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The Gospel According to John, Access to God, at the Obscure Origins of Christianity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

François Bovon
François Bovon*
Affiliation:
Université de Genève
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Extract

For eighteen centuries the Christian church believed that the fourth gospel was drawn up by the son of Zebedee, John, when the latter lived in Ephesus in his old age. As Clement of Alexandria suggests (II-III century) the beloved disciple wanted to emphasize the divine nature of the Son of which the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke had marked the historical insertion and the human nature.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 37 , Issue 146 , June 1989 , pp. 37 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

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References

1 Clement of Alexandria, Hypotyposeis, VI, quoted by Eusebius of Caesarea, Histoire écclésiastique, VI, 14, 7.

2 Particularly the Gnostic Heracleon. Cf. J.M. Poffet, La méthode exégétique d'Héracléon et d'Origène commentateurs de Jn. 4: Jésus, la Samaritaine et les Samari tains (Paradosis 28), Fribourg, Switzerland, 1985.

3 On the beginnings of Christianity in Syria see H. Köster, "Gnomai Diaphoroi: Ursprung und Wesen der Mannigfaltigkeit in der Geschichte des frühen Christen tums." Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche 65, 1968, pp. 160-203. Reprise in H. Köster and J.M. Robinson Entwicklungslinien durch die Welt des frühen Christen tums, Tübingen, 1971, pp. 107-146. The article first appeared in English in the Har vard Theological Review 58 1985, pp. 279-318. The work of H. Köster and J.M. Robinson also exists in an English version. On early Christianity in Egypt see B.A. Pearson, "Earliest Christianity in Egypt: Some Observations," in B.A. Pearson and J.E. Goehring, Roots of Egyptian Christianity (Studies in Antiquity and Chris tianity, 1) Philadelphia, 1986, pp. 132-160; A.M. Ritter, "De Polycarpe à Clément; aux origines d'Alexandrie chrétienne" in AAEΞANΔPINA Hellénisme, judaïsme et christianisme à Alexandrie. Mélanges offerts au P. Claude Mondésert, Paris, 1987, pp. 151-172.

4 F.M. Braun, Jean le Théologien (Études bibliques), 4 vols., Paris, 1959-1972; A. Jaubert, Approches de l'Évangile de Jean (Parole de Dieu) Paris, 1976.

5 E. Kaesemann, Jesu letzter Wille nach Johannes 17, Tübingen, 1971; L. Schot troff, Der Glaubende und die feindliche Welt (Wissenschaftlichte Monographien zum Alten und Neuen Testament, 37) Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1970.

6 O. Culmann, Le milieu joannique. Sa place dans le judaïsme tardif, dans le cer cle des disciples de Jésus et dans le Christianisme primitif (Le Monde de la Bible), Neuchâtel-Paris, 1976.

7 Eusebius of Caesarea, Histoire ecclésiastique, III, 5, 3. See M. Simon, "La migration à Pella. Légende ou réalité." Recherches de science religieuse 60, 1972, 37-54, reprise in M. Simon, Le Christianisme antique et son contexte religieux. Scripta varia II (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 1. Reihe, 23) Tübingen, 1981, pp. 477-494.

8 Polycrates of Ephesus, quoted by Eusebius of Caesarea, Histoire Ecclésiastique, V. 24, 2-3 and III. 31, 2-3; Iraenius of Lyons, Advertus haereses, III, 1, 1, quoted by Eusebius of Caesarea, Histoire ecclésiastique, V, 8, 4; Dionysius of Alexandria, quoted by Eusebius, Histoire ecclésiastique, VII, 25, 16 (see also III, 39, 6; Euse bius of Caesarea, Histoire ecclésiatique, II, 1, 1 and 23, 1-19; Théophanie IV, 7; Jerome De viris illustribus, 9 etc; see E. Junod and J.-D. Kaestli, Acta Johannis, (Corpus Christianorum Series Apocryphorum 1-2) II, Turnhout, 1983, p. 707; 713-715; 564-580; 720-723. These two authors are rather skeptical about the solidi ty of this tradition. See J.-D. Kaestli, "Le rôle des textes bibliques dans la genèse et le développement des légendes apocryphes, le cas du sort final de l'apôtre Jean," Augustinianum, 23 (1983) pp. 319-326, especially p. 323, n. 18 (which goes up to p. 324).

