The Book of Signs chronicles Jesus’s public ministry within Israel. It begins with the traditional Synoptic starting place (John the Baptist) and concludes with Jesus in Jerusalem at his final Passover. Throughout the narrative, Jesus presents himself to Judaism through a series of miracles and compelling discourses but in the end finds rejection. Messianic fulfillment is a prominent motif. Jesus’s messiahship is shown to be the fulfillment of the principal festivals and institutions of Judaism. But since the Jews fail to grasp the message of Jesus’s signs, John shows us who will: the Greeks. The book closes with Jesus’s final plea to Judaism and a picture of eager Greeks imploring Philip, “Sir . . . we would like to see Jesus” (12:21).

1:19–51 Review · The testimony of John the Baptist: Th…