Theology and Life

Living Waters

 Imaging the Source of Life.

 

Brett Muhlhan

BMin, MTh, ThD

Introduction

Many people have considered Christian faith an easy thing, and not a few have given it a place among the virtues. They do this because they have not experienced it and have never tasted the great strength there is in faith. It is impossible to write well about it or to understand what has been written about it unless one has at one time or another experienced the courage which faith gives a man when trials oppress him. But he who has had even a faint taste of it can never write, speak, meditate, or hear enough concerning it. It is a living “spring of water welling up to eternal life,” as Christ calls it in John 4:14.[1]

 Martin Luther 1522

One of the things that Luther says in the above quote is that faith is not just a virtue to be numbered at will among the many other virtues; it is, in fact, essential to the justifying experience of God. The kind of faith that Luther speaks of is dynamic, courageous and persistent in the face of spiritual and physical oppression. According to Luther, this type of faith is for the heart a “spring of living water welling up to eternal life.” The concern of this paper is to broadly canvas a biblical basis for Luther’s contention, that may set a foundational theological precedent for future ethical reflection and which begins to think through some of the implications attached to a theology of living waters. A brief survey of some select biblical texts will guide the way, while keeping a keen eye on the concepts of freedom and spiritual practice defined by Luther.

One of the key ideas to be explored is the Trinitarian presentation of living waters in the Scriptures. A salvation-historical approach to this study has initially revealed how the triune God participates in his threeness within salvation-history as the genuine provider of life. The implications of this triune action resonate well with Luther’s exposition of the threefold power of faith in his 1522 Freedom Tractate and his triadic formula of prayer, meditation and spiritual suffering found in his preface to the German edition of his writings. We will round this study out with an initial investigation into the implicational imperatives associated with a theology of living waters.

 I. A Jeremiah Text

The two select Old Testament texts relevant to our study come from Jeremiah and add important pieces to the construction of our theology. The texts: (Jeremiah 2:11, 13) and (Jeremiah 17:12-13), lay a guiding framework to our study that closely resembles Luther’s law-gospel paradox. The legal form (gestalt) in which the texts are cast support my contention that law-gospel, seen through the theologia crucis lense, pre-empts the New Testament pattern.

It is clear in the Jeremiah text, that relationship with Yahweh must be exclusive. There is no room at all for the inclusion of other religious systems, or self-dependence. He alone is the spring of living water,

Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the Lord. “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns.[2]

Historically the Jeremiah texts are cast in the milieu of political adultery and spiritual apostasy within the southern kingdom.[3] The leaders of the nation had forsaken the belief in Yahweh’s utter sovereignty, and opted for more dubious forms of providence. For they had forsaken Yahweh as the “spring of living water” (2:13) and intentionally chosen the providence of Baal (2:8, 23). Baal was seen as the storm god, and therefore, by default, the provider of the rains. Baalism had exerted an influence in the life of the kingdom to the point where it had superseded Yahweh as the identified provider of life (Hosea 2:7, 10). Linked to this were the fertility and prostitution cults.[4]

‘It was the worship of a god of the land rather than the creator of heaven and earth, a god who in return for the blessings of fertility demanded the gifts of incense and the excitements of the flesh rather than a God who in return for all the blessings demanded righteousness and justice, love and mercy, faithfulness and attachment, who was the lord of nature everywhere as well as the master of history at all times.’[5]

Baal and Ashtoreth were easy to worship.[6] They placed no real ethical demand on the people. The Egyptians referred to Baal as the storm and war god.[7] When Baalism is seen in the context of the northern state in the late eighth century, it is seen as promoting Baal as a fertility god only in the sense that he (supposedly) controlled the rain.[8] While not so developed in the southern kingdom Baalism still exerted a menacing presence in the nations religious, social and ethical life.

