“The Next Day”—Again and Again

A Week of Days in John 1:19–2:11

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Coming up to Easter, maybe you’d enjoy reading more about the doctrine of resurrection, especially how resurrection hope is rooted in the Old Testament. Check out my book Resurrection Hope and the Death of Death (part of Crossway’s Short Studies in Biblical Theology).

The opening verses of John’s Gospel are the prologue—John 1:1–18. Eighteen rich verses exalting the Son.

Once those eighteen verses are past, the action of narration begins. In John 1:19–28, people have been sent to question John the Baptist about his identity and his authority to baptize. Then, once a new episode begins (in John 1:29–34), we read “The next day.”

Then we read in John 1:35, “The next day again.” Once more, in John 1:43, we see the opening words, “The next day.” Finally, starting in John 2, we see the words, “On the third day…” (2:1).

Carefully reading John 1:19–2:11, we will notice that the biblical author is unfolding multiple days in a row. Is the number of those days significant?

Well, yes. So keep reading.