Gospel of John 12:1–50 Catholic Bible study Lesson 15

The Gospel According to John:
An Encounter with Grace & Truth

Lesson 15 The Hour Has Come
the Gospel According to John 12:1–50

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
ex libris (in our library)
glossary for the Gospel According to John
cross references in the Gospel According to John
next lesson: A New Commandment I Give to You

This material coordinates with Lesson 15 on pages 80–86 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”—the Gospel According to John 20:30–31

welcome to our in-depth study of the Gospel According to John
We invite interested groups and individuals to check out the sample first lesson from this 25-lesson Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study. These online study pages link to our free lesson videos, as well as to a glossary and cross references in the biblical text. Other study aids include maps, additional commentary, and prayers based on the primary Scripture in each lesson. The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth has been granted an imprimatur and can be purchased from our website shop. If you have a Bible-related question or comment, click on one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons on any online study page.

open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion study group. You can pray using your own words or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:

Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit
to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.

let’s review—the Gospel According to John 11:1–57
In Lesson 14 I Am the Resurrection & the Life , Jesus’ disciples are disconcerted when Jesus delays traveling to Bethany for three days after learning of his friend Lazarus’ illness. Even though Jesus explains that Lazarus’ illness isn’t to result in death but is for the glory of God, the disciples have difficulty understanding. Jesus engages in significant conversations with Lazarus’ sisters Mary and Martha, and the occasion of Lazarus being raised from the dead gives Jesus new opportunity to teach that he’s the source of resurrection and life. It also further antagonizes the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem. The Pharisees gather in council, and at that time the high priest Caiaphas ironically speaks of the necessity of one man dying for the people in order to save the entire nation. Jesus and his disciples leave Jerusalem in favor of staying in the wilderness town of Ephraim. Meanwhile, with the Passover near, the people continue to speculate about whether Jesus will attend that feast.

map notes—Greeks ask to meet with Jesus
At the time of Jesus, many Jews lived outside of Judea and even outside of the geographical territory that encompassed the former northern kingdom. In the twelfth chapter in the Gospel According to John, Greeks who worship the God of the descendants of Jacob show up in Jerusalem for the Passover. As soon as Philip introduces these Greeks to Jesus, in the Gospel According to John 12:23 Jesus announces: “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified.” Why might Jesus consider the appearance of these Greeks a sign that his “hour” has arrived. You can learn more by reading “Some Greeks Show Up” on page 85 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth. Click on the image (right) to enlarge the map, which also is on page 85.

two views of Jesus—both wrong (01:03:32)
In the video for this lesson, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses two predominant views about Jesus, both based on Jesus’ recent raising of Lazarus from the dead. The Jewish religious leaders find Jesus extremely threatening, either because they fear that he’ll endanger the lives of the people by antagonizing Rome or because they’re jealous that Jesus has more power than they do. They determine the best way to handle the situation is to kill Jesus, and they also decide to kill Lazarus, who now has become a serious liability. The crowds, on the other hand, seeing Jesus’ power, want to make him a king who will fight for their independence from Rome. Neither is the correct response. What’s your response to the power of Jesus?

The Scripture ranges for the videos that accompany this Catholic Bible study match the Scripture ranges for the sets of questions in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth. You can follow along with the video overview as Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses Lesson 15, “The Hour Has Come,” on pages 80–86 in the study book.

it’s all Greek to some of us
In the video for this lesson, Matthew inadvertently slipped into the Greek when he pronounced the word psyche. While most of us have at least a rough idea what the word “psyche” means when we read it in text or hear the word in English, it can be difficult to recognize it’s the same word when we hear it in Greek, where phonetically it sounds something like soo-keh.

the seven signs in the Gospel According to John
There are accounts of seven distinct signs recorded in the first 11 chapters in the Fourth Gospel, leading scholars to label the biblical text from the end of the prologue (the Gospel According to John 1:1–18) through the twelfth chapter “the book of signs.” Those seven traditional signs are:

Jesus turns water into wine—the second chapter in the Gospel According to John
Jesus heals an official’s son—the fourth chapter in the Gospel According to John
Jesus cures a lame man—the fifth chapter in the Gospel According to John
Jesus multiplies the loaves and fishes—the sixth chapter in the Gospel According to John
Jesus walks on water—the sixth chapter in the Gospel According to John
Jesus gives sight to the man born blind—the ninth chapter in the Gospel According to John
Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead—the eleventh chapter in the Gospel According to John