By choosing an alliance with this ‘non god’, they had built/dug for themselves broken cisterns, cisterns that could not hold water. They had chosen a god that could not act. Jeremiah 2:28 holds out a challenge of sorts to the people and their gods: where are they? Can they save? These questions cut to the heart of the apostate people as they stand in exile. The most striking condemnation for the people of Judah is the fact that it was not the Babylonian gods that overwhelmed Yahweh and carried them off into exile, but Yahweh himself that exerted his wounded love against his rebellious people and cast them into exile. The persistent and committed love of Yahweh will stand against his people for their sake; an attribute that reveals the essence of the true source of living water. The command to acknowledge Yahweh alone (daath Elohim) has the twofold function of warning/command and blessing/promise. The command to seek him alone serves as a function of the law that reveals the nature of Judah’s sin (2:13). Firstly they had progressively forsaken the Lord, the true source of life. And secondly, they sought to provide for themselves over against Yahweh by self-dependence and self-serving syncretism. The nation is, in light of the covenant breaking of these commands, arraigned and brought before the judge (2:9).

In contrast to the parameters of command that safeguard true devotion (hesed) Yahweh offers up the promise of restoration by remembering the time of Israel’s youth. “The measure of Israel’s loyalty and devotion in those early days was that she ventured into the wilderness, an open area that had never been tilled.”[9] It was in essence a journey of faith. In the time of Jeremiah, after such blasphemy and pain had been inflicted on Yahweh by this people, the offer of promise by Yahweh emphasizes the true devotion (hesed); the unfailing devotion of Yahweh for his people. The reflection on the wilderness journey in this text speaks loudly of Yahweh’s provision in the harshest of places. The implication is “why run to a god that cannot act: see Baal, when Yahweh, the true fountain of all life–living water is near, willing and able to provide at the most profound of levels.

The second Jeremiah text (17:12, 13) expresses virtually the same implications as the first with a few additions, for the texts are cast in the form of poetic adoration assumed by those that drink from the springs of life. Jeremiah 17:7-8 reads,

But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

The contrast between the righteous and the wicked is distinct and resonates well with Psalm 1. “Man is blessed (baruk) because he trusts (batah) Yahweh, that is, he acknowledges Yahweh as the Lord of the covenant and surrenders to him.”[10] This posture before God is highlighted by Luther’s vita passiva,[11] and the honor that this posture brings to God (Luke 18:9-14).[12] The warning is then renewed for all who turn away and forsake Yahweh. They will be put to shame and will be written in the dust. The emphatic tense of these two warning emphasize Yahweh’s sovereign rule of life and its activity.

Jeremiah condemned the attitude of mind, verging on blasphemy, which led citizens of Jerusalem to believe that an association with the temple and its rituals was the sole demand that Yahweh made upon them.[13]

Yahweh wants and demand’s dominion over every facet of his people’s life, for according to Yahweh without this dominion true life is impossible to obtain, self constructed cisterns will not do. Luther makes an interesting theological judgment in this regard with his free translation of Ps 31:15a, my times are in your hands.[14] In Luther’s translation he inserts the verb steht, the present tense form of the infinitive stehen, to stand.[15] Luther is making a profound theological interpretation by adding this verb. Our times stand in God’s hands. If we take our time out of God’s hands our time will fall, for it is cut off from the stream of living water. This is precisely the picture of the resultant fall of the southern kingdom due to its depending on the hand of another.

Another interesting connection for our purpose here is that (Jeremiah 17:12) emphasizes the throne of Yahweh as the glorious place of sanctuary for his people, not the temple. The nation’s ranting about the temple (Jeremiah 7:4) is seen as a shallow attempt at being loyal to God while being more concerned about Baalistic sacrifice. In fact the people had brought Baalistic ritual into the temple cultus. The throne image places before all who read this text a presence of purity and righteousness where only Yahweh can be found. It is the throne of God with the Lamb at its centre that defines the nature of worship in spirit and truth. Our primary text in revelation seven is mostly concerned with the throne of the Lord as the Trinitarian source of life giving waters (Rev 7:9-17). It is the Father’s throne with the Lamb at its centre. Our next series of texts in John’s Gospel give explicit reference to the Holy Spirit, and thus will complete the Trinitarian picture of life presented in the figure of living water.

