The reply given by the Johannine Jesus appears at first
to confirm this by saying, «If a man has faith in me, even though he die, he shall come
to life», but then proceeds
to add quite a new interpretation of the resurrection
power of Christ in the words, «and no one who is alive and has faith shall ever die».13 C. H. Dodd concludes that «the «resurrection» of which Jesus has
spoken is something which may take place before bodily death, and has for its result the possession of eternal life here and now... The evangelist agrees with popular Christianity that the believer will enter into eternal life at the general resurrection, but for him this is a
truth of less importance than the fact that the believer
already enjoys eternal life and the former is a consequence of the latter.»