner who is living with him. You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.”


The messianic shoot 'shall not judge by what his eyes see... but with righteousness he shall judge' is the prophetic mirror of v.24's 'do not judge by appearance but judge righteous judgment.' Coherence with John's messianic theme (the crowd debating whether Jesus is the Christ) makes this more than coincidental, though John gives no citation formula. Contested as an unmarked echo.

His delight will be in the fear of Yahweh. He will not judge by the sight of his eyes, neither decide by the hearing of his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the poor, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.


'Render true judgment, show kindness and mercy' is one more prophetic locus for the impartial-justice ideal behind v.24. Volume is low and the contact is thematic rather than verbal, but Zechariah's prominence elsewhere in John 7 (rivers of living water) raises availability. Marked contested and low.

“Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother.


'When the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from' (v.27) reflects a strand of expectation about the Messiah's hidden origin; Isaiah's 'as for his generation, who considered it?' was read in Second-Temple sources for the servant's obscure origin. The hiddenness motif coheres with John's irony that they know Jesus' earthly origin but not his heavenly one (vv.28-29). Contested and allusive.

He was taken away by oppression and judgment; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people?


The popular belief about the Messiah's unknown origin (v.27) stands in tension with, and presupposes, the Bethlehem expectation made explicit at v.42. Micah's 'whose origins are from of old, from ancient days' could itself feed the 'no one will know where he comes from' tradition. Low volume here; the fuller Micah contact belongs to 7.6.

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, being small among the clans of Judah, out of you one will come out to me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings out are from of old, from ancient times.


'You will seek me, and won't find me' (v.34) inverts the Deuteronomic promise 'you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search with all your heart.' The reversal (seeking without finding) functions as covenantal judgment language. Volume and verbal contact are modest; marked contested.

But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you shall find him, when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.


'They will seek me diligently but will not find me' is Wisdom's verdict on those who spurned her, closely matching 'you will seek me, and won't find me' (v.34). The Wisdom-Christology of John (incarnate Logos withdrawing) gives strong coherence, and the verbal parallel is tight. The unmarked allusion fits John's pattern of figural Wisdom motifs.

Then will they call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me;


'They shall go to seek the LORD, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them' parallels the seek-but-not-find judgment of v.34. Hosea casts it as God hiding because of unfaithfulness, coherent with the crowd's unbelief. Low volume, offered as an alternate prophetic source.

They will go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Yahweh; but they won’t find him. He has withdrawn himself from them.


'Will he go to the Dispersion among the Greeks?' (v.35) ironically gestures toward the prophetic ingathering of the scattered, where the messianic root 'gathers the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.' John's irony (the mission to the Greeks the speakers mock) coheres with the Diaspora-ingathering hope. Contested, thematic.

He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.


'From within him will flow rivers of living water' (v.38), declared 'on the last and greatest day' of Booths, draws on Zechariah's eschatological vision read at the feast: 'living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem.' Zechariah 14 is the Tabernacles lectionary, explicitly naming the feast (14:16-19), giving maximal availability and coherence. This is the spine of John's water typology here.

It will happen in that day, that living waters will go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the western sea; in summer and in winter will it be.


The temple-river vision, water flowing from beneath the threshold and swelling into a life-giving river, supplies the 'rivers of living water' imagery flowing from the new temple (Jesus/the believer). High volume and coherence: John casts Jesus' body as the eschatological temple source. The plural 'rivers' and life-giving flow match Ezekiel's swelling stream.

He brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward; (for the forefront of the house was toward the east;) and the waters came down from under, from the right side of the house, on the south of the altar. Then he brought me out by the way of the gate northward, and led me round by the way outside to the outer gate, by the way of the gate that looks toward the east; and behold, there ran […]


'He split the rocks in the wilderness... brought streams out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers' is the wilderness water-from-the-rock typology underlying 'rivers of living water' at the water-libation feast. Booths commemorated wilderness dwelling; the rock-water gift is the natural figural source. The verbal 'rivers' (potamous) coheres with John's plural.

He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths. He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.


Moses striking the rock so that 'water came out abundantly' is the foundational wilderness rock-water event behind v.38, tied to Booths' commemoration of the wilderness sojourn and its water-pouring rite. Coherence is strong; offered alongside Exodus 17:6 as the source-event for the rock typology. Medium because the contact is mediated through the Psalm/feast tradition.

