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English
222
Literature of the Bible
Wendy Furman-Adams
The Gospel of John: An Introduction |
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General Definitions and
Backgrounds:
1. A "Gospell" (Old English) means "good news";
Latin evangel (as in protevangelium): the
preaching of the early church:
Jesus as Messiah--the "anointed one"; the Son of
God and Son of Man.
Teaching based on signs, with the end of belief.
(See John 20.30-31.)
The central concept: the kerygma (or Christ
event).
2. The uniqueness of John among the four
canonical gospels:
a. more emphasis than the synoptics (Matthew,
Mark, and Luke) on the mysterious and divine
significance of the signs (events) in the
narrative of Jesus's ministry. In fact it is the
Gospel of sign and significance (signifier and
signified): "in the beginning was the
significance" (the hidden meaning of all
things--c.f. Colossians 1.15-20).
The things Jesus does in John are signs of
things only understood at the end, in
retrospect--after the Son is "glorified" in his
crucifixion and resurrection--under the
enlightenment of the Paraclete (Holy Spirit).
b. more emphasis on Jesus's divinity, less on
his humanity.
3. The concerns of the four gospels:
Matthew (the Lion): the coming of the Messianic
Kingdom; the fulfillment of the Law and the
Prophets (e.g. the Sermon on the Mount).
Mark (the Ox): the Crucified Messiah, Son of
Man. Mark traces the rise and decline of Jesus's
popularity and the advance of the opposition
against him. The mystery of God's plan gradually
and tragically revealed.
Luke (the Man): the lovingkindness of Jesus; his
compassion, humility, poverty, and sympathy for
outsiders, especially women. Most concerned with
the human significance of events--of giving "an
orderly account."
John (the Eagle): the mystery of the Incarnation
of the Word and Wisdom of God. The Johannine
Jesus represents himself as the fulfillment of
all the types in the "Old Testament" (for Jesus,
of course, Tanak)--the characters, the
liturgies, and the signs.
a. Jesus is the Word made flesh.
b. He is sent by God the Father to bear witness
to the Father's love for the world (the final
"Angel of the Lord").
c. He is the final theophany--or
self-revelation--of God: the culmination of the
signs of God's presence seen in the word of
creation; at Mamre with Abraham; in the burning
bush, the Law, and the fiery-cloudy pillar with
Moses; in the word of the prophets; in the angel
Raphael; in the Wisdom of Proverbs,
Ecclesiasticus, and Wisdom, etc.
d. His task, as the Word, is to declare the
previously hidden things of God.
e. Through him, the glory of God is seen, by
those who have eyes to see (c.f. "ears to hear"
in Matthew, Gospel of the spoken Word)--but is
not fully revealed to anyone until the
crucifixion and resurrection ("When I am lifted
up"; "My hour has not yet come").
f. He is first revealed in a descending dove and
returns by way of the cross, "drawing all people
to himself"--i.e. to God.
The Gospel of John--Structure and Themes:
1. The central conflict: light vs. darkness:
"The light shines in the darkness and the light
has not overcome [comprehended] it" (John 1.5).
Jesus the Light "judges" the darkness by his
very presence as light--and above all by his
eclipse on the cross. (But, as he repeatedly
says, the world is self-condemned already as a
place of darkness; those who choose the light
walk out of that darkness of condemnation into
God's grace.)
2. Unifying elements:
seven signs
six feasts (three of them Passovers)
seven "I am's"
3. Seven signs:
Wedding at Cana (2.1 - 12).
Healing of the official's son and the paralytic
(4.46 - 54; 5.1 - 18).
Feeding the "5,000" (6.1 - 15).
Walking on water (6.16 - 21).
Cure of the man born blind (chapter 9).
Raising of Lazarus (11.1 - 53).
Crucifixion and Resurrection (chapters 12 - 21).
Each sign has a symbolic value (sign vs.
symbol), but people persist in focusing on the
literal.
3. The Jesus of John:
the Word of God made flesh and literally
speaking (after a silent infancy).
the final theophany.
the supreme manifestation of the Father's love
(3.16).
4. I Am's
bread of life (6.35 - 51)
living water (7.37 - 39)
light of the world (8.12 - 29)
good shepherd (10.11 - 18)
resurrection and the life (11.25 - 27)
way, truth, and life (14.6 - 7)
true vine (15.1 - 11)
Plus spoken by others: Lamb of God (1.29).
Plus some implied: Jacob's ladder (1.51), snake
on a stick (3.3.14), new temple (2.19 - 22).
5. Central image patterns:
light in the darkness
bread in the wilderness
water in the desert
truth amid lies
life (through death) in the midst of a life
which is death (c.f. Eliot's "Magi").
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