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The Gospel of John and the Future of Israel by Christopher Mark

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The Gospel of John and the Future of Israel by Christopher Mark The Gospel of John and the Future of Israel by Christopher Mark Blumhofer Graduate Program in Religion Duke University Date: October 23, 2017 Approved: ___________________________ Richard B. Hays, Supervisor ___________________________ Joel Marcus ___________________________ C. Kavin Rowe ___________________________ Stephen Chapman ___________________________ Daniel Boyarin Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Program in Religion in the Graduate School of Duke University 2017 ABSTRACT The Gospel of John and the Future of Israel by Christopher Mark Blumhofer Graduate Program in Religion Duke University Date: October 23, 2017 Approved: ___________________________ Richard B. Hays, Supervisor ___________________________ Joel Marcus ___________________________ C. Kavin Rowe ___________________________ Stephen Chapman ___________________________ Daniel Boyarin An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Program in Religion in the Graduate School of Duke University 2017 Copyright by Christopher Mark Blumhofer 2017 Abstract The canonical gospels are each concerned to present the significance of Jesus vis-à-vis the Jewish tradition. Yet the Gospel of John exhibits a particularly strained relationship with Judaism, especially through its frequent description of Jesus’s opponents as “the Jews,” its presentation of numerous hostile exchanges between Jesus and characters described as “Jews,” and its application of significant Jewish imagery (e.g., “the temple of his body,” “I am the true vine”) to the person of Jesus rather than to traditional Jewish institutions or figures. This dissertation argues that the Gospel of John presents Jesus as the one through whom the Jewish tradition realizes its eschatological hopes in continuity with the stories and symbols of its past. As the Fourth Gospel presents its theological vision for the significance of Jesus, it also criticizes the theological vision of a rival group—that is, “the Jews” (or, as they will be consistently termed in this study, the Ioudaioi). In the Fourth Gospel, the Ioudaioi represent an alternative—and for John, a rival—theological vision for how the Jewish tradition might live into its future in continuity with its past. Therefore, John’s affirmations of many aspects of the Jewish tradition are bound up with its negation of how another segment of the tradition would construe those same features of the tradition. Methodologically, this study attends to how the narrative of John characterizes Jesus as the fulfillment of particular Jewish hopes and expectations, and also as the iv narrative of John states (or implies) the shortcomings of Jesus’s opponents insofar as they fail to bring the Jewish tradition into more thorough continuity with its storied past and prophesied future. Attention to John’s narrative does not override the importance of its historical location, however. Questions that were directly relevant to Second Temple and late first-century Judaism about how the tradition might live faithfully are pertinent to the structure of the Fourth Gospel and its presentation of Jesus and the Ioudaioi. John narrates the fulfillment present in Jesus and the failure represented by the Ioudaioi by drawing on discourses that were accessible within late first-century Judaism. Historical context is thus essential for understanding the logic of John and the terms in which the Gospel tells its story. This study concludes that the Fourth Gospel is a late first-century narrative that takes up the question of how the Jewish tradition might move into its future in continuity with its past. Through the vehicle of the Gospel narrative, John argues for Jesus as the one who enables the people of God to experience the future toward which the Jewish tradition had long been oriented. v For Stephanie vi Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... x 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 13 1.1 Locating this study on the map of Johannine scholarship ....................................... 18 1.2 The diversity of Second Temple Judaism, and identification with “Israel” as a theological claim ................................................................................................................... 30 1.2.1 “Ioudaioi” and “Israelites” in the later Second Temple period ............................ 46 1.3 Judaism as a tradition in transformation and crisis ................................................... 56 1.4 John, the Ioudaioi, and the narration of an epistemological crisis .......................... 73 1.5 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 87 2. Announcement: John 1–4 ....................................................................................................... 90 2.1. John 1:1–18: “The Word became flesh” ...................................................................... 90 2.2 John 1:19–51: Jesus and eschatological hopes of Israel ............................................ 130 2.3 John 2:13–22: Jesus and the dwelling place of God ................................................. 142 2.4 John 3:1–21: New birth and living water ................................................................... 151 2.5 John 4:4–42: The restoration of Judah and Samaria ................................................. 159 2.6 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 178 3. Debate: John 5–10 .................................................................................................................. 181 3.1 John 5: Healing on the Sabbath ................................................................................... 182 3.1.1 The implications of Jesus’s identity as the Son ................................................... 184 vii 3.1.2 The authority of Jesus as the Son ........................................................................... 191 3.1.3 Witnesses and the legitimacy of Jesus .................................................................. 196 3.1.4 Unbelief and rejection ............................................................................................. 204 3.2 John 6: The bread that satisfies ................................................................................... 208 3.2.1 Belief and eschatological fulfillment ..................................................................... 219 3.2.2 Eating the bread of life ............................................................................................ 222 3.3 John 7–10:21: Jesus: The Hope of Sukkot/The Deceiver of the People .................. 232 3.3.1 Jesus and the imagery of Sukkot ........................................................................... 233 3.3.2 Jesus and Moses ....................................................................................................... 249 3.3.3 Derivation/Origins ................................................................................................... 257 3.3.4 Excursus: Johannine narrative logic about the rejection of Jesus ..................... 274 3.5 John 10: The good shepherd ........................................................................................ 280 3.6 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 299 4. Crisis: John 11–20 .................................................................................................................. 302 4.1 John 12:37–43: The message of Jesus and the disbelief of the people ................... 304 4.2 John 15: The True Vine and the Future of Israel ...................................................... 318 4.3 John 13–19: Jesus, David, and righteous suffering .................................................. 328 4.3.1 John 13:18 .................................................................................................................. 332 4.3.2 John 15:25 .................................................................................................................... 333 4.3.3 John 17:12 .................................................................................................................... 335 4.3.4 John 19:24 .................................................................................................................... 337 4.3.5 John 19:28 .................................................................................................................... 339 viii 4.3.6 John 19:36–37 .............................................................................................................. 340 4.4 John 18–20: Who Is the king of Israel? ....................................................................... 348 5. Conclusion: Implications for the Interpretation of John .................................................. 359 5.1 The historical context of John’s Gospel ..................................................................... 360 5.1.1
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