Moses lifted up his hand, and struck the rock with his rod twice, and water came out abundantly. The congregation and their livestock drank.


'You shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters do not fail' supplies the image of the believer as an unfailing inward source ('from within him will flow'), matching the interiority of v.38. Isaiah's spring-that-fails-not coheres with the Spirit's permanence (v.39). A plausible component of John's composite scriptural citation.

and Yahweh will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in dry places, and make strong your bones; and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters don’t fail.


'I will pour water on the thirsty land... I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring' directly joins water-outpouring to Spirit-giving, exactly the move John makes when he glosses the living water as 'the Spirit' (v.39). The water/Spirit equation gives strong coherence and supplies the interpretive key John attaches to the saying. High confidence as a Spirit-water source.

For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit on your seed, and my blessing on your offspring:


'With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation' was the text sung at the Tabernacles water-libation (the Hallel/water-drawing rite). The festal water-drawing ceremony is precisely the backdrop of Jesus' invitation 'if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink' (v.37). Coherence with the liturgical setting is high; verbal contact moderate.

Therefore with joy you will draw water out of the wells of salvation.


'Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters' is the closest invitation-formula to v.37, 'if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.' The thirst-come-drink structure and free offer match. John re-voices the prophetic summons with Jesus as the water-giver; medium confidence as an unmarked but strongly parallel allusion.

“Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.


'The words of a man's mouth are deep waters; the fountain of wisdom is a flowing stream' may feed the 'rivers of living water... from within him' image, linking inner source to wisdom/teaching. Low volume, offered because John's living-water motif elsewhere blends Wisdom and Spirit. Contested.

The words of a man’s mouth are like deep waters. The fountain of wisdom is like a flowing brook.


'I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh' grounds v.39's note that the Spirit 'was not yet given,' since the prophetic Spirit-outpouring awaited the eschaton. The pouring-out language coheres with the water imagery and explains the deferral until Jesus is glorified. Medium as background to the editorial Spirit comment.

“It will happen afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions.


'A fountain shall come forth from the house of the LORD' joins the Zechariah/Ezekiel temple-spring cluster behind the 'rivers of living water.' Joel's fountain from the temple coheres with Jesus as the eschatological temple-source on the feast day. Offered as a recurrent member of the temple-river tradition John draws on.

It will happen in that day, that the mountains will drop down sweet wine, the hills will flow with milk, all the brooks of Judah will flow with waters, and a fountain will flow out from Yahweh’s house, and will water the valley of Shittim.


'This is truly the prophet' (v.40) names the eschatological prophet-like-Moses God promised to raise up, 'to him you shall listen.' Booths' Mosaic/wilderness setting and Jesus' Moses-discourse earlier (vv.19-23) make the Deuteronomic prophet the precise referent. High coherence and recurrence of the prophet motif in John (cf. 1:21, 6:14).

Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from your midst, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him.


'The Christ comes... from Bethlehem, the village where David was' (v.42) reflects the scribal reading of Micah, 'But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah... from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel.' John presents the crowd citing Scripture ('Hasn't the Scripture said'), the nearest thing to a formal quotation in the chapter. Maximal volume and availability.

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, being small among the clans of Judah, out of you one will come out to me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings out are from of old, from ancient times.


'The Christ comes of the seed of David' (v.42) invokes the Davidic covenant, 'I will raise up your offspring after you... and I will establish his kingdom.' The 'seed of David' formula is the covenantal root of messianic expectation the crowd recites. Strong coherence with the Bethlehem-of-David clause and the whole is-this-the-Christ debate.

When your days are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.


'I have made a covenant with my chosen one... I will establish your offspring forever' restates the Davidic 'seed' promise behind v.42. The psalm's covenant-with-David vocabulary reinforces the 'seed of David' expectation; medium because 2 Samuel 7 is the more direct source. Recurrence of the Davidic-seed theme raises coherence.

“I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David, my servant, ‘I will establish your seed forever, and build up your throne to all generations.’” Selah.


