Greek Court Ordering in John
Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2020 2:23 pm
Quick Note:
John 15: 14 - 17 (RSV)
[14] You are my friends if you do what I command you.
[15] No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
[16] You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
[17] This I command you, to love one another.
Ordering of the Greek Court:
1. Friends
2. Honored Friends
3. Guards of the Body
4. Kinsman
See Also: "The Banquet" where you take your place at the lower end of the table with your "Friends" and you wait for the Banquet Master to move you up to a higher Social Position where you will be "Honored" by your "Friends".
This also references Herod, who ordered his Court on the Greek Model, probably learned through Nicholas of Damascus.:
Josephus, War..., 1, 23, 5:
"Now do you keep those in their places whom Caesar hath joined, and their father hath appointed; and do not you pay undue or unequal respects to them, but to every one according to the prerogative of their births; for he that pays such respects unduly, will thereby not make him that is honored beyond what his age requires so joyful, as he will make him that is dishonored sorrowful. As for the kindred and friends that are to converse with them, I will appoint them to each of them, and will so constitute them, that they may be securities for their concord; as well knowing that the ill tempers of those with whom they converse will produce quarrels and contentions among them; but that if these with whom they converse be of good tempers, they will preserve their natural affections for one another. But still I desire that not these only, but all the captains of my army, have for the present their hopes placed on me alone; for I do not give away my kingdom to these my sons, but give them royal honors only..."
So to John15...
CW
John 15: 14 - 17 (RSV)
[14] You are my friends if you do what I command you.
[15] No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
[16] You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
[17] This I command you, to love one another.
Ordering of the Greek Court:
1. Friends
2. Honored Friends
3. Guards of the Body
4. Kinsman
See Also: "The Banquet" where you take your place at the lower end of the table with your "Friends" and you wait for the Banquet Master to move you up to a higher Social Position where you will be "Honored" by your "Friends".
This also references Herod, who ordered his Court on the Greek Model, probably learned through Nicholas of Damascus.:
Josephus, War..., 1, 23, 5:
"Now do you keep those in their places whom Caesar hath joined, and their father hath appointed; and do not you pay undue or unequal respects to them, but to every one according to the prerogative of their births; for he that pays such respects unduly, will thereby not make him that is honored beyond what his age requires so joyful, as he will make him that is dishonored sorrowful. As for the kindred and friends that are to converse with them, I will appoint them to each of them, and will so constitute them, that they may be securities for their concord; as well knowing that the ill tempers of those with whom they converse will produce quarrels and contentions among them; but that if these with whom they converse be of good tempers, they will preserve their natural affections for one another. But still I desire that not these only, but all the captains of my army, have for the present their hopes placed on me alone; for I do not give away my kingdom to these my sons, but give them royal honors only..."
So to John15...
CW