John 20:31 is usually translated as John's purpose statement: "that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God" (ESV). But could the clause also be understood as, "that you may believe that the Christ, the Son of God, is Jesus"? What difference would this make for how we read John's Gospel as a whole? In this episode, David Ritsema discusses the grammatical question behind this translation and its implications for John's presentation of Jesus as the Messiah. Dr. David Ritsema is Assistant Dean and Assistant Professor of New Testament at B. H. Carroll Theological Seminary, East Texas Baptist University. His book, The Divine Messiah: A Portrait of Jesus in the Johannine Literature, is forthcoming with Wipf & Stock. Check out related programs at Wheaton College:

B.A. in Classical Languages (Greek, Latin, Hebrew): https://bit.ly/4tfjeTr M.A. in Biblical Exegesis: https://bit.ly/4lYiJuC