Jesus as Prophet: Predictive Prolepses in the Fourth Gospel

There is no doubt that the Johannine Jesus, in addition to being the Christ, Son of God, Son of Man, and King of Israel, is also a prophet. Both the Samaritan woman and the witnesses to the feeding of the multitudes refer to Jesus as a prophet (4.19; 6.14) and Jesus himself appears to do so as well (4.44). Furthermore, like the biblical prophets, the Johannine Jesus speaks the words given to him by God and acts as the mediator of God’s revelation to the world (17.7-8). If Jesus is a prophet, a ’forthtefler’, is he also a ‘foreteller’,1 a predictor of future events? While prediction is popularly associated with the phenomenon of prophecy, scholars are divided as to the importance or