'The LORD swore to David... one of the fruit of your body I will set on your throne' is another locus of the Davidic-seed oath underlying 'the seed of David' (v.42). The Bethlehem/David pairing coheres with the throne-promise. Offered as a member of the Davidic-covenant cluster the crowd's scriptural objection presupposes.

Yahweh has sworn to David in truth. He will not turn from it: “I will set the fruit of your body on your throne.


Nicodemus' 'Does our law judge a man, unless it first hears from him personally?' (v.51) applies the Mosaic charge to judges, 'hear the cases between your brothers and judge righteously... you shall not be partial.' The duty to hear a party before condemning is the procedural core of the Deuteronomic judicial code. High coherence with the chapter's 'judge righteous judgment' (v.24).

I commanded your judges at that time, saying, “Hear cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the foreigner who is living with him. You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.”


Nicodemus' appeal to due process (v.51) reflects the law of inquiry and witnesses, where judges 'shall inquire diligently' and a matter is established only after examination. The insistence that the law not condemn without first hearing the accused matches the diligent-inquiry requirement. Strong verbal-conceptual contact and recurrence of the fair-hearing theme.

One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established. If an unrighteous witness rises up against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days; and the judges shall make […]


'No prophet has arisen out of Galilee' (v.52) is John's irony against the very prophet-like-Moses expectation (v.40); the Pharisees deny on geographical grounds what Scripture and Jonah (a Galilean prophet) would unsettle. The prophet motif from Deuteronomy frames the dismissal as mistaken. Medium; functions through dramatic irony rather than citation.


'Search, and see that no prophet has arisen out of Galilee' (v.52) is ironized by Isaiah's prophecy that 'Galilee of the nations' would see a great light — a messianic dawn from the despised region. John's reader hears the Pharisees contradicting Scripture's own honoring of Galilee. Low volume and unmarked; offered as the corrective subtext.

But there shall be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the latter time he has made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who lived in the land of the shadow of death, on them the light has shined.


The accusers' charge presupposes the Holiness Code's death sentence for adultery, which Leviticus prescribes for both parties. High Volume and Coherence: the scene is staged as a halakhic test about applying exactly this statute, and the conspicuous absence of the male partner exposes the accusers' selective use of the law.

“‘The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, even he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.


The specific penalty of stoning (rather than unspecified execution) for a betrothed woman taken in adultery supplies the legal frame the Pharisees invoke when they say Moses commanded stoning. High Coherence with their wording; the citation of 'Moses commanded us to stone' points to the Deuteronomic form of the law.

If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So you shall remove the evil from Israel. If there is a young lady who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man finds her in the city, and lies with her; then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones; the lady, because she didn’t cry, being in the […]


Jesus' 'let him who is without sin throw the first stone' reworks the rule that the hands of the witnesses shall be first against the condemned to put away evil. High Coherence: Jesus accepts the procedure but disqualifies the witnesses morally rather than legally, turning the witness-stone rule back on the accusers.

The hand of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall remove the evil from your midst.


The parallel statute that the informer's hand shall be first to execute reinforces the witness-first-stone tradition behind v.7. Lower Volume than 17:7 but the same legal motif; Recurrence within Deuteronomy strengthens that the 'first stone' formula is the intended backdrop.

but you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people.


The prohibition of joining hands with a wicked man as a malicious witness illumines the narrator's note that they spoke 'testing him, that they might accuse him.' Moderate Coherence: the accusers function as the malicious witnesses the law forbids, an irony built on this statute.

“You shall not spread a false report. Don’t join your hand with the wicked to be a malicious witness.


'Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent' coheres with Jesus' refusal to condemn and with exposing the accusers' bad faith. Contested because the verbal contact is thematic rather than lexical, but the coherence with the pericope's concern for unjust killing is strong.

“Keep far from a false charge, and don’t kill the innocent and righteous: for I will not justify the wicked.


The Susanna narrative (Greek Daniel) is the closest Second-Temple analogue: a wise judge intervenes in a capital adultery accusation, tests and discredits the accusers, and saves the accused. High Coherence and Availability; the figural pattern of a Daniel-like discerner overturning a rigged witness procedure plausibly shapes the scene, though direct dependence is debated.