 

II. A Johannine Text

We have seen in the Jeremiah texts that the LORD is presented as the source of living water. In the Johannine texts Jesus the Son is introduced as the source of living water in John 4:1-26. John 7:37-44 then identify the Holy Spirit as the essence (Wesen) of that life giving water. The giving of the Spirit is the creative work of the triune God.[16] The big picture behind the text in John 4:1-26 is the power of the life giving water to restore the divide between Judah and Israel. After the destruction of Israel at the hands of the dominant Assyrian armies, the country was spread in Diaspora and other people groups where integrated into the country. Accompanying this was some dubious politics that drove a permanent wedge between Israel and Judah. What was Israel became the nation of Samaritans. The animosity between the two nations is brought out in this text as Jesus interacts with the Samaritan woman at the well. In typical fashion Jesus, the divine Son, transcends the brokenness of the situation and reveals the way of healing and unification, in the sense of healing the divided nation and healing the divided self.

In essence the texts highlight the breakthrough of the salvation-historical promise (Hos 1:1, 3:4, 5) The one who stands before the woman at the well, is the fulfillment of the eschatological promise.[17] This eschatological promise is cast in the figure of living water and with the advent of Christ takes on a present continuous character while maintaining the future tense of the promise. ‘Jesus announces “the hour is coming”, referring thus to the great time of salvation, and follows this, as in 5:25 with “and is now.”’[18] This future tense is realized in a twofold way. Firstly, the second text in John’s gospel gives the future tense promise in the coming of the Spirit. And secondly, the finality of the promise is realized in the eventual consummation of all things before the throne of God in John’s apocalyptic text (Rev 7:9-17). The fulfillment of this promise stands before the woman and makes a revelatory appeal to her cast in the law-gospel paradox. First, the promise of life giving water, and then the challenge of marital fidelity.

As the Samaritans appealed to Jacob as their patriarchal forebear and the mountain as the place of worship, the Jews recognized Abraham as their forefather and the Jerusalem temple as the only place of worship, thus creating a dividing wall (Eph 2:14-16) that could only be overcome by the spirit and truth found in Christ, the life giving water (Jn 1:14,17; 4:23,24).[19]

“Spirit and truth” refer to the fellowship thus established in its life-creating and life giving power, as leading to the fullness of God’s gifts (Jn1:16) that is no longer mediated by all sorts of symbolic forms, but by the Spirit of God himself, which is why it is repeatedly called worship of the Father.[20]

That Christ––as a member of this triune grace––has opened the way for the bestowal of these magnificent gifts testifies to the promise that ‘he will lead us’ (Rev 7:17). Jesus transcends the temporal division created by sin between the Jews and the Samaritans, and offers this living water as universally obtainable.

The second text in John’s gospel relevant to our study is John 7:37-44. The distinction in this text between the time of Jesus and the time of the Spirit highlight the fact that the Spirit could only fully come after Christ had completed the work of the Father. Again in typical fashion Jesus transcends the common practice of the people by reinterpreting tradition in personal terms. The last day of the feast of tabernacles on which Jesus delivers this final sermon is dedicated to the symbolic action of water. The priest would visit the pool of Siloam––noted for its healing power––and draw water, which was then brought to the temple and poured over the offering.

It symbolized not only, as a harvest ritual, the hope and prayer for rain and fruitfulness (Zech 14:16,17) but also, in connection with this, the eschatological hope of wells of salvation overflowing with abundance.[21]

Jesus recreates this repetitive and symbolic action in his own person. He has the creative power through the Spirit to create streams of living water in the believer once for all. This prophetic action supersedes the temple command and is fulfilled in his personal giving of the Spirit. In the post- resurrection church this reality is a dynamic present continuous as the Spirit indwells believer through the Word and continues to create what it does not find[22]. The outer ritual is replaced by an inner contest between Spirit and flesh. To walk in the Spirit is to drink from the spring of living water.

The abundance of the gifts of the Spirit does not mean that the believer will be transferred from the struggling faith to a purely triumphant faith, but that the believer will become a participant, by the Spirit, in the glorification of Christ, that the believer will drink from a spring whose fullness for everyone who believes will never be exhausted.[23]

A further development on this statement is that rather than delivering the believer from the struggle that glorifies Christ, it implies the struggle between Spirit and flesh. It is in the inner struggle of faith that the believer brings honor and glory to Christ the king. As mentioned 17 times in the first book of Peter. The profound hope for believers is that in this struggle, in this wilderness experience where we travel as aliens with a future hope, we have the true source of life welling up in our very being to strengthen the overcoming of flesh by spirit which brings such glory to the King. An added power of this faith derived victory in struggle, is the eschatological hope held out in the final promise that ‘he will lead us’ to the source of living water (Jn 16:13, Rev7:17).

