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John

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The only ethical injunction in John: 'love one another as I have loved you. ... Be able to identify scenes or moments from texts. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: John


1
Johns passion narrative third lecture on John
  • Glorification -- and identification of Father
    and Son, the Son and his followers

2
Johns last supper discourse
  • Chapters 13 to 17 tell a different story from
    Synoptics.
  • Not a Passover meal, and no giving of bread and
    wine as body and blood.
  • Instead the washing of feet reversal of
    master/servant relation.
  • A central theme of the discourse is
    identification of disciples and Jesus, Jesus and
    the Father.
  • It is not historical in the sense the Synoptics
    mean to be historical.
  • No one took dictation.
  • So how does John know this is what Jesus said?
  • By the presumed identification of the writer with
    Jesus. Jesus speaks out of time into the present
    of Johns world. (What I mean by channeling.)
  • The Father speaks through Jesus gt Jesus will
    speak through disciples gt these disciples
    (therefore Jesus) speak through this later
    disciple gt this disciple speaks to the reader.
  • See especially 16 12-15.

3
Last supper discourse how are we to understand
it?
  • For John, this is what Jesus really said, who he
    really was.
  • History is less important than this mystic
    process of identification.
  • Jesus, identified with the Father, identifies
    with disciples, who are identified with the
    writer.
  • 14 7, 9, 19-20 15 4-5, 12 16 27-28 17
    10-11, 20-23.
  • So John doesnt want us to quibble about mere
    historical fact.
  • Hes speaking out of time as well at the end
    (17 20-21) I ask not only on behalf of these
    but also on behalf of those who will believe in
    me through their word, that they may all be one.
  • Glorification suggests a transcending of
    history, just as it means a transcending of
    suffering, pain, death.
  • Johns gospel is not gnostic (in sense that it
    depends on gnosis, knowledge), but similarly
    depends on a state of consciousness and a
    bypassing of the merely historical.
  • This Jesus may sound a bit like the mystical
    teacher of Thomas, even though his message is
    different.

4
Johns passion narrative
  • Many of the details of the narrative of Jesus
    death are the same in John as in the Synoptics.
  • But his narrative makes its meaning quite
    different.
  • Mark tells a story of suffering, grief,
    abandonment by God, and a radical need to find
    the Jesus who is not in the empty tomb.
  • Matthew tells essentially same story as Mark,
    though with a firm sense of an historical
    community that comes after.
  • Lukes story is one of reconciliation,
    forgiveness, the death of an innocent man who
    forgives those who kill him, then is raised by
    God to fulfill the scriptures.
  • By contrast, Johns story is one of fulfillment
    and glorification, passing through death to
    triumph.
  • Glorification rather than suffering is the
    central meaning.
  • John 12 27-28 Father, glorify your name.
  • I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.

5
Synoptic overlap in Johns passion narrative
  • Anointing as Messiah/anointing for death (from
    Mark) now transferred to Mary, sister of Lazarus,
    12 3-7.
  • Feet rather than head anointed.
  • Rides a donkey (just one!) into Jerusalem 12
    12-16.
  • Judas betrays, but now Satan entered into him.
  • Cutting of the ear of High Priest (Mark) by one
    who stood near. In Luke Jesus heals him.
  • John assigns the cutting to Simon Peter and names
    the servant, Malchus.
  • Purple robe, crown of thorns, mockery of the
    Roman soldiers, as in Mark 1516-20. (Pro-Roman
    Luke omits this.)
  • Crucified with two others, one on either side,
    with Jesus between them. (Luke gives repentance
    of one.)
  • Inscription on cross. But John adds the objection
    of the High Priests (plural!), and Pilates what
    Ive written, Ive written.

6
Some details unique to John
  • Only John has Jesus being taken first to Annas,
    former high priest, who had been deposed by
    Romans he was the powerful father of four high
    priests, father-in-law of another.
  • Only John has another disciple with Peter.
  • John expands the role of Pilate.
  • Only John has Jesus distinguish earthly and
    heavenly kingdoms here (18 35-38).
  • Pilates famous (postmodern?) question What is
    truth? (What should the reader remember?)
  • Only John has chief priests (still plural!)
    object to Pilates sign in Hebrew, Greek,
    Latin for the whole Med. world.
  • The seamless cloak (replacement quotation of
    psalm 22?).
  • Only John has Mary, her sister, Mary Magdalene,
    and beloved disciple at cross.

