In John 20:31 the author was kind enough to tell us why he wrote: "that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." Has that purpose induced a bit of embellishment of Jesus's actual words two verses earlier?
John 20:29 quotes Jesus as saying to Thomas “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” The aorist tense John used, οἱ μὴ ἰδόντες καὶ πιστεύσαντες ("those not having seen and having believed"), leaves one wondering who those believers could possibly be. We are just eight days after the resurrection here! At the moment Jesus supposedly mouthed those words, was there anyone on the planet who would qualify? What an odd thing for Him to say!
But if the author put those word in Jesus's mouth in order to encourage the church he was writing for 40+ years later, it makes better sense -- and fits nicely with his expressed purpose in writing two verses later. So . . . did Jesus really say this, or did the gospel writer make it up?
John 20:29 quotes Jesus as saying to Thomas “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” The aorist tense John used, οἱ μὴ ἰδόντες καὶ πιστεύσαντες ("those not having seen and having believed"), leaves one wondering who those believers could possibly be. We are just eight days after the resurrection here! At the moment Jesus supposedly mouthed those words, was there anyone on the planet who would qualify? What an odd thing for Him to say!
But if the author put those word in Jesus's mouth in order to encourage the church he was writing for 40+ years later, it makes better sense -- and fits nicely with his expressed purpose in writing two verses later. So . . . did Jesus really say this, or did the gospel writer make it up?