applied to Christ, occurs nowhere else, except in John’s own words (1:14, 18, 1 Jno 4:9, cf. Heb 11:17), and that affords a reason for assigning the paragraph 3:16–21 to him. Such a passage as 5:18, however, makes perfectly clear the high connotation which was attached to the constant claim of Jesus to be in a peculiar sense God’s ‘Son,’ entitled to speak of Him in an appropriating way as His ‘Father.’ The Jews sought to kill Him, remarks the evangelist, because of this mode of speech: “He called
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