For more information, read “Signs” on page 17 and “Arbitrary Labels” on page 86 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

our obligation to the poor
The first eight verses in chapter 12 of the Gospel According to John pose a serious question about how we’re to manage our obligation to the poor and our obligation to God. Consider what Jesus might be implying when he responds to Judas’ concerns in the Gospel According to John 12:8, saying: “The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.” You can learn more about how this section of the Fourth Gospel reflects a Jewish debate at the time by reading “Judas Questions the Allocation of Resources” on page 82 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

a major event taken out of sequence
In the Gospel According to John 11:2 the Evangelist identified Lazarus’ sister Mary as the woman “who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair.” The odd mention of this event out of sequence indicates that it must have been extremely well known by the earliest Christians. To use it as an identifier, the Evangelist also must have considered it significant. The synoptic Gospels all record a similar anointing by a woman—the Gospel According to Matthew 26:6–13, the Gospel According to Mark 14:3–9, and the Gospel According to Luke 7:37–38. The word “Christ,” used to describe the long-awaited Messiah, means “Anointed One.”

the voice from heaven
The Gospel According to John 12:27–28 can be seen as a parallel to the more well-known synoptic accounts of Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane recorded in the Gospel According to Matthew 26:36–46, the Gospel According to Mark 14:32–42, and the Gospel According to Luke 22:39–46. Of particular interest is the voice from heaven, something that doesn’t occur in the synoptic accounts of Jesus’ agony but does show up in accounts of Jesus’ Transfiguration, which oddly isn’t recorded in the Fourth Gospel—although the Evangelist John is identified as one of the three disciples who witnessed the event. For more information about the disembodied voice of God, read “A Voice Comes from Heaven” on page 86 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

an animal of peace
The Gospel According to John 12:15 connects Jesus riding on a donkey with prophecy found in the Book of Zechariah 9:9 and history found in the First Book of the Kings 1:32–34 pertaining to the coronation of David’s son Solomon as king over all of the descendants of Jacob. The donkey was viewed as an animal of peace and routine labor—unlike the horse, which was the primary animal of war. A king would have ridden a horse into war, but he would have mounted a donkey instead when he wanted to signal that he was arriving somewhere in peace. Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a donkey not only indicates that he’s the long-awaited Messiah-king prophesied to be born into the line of David; it also symbolizes that Jesus is coming in peace—the prince of peace, to use a title from the Book of Isaiah 9:6—and not as a ruler who would make war against the Romans. You can learn more about the prophet Zechariah in Lesson 11 Zechariah’s Hopes for a Davidic King in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption and more about the eternal king God promised to raise up from among David’s descendants in Lesson 14 God’s Promises to David in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study The United Kingdom of Israel: Saul, David & Solomon Foreshadow Christ the King.

the popes inspire us—what’s significant about palm branches?
Pope St. John Paul II pointed out that the palm tree is connected to the idea of immortality through its identification with the mythical phoenix. Prayed at Saturday Lauds (Week II), Psalm 92 is included as part of Lesson 28 The Just One Will Flourish in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers.

“Psalm 92, known as The Song of the Righteous Man sung to God the Creator, has a special place in the ancient Hebrew tradition. In fact, the title given to this Psalm indicates that it was sung on the sabbath. It was the hymn raised to the Most High on the holy day of prayer. The Christian tradition also played on the double meaning of the Greek word phoinix, used to translate the Hebrew term for palm tree. Phoinix is the Greek word for palm but also for the mythical bird called the phoenix, a symbol of immortality because it was believed that the bird was reborn from its ashes. Christians have a similar rebirth from ashes, through participation in the death of Christ, the source of new life.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK is significant about the name of the Lord?
Catholics are familiar with some of the words with which the crowd welcomes Jesus into Jerusalem in the Gospel According to John 12:13—”Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord—because we repeat this phrase during the Mass.

? Why might Scripture treat the name of the Lord as having great power, asopposed to simply assigning this power to God himself?
? There are many different descriptions of Jesus’ name in Scripture. At the Annunciation recorded in the Gospel According to Luke 1:31, what name does the angel Gabriel tell Mary she is to give to her son?
? What name does the angel who appears in the Gospel According to Matthew 1:21 say should be given to Mary’s son?
? What does the Evangelist Matthew say is the meaning of this name? If necessary, refer to the Gospel According to Matthew 1:22–23.
? In the Gospel According to Matthew, to whom does the angel give these instructions?
? What’s similar and what’s different about the name Mary and Joseph are instructed to give their child and the name of the child prophesied to be born of a young woman or virgin in the Book of Isaiah 7:14? You can learn more about the prophet known as Isaiah of Jerusalem and his Messianic prophecy in Lesson 20 Isaiah Foresees Immanuel’s Birth in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks to His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided.
? With what major Old Testament figure does Jesus share his name?
? For what is that Old Testament figure best known, and how might his actions in the history of the Israelites point to what Jesus has been sent to earth to accomplish?
? What names from the Old Testament has Jesus appropriated for himself so far in the Gospel According to John?
? By what name does the John (the Baptist/witness) call Jesus. If necessary, refer to the Gospel According to John 1:29 and 1:35–36.

the time has arrived
The Gospel According to John has been building up to Jesus’ hour, and in the Gospel According to John 12:23 Jesus announces that the hour finally has come. It seems likely that the disciples were in the dark about what Jesus’ hour would entail—for Jesus but also for themselves. Jesus explains that the Son of man is going to be glorified. What he doesn’t do is provide specifics about how that will happen.