7
Voluntary submission to betrayal and arrest
  • Contrary to Synoptic tradition, arrest,
    crucifixion take place before Passover (Jesus
    crucified on eve of Passover).
  • Notice that Jesus essentially gives permission
    to Judas to hand him over (13 26-27)
  • And at the arrest, Jesus is in control of his
    arrest (18 4-11).
  • The I am he of v. 5 is actually, again, I am
    in Greek, which recalls the other I ams
    truth, way, living water, good shepherd, vine,
    before Abraham etc.
  • At the cutting of the ear of Malchus, Jesus
    rebukes Peter Am I not to drink the cup . . .
    ?
  • Jesus carries his cross by himself no Simon
    of Cyrene.
  • No despair, no crying out.
  • Instead, it is finished, that is, completed,
    fulfilled.
  • Whos in control in this crucifixion?

8
Why Johns different chronology in regard to
Passover?
  • Recall John the Baptists Here is the Lamb of
    God (1 29). (Unique to this gospel.)
  • Now connected to 19 31-37.
  • Blood and water from the side of crucifixion
    victim perhaps not surprising?
  • But for John the significance lies in Exodus 12
    46 you shall not break any of its bones.
  • This is the preparation day for Passover, the day
    the lambs were slaughtered.
  • So Jesus becomes the Passover lamb, with all this
    means.
  • Passover victim to be eaten completely.
  • What to make of the water, blood? How many
    symbols in John connect to these images?
  • So one must eat this Passover lamb? How?
  • Identification and unification that had been part
    of last supper discourse?

9
Resurrection appearances in John
  • First to Mary Magdalen, testifying to her
    significance for Johns community.
  • Then to disciples, minus Thomas if you forgive
    the sins of any . . . (20 22-23).
  • Then to Thomas, the rebuke of whom applies to the
    late first-century reader of John blessed are
    those who have not seen and yet have come to
    believe (20 29).
  • Conclusion of 20 30-31.
  • Then more resurrection appearances to Peter and
    others (overlap with Luke?)
  • Maybe to correct emphasis on beloved disciple
    and return prominence to Peter?
  • Then prophecies of deaths of disciples.
  • And finally the infinity of Jesus deeds and a
    second conclusion.

10
What to make of Johns themes?
  • The various signs from the first half of the
    gospel.
  • Who else is the man born blind who is expelled
    from synagogue, and comes to see? (9 35-38).
  • Who else is Lazarus?
  • Jesus had said, "Loose him and let him go
    again fraught with significance for reader?
  • Early Christians painted this scene on tombs.
  • Lots of symbolic drinking and eating in this
    gospel
  • Best wine saved for last, the living water at
    Samaritan well, the multiplied bread for the
    5000, the injunction to eat Jesus body, drink
    his blood.
  • Finally the sacrificial lamb of Passover.
  • How can one eat this lamb?
  • The idea of identification of final discourse
    Father gt Jesus gt disciples gt reader.
  • The cruelest form of death becomes glorification.

11
The trans-historical character of John
  • The radical difference of this gospel from
    Synoptic tradition.
  • And its trans-historical character.
  • Does John want us to worry about this?
  • For John perhaps not so much that Synoptics got
    it wrong, but they didnt see enough.
  • They didnt see in this mystical way.
  • Channeling the essential sense of what Jesus
    is, what he means.
  • The only ethical injunction in John love one
    another as I have loved you.
  • So, identification and paradoxical glorification.

12
Eschatology the final exam
  • Identifications (of another sort) be clear about
    the essential nature of the texts weve read,
    their narrative differences from one another.
  • Be able to identify scenes or moments from texts.
  • Be able to identify the particular (and
    different) ways Jesus is portrayed, understood in
    the texts.
  • Note the differences among the words of Jesus on
    the cross and what they mean in terms of the
    individual gospels.
  • And finally, an essay, where again the emphasis
    is likely to be on differences among texts,
    differences in narrative character, difference in
    the approach to the reader.
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