A man lived in Babylon, and his name was Joakim: and he took a wife, whose name was Susanna, the daughter of Helkias, a very fair woman, and one that feared the Lord. Her parents also were righteous, and taught their daughter according to the law of Moses. Now Joakim was a great rich man, and had a fair garden joining to his house: and to him resorted the Jews; because he was more honorable than all others. And the same year there were appointed two of […]


Jesus' twice-noted writing on the ground may evoke 'those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water.' Coherence with John's living-water theme is suggestive, but the gesture is unexplained in the text and the link remains a classic patristic conjecture.

Yahweh, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be disappointed. Those who depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken Yahweh, the spring of living waters.


The detail that Jesus wrote 'with his finger' may recall the finger of God inscribing the tablets of the law, casting the lawgiver writing afresh over against those who wield Moses' law. Low Volume and contested; the verbal hook ('finger,' 'wrote') is real but the application is speculative.

He gave to Moses, when he finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, stone tablets, written with God’s finger.


The two-or-three-witness requirement hovers over a scene where the accusers withdraw one by one until no valid witness remains to condemn. Faint here and developed explicitly in 8:17; flagged for Recurrence across the chapter rather than strong presence in this pericope.

One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.


'I am the light of the world... will have the light of life' draws on the people who walked in darkness seeing a great light. High Volume in the light/darkness antithesis and strong Coherence with John's prologue light theme; Isaiah's dawning light on those in the land of deep darkness is a primary source for Johannine light Christology.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who lived in the land of the shadow of death, on them the light has shined.


The Servant given as 'a light to the nations' to open blind eyes underwrites the universal scope of 'light of the world.' High Coherence: John repeatedly casts Jesus in Servant terms, and the worldwide reach of the light matches Isaiah's covenant-to-the-peoples commission.

“I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and make you a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations; to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.


'I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth' supplies the 'of the world' scope of Jesus' claim. High Recurrence with 42:6 and strong Coherence with John's mission to gather scattered children of God.

yes, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give you for a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.”


'Arise, shine, for your light has come... nations shall come to your light' frames the eschatological light to which peoples are drawn. High Coherence with the Tabernacles setting and with Jesus as the light that the world follows; the procession-to-the-light image matches 'he who follows me.'

“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and Yahweh’s glory is risen on you. For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but Yahweh will arise on you, and his glory shall be seen on you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.


The pillar of fire that led Israel by night so they could walk is the exodus type behind 'he who follows me will not walk in darkness but have the light of life.' High Coherence given the Tabernacles temple-lamp ceremony commemorating wilderness guidance; Jesus presents himself as the guiding light-presence for a new exodus.

Yahweh went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them on their way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light, that they might go by day and by night:


'The LORD is my light and my salvation' lends the divine self-designation Jesus appropriates. Moderate Volume; Coherence is strong because John's 'I am' light-claim takes up a predicate Scripture reserves for the LORD, reinforcing the chapter's high Christology.

Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?


Wisdom as 'a reflection of eternal light' and unspotted mirror of God supplies Second-Temple Wisdom-light language close to John's incarnate Logos-light. Good Availability and Coherence with Johannine Wisdom Christology, though the link is conceptual rather than verbal.

For she is an effulgence from everlasting light, And an unspotted mirror of the working of God, And an image of his goodness.


Zechariah's Tabernacles-day vision of continuous light ('at evening time there shall be light'), read liturgically at the feast, situates Jesus' light-claim within the festival's eschatological imagery. Moderate Coherence with the temple setting of v.20.

It will be a unique day which is known to Yahweh; not day, and not night; but it will come to pass, that at evening time there will be light.


'Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path' links walking, word, and light, themes that converge in the pericope. Low Volume and contested; offered for the walking-by-light motif rather than a distinct source.

Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.


'It is written in your law that the testimony of two people is true' explicitly cites the two-or-three-witness statute. High Volume (near-quotation) and total Coherence; Jesus appeals to this rule to count himself and the Father as the two valid witnesses.


The parallel formulation that a matter is established on the evidence of two or three witnesses reinforces the law Jesus cites in v.17. Recurrence within Deuteronomy strengthens the witness-law backdrop; slightly lower Volume than 19:15.

At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death. At the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.


