The Fourth Gospel (FG) opens with the expression Ἐν ἀρχῇ which coheres exactly with the Greek Septuagint (LXX) of Genesis 1:1. The explicit lexical and thematic correspondence between the FG and Genesis has long been noted by scholars like C.K. Barret, D.A. Carson, Craig Keener, Andreas Köstenberger, Brandon Crowe, and Edward Klink III among others. I believe that the connection unpacks the author’s intention of taking the readers back to the original creation narrative to explain the new creation work of Jesus, the last Adam.
In this paper, I argue that there is a significant conceptual and verbal parallel between John 20:22 and Genesis 2:7 (LXX). The connection between the two passages reveals that the portrayal of Jesus as breathing (ἐμφυσάω) on the disciples is an escalated form of God’s divine activity in Genesis 2:7. The conferring of the Spirit in John 20 emphasizes the inauguration of the new era of salvation and the commissioning of the disciples to announce the life-giving message of Jesus I develop the thesis by comparing and contrasting John 20:22 and Genesis 2:7, looking more specifically into the use of ἐμφυσάω in the FG and the LXX. I also examine how the literature of Post-Biblical Judaism (Targums, Qumran texts, Philo, Josephus et al) alludes to and interprets Genesis 2:7.
I focus first on the analysis of the context of John 20:22 and Genesis 2:7, emphasizing the organic and progressive character of God’s redemptive storyline (from creation to new creation), which centers on Christ. Following G.K. Beale’s criteria for determining typology, the lexical parallel and the appropriation of the theme of creation show the close analogical correspondence between Genesis 2:7 and John 20:22. The allusion to Genesis 2:7 does not merely demonstrate a sort of retrospection, but even more, it shows how Christ ultimately fulfilled both the reception and the communication of the promised eschatological life. More so, in resurrection the last Adam, became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) to germinate the new creation. It is precisely in this divine act of “in-breathing” that we find the eschatological fulfillment of Genesis 2:7. This typological fulfillment inaugurates a stage of new creation and brings to fruition all of God’s plan for humanity as envisioned in Adam.