요한복음 20:31의 '이것'(ταῡτα)

"These" in John 20:30-31

The Fourth Evangelist disclosed his goal of writing and his approach for reaching that goal at the conclusion of the Gospel (John 20:30-31). His goal of writing is to lead readers to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, Christ. For reaching this goal, the Evangelist wrote 'these'(20:31) in his Gospel. Then to what does the pronoun 'these' refer? It is a general understanding among commentators that the pronoun 'these' in 20:31 refers to Jesus' miracles recorded in the first half of the Gospel (chaps. 1-12). This general understanding is mostly based on emphasis of 'sign' aspect of the term sēmeion in 20:30. This paper argues that the Fourth Evangelist intended that the pronoun 'these' in 20:31 not only refers to Jesus' miracles in chapters 1-12 but to Jesus' resurrection in chapter 20 by clarifying the concept of the sēmeion in 20:30. The term sēmeion does not have a sense of 'sign,' but 'miracle.' From this perspective, Jesus' resurrection should be included in the scope of 'these' because Jesus' resurrection is surely a miracle. This thesis is also supported by other two evidences: (1) Jesus called his resurrection as sēmeion in the temple-cleansing narrative (2:13-22); (2) the pattern that Jesus' sēmeion evokes people's faith is found in the account of his resurrection. Therefore, it can be said that the pronoun 'these' refers to Jesus' resurrection in chapter 20 as well as seven miracles in the first half of the Gospel.