John #1

Welcome to the new Bible study - this one on the writings of John. We meet every week and my plan is to post a summary within a few days of each of the studies. Here to begin are the first three study summaries ...

As well as the Gospel and letters of John this Bible study uses the book “Written that you may believe: Encountering Jesus in the fourth Gospel” by Sandra M. Schneiders (New York, NY: Crossroad Publishing, 2003).

Background reading to study #1- Written that you may believe chapters 1&2.

04/08/10
The Johannine Community

John’s Gospel is the last of the canonical Gospels to be written and stands apart from the Synoptics in style and material. (For example the ministry of Jesus in Matthew, Mark and Luke lasts a year, in John three years). It offers a non-hierarchical and non-traditional source of New Testament authority, apart from the figures of Paul or Peter. This authority lies in the witness and relationship with Jesus of the beloved disciple.

In John’s Gospel the beloved disciple is the central figure apart from Jesus. S/he is the witness to the material – the person around whom the material gathers and who guarantees its authenticity. The beloved disciple takes a pivotal role but is not identified in the Gospel. Traditionally the beloved disciple has been associated with John, the son of Zebedee. In John’s Gospel Jesus uses signs to communicate his message. This has especially loaded meaning in John, but also in the Synoptics Jesus works through signs. Jesus chose twelve men to represent the twelve tribes of Israel. However, in contrast to the Synoptic Gospels the twelve are only mentioned once and not in association with the initial call of disciples. And no authority is given them. In light of this, recent scholarship tends not to associate the beloved disciple with one of the twelve.

The beloved disciple was most probably someone who lived for many years in a Christian community which was originally based in Palestine (Israel) but perhaps later relocated to Ephesus in Asia Minor. The Gospel, though based on the reflections and memories of this individual, was probably written by someone else. The evangelist was probably a younger, second generation member of the Johannine community. Gospels emerge within the context from which they are written. They are shaped by the needs of these communities and the audience they are targeting. The features of the Johannine community identified by the theologian Raymond Brown are as follows:

The original community was probably made up of highly motivated Jews such as the followers of John the Baptist described in Jn 1and 3. Though highly religious they were not zealots. They would most likely have included Galileans and lived outside of Jerusalem. At some point a significant number of Samaritans joined the community. Samaritans were some of the first to receive the gospel (Acts 8:4-8) – the story of the woman at the well provides the Gospel’s evidence for this. Also joining the community were Diaspora Jews – Jews who had settled outside Israel without ties to Jerusalem. Gentiles were the final group to join.

Brown argues that because of the prominence given to women in the Gospel of John that the original community would likely have had a strong female leadership. Sandra Schneiders argues that the beloved disciple was a woman – possibly Mary Magdalene. The Evangelist could also have been a woman – or if not, then an enlightened man, sympathetic to women. (The role of women in the Gospel will be explored more fully in a later study).

The beloved disciple, while based on a historical figure, is not identified, creating an open set or cipher. The “beloved disciple” becomes a literary device – a representative figure with which the reader can identify. In this way the beloved disciple becomes the means by which the reader is drawn into the Gospel and into a relationship with Jesus. This relationship lies at the heart of the Gospel.

The Johannine community was, therefore, a non-hierarchical community that existed independently from the Jerusalem church. It did not promote priesthood or hierarchical leadership but instilled a direct communion with Christ.

Probably after the death of the beloved disciple the text is edited and an additional ending added – Chapter 21. This story – of Jesus meeting the disciples on the sea of Galilee and the rehabilitation of Peter – is an attempt by the Johannine community to build a relationship with the emerging hierarchical church. In part this was an effort by the Johannine community to counter the growing challenge of an early form of Gnosticism. Gnosticism, influenced heavily by Greek thought, believed that the body was an empty shell. This form of thought typically denied the bodily incarnation of Jesus – that Jesus was really human, suffered and died. The Johannine letters, written after the Gospel around 100 CE/AD, address this by stressing the human, physical Jesus.

By aligning with the Petrine church, the Johannine community was affirming its belief in the fully human Jesus and the bodily resurrection. The second ending gives Peter a pastoral role and in so doing indicates that the Johannine community were accepting the pastoral role of the Petrine church. However the ending is also written in such a way that it allowed the community to retain their own unique identity and spiritual independence.