DeConick A.D

144
JOHN AND THE DARK COSMOS
Abraham’s children, they would not be seeking to kill Jesus, because Abraham
never murdered anyone. According to the Johannine author, Jesus
reasons that his Jewish opponents must have a different Father, commensurate
with their wicked actions and murderous intent (8:39–41).
His Jewish opponents, who are monotheists, are unhappy with the
polytheistic direction that this line of reasoning is taking, so they respond
by insisting that there is only one Father, God himself, and that they
are his children. But the Johannine author is relentless. He persists in
the narrative, maintaining that Jesus and his opponents must be talking
about different Gods, because if Jesus’ opponents knew Jesus’ Father, they
would love Jesus rather than hate him (8:41–42).
The author thinks that the Jews’ father is different from Jesus’ Father.
In the climax of this narrative, Jesus says, “You are from the father of the
devil.” It is clear that the author believes that Jesus’ Jewish opponents
are like their sibling the devil, who was a murderer and a liar from the
beginning. The devil’s nature is that of a liar, as is the nature of the devil’s
father (8:44).
The author’s logic underlying this passage appears to be that Jesus’
Jewish opponents share in the same nature as the devil because they share
the same father, the God of the Jews, whose nature is evil. This God is
different from Jesus’ Father, who remains unknown to the Jews (8:54–55).
Two Gods
So if we grant this literal reading of John 8:44, we are faced immediately
with two gods commonly found in later Gnostic Christian mythology: the
God of the Jews, whose nature is evil, and Jesus’ Father, whose nature
is love. If we track Jesus’ Father throughout the Gospel, we find further
traces confirming this dualism in the fourth Gospel. Jesus calls his Father
“the only true God,” as if the author of the fourth Gospel is making some
distinction between this true God and some other god who is falsely worshipped
as God (John 17:3). Jesus’ Father is the “righteous Father” whom
the world has not known but whom Jesus knows and reveals (17:25). His
Father is described as a God of love, who wishes to save the world by
sending his son into the world to judge and redeem it (3:16–19, 7:29,
17:18, 21, 23, 25).
Where does Jesus’ Father reside? Repeatedly we learn that, before his
descent, Jesus resided with his Father in a heaven very distant from the