The Miraculous Signs In The Gospel Of John

The term “sign”, semeion (σημείον) in Greek is the term John used to describe the miraculous actions of Jesus in his account of the Gospel. This term actually appears seventeen times throughout the Gospel, most notably in the seven miraculous signs performed by Jesus and recorded by John. John also uses a second term, ergon (ἔργον), which also could be translated as “miracle”, but is more often translated as “work” or “deed”. It is important to examine the miracles recorded in the synoptic Gospels and the signs that appear in the Gospel of John. In the synoptics there are dozens of specific narratives and general summaries of events such as nature miracles, exorcisms, and restoration miracles. In contrast, John only records a few individual events, none of which contain exorcisms, only a few nature healings, and one raising from the dead. When these events happened in the synoptics, there was an emphasis on the extraordinary elements of the actions, whereas in John, the miraculous aspects of the actions are downplayed, however they are followed by dialogues about the controversies His actions caused.
The signs recorded in John are there to reveal Jesus’ identity, His origin, and His relationship to the Father. The synoptics usually portray faith, whether it be on the part of a particular individual, or a group as a whole as a prerequisite for Jesus to perfoem His miracles. The focus in John is that people come to believe in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God as a result of the witnessing or hearing of the sign that Jesus