Even in the present day, with 2,000 years of Christian understanding under our belts, we don’t exactly understand what’s involved in this glorification process. As Christians, we know that Jesus is going to have to die first, something that might not have been at all apparent to the disciples prior to the Passion. Jesus explains it to them, using the example of a grain of wheat, but it’s unlikely that the people who heard Jesus’ explanation fully understood what he was getting at.

judgment—you could look it up in our archives
Jesus announces that the hour has come for judgment of the world. What kind of judgment might Jesus have in mind? To learn about the etymology of the word “judgment,” read Lost in Translation, an online column in which Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps helps readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures. New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.

issues with chronology
When looking at the timing of Holy Week in the Gospel According to John, it’s important to note that the Passover isn’t necessarily on Saturday. On the Jewish calendar, the Passover occurs on a fixed date and so can happen on any day of the week, and the following day automatically is designated a sabbath—much like some of our holy days. It would be entirely possible to have two sabbath days in a row the year that Jesus Passion occurred. For more information, refer to “The Start of Holy Week” on page 83 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

difficult ideas
The twelfth chapter in the Gospel According to John raises some difficult concerns. Paying close attention to the biblical text poses a number of questions, but Jesus’ responses only seem to add to our confusion. Jesus will continue to address his followers in a similar way right up until his death. Are we supposed to ignore the poor? If Jesus is intending to die, how can he be the long-awaited Messiah prophesied to “remain forever”?

Q&A—a question about the ruler of this word
The Gospel According to John 12:31–32 records Jesus saying: “Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the ruler of this world be cast out; and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself,” a passage that someone in one of our groups found confusing.

Q: How are we to understand that the ruler of this world was cast out when Jesus was lifted up, since we daily can observe so much evidence of the devil still at work in our world today?

A: This is a great question, and one that probably slows down a lot of people who encounter this passage. The best way to think about it is to make a comparison between the devil as “the ruler of this world” and a political leader such as a president or prime minister. If an incumbent leader loses an election or is ousted in a coup, it often is said that he or she is “cast out” of office. That doesn’t mean they disappear or have no influence. It does mean that they have lost legitimate authority to rule.

a reference to Deutero- (Second) Isaiah’s Suffering Servant
In the Gospel According to John 12:38, the Evangelist points to Jesus’ role as the Suffering Servant of the Old Testament by quoting from the fifty-third chapter in the Book of Isaiah. Deutero- (Second) Isaiah’s prophecy, interpreted by Christians as referring to Jesus’ Passion, begins by emphasizing the difficulty humanity has understanding Jesus’ willingness to suffer and die for the sins of the world: “Who has believed what we have heard?” You can learn more about the Suffering Servant prophecies in Lesson 8 God’s Suffering Servant in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption.

for additional reflection
One of the most interesting questions in this section has to do with the passage from the Book of Isaiah 53:1 quoted in the Gospel According to John 12:40: “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and turn for me to heal them.” While most of us are familiar with this passage, we rarely think about what Jesus actually is saying. The following questions are designed to help readers begin to form their own thoughts and ideas related to the Gospel According to John 12:1–50. For more reflection questions, refer to the introduction to Lesson 15 on page 80 in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

? How is it possible to accept the idea of a God who has blinded people and hardened their hearts so that they won’t turn to Jesus for healing?
? What’s the context in which the prophet Isaiah issued this prophecy?
? Consider why the Evangelist might bring it up at this point in the narrative?
? Did Jesus come to heal everyone he encountered?
? What impact on his mission would there be if all the people who have turned away from Jesus instead turned toward him for healing?
? What possible reason could God have for hardening someone’s heart?

the best Catholic commentary about Scripture
To find out more about how Church teaching is supported by Scripture passages in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth, check out the Index of Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Links to the primary Scripture passages in the lesson (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition [RSVCE*]) and relevant paragraphs in the Catechism are provided here. Not every passage in the biblical text for this study is referenced in a Catechism paragraph, however.