 

III. An Apocalyptic text:

The throne of God is the controlling theme throughout Rev 7:9-17.[24] It is the source to which we will be lead. A picture of the profound nature of God’s ability to create is given in the image of the Lamb becoming the Shepherd. It defies rationality and brings to the forefront the immense power and dominion of the triune God enthroned in splendour. The scene presented to John in his vision is of sublime holiness, there is no room in this scene for false gods. It is pure power, glory and goodness. This overwhelming picture of majesty and strength stands in the middle of the historical persecution of the church under the emperor Domitian. God reveals his holiness and the promise of living water in the midst of systematic and brutal persecution. The power of life in such intense apocalyptic battle compelled the martyrs to stand firm, in the hand of the Lord (Ps 31:15) and overcome to the point of death. While the martyrs are singled out in the apocalyptic vision (Rev 6:9,10),[25] all who hold fast to the testimony of the gospel and who have washed themselves in the blood of the lamb fill the next vision in (Rev 7:9,14) and stand before the throne of God.

The Trinitarian stream that begun for us in Jeremiah is picked up here in Ch7 with the vision of God on his throne and the Lamb at its centre. When we stand before the throne of God we stand before the Father and Jesus the Son. It is here that once and for all we will drink from the Spirit of life. Luther here uses some interesting nuance in verse 17. Luther uses the nouns Quellen and Wassers in their plural form. The direction that the Lamb ‘leads us’, is to the plurality of the triune God. The Father, Son and Spirit are the sources of living waters that we will drink from for all eternity.  He draws us to the true source for he is in the middle (mitten) of the throne. It is not to some abstract place such as a fountain apart from God that the lamb will ‘lead us’ too, but to the very heart and source of life, the triune God himself. It gives more credence to a perichoresis of being instead of the mystical participation of the now/not yet state of being.[26] It calls us to the rationally defying idea that we will be in God and he in us in a literal and physical sense.

Luther was captivated by this concept in its present continuous form, for in his 1522 Freedom Tractate (LW 31:351ff) he makes much of it in his exposition of the third power of faith; that all that is Christs is ours and all that is ours is Christs. That Christ would take on the form of a servant for eternity so that we could mutually indwell with the triune God––to actually stand before and within the naked presence of the creator––is astounding. The only reason we have this great vision of hope is recalled by the elder in John’s vision. The white robes of redemption worn by the great multitude have been washed and made pure in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:14). The cross of Christ still stands as the salvation-historical event that obtains access to the throne of God. Because Christ has passed through the temple veil (Heb 9:1ff) a time has come and will finally be when there will be no more seeing in a mirror poorly (Deus absconditus).[27] Christ in this sense portrays the genuine marks of the giver of life, the real living water, the source of genuine and abundant eternity.

It goes beyond physical hunger and thirst. It points to that ultimate satisfaction of the soul’s deepest longing for spiritual wholeness. The springs of water indicate the source [Quelle] of life, for through the lamb the redeemed have eternal and uninterrupted fellowship with the Father.[28]

To be subject to the full creative capacity of the triune God without the existence of the Spirit-flesh antithesis is a far and lofty calling. A calling that is made sure of fulfilment because of the down payment we have already received in the Spirit and Word, (Eph 1:13,14).

 

IV. An Imperative:

Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.Jesus Christ (Jn 15:4)[29]

The natural question arising from this study is how, therefore, do we remain at the fountain of living waters so that we may receive life and the hope of life? In our attempt to answer this question we turn to Luther’s insightful pastoral understanding of freedom in superabundance and his triadic spiritual emphasis on prayer, meditation and spiritual suffering[30]. Without a firm understanding of, and practice of the truth of Christian freedom and these three fundamental principles, we believe with Luther that it is only a matter of time before the flesh nature overcomes the Spirit within us. The practice of these principles is the vital act of drinking from the living waters. “It teaches us how meditation, and the use of the inexhaustible treasures of the Bible, can be a source (Quelle) of new experiences.”[31] The figure of living water plays an active role in connecting the Son as Word and Scripture as Word, and the role they have as the source of life. This ‘rule’ of Luther’s also contends against lopsided personal preferences,

It contains two clear negations: it excludes an understanding of theology that sees it exclusively or even predominantly as a theory as much as it excludes the view that sees it as a programme of action.[32]

This could be a very important correction in say an educational environment where there is a tendency to polarize theoretical legalism in the guise of truth and pragmatic social action in the guise of grace. Luther is very effective at negotiating the (via media) the middle way, and rightly so for he sees the Christ as the source of living water which encompasses both grace and truth (Jn1:14,17).

