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Getting to Know the Johannine Literature

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Getting to Know the Johannine Literature Contents Acknowledgments . ix General Preface . xi Chapter 1 Getting to Know the Johannine Literature. 1 Chapter 2 Exploring Historical Puzzles in the Gospel of John . 23 Chapter 3 Exploring Literary Design in the Gospel of John . 51 Chapter 4 Exploring the Theology of the Gospel of John. 83 Chapter 5 Exploring Ideology in the Gospel of John . .113 Chapter 6 Exploring the Johannine Epistles . .137 Notes . 157 Bibliography. 173 Scripture Index . 181 Copyright © by Abingdon Press. All rights reserved. Chapter 1 Getting to Know the Johannine Literature Readers cannot understand any part of the Gospel of John until they understand the whole.1 This book has two main goals: (1) to introduce you to the Gospel and Letters of John and (2) to introduce you to the different ways biblical scholars study these texts. The first step in this process is for you to get bet- ter acquainted with these ancient texts. And by this I mean, reading them from beginning to end before we begin to explore them more deeply. This way, you can have a sense of the whole of these writings before we look at their individual parts. To help you with this first step, this chapter provides a basic reading guide for the Gospel and the Letters of John. As you move through the guide, you will see suggested reading assignments along with questions to consider as you read. If you are used to studying the Bible primarily in devotional settings, these questions will begin to introduce you to the aca- demic study of the Johannine writings. If you are completely unfamiliar with these writings, the reading guide will help you notice details that you might not have noticed otherwise. Don’t worry if you don’t know the answers to the questions. For now, the main point is simply to become familiar with the Gospel and the Let- ters and to stir your curiosity about what you find. And if you find your- self asking additional questions about what you are reading, then you’re 1 Copyright © by Abingdon Press. All rights reserved. John and the Johannine Letters on the right track! One last point. In this initial reading process, I will occasionally point to certain types of questions that relate to the different scholarly approaches we will introduce in the rest of the book. Think of these glimpses at historical, literary, theological, and ideological questions as a preview of the coming attractions in the rest of the book. Before beginning, I need to make a few points about terminology that I use in the book. The first point concerns the other three canonical Gospels, Mark, Matthew, and Luke. Scholars refer to these latter three Gospels as the “Synoptic Gospels.” “Syn-optic” means something like “see together” in Greek. The Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke “see” the story of Jesus in similar ways. We now know that this is because the authors of Matthew and Luke used the Gospel of Mark as one of their sources. The Gospel of John is not part of this “seeing together” group. It is very different than the other three Gospels in many ways. In this sense, it is a “maverick gospel” as one scholar tagged it. Part of my task in the book is to help you see the Gospel of John in all of its often mysterious differentness. Thus, we will have regular occasions to compare the Gospel of John with the Synoptic Gospels. The second point concerns references to the Gospel of John and to Je- sus as he is depicted in the Gospel. There is a long tradition of referring to this last canonical Gospel as the “Fourth Gospel.” I will do so occasionally, just for the sake of variety in your reading experience. At times, I will refer to Jesus as “the Johannine Jesus” and sometimes simply as Jesus. The first is meant as a reminder that the Jesus under discussion is the one who is depicted in the Fourth Gospel. This Jesus says and does things differently than the “Markan Jesus,” the “Matthean Jesus,” or the “Lukan Jesus,” that is, the various literary renditions of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels. Because I must refer to Jesus many times in the book, I won’t always use the more cumbersome “Johannine Jesus,” but you should keep in mind that this is the figure under discussion. On Terminology: “Criticism” Academic approaches to the Bible are referred to as different types of biblical “criticism.” One who uses these approaches is a “critic.” These terms have nothing to do with attacking or “criticizing” the Bible, as the common uses of these terms might suggest. Rather, a biblical critic 2 Copyright © by Abingdon Press. All rights reserved. Getting to Know the Johannine Literature is one who engages in an analytic investigation of the text and thinks “critically” about various interpretive problems and solutions. Getting to Know the Gospel of John There are many ways one could outline the Gospel of John. For our purposes, we will use the following broad divisions for this initial reading of the Gospel as a whole. I. The Logos Enters the World (1:1-18) II. Signs and Revelation in the World (1:19–5:47) III. Growing Division and Opposition to Jesus (6–12) IV. Preparation for Departure from the World (13–17) V. The Hour of Departure (18–21) The Logos Enters the World (1:1-18) Read John 1:1-18 What claims are made about the “Word”? What is the relationship between the Word and God? What is the relationship between the Word and Jesus? What story do these verses tell? The Gospel of John begins “in the beginning,” an opening phrase that recalls Genesis 1:1. These first eighteen verses of the Gospel are com- monly called the Prologue. This is because this opening section stands apart from the rest of the narrative while introducing its major themes. The Prologue goes on to describe the Word (Greek, logos)—how it relates to God and what it does. Although many English translations use the pronoun “he,” as in the NRSV, “He was in the beginning with God,” the 3 Copyright © by Abingdon Press. All rights reserved. John and the Johannine Letters Greek pronoun used here relates back to the Word. The sentence is more accurately translated, “It was in the beginning with God.” Or, we might read with the King James Version, “The same was in the beginning . .” This way of translating the ersev makes clear that this initial reference is to the preexistent logos rather than to the man Jesus. The implications of this poetic opening is that it takes the reader back to a time before time— indeed a time before creation. Note the other terms used to describe this logos—life and light. While the term logos does not reappear in the rest of the Gospel, we will see recurring references to both life and light. Here the creative function of this Word/Light is highlighted twice (1:2, 10). These opening lines present the reader with the Gospel’s first paradox. Not only is the Word with God in the beginning, it is God. There is no further ex- planation for how both of these are true. Notice that the Prologue progresses in a cyclical rather than linear way. At 1:9, the “true light” is coming into the world. Verses 10-13 con- cern knowledge, rejection versus acceptance of this light by others. Here we learn of the benefits of belief in “his name” (which has not yet been mentioned), receiving power to become children of God. Verse 14 then circles back to the idea of the Word coming into the world. The language shifts to a first-person account: “the Word became flesh and lived among us [Gk. eskēnōsen, literally, pitched a tent] and we have seen his glory.” Note that later in the book, I will return to this verse because it is central to the debate among interpreters about how to understand the signifi- cance of Jesus in the Gospel. One other example of the circular pattern in the Prologue is seen in the introduction of a “man named John” at verses 6-8 and then a second mention of him at verse 15. This man named John is the same figure as John the Baptist in the Synoptic Gospels, but he is never called “the Baptist” in this Gospel. Here he is a witness, who has come to testify to the light. Note that the writer takes pains to make clear that John is not the light. Verse 15 provides the actual words of testimony, which again emphasize Jesus’s superiority over John. Verse 16 then returns to the “we” of verse 14, again describing the benefits received from Jesus, who is only finally named in the next verse. 4 Copyright © by Abingdon Press. All rights reserved. Getting to Know the Johannine Literature The Prologue concludes by first distinguishing the role of Moses as lawgiver from that of Jesus, who brings grace and truth (1:16-17). It then distinguishes Jesus from every other human being. This “only begotten” one (either “Son” or “God”—the oldest copies of the Gospel differ on this point) is intimately close to God’s “heart” (Gk: kolpos = breast or bosom). Signs and Revelation in the World (1:19–5:47) Read John 1:19–5:47 What does the character named John do and say in this section? What is his role in the story? Make a list of the “signs” that Jesus does.
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