John #2

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 (2003) Crossroad Publishing Co. New York, NY.

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

04/15/10
The Prologue

The Prologue to John’s Gospel is found in Jn 1:1-18. In the pre-Vatican II Catholic Church this passage was included as part of the ritual at the end of every mass – demonstrating its importance. John’s prologue is often compared with the beginning of Genesis, “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void…,” describing the beginning of the world. The Johannine Prologue has traditionally been used as the underpinning for doctrine – the teaching that Jesus pre-existed with the Father even before the creation of the world.

The Prologue gives Jesus immense status. Unlike the Synoptics, Jesus is not baptized by John in the Jordan – there is no need, his authority has already been proclaimed.

John’s prologue says that in the beginning was the Word. The Word essentially means communication. The end of John’s Gospel sees an inclusion re. the Word – though this time in written form—when it says that “these [signs] are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah” (20:30-31; this is also reiterated in the revised ending in Chapter 21:24 “This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them…”). (The inclusion leads you back to the beginning of the Gospel. Read in this way the Gospel is saying that the beginning of Christian life begins with the communication of the gospel message. Everything begins with the Word…

The Evangelist probably intended both meanings – the cosmic and pre-existent Christ and the concrete, present, life-transforming Jesus. By placing Jesus in both paradigms the evangelist describes the mystery of Jesus.

However, the Prologue, suggesting the pre-existence of Jesus, gave credence to the dualistic Gnostic heresies emerging at that time. These made Jesus more spiritual and removed. They believed that Jesus wasn’t really human. The subsequent letters of John seek to counter this belief. In the prologue of the first letter of John (1John1:1-4) the author takes pains to state that what is written comes from witnesses who saw, heard, touched and watched the human Jesus. The emphasis is on the physical senses. The message is that Jesus was real. The gospel is totally available to the physical realm and it is only through the physical world that fellowship with God is achieved. It is almost like a correction to the tendency towards the “spiritual” found in the Gospel’s prologue.

The Johannine letters proceed to challenge the Gnostic claims . In 1 John 1:8-10 the author states that those who say that they have no sin deceive themselves and make Jesus a liar. Gnostics, who divided the world into spiritual (good) and physical (bad), could make that claim. If truth and meaning is found only in the spiritual world then the physical realm is meaningless and whatever takes place in it insignificant. This is a belief that continues today in Christian fundamentalism and in new age religions; in any religion or faith that seeks escape into the purely spiritual and fails to see the spirit at work in and through the world. What makes you a Christian is love, and this love in communion with the concrete other (koinonia).

In 1 John 4:1-3 the author states that the Spirit of God is known because it confesses that Jesus came in the flesh. Flesh here is used to denote the physical body, not the Pauline understanding of the powers and systems of world.

In 2 John 7 the author calls those that do not confess that Jesus came in the flesh to be deceivers and antichrist.

In 1 Jn 3: 11-17 the message of the gospel is of love. We know we have passed from death to life because we love one another. This is not a hidden knowledge or a spiritual sense. Rather it is a lived experience. In v.17 it goes on to say that you can’t be spiritual and be unjust to the poor.

The Gnostic crisis was the first that the Johannine community had to face. A second crisis can also be discerned from the Johannine letters. This was a crisis in its relationship to the emerging hierarchical church. The second letter opens with an address to “the elder to the elect lady and her children”. The Johannine community would be the elect lady (with Jesus as her Lord). The local community understood itself in intense relational terms as the bride of the Lord. 3 John 2-8 paints a picture of people being sent from one community of the beloved to another, sharing a message of brotherhood and sisterhood. In v. 9 a figure (Diotrephes) is discussed. He is an official of the church (possibly the Petrine Church) who refuses to recognize the status of the Johannine sisters and brothers and refuses to welcome them as friends. They are not officially licensed – and are therefore expelled. The letter goes on to reaffirm the Johannine community – it is through love rather than obedience to an organization that true authority comes.

This letter illustrates the tension between the Johannine community and the emerging hierarchical church. On the one hand the community understands the need to establish a relationship with the Petrine church – standing with them against Gnosticism. On the other hand they have a very different focus and anti-hierarchical structure founded in Christian fellowship. John does not use the word church (ecclesia), except in 3 John 6 and 9 (which is possibly distant in tone), preferring “communion” (koinonia) and love. In the second ending to the Gospel (Ch 22) Peter is reinstated and his pastoral role recognized (although he is not the shepherd); but in v.22 there is a hint in Jesus’ response to Peter of a continued difference in the Johannine community. When Peter asks about the Beloved disciple Jesus replies “what is that to you?” suggesting that the Johannine community should be given space to retain its identity and sense of communion—i.e. “remain until I come.” Peter should focus on following the Lord. There is a subtle critique of Petrine authority. Similarly in the empty tomb narrative, while Peter is the first to go inside the tomb, it is the Beloved disciple who gets there first!