The call to remember truth and grace is writ large throughout the Scriptures. Paul in Ephesians makes much of the importance to remember the superabundance of which Christ has imputed to the believer (Eph 2:11,12; 2 Cor 5:14).[33] Luther outlines this superabundance under the threefold power of faith. The first power is the triumph of grace inspired faith over works righteousness. The liberty obtained in such abundant imputation is staggering once we begin to do the work––Oratio, Meditatio, and Tentatio––of understanding it. The second power of faith is the reciprocal honor of faith. The highest honor we can pay God is to trust him in faith, especially during (Anfechtung), spiritual attack[34]. God then returns the honor (LW 31:35).[35] The third power of faith is presented under the marriage metaphor symbolizing Christ and his bride the Church, but having the deeper actual effect of imputation. All that is the grooms: Christ’s, is ours, and all that is the brides is Christ’s. The superabundant giving of Christ is the foundation for Paul and Luther in their ethics. Luther says that we can give all because we have received all (LW 31:568) for we have freely received and are free to give (Mt 10:8).[36] To remember and dwell (wohnen) in this grace filled truth is to drink from the headwaters of the living springs of life.

Luther’s triadic formula gives precise and simple definition to the fact that believers have an imperative to work the salvation that has been entrusted them (Phil 2:12).[37] The imperative is to remain in Christ and this simple formula has stood the test of time and shown the genuine fruit of discipleship. The important point to remember is that this imperative is in no sense related to works righteousness for it embraces the (vita passiva) as the true posture before the Word of life. We adopt a position of humility through prayer, meditation and spiritual suffering and allow the Spirit and Scripture to interpret and ‘lead us’ as they see fit.  We draw on the eminent scholar Oswald Bayer as the foremost modern Luther scholar for his perspective on Luther’s spiritual triad.[38]

The importance of prayer is well attested throughout the Christian tradition. Luther’s perspective though––and for the other two elements of his formula––is for the correct distinction between the inner and outer movement of the Word and Spirit. Prayer, as well as meditation, seeks guidance, leadership and wisdom outside of ourselves. The need for this ‘seeking outside’ is the recognition that we are still bound as sinners (simmul iustus et peccator) and must seek life outside of our fallen personal structures. Clarity comes from the outside and prayer is the seeking after him who sits on the throne and has the creative ability and power to hear and act within us. It seeks wisdom and leadership ultimately from the eternal not the temporal.

Kneel down in your little room(Matt 6:6) and pray to God with real humility and earnestness, that he through his dear Son may give you his Holy Spirit, who will enlighten you, lead you, and give you understanding.[39]

One might complain that we already have the spirit so why ask for more. The truth is that we do not possess potential for the spiritual life within us. Naturally we flee from the divine. Potential for the believer is an external work that comes to us through the present and continuous presence of the Word and Spirit. The Christian, in prayer, is in a creative and life giving communicative event. This communicative event is dynamic and continuous, just as an abundant stream continues to well up and flow with life. “What gives [prayer] this new character is a certain kind of experience, a learning, that is different from the acquisition and transmission of knowledge.”[40]

The connection between prayer and meditation is the specific realm of learning for believers. As with the (daath Elohim) this type of learning and leading is the embodiment of the knowledge of God. It is a lived wisdom (sapience). Meditation takes the external form of the Word, the Holy Scriptures and embodies them in Spirit. By going outside of ourselves in the posture of dependence and humility, we can be sure that we are dealing with God and not our personal and inner construction of him. This understanding negates the quasi-mystical works of inner reflection and self-dependence, which were the exact things that led the people of Israel away from the waters of life (Jer 2:12,13). Luther defines meditation as outward and vocal. The age old practice of reading aloud––that implies listening––holds our inner words accountable. Through prayer and meditation the Word of life comes into the heart and builds its place there in a dynamic and continuous fashion. While the Spirit and the Word dwell in us, they are free to create newness and maturity within us by coming from without. It is a profound mystery as to how the triune God can continue to fill something that is already full.

