‘Living Water’ and Sanguinary Witness: John 19:34 and Martyrs of the Second and Early Third Century

Abstract

In the Fourth Gospel the death of Jesus is an eschatological fulfilment of the hopes associated with the festivals of Tabernacles, Passover, Hanukkah, and daily worship (Tamid) at the temple. When the evangelist underscores the testimony of blood and water issuing from the body of the crucified Jesus he expresses a correlation with the water and wine libations that flow onto the temple altar during the festival of Tabernacles (water libation) and the offering of Tamid (wine libation). This testimony witnesses to the Johannine gospel: in Jesus’ sacrificial death (blood) the power of death is overcome and the life of the Holy Spirit (‘living water’) is present for anyone who believes in Jesus. A comparison of the Johannine understanding of Jesus’ death with that of the martyrs of Judaism in 4 Maccabees shows both traditions employing the same sacrificial images (purification, consecration, and propitiation through blood) which express the redemptive power of a martyr’s death. In the Fourth Gospel, ‘living water’ is an image for the life-giving and cleansing power of Jesus’ death as a sanguinary witness (martyrdom). The indwelling of his Spirit in a believer is linked to the image of the ‘living water’ of Jesus given in his sacrificial act of agape; and martyrdoms of the second and early third century (Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, Sanctus of Lugdunum/Vienna, and Perpetua of Carthage) confirm this conclusion.