9 See J. Becker, Das Evangelium nach Johannes, Kapitel 1-10 (Ökumenischer Taschenbuchkommentar zum Neuen Testament, 4, 1). Gütersloh-Würzburg, 1979, pp. 40-51; R.E. Brown, La communauté du disciple bien-aimé, translated from the English by F.M. Godefroid (Lectio Divina, 115) Paris, 1983; P. Bonnard, Les Épîtres johanniques (Commentaire du Nouveau Testament, 2nd series, 13c); Geneva, 1983, pp. 9-13.

10 John 2, 13-22; 6, 16-21; 12, 1-8; see Mark 11, 15-17; 6, 45-52; 14, 3-9; and the parallels in Matthew and Luke.

11 Mark 14, 1-16, 8 and the parallels in Matthew and Luke.

12 See John 13, 1.3.33; 16, 28; 3, 14; 8, 28; 12, 31-32.

13 For example, see John 3, 35-36; 5, 19-30; 10, 14-18; 14, 1-14; 17, 23-24.

14 See John 1, 12-13.

15 Numbers 21; John 3, 14-15.

16 John 19, 1-3.

17 John 5, 31-47.

18 John 14, 15-31; 15, 26-27; 16, 7-15.

19 John 6, 35 (the bread of life); 8, 12 (the light of the world); 10, 7.9 (the door of the sheep); 11, 25 (the resurrection and the life); 14, 6 (the way, the truth and the life); 15, 1 (the vine).

20 The sequence alternates the public scenes, outside the Pretorium, in which the Jews are the principal protagonists, and the scenes that occur inside and in which Jesus speaks with Pilate (John 18, 28-19, 16). The scene of the crown of thorns fourth in the sequence, is situated neither outside nor inside, thus occupying a par ticular place.

21 Ch. 21, which concerns the fate of the principal disciples, has an ecclesiological orientation. In the opinion of almost all the exegetists it is part of the latest stratum of the gospel. We affirm that it was an addition, thanks to several indications. The main one, the end of Ch. 20 is a conclusion and marked at one time the end of the work.

22 The beloved disciple is mentioned in John 13, 23-26; 19, 26-27; 20, 2-10; and 21, 7, 20.

23 See Proverbs 8, 22-30; Wisdom of Solomon 7, 21-8, 1.

24 To understand what the sign means (miraculous event attesting to the new world) see John 2, 11; 4, 54; 12, 37; 20, 30-31. See X. Léon-Dufour, Lecture de l'Évangile selon Jean, 1 (Parole de Dieu) Paris, 1988, pp. 208-213 and W.J. Bittner, Jesu Zeichen im Johannesevangelium. Die Messias-Erkenntnis im Johannesevangelium vor ihrem jüdischen Hintergrund (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2, Reihe, 26) Tubingen, 1987.

25 The "we" is used twice at the end of the Prologue (John 1, 14, 16).

26 John 1, 12.

27 Notice how carefully the text is copied in the oldest manuscript of John's gospel that has come down to us, the Bodmer Papyrus II in the Bodmer Foundation in Cologny, near Geneva. This manuscript is dated around 200 A.D.

28 Recent works devoted to John's gospel are innumerable. Aside from the studies relative to the origin of the gospel and Johannine communities, already noted, I mention the formal analyses of the entirety of the gospel, particularly R.A. Cul pepper, Anatomy of the Fourth Gospel. A Study in Literary Design, Philadelphia, 1983. The reader may get information in two recent cases on the question. J. Beck er, "Das Johannesevangelium im Streit der Methoden (1980-1984)", Theologische Rundschau 51, 1986, pp. 1-78; and X. Léon-Dufour, "Bulletin d'exégèse du Nou veau Testament. L'Évangile de Jean," Recherches de Science Religieuse 75, 1987, 77-96.