In whose name did they believe?

Question

Now while Jesus was in Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover, many people believed in his name because they saw the miraculous signs he was doing. John. 2:23 NET

The Name of the Father or of Jesus? Or the name revealed in the works of Jesus?

Answer 1

Let me quote John 2:21-23 in full:

But Jesus was speaking about the temple of His body. After He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this. Then they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. And when He was in Jerusalem in the Passover, in the Feast, many believed in His name, beholding His signs that He was doing.

Note that the antecedent of all the singular pronouns here is "Jesus" by the simply rules of grammar. Thus, "His Name" is the name of Jesus.

This is consistent with other NT statements on the same topic such as:

Acts 4:11, 12 - This Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

Thus, all people are saved by the Name of Jesus because there is salvation in no other source.

Acts 2:38 - And Peter says to them, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

See also:

Acts 3:16 - By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know has been made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through Him that has given him this complete healing in your presence.

Answer 2

They believed in the Name of Him who did miraculous deeds without prayers to any other authority, but in His own authority, sovereignly, and this is the Name of Jesus Christ.

As He Himself says that in His Name even His disciples do miracles (Matthew 12:27; cf. Luke 10:17).

Now, only God can do miracles, and men or angels can perform miracles not self-authoritatively, but by invoking the name of God, who, if He agrees with the invoker, does this deed, and not the invoker himself. Since the disciples do miracles by invoking Christ, then Christ is necessarily God, holding the same sovereign authority as the Father.

Since They hold the same authority and since Their divine activity is ontologically always a joint activity necessarily, then we can say even that the Father’s and the Son’s name is one and the same name of God; to give an analogy, both a cloud and the raindrops from it have one and the same name - “water”. Indeed, it is explicit that all three uncreated Hypostases have one name (Matthew 28:19).