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Gospel of John - Introduction
- Approaches to Reading the Bible
- (After Wes Howard-Brook: “On Becoming Children of God”, Orbis, 1994)
- The Problem:
- Translations vary;
- Texts confront us with foreign worlds/cultures - was behaviour that is strange to us, strange to their
contemporaries?
- Situations described with which we have no experience - or concern.
- Possible Reactions
- 1 Fundamentalism: read as if written recently in English and in our culture.
- 2 Scholarly: become biblical scholars, delve into form criticism, etc, or read all commentators. Cost,
time, can forget about the text.
- 3 Give up - too distant, complex, irrelevant to faith and problems today.
- But Bible is distilled results of many ancestors trying to answer questions “Who are we?", “What are
we doing here?”. Giving up jettisons benefit of all previous searchings.
- Bible is always social, always about “we”. Bible makes sense ONLY as part of an interpretative community -
we need to journey together with others to make sense of it.
- In reading anything, we bring our cultural upbringing. The text also brings something - what?
- (a) Source-oriented approach: try to discover “original” pieces from which final text made. Eg J, E & P in
Pentateuch. Tools: form criticism (text types), Redaction criticism (layers of editing), historical
criticism (what really happened).
- But the original pieces were not scripture - only accepted as scripture in present form.
- (b) Literary approach: read text as a whole; look at how narrative constructed and achieve its effects: plot,
narrative point of view, characterisation, setting, irony, voice, context.
- Problems: subjective, how can we know, can ignore historical context/motivation.
- A 4th approach try to combine modern insights with the Bible’s own strategy:
- 4 Read the text as narrative while interpreting that narrative with principles derived from within the text
itself. Understand how the Bible teaches us to read itself. Use the values and claims of the Bible, not
our modern expectations. Read repeatedly, so develop understanding, like listening to music and
appreciating how we are led to anticipate climaxes, etc.
- EG Don’t apply our modern dichotomy between historical narrative - objective, quotations, facts - and
fictional narrative - subjective, mind-reader, omniscient. Ancient text forms were different.
- Starting point: Bible text claims to be reporting and interpreting the history of God’s relationship with
humanity. Eg Jn 21:25 - we must read with this in mind:
- “But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose
that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”
- Features in John’s Gospel indicating how to read it:
- 1 Explicit claim to express God’s word through words and deeds of Jesus: Jn 14:24; 18:9.
- 2 Claims continuity with previous scriptures:
- - by direct reference;
- - by scenes re-enacting moments from biblical history;
- - by imitating scriptural narrative mode,
- ie composite of ideology, history and aesthetics.
- John’s Gospel is a conscious selection of historical stories, told with ideological goal of leading
readers to faith in Jesus, through complex and absorbing aesthetic structure and style. Not the whole
truth, but God’s truth, as incarnate in Jesus.
- John invites the reader to share in the ordeal of the characters - their pain and love. Reader either finds
text so convoluted and obscure that rejects and gives up, or sticks with it to the end until repetition of
themes brings some level of clarity.
- 3 Many gaps - details omitted about characters, dialogue, settings.
- Requires reader to interpret and fill in gaps. But must not do so too quickly - read further first.
- Necessary Background
- 1 Time: “story time” (Jesus’ time) is blended with “telling time” in which gospel written and proclaimed.
No explicit narrative distance between events described and time of author.
- 2 John’s Gospel is social, as life is: always “we”, and individuals present as representatives. Try to
understand “What does it mean to be God’s people?”
- Many ways in which 1st century people could keep religion out of public sphere:
- ∙ “We have Abraham for Our Father” - post temple Judaism.
- After collapse of temple-state in AD 70, Pharisees’ belief in resurrection led to avoid
confrontation with Romans and retreat into the home: community meal, women fully included,
tolerance of hellenism.
- John’s gospel attacks “the Jews” because Jesus rejects law as sole basis for holiness: God’s
authority cannot be limited to words in scripture or in Pharisees’ oral tradition. Battle between
John’s community is about who has authority to interpret God’s word. Pharisees see authority
as inheritance - “We are the children of Abraham”. John’s community sees it as rebirth and
presence of paraclete - the Spirit of God blows where it will and cannot be controlled by rules of
ritual purity or by ethnic claims.
- Pharisees at that time had no clear concept of “Messiah”, so claim to messiah was nonsense and
subverted Pharisees’ claim to authority to interpret Torah.
- In questioning “What are the criteria for speaking in God’s name?”, John’s community came to
claim that Jesus had direct authority from God, and authority for themselves from the paraclete.
- ∙ Go into the desert - retreat from the world, as Qumran. John says “No”.