Spiritual suffering (Anfechtung/tentatio) drives faith and gives it a dynamic reality. It has with Luther an apocalyptic framework as the believer does battle with the demonic forces within oneself––in the battle between Spirit and flesh––and from without as we do battle with the demonic structures of the fallen creation. To suffer spiritually in this way is to truly know you are walking the path of the cross (theologia crucis).

Anfechtung…is the touchstone that teaches you not only to know and understand, but also to experience how right, how true, how sweet, how lovely, how mighty, how comforting God’s Word is, wisdom beyond all wisdom.[41]

The joy in recognizing that God’s word stands outside of us and moves towards us with the law-gospel paradox is that it negates all attempts at cognitive spiritual gymnastics. Whether you feel the promise or not, whether you feel forgiven or not, God’s word comes from without and declares “you are forgiven”, “you have my promise”! In the midst of spiritual suffering when one feels that their bones have turned to dust and their hearts have melted like wax (Ps 22:14), to simply acknowledge the Word in faith is sufficient. This is the muscle behind Luther’s second power of faith. That to trust the promise in the heat of intense doubt and suffering is to pay God the highest honour by attributing to him the greatest degree of faithfulness. The Word of promise in the context of suffering is the anchor for the conscience while we wait for a new way forward, a way created by the Spirit and Word with grace and truth (1Cor 10:13).[42] This understanding is a basic definition of Luther’s use of experience. To stand in trust in the midst of the storm is to bear and share the marks of the crucified saviour. The Word and Spirit here define what genuine freedom is, in that moment of spiritual agony all is stripped back to a dependence on the God of promise. It is this spring of living water that kept the psalmist in the Spirit (Gal 5:25) while suffering intensely (Ps 77:3,10-12).[43] The living water provided by the triune God in its diversity of forms is the life and guidance of the eternal people of God. To seek and drink from this well of life is the task and privilege of all who recognize Christ as the one who was to come (Jn 4:25, 26).[44]

Conclusion:

 A Trinitarian framework through which to view a theology of living waters gives us an abundant picture of the diversity with which God refreshes a thirsty believer. The life giving grace of God runs throughout the whole of Scripture culminating in the grand future vision of John’s apocalyptic vision. The emphatic promise the ‘he will lead us’ to this living water has a past, present continuous and future orientation. While we have and presently drink from Christ’s well through prayer, meditation and spiritual suffering, we are summoned to the hope that at the fulfilment of all time we will stand directly before and in the presence of the living God. This eschatological hope draws us through suffering and also acts as a consolation during the experience of suffering. The truth and grace motifs that underpin this theology stand in radical contrast to the works righteousness that often leads believers away from this life giving source. The contemporary forms of this works righteousness would be the next stage of such a study and in an a priori would probably be found in forms such as stress, anxiety, depression, guilt of conscience and spiritual licentiousness. The middle and true path for the Christian (via media) is to steer clear of a division between grace and truth, and seek after and drink from the living waters embodied by the one that is full of grace and truth.

 

 

References

 

Bayer O, 2007. Theology the Lutheran way, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Childs, B,S, 1979. Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture, SCM Press, London.

Hadley, J,M, 1997. ‘Baal’, in New International Dictionary of Old Testament theology and

exegesis, ed. W,A, Van Gemeren, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Heschel, A, 1962. The prophets, Vol I & II, Harper colophon books, London.

Luther M, 1957. Luther’s Works, Vol. 31, Career of the Reformer, Fortress Press,

Philadelphia.

Luther M, 1984. Die Bibel:Luther Übersetzung, Deutsche Gesellschaft,Stuttgart.

Mounce R, H, 1977. The book of Revelation, Eerdmans, Grand rapids, Michigan.

Ridderbos H, 1997. The Gospel of John, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Thompson J,A, 1980.The book of Jeremiah, Eerdmans, Grand rapids, Michigan.

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