ABSTRACT

The visionary language of Isaiah's call-vision takes on a new dimension, for, in view of the denials expressed elsewhere in the gospel, John asserts that it is a real 'seeing' of the earthly Jesus, that is required in order to experience a 'vision' of God's glory. Over the past decade Johannine scholarship has displayed a marked renewal of interest in the reception of the Jewish Scriptures in the Gospel of John. The modifications to the two scriptural passages highlight significant differences between the claims attributed to Moses and Isaiah. Contrary, therefore, to the Johannine Christians, for whom Isaiah's vision of Jesus' glory serves as a paradigmatic event, the failure of the rulers to confess Jesus openly is, for John, tantamount to their rejection of Isaiah's prophetic testimony. John concludes the account of Jesus' public ministry with a summary assessment dominated by two explicit quotations from the prophecies of Isaiah.