The capital-case rule requiring multiple witnesses extends the legal field Jesus invokes. Low Volume; included for Recurrence of the witness statute across the Pentateuch rather than as a primary source.

“‘Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be slain at the mouth of witnesses; but one witness shall not testify against any person that he die.


'Unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins' and 'then you will know that I am he' deploy the absolute egō eimi rooted in God's self-revelation 'I AM WHO I AM.' High Coherence with the chapter's climactic I AM in v.58; Jesus appropriates the divine Name as the object of saving faith.

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and he said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”


'That you may know and believe me and understand that I am he' (LXX hina pisteusēte... hoti egō eimi) supplies the exact 'believe that I am he' construction of v.24,28. High Volume and Coherence; Isaiah's courtroom of witnesses for the one God matches John's witness theme and 'I am he' formula.

“You are my witnesses,” says Yahweh, “With my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither will there be after me.


'I, the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he' (egō eimi) furnishes the same self-predication tied to God's sovereignty over the generations. Recurrence with 43:10 strengthens the case that John draws the absolute 'I am he' from Deutero-Isaiah's monotheistic self-declarations.

Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am he.”


'My servant shall be exalted and lifted up' undergirds 'when you have lifted up the Son of Man.' John's double-meaning of hypsoō (crucifixion/exaltation) coheres tightly with Isaiah's Servant who is lifted up; moderate Volume but high thematic Coherence.

Behold, my servant shall deal wisely, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.


The bronze serpent lifted on a pole so that those who look live is the lifting-up type John established in 3:14 and recalls here with 'lifted up the Son of Man.' Recurrence across John and Coherence of the look-and-live/lift-and-know pattern support a figural reading.

Yahweh said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole. It shall happen, that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it on the pole. If a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the serpent of brass, he lived.


'You will die in your sins' echoes Ezekiel's watchman warning that the wicked 'shall die in his iniquity' if unwarned. Moderate Coherence: John uses the prophetic death-in-sin formula for those who reject the light, and Ezekiel is its densest source.

When I tell the wicked, You shall surely die; and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand.


Ezekiel's repeated 'he shall die in his iniquity' for the unrepentant strengthens the prophetic background of 'die in your sins.' Lower Volume than 3:18; included for Recurrence of the formula within Ezekiel.

As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, robbed his brother, and did that which is not good among his people, behold, he shall die in his iniquity.


'You will seek me and not find me; where I am going you cannot come' resonates with Wisdom's warning that those who refused her 'will seek me diligently but will not find me.' Faint and contested, but the seek-but-not-find judgment pattern coheres with Johannine Wisdom Christology.

Then will they call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me;


The dispute turns on being 'Abraham's seed,' invoking the patriarchal promise that Abraham's offspring would be multiplied. High Coherence: Jesus concedes physical descent (sperma) but redefines true sonship by deeds, pressing the gap between biological seed and genuine children of Abraham.

that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your seed greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your seed will possess the gate of his enemies.


'A slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever' alludes to Sarah's demand that the slave woman's son not inherit with the free son, the Isaac/Ishmael household division. High Coherence; the slave-vs-son contrast that grounds Jesus' freedom argument is drawn from this Genesis scene of casting out the bondservant.

Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this handmaid and her son! For the son of this handmaid will not be heir with my son, Isaac.”


The Abrahamic blessing-to-the-nations promise underlies the claim to do 'the works of Abraham,' i.e., faith-hospitality toward God's messenger rather than murder. Moderate Coherence; Abraham's welcome of divine visitors stands behind 'you would do the works of Abraham.'

I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. All of the families of the earth will be blessed in you.”


Abraham's hospitable reception of the LORD and his angels at Mamre exemplifies 'the works of Abraham' that the hostile interlocutors fail to imitate by seeking to kill Jesus. Coherence is good in Jewish exegesis that paired Abraham's welcome with his descendants' murderous rejection of prophets.

Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw that three men stood opposite him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth, and said, “My lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please don’t go away from your servant. Now let a little water be fetched, wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. I will […]


'You are of your father the devil... a liar and the father of lies' reads the Eden serpent's deceit as the devil's primal lie that brought death. High Coherence: the murderer-from-the-beginning and liar-from-the-beginning charges fuse the serpent's deception with the death it caused, the dominant Second-Temple reading of Genesis 3.

Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, but not the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t surely […]


'A murderer from the beginning' likely also evokes Cain's killing of Abel, the first human murder, traditionally traced to the devil's influence (cf. 1 John 3:12, but the OT base is Genesis 4). Moderate Coherence with 'you seek to kill me,' aligning the accusers with the archetypal fratricide.

Cain said to Abel, his brother, “Let’s go into the field.” While they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.


'Through the devil's envy death entered the world' is the clearest Second-Temple bridge interpreting Genesis 3 as the devil being a murderer from the beginning. High Availability and Coherence; this verse supplies precisely the devil-as-death-bringer logic John's charge presupposes.

But by the envy of the devil death entered into the world, And those who are of his portion make trial thereof.


'We were not born of sexual immorality' (porneia) may carry the prophetic charge that idolatrous Israel was born of harlotry; the interlocutors deny the very status the prophets assigned faithless Israel. Faint and contested, offered for the figural irony of the porneia denial.

When Yahweh spoke at first by Hosea, Yahweh said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of prostitution and children of unfaithfulness; for the land commits great adultery, forsaking Yahweh.”


'Before Abraham came into existence, I AM' (egō eimi) climactically claims the divine Name revealed at the burning bush, asserting timeless self-existence over against Abraham's createdness. Highest Volume of the chapter and total Coherence; the immediate attempt to stone him for blasphemy confirms the hearers grasped a divine self-identification.


Deutero-Isaiah's 'I am he... before me no god was formed... I am God, and also henceforth I am he' provides the absolute, eternal egō eimi that v.58 enacts. High Coherence and Recurrence (also behind 8:24,28); John draws the unqualified I AM from Isaiah's monotheistic self-declarations.

“You are my witnesses,” says Yahweh, “With my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither will there be after me. I myself am Yahweh; and besides me there is no savior. I have declared, I have saved, and I have shown; and there was no strange god among you. Therefore you are my witnesses”, says Yahweh, “and I am God. Yes, since the day was I am he; and there is no […]


'Who has performed this... calling the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he' supplies the over-the-generations claim implicit in standing before Abraham. Moderate Volume; reinforces the Isaianic I AM backdrop.


'Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day' connects to Abraham's laughter/rejoicing at the promise of Isaac, read in Jewish tradition as joy over the messianic future. Moderate Coherence; the verb of rejoicing and the forward-looking 'day' are anchored in the covenant-promise scenes of Abraham.

Then Abraham fell on his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, “Will a child be born to him who is one hundred years old? Will Sarah, who is ninety years old, give birth?”


The Aqedah, where Abraham 'saw the place afar off' and named the mount 'the LORD will provide/be seen,' was widely read as Abraham foreseeing the day of deliverance, illuminating 'he saw it and was glad.' Good Availability in Second-Temple Abraham traditions and Coherence with Abraham's prophetic sight.

After these things, God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” He said, “Here I am.” He said, “Now take your son, your only son, whom you love, even Isaac, and go into the land of Moriah. Offer him there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of.” Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. He split the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and […]


'They took up stones to throw at him' enacts the statute that one who blasphemes the Name shall be stoned by all the congregation. High Coherence: the stoning response directly judges Jesus' I AM as blasphemous use of the divine Name, so the law of Leviticus 24 is the operative legal backdrop.

He who blasphemes Yahweh’s name, he shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him. The foreigner as well as the native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.


'Before the mountains were brought forth... from everlasting to everlasting you are God' parallels the pre-Abrahamic eternity asserted in v.58. Low Volume and verbal contact, but coheres with the claim to existence prior to creation/patriarch.

Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.


'What man can live and never see death?' frames the dispute over Jesus' promise that one who keeps his word 'will never see death,' which the hearers measure against Abraham's death. Faint; offered for the see/taste-death motif rather than as a primary source.

What man is he who shall live and not see death, who shall deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah.


The prophets dying yet the patriarch's hope of seeing God's 'day' resonates faintly with prophetic 'in your days' announcements of a work to be marveled at. Highly contested and low Volume; included only for maximal coverage of the 'see my day' language.

“Look among the nations, watch, and wonder marvelously; for I am working a work in your days, which you will not believe though it is told you.

