My hypothesis that chapter 3:13 is alluding to Paul comes from my greater theory that
John, or a
proto-John, was the Gospel associated with Marcion.
For years it never made sense to me how Marcion could have a Paul preach of an almost ethereal Christ in his epistles, yet have a Gospel that nearly contradicts everything in these epistles. What's more, the main figure in the epistles is not Christ, but Paul himself. So any Gospel associated with Marcion/Paul, would be a promotion of Paul.
And
John does this by foretelling the coming of the Paraclete. Come on. Who else is that going to be? It's Paul. I had already began suspecting a greater connection between
John and Paul when Irenaeus says that Valentinus used Pauline epistles (
Romans I think was his go to one).
But my main reason for suspecting that Paul is the man being spoken of in verse thirteen, is the verses preceding this, in which Jesus explains to Nicodemus the symbolism of being reborn:
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
This very Pauline statute contains, as many have noted, a play on the Greek for
again and
from above.
Being born
from above is to be born
again. And this explains the ambiguous and bizarre statements Paul gives to his own birth in
1 Corinthians 15 and
Galatians 1. It was
his rebirth that is being foreshadowed, a rebirth that could only be accomplished with his ascension. And this ascension for Paul was the eclipse of 118 ad, in which he saw the Lord crucified by Moses/Ophiuchus, the evil Serpent ruling the Lower realm, and his rebirth from his mother, Virgo. In fact, how
Acts of the Apostles chapter nine recounts Paul's conversion is similar to
eclipse scotoma, a condition sometimes brought about by viewing an eclipse without proper protection.
But all of this and more will be in my book, which has pretty much been put on indefinite hold for the moment.