Robin Tomlinson

Hello, Cheryl (and Gillian and Brad). What a great iron sharpens iron discussion. Yesterday, I read Mark 12:26 and was reminded that Jesus hinged his whole argument with the Sadducees on the mere tense of a verb. Thus, words in Scripture are extremely important, as you pointed out, and even a little word like “all” deserves attention. Let’s use the definition you provided: “in totality with focus on its individual components.” If the definition is applied to “all who take the sword will perish by it,” we would interpret it as “the totality of individual persons who take up swords will (each) perish by them.” Of course, that can’t be a true statement. However, it is true that “some” of the people who take up swords will perish by them. If the John 12 passage refers to the categories of Jews and Gentiles, does it then follow that every individual of the Jews and Gentiles will be drawn? I’m not bringing our other beliefs in here – I’m just scrutinizing whether this particular verse, standing on its own two feet, MAY properly be interpreted to mean a “subset” of individuals (i.e. some) of Jews and Gentiles will be drawn? As to the question, why didn’t Jesus just use the word “some” instead of all, I would think that if the context goes something like 1) Jews welcome Jesus with “Hosanna” 2) a group of Gentiles wish to see Jesus 3) Jesus says now is the time He will be glorified 4) Jesus states He will draw “all” – that Jesus COULD BE referring to the fact that all people groups will be drawn. To simplify, we’ve got: Jews, Gentiles, Glory, and “All are drawn.” It’s at least plausible in my thinking, because of the context, that Jesus could be speaking of “peoples.” This seems consistent enough with the Abrahamic covenant in which all nations are blessed, to Psalm 2, “Ask of Me and I will give the nations…” to “go make disciples of all nations,” right on through history to Rev. 5:9,10 when “all tribes, peoples, tongues and nations” are represented in heaven. In other words, God often speaks about salvation in terms of groups and nations. Just seeking to rightly interpret this particular verse of John 12:32, trying my best to see all points of view, and to approach it as unbiased as possible. No easy task!