ways our glossary might prove helpful
In addition to providing extra information about geographical locations, our glossary also points out persons and places mentioned in the biblical text under multiple names or spellings. If you can remember a name but aren’t sure in which lesson it shows up, you can find it in the glossary, which lists every proper noun that appears in the primary biblical text for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

to learn more, read more Scripture
If you’re having difficulty with a passage of Scripture, it can be helpful to read the relevant cross references—but looking these up can take time. To make that easier, we’ve compiled the cross references from the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE)—the translation that we reprint in our study books. That list can be found at the top of every online study page accompanying this study, and it includes links to each of the cross references in the primary biblical text for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

don’t forget about our indexes & extra online material
If you’re trying to locate information about a specific Scripture passage, you can look it up in the index at the back of the study book or sample lesson. If you want to find a particular commentary, you can look up its title in the topics index. To learn more about another book of the Bible for which there’s a Turning to God’s Word study, visit the online study directories to read the commentaries and watch any accompanying videos. Finally, if you have a question or would like to make a comment about any of our studies, you can use one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons to email our authors.

ex libris—Church documents & books about religious topics
You can find links to magisterial documents referred to in Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents. This page includes a listing of significant recent encyclicals as well as a number of historical Church documents. Recommended books related to Scripture study can be found at ex libris—main bookshelf.

wondering how to pronounce some of these words?
The following link is to a reading from the New International Version (NIV) Bible. To listen, click on the audio icon above the printed text. Although not taken from the translations used in our study materials, the NIV reading provides an audio guide to pronunciation of words in this lesson’s primary biblical text. A close online version of the translation of the Bible used in Catholic liturgy in the United States as well as an audio guide for daily Mass readings for the current month can be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

the Gospel According to John 12:1–50 (NIV)

close with Bible-based prayer related to this lesson
Many of our Catholic study groups like to conclude their discussions with a prayer based on the scriptural focus of their lesson, and some participants include Scripture-specific prayer in their individual study. If you’re uncomfortable composing your own Bible-based prayers, you can follow our four easy steps, or you can use the following prayer based on this lesson’s text from the Gospel According to John.

God our Father, you loved humanity
so much that you sent your Son
to free us from the darkness of sin.
Give us the strength to remain faithful to you
in our thoughts, words, and actions,
that we might walk in the light of eternal life.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Lesson 16 A New Commandment I Give to You—the Gospel According to John 13:1–38
Lesson 14 I Am the Resurrection & the Life—the Gospel According to John 11:1–57

you also may like our study of the book of Exodus
You Shall Have No Other Gods: The Book of Exodus, a 28-lesson Catholic Bible study with an imprimatur, provides an in-depth look at how significant events in biblical history that occurred thousands of years ago to descendants of Jacob remain relevant and even critical for present-day Christians to understand. The deliverance of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt and the giving of Ten Commandments are examined along with the development of Moses’ relationship to God. Click on the book’s cover to view a sample lesson.

start a Turning to God’s Word Bible study
Thank you for your interest in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth. Information about beginning a Turning to God’s Word Bible study can be found at start a Bible study. Tami, Matthew, and I are available to answer questions and offer support. Contact us if you’d like to start one of our studies or have your schedule listed with other TtGW study groups on our website. —Jennifer

*There are seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament—the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees, as well as some passages in the Books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants usually refer to these works as “apocryphal,” a word that means “outside the (Protestant) canon” because they’re excluded from most Protestant Bibles. The word “deuterocanonical” means “second canon”; Catholics use that word to refer to any section of the Catholic Old Testament for which there are no extant, or existing, Hebrew manuscripts. All of the deuterocanonical books appear in the Septuagint, the earliest remaining versions of which date to the 1st century B.C. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was in common use by Jews at the time of Jesus. Learn more by reading How Do Catholic & Protestant Bibles Differ?

Turning to God’s Word printed Bible studies use the 2006 Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE) translation for all Scripture references except those to the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, prepared by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey and published in 2020 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All Scripture links for the online study pages for The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth are to the 1966 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) translation. The New International Version (NIV) audio recordings follow the same chapter and verse numbering as the RSV Catholic translations, but the NIV translation doesn’t include the deuterocanonical books and passages.

The 1966 RSVCE uses archaic pronouns and verb forms such as “thee,” “thou,” “didst” in the Psalms and in direct quotations attributed to God. The 2006 RSV2CE replaces these with more accessible English. The few significant translation changes in the RSV2CE include rendering almah as “virgin” in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 and restoring the term “begotten” in the Gospel According to John 3:16.

Numbering varies for some passages in this Bible study. Turning to God’s Word studies (print and digital) follow the numbering in the Revised Standard Version Catholic translations (RSV2CE and RSVCE). Discrepancies in the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) are noted in the Index of Scripture Citations in the study book and the online sample.

You can learn more about the Psalms by viewing a sample lesson from the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. The second part of that study, Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, is scheduled for publication in 2025. Some verse numbers may vary in different translations of the Psalms.