Behold, ye despisers, and look, and wonder marvelously, and vanish: for I work a work in your days, which ye will in no wise believe, though a man declare it to you.


The disciples' question 'who sinned, this man or his parents' presupposes the Decalogue principle of God visiting the iniquity of fathers upon children. The transgenerational logic is precisely what is at issue; Volume is moderate and Coherence high, since Johannine sin-theology engages the retribution framework only to overturn it.

you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,


Ezekiel's countervailing principle that 'the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father' frames the very debate the disciples raise. Jesus' answer ('neither did this man sin, nor his parents') aligns with Ezekiel's repudiation of inherited guilt, making this a coherent and available Second-Temple intertext.

The soul who sins, he shall die: the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him.


The friends' assumption that suffering proves prior sin (Eliphaz: 'who ever perished, being innocent?') is the wisdom-debate background to the disciples' question. Job as a whole resists the suffering-equals-sin calculus; the echo is thematic and diffuse rather than verbal.

“Remember, now, whoever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off?


YHWH to Moses: 'Who makes a man dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?' This grounds blindness in God's sovereign purpose, exactly Jesus' reframing ('that the works of God might be revealed'). Coherence is high since the giver of sight here becomes incarnate as the light-bringer.

Yahweh said to him, “Who made man’s mouth? Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Isn’t it I, Yahweh?


'I am the light of the world' resonates with Zion's eschatological illumination where YHWH's light shines on a darkened earth. The light-of-the-nations motif is available and coherent with John's worldwide scope, though no verbal citation links them.

“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and Yahweh’s glory is risen on you. For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but Yahweh will arise on you, and his glory shall be seen on you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.


'The LORD is my light and my salvation' supplies a scriptural backdrop for Jesus' self-identification as light, especially apposite as a blind man is about to receive sight/salvation. The echo is conceptual; Volume is low and many candidates compete.

Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?


Jesus forms mud from spittle and the ground and applies it to make eyes whole, evoking the Creator forming the man from the dust of the ground. The clay-and-creation figure casts the healing as a new-creation act by the agent of Genesis 1's 'let there be light'; Coherence with the light-of-the-world saying is strong.

Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.


The 'ground/dust' material of the healing recalls the adamic dust to which humanity belongs. The reversal — dust here restores rather than condemns — supports a new-creation reading, though the link rides on the same Genesis 2-3 imagery as the stronger 2:7 echo.

By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”


John glosses Siloam as 'Sent,' and the pool's name derives from the gently-flowing 'waters of Shiloah' that Judah despised in Isaiah 8:6. The deliberate etymological note signals figural intent: the rejected waters become the means of sight, and 'Sent' identifies Jesus as the one sent by the Father. High Volume via the explicit gloss.

“Because this people have refused the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son;


The Hebrew 'Shiloh' ('until Shiloh comes') was read messianically in Second-Temple tradition and shares the consonantal root behind Siloam/'Sent.' John's 'Sent One' Christology may exploit this resonance, but the linguistic bridge is contested and the gloss more naturally targets Isaiah's Shiloah.

The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs. To him will the obedience of the peoples be.


'Go, wash' in a specific body of water and be made whole closely patterns Elisha's command to Naaman to wash in the Jordan and be cleansed. The prophetic-healing-by-washing type, with obedience producing restoration, is coherent and the man's later confession that Jesus is 'a prophet' reinforces the Elijah/Elisha matrix.

Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall come again to you, and you shall be clean.”


'Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened' is the eschatological sign of God's coming; the actual opening of a blind man's eyes enacts it. The healing is a programmatic fulfillment-sign, and John repeatedly frames Jesus' works as the dawning of the promised age. High Coherence and Recurrence across Isaiah's sight oracles.

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.


'In that day...the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity' supplies the eschatological frame as neighbors marvel that the beggar now sees. The pericope is largely narrative dialogue, so the echo is ambient rather than pointed, carried over from the healing itself.

In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness.


The conflict turns on Jesus 'making mud' and healing on the Sabbath, engaging the Decalogue's Sabbath command and its later halakhic elaborations (kneading clay was forbidden work). The Sabbath statute is the legal axis of the Pharisees' charge that Jesus is 'not from God.'

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.