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This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. The End of John: A Literary-Historical Reading of John 21 Michael Leary Ph.D. University of Edinburgh 2019 Declaration I hereby declare, in fulfilment of the University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Assessment Regulations for Research Degrees concerning the submission of a thesis, that: I have composed the following thesis, that it is my own work, and that it has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification. Michael Leary i Acknowledgments Thanks to all those friends in Mylnes Court, New College, Bellevue Chapel, across Edinburgh and Cambridge, and in the eaves of Tyndale House, who sustained us during the preparation of this thesis. I would also like to thank Prof. Larry Hurtado for putting manuscripts in our hands, at Trinity College, Chester Beatty Library, and elsewhere. This experience shaped our sense for early Christian origins and the material history of the era. Prof. Helen Bond and Prof. Paul Foster were gracious and supportive in bringing this thesis to a close. And all acknowledgments to my wife and family, who have shared this long journey. You have been a tree a life at every step. And, to my father, who left me with a quote I kept on my desk in New College: “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” ii Abstract The history of scholarship on John 21 is characterized by a routine set of general conclusions about its relationship to the rest of John. The following thesis begins with a survey of these longstanding historical and interpretive frames to demonstrate that historical, literary, and related standard methods of analysis still have difficulty in producing anything more than provisional explanations for its presence at the end of John. This is in part due to the relative lack of space in academic work given to John 21 in comparison to other areas of John’s gospel. It is also, though, in greater measure due to the elusive nature of this text. More recent research on the Gospel of John using enhanced literary and historical methods to locate the gospel’s most unique features in its initial literary environment have proven effective in reconceiving basic questions about its provenance and early readership. This thesis works in these innovative critical spaces to reassess the nature and composition of John 21. Following a survey of scholarship on John 21 and a close reading of the text, taking its cues from many of the issues raised by its history of interpretation, are four case studies treating specific literary features of the chapter in turn. The first case study assesses the function of the anonymity of the Beloved Disciple with specific reference to its historical context and contemporary debate on Johannine authorship. The second explores self-awareness in John 21 as part of a key, broader authorial strategy in the gospel. The third explores the shift in narrative time from John 1-20 and John 21 as the core emphasis of the chapter. The fourth probes the reference to “books” in the final verses as related to the emerging culture of book technology, lending chapter its unique position in the composition history of the gospel. These case studies collectively provide a basis for new directions of literary- historical research in scholarship on John’s gospel. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 Toward Rediscovering John 21 .......................................................... 1 1.1 Why John 21? ...................................................................................... 1 1.2 Critical Encounters with John 21 ....................................................... 4 Chapter 2 John 21 in Historical Criticism ........................................................... 5 2.1 Sources of Critical Anxiety in John 21 .............................................. 7 2.2 Surveying John 21 in Historical Criticism ....................................... 11 2.2.1 John 21 as a Redactional Composition ................................. 13 2.2.1.1 R. Bultmann ........................................................... 15 2.2.1.2 C.K. Barrett ............................................................ 19 2.2.1.3 R. Brown ................................................................ 20 2.2.1.4 R. Schnackenburg .................................................. 22 2.2.2 John 21 as an Original Composition ..................................... 24 2.2.2.1 P.S. Minear ............................................................ 27 2.2.2.2 T.L. Brodie ............................................................. 30 2.2.2.3 D.A. Carson ............................................................ 32 2.2.2.4 W. Vorster .............................................................. 34 2.3 In Summary: History, Composition, and John 21 ........................... 37 Chapter 3 Literary Criticism and John 21 ......................................................... 39 3.1 R.A. Culpepper .................................................................................. 42 3.2 P. Spencer.......................................................................................... 45 3.3 B. Roberts Gaventa ........................................................................... 48 3.4 W. Braun ............................................................................................ 50 3.5 In Summary: Literary Craft and Excess in John 21 ......................... 53 iv Chapter 4 Testing the Rapprochement in John 21 ........................................... 56 4.1 Convergence of the Literary/Historical in Recent Scholarship ...... 57 4.2 Defining Literary-Historical Criticism in John ................................ 63 4.3 In Summary ........................................................................................ 66 Chapter 5 John 21 and Its Contexts .................................................................. 67 5.1 Exegesis at the End of John 5.1.1 A Note on the Textual History of John 21 .............................. 68 5.1.2 A Translation of 21:1-25 ........................................................ 70 5.1.3 An Exegesis of John 21:1-25 ................................................ 74 5.1.4 The Composition of the End of John ..................................... 85 5.2 John 21 and the Gospel of John: Patterns of Conclusion.............. 86 5.2.1 John 21 as the Culmination of a Narrative Pattern ................ 91 5.2.2 John 21 as the Realization of a Literary Pattern ................... 94 5.2.3 John 21 as the Clarification of an Historical Pattern .............. 98 5.3 John 21 and the Synoptics ............................................................. 100 5.4 In Summary: Points for Further Literary-Historical Study ............ 105 6 The Beloved Disciple and Anonymity in John 21 ........................................ 108 6.1 Beloved Disciple and His Gospel ................................................... 110 6.2 The Beloved Disciple and His Identifications ................................ 119 6.3 The Beloved Disciple and His Genre ............................................. 123 7 Self-Awareness in John 21 ............................................................................ 126 7.1 Asides in the Gospel of John ......................................................... 129 7.2 Asides in John 21 ............................................................................ 134 7.3 Asides and Self-Consciousness in John ...................................... 136 7.4 In Summary ...................................................................................... 138 8 Narrative Time in John 21 ............................................................................. 140 8.1 The Narrative Time of John’s Ending ............................................ 142 v 8.2 The Narrative Time of John’s Readers .......................................... 145 8.3 In Summary ..................................................................................... 147 9 John 21 and Early Christian Book Production ............................................ 149 9.1 John 21:25 and the Study of Literacy in Antiquity ......................... 149 9.2 βιβλία in Commentary on John 21 .................................................. 155 9.3 The Literary Background ................................................................ 156 9.3.1. Books ................................................................................ 156 9.3.1.1 Social Implications .................................................. 161 9.3.1.2 Religious/Theological Implications ........................... 162 9.3.1.3 Hermeneutical Implications ..................................... 164 9.3.2 Hyperbolic βιβλία ................................................................