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John 20:30-31

30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:

31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

My question is about verse 31, what are the signs which are written? Is it A) what Jesus does in chapter 21, B) what he has done during his life (as recorded by John), or C) is it something else?

If it is A, would this be an example of where a chapter breaks up the record (chapters are arbitrary)?

If it is C, what are the signs and where does John reference them?

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  • @bradimus' answer is correct and yes, the chapter breaks (and verse breaks) do sometimes get in the way. They exist for convenience, don't always break cleanly between topics, and must be read around to really appreciate what the author was trying to say. If you want an eye opener, copy-and-paste the book of Hebrews, remove all the verse and chapter breaks, re-connect sentences (verses were often broken on semicolons) and place paragraph breaks where indicated --- then read the book. It'll be like you never read it before.
    – JBH
    Commented Jul 27, 2017 at 18:38

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It refers to the entire book, but especially the Book of Signs, John 1:19 - 12:50. (As with your note about arbitrary chapter beaks, notice that this doesn't align with the beginning of a chapter.) There are seven miracles or signs that John uses to establish Christ as the Son of God

  1. Wedding at Cana
  2. Healing the official's son
  3. Healing the paralytic
  4. Feeding the 5000
  5. Walking on water
  6. Healing the blind man
  7. Raising Lazarus

Some add the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and/or the miraculous catch of fish. However, the list of seven is fairly common, a nice biblical number, and has some interesting theology developed from it.

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  • When christians are invited to weddings they should do two things: 1. They should choose less prominent seats. 2. They should transform water into "wine".
    – Constantthin
    Commented Aug 1, 2017 at 11:00
  • @Constantthin They are invited, every Sunday, except it is wine that transforms to Blood and there sit in humility rather than exalting themselves.
    – Marc
    Commented Aug 1, 2017 at 11:39

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