- ∙ Apocalyptic Judaism - hope Israel will be restored as a nation
- ∙ Apostolic Christianity
- John never uses “apostle” as noun. In John discipleship is almost irreconcilable with emerging
institutional apostolic Christianity.
- John’s ideal church is an egalitarian community led by the paraclete. Without different
functions - just a gathering of people discerning Jesus in their midst.
- A very precarious foundation, as 1Jn shows.
- Basis for eventual acceptance of apostolic leadership is the apostles’ willingness to die for
Christ, not Peter’s appointment as shepherd.
- ∙ Gnosticism
- Some elements in common with John’s community: spirit-based leadership, spirit can be present
in anyone, irrespective of social status.
- For Gnostics, knowledge led to equal status with Christ, not just imitation of him: “this person is
no longer a Christian but a Christ” (Gospel of Philip 67:26).
- Apparent common emphasis on “knowledge”. But for gnostics this was the hellenistic idea of
intellectual ans spiritual insight and self-knowledge, freeing one from the illusions of the world.
For John knowledge is the hebrew, biblical notion of intimate relationship - personal
connectedness, not intellectual understanding.
- For Gnostics creation is a mischievous act by an interloper demi-god or demon, unworthy of the
true God, and is the source of human misery. Therefore Gnostics seek not to celebrate human
existence, but to overcome it to escape into spiritual realm above. In contrast John affirms
creation at beginning of gospel, and “The Word became flesh”.
- ∙ Jesus’ Death: Gnostics saw as trick or someone else. John sees as one sent from God raised up
in glory.
- Hence Jesus’ followers are to imitate Jesus and follow Peter’s example into martyrdom, as
response to own persecution, with its suffering and death.
- ∙ Gnosticism became more known in 2nd/3rd centuries AD - perhaps as offering alternative
interpretation of John’s gospel, perhaps arising from the defectors of 1Jn.
- Literary Aspects of John’s Gospel
- 1 Chiasm - text arranged abcba to emphasise the central text c. Draws attention to centred text and helps
us to see surrounding parallel texts as corollaries or related statements to centred text.
- Widely used in ancient world. Important element in John, along with plot.
- Let the text teach us how to read it: subjective, but meaning resides in relationship between text and
readers: decision to call arrangement a chiasm and to draw inferences from it is part of act of reading.
Also process of looking out for chiasms helps us to read closely and carefully.
- 2 Irony - not always humorous - eg “We have no King but Caesar” - tragic rejection of their God.
- Gets reader to identify with point of view of author/narrator: if you ignore the presence of the irony you
risk being identified with the blind and dull characters in the story. If you accept, you can rise above
the characters' ignorance and foolishness.
- Irony constantly reminds us of the creative force that has shaped the narrative for a particular
ideological purpose.
- 3 Characterisation - many differences from synoptics. Eg Mary no need for any other identity in
synoptics, in John is given no name.
- ∙ Judeans - ideological, not religious opponents of Johannine Christianity.
- Neither “Jews” nor “Judeans” is adequate translation. Jesus was a Jew, so cannot mean all Jews.
Different groups at different times in narrative.
- Jerusalem/Temple was economic and political centre of surrounding region - Cf US base. Attack on
temple is attack on all in area of Judea. “Ioudaioi” is matter of ideological choice of allegiance to “the
world”.
- ∙ God as “Father”: patriarchy vs intimacy. Intention is not maleness, but closeness, in opposition
to the then religious establishment which kept God at a distance (in the temple).
- But John only once (Jn 20:17) extends image of God as Father beyond Jesus’ own experience -
does not prescribe how we should see God (except as children of God.
- ∙ Peter and the “Beloved Disciple” - expresses tension between apostolic and Johannine models
of Christian community. Challenges us to reflect on our model of church/community.
- ∙ Jesus’ extended discourses - repetitive, but we now realise the need for redundancy in
advertising, to make sure the message gets through the noise.
- Not really long - Cf Shakespeare. Just seems long in our sound-bite culture.
- ∙ Narrator’s role. Post-exilic Israel interpreted its history and faith through the character of
Moses as reported by the narrator of Deuteronomy.
- Here Jn 21:24: we are called to faith in Jesus through the commitment to faith in the gospel’s
narrator: the text is based on the witness of the Beloved Disciple and reported by the narrator.
- Jesus has gone away, but His word remains through the power of the Paraclete and through the
agency of the narrator of the 4th Gospel.
- The Johannine community included:-
- Both men and women;
- Jew, Gentile and Samaritan;
- Relatively prosperous (few stories about economic conditions), but “poor with you” - as part of
multi-cultural community.