The Johannine Community and discipleship: Brown, Martyn, Schnackenburg, Moody-Smith and Köstenberger

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A COMPREHENSIVE READING OF JOHN 9: A SOCIO-RHETORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF DISCIPLESHIP IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

Is the BD an eyewitness or an idealized character? Three recent contributors mentioned by Lincoln (2002:4-6), namely Maccini, Tovey and Vanhoozer, have entered the debate on the reconstruction of the identity of the BD. All of them (see Maccini 1996:366-87; Tovey 1997:147 and Vanhoozer 1995:366-87) focus on John 21.24 treating the BD as an eyewitness, an issue very crucial to the interpretation of the FG. The majority of recognized scripture scholars are in agreement that the BD represents a historical figure.22 It seems that John 21.24 hints at ‘these things’ about which the BD is depicted as the eyewitness. According to this, should the BD be viewed as an eyewitness? Even though he could not be viewed as an eyewitness able to report on each of the events and speeches in the narrative, the way in which the BD is rendered a key witness to significant events (the Last Supper in 13.23-5, the trial in 18.15 and Jesus’ death in 19.26f. and resurrection in 20.2-8) .

Attempt to reconstruct the Johannine community

This section deals with the Johannine community and intends not only to delineate the development of its history, but to understand how the church’s conflict with the synagogue and an alleged group of insiders (the adherents of the Baptist sectarian group, the disciples in secret and those holding a traditional view of the Messiah) is turned into a ‘hermeneutic conflict’. The reconstruction of the Johannine community is often considered as hypothetical or speculative. A simple glance at Brodie’s reconstruction31 is enough to conclude how hazardous the process of reconstruction can be (1993:20). Where, for instance, Martyn finds three stages, Brown traces four stages in the development of the history. Brown himself admits that his own reconstruction is somewhat speculative at certain points, because of the limitations of the method he used (1979:18-21).

Assessment of Martyn’s contribution to the history of the Johannine Community

Martyn made a major contribution with his History and Theology in the Fourth Gospel (1979). With regard to the concept of a Johannine community, his contribution is twofold: (1) some portions of the FG have to be read as a drama presented at two levels, one of which concerns Jesus during his earthly lifetime; (2) it also refers to events experienced by the Johannine church toward the end of the First Century in which Jesus’ tradition was shaped (Reinhartz 1998:111; Hägerland 2003:311; see also Kysar 2005a: 68). Contemporary readers have a double history in the Gospel: the history and the experiences of the community are read back into the life of Jesus (Ferreira 1998:31). Evidence of this two-layered narrative is found most specifically in John 9, where three occurrences of the expression ‘expel from the synagogue’ (ajposunaJgwgo~) in 9.22; 12.42 and 16.2 allude to an obvious atmosphere of division in which Christians are threatened with excommunication.

Reading the FG from the community’s elaborated Christology

The formulation of the Johannine Christology is surrounded by conflict in the Jewish context and finds expression as early as in John 1.5, 11 and 17 (Painter 2000:249). However, the conflict is formalized and developed in Chapters 5-10 on the basis of misunderstandings about Jesus’ authority and origin (5, 6, 8 and 10) and lack of insight into his identity (7 and 9). The FE tries his best to emphasize the uniqueness of Jesus’ relationship with the Father. The Johannine high Christology, as Fernandez (1991:400) points out, does not originate unmediated and out of the blue, but it is tied up with the experience of the community. In other words, the development of its Christology is connected with the community’s struggle against the Jews.

Toward the understanding of the Johannine community from the perspective of the Graeco-Roman World and through its own language

The Johannine community functionned as many associations in the GraecoRoman World (for details, see Wilson 1996:1 and Kloppenborg 1996:16-7). The Johannine community, as a Christian group, and like other voluntary associations, did not live in a vacuum, isolated from the rest of the Graeco-Roman society, but felt at home in the polis of the Roman Empire (see Harland 2003:179; Robbins 1991:305-332). While other groups were associated either with a household or around a common trade (and civic locale), the Johannine community was a group around the cult of a deity, comparable to the worshippers of Zeus in Sardis. Harland 88 points out that ‘monotheism was a key distinguishing factor in the case of Christian (and Jewish) cultural groups’ (2003:198).

Johannine community

This chapter reconstructs the history of the Johannine community. The birth of the community did not happen overnight, but resulted from a long historical process. The present study strives to understand the relatedness between the history of the Johannine community and discipleship in the FG. The Johannine Christology, as the result of a long process, addresses specific historical contexts and is an example of the community’s achievement. In order to learn about discipleship in Chapter 9, one needs to make a connection between religious belief (confession of high Christology) and social experience (the social implication of the confession viewed as a threat to monotheism).

CONTENTS :

• Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION
  • 1 Explanation or meaning of the title
  • 2 Problem statement of the research (purpose)
  • 2.1 Objective
  • 2.2 Research problem
  • 2.3 Academic contribution
• Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
  • 1 Introduction
  • 2 The Johannine Community and discipleship: Brown, Martyn, Schnackenburg, Moody-Smith and Köstenberger
  • 3 Theological readings related to discipleship: Schneiders and Lincoln
  • 4 Socio-historical reading of discipleship: Keener
  • 5 Discipleship in the light of the narrative [theory of] reading: 16 Culpepper, Brodie and Beck
  • 6. Conclusion
• Chapter 3 METHODOLOGIES APPLIED IN THE STUDY OF THE FOURTH GOSPEL
  • 1 Introduction
  • 2 ‘Window readings’: From Dodd to Brown and Martyn’s Shift
  • 2.1 Socio-scientific readings: Meeks, and Malina and Rohrbaugh
  • 3 ‘Mirror-window’ readings: M W G Stibbe
  • 4 Narrative readings: Culpepper and Zumstein
  • 5 Methodological overview: Conclusion
• Chapter 4 METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH IN THIS STUDY
  • 1 Introduction
  • 2 Rhetorical criticism
  • 3 Application of socio-rhetorical approach to John
  • 3.1 The first stage: investigate the inner texture
  • 3.2 The second stage: intertexture
  • 3.3 The third stage: Social and cultural texture
  • 3.4 The fourth stage: ideological texture
  • 3.5 The fifth stage: sacred (sacral) texture
  • 4. Special features
  • 4.1 Main sources
  • 4.2 Footnotes and references
  • 4.3 Abbreviations
• Chapter 5 HISTORICAL QUESTIONS: DATING, LOCATION AND AUTHORSHIP
  • 1 Introduction
  • 2 Date of the Written Gospel
  • 3 Location of the Gospel
  • 4 Authorship
  • 4.1 Identity of the Beloved Disciple
  • 4.1.1 The Beloved Disciple as a historical character
  • 4.1.3 Is the BD an eyewitness or an idealized character?
  • 4.2 The author of the FG
• Chapter 6 THE JOHANNINE COMMUNITY: TOWARDS THE DEFINITION OF THE GROUP OF DISCIPLES
  • 1 Introduction
  • 2 Reconstruction and Critical Assessment of the Development
  • of the History of the Community
  • 2.1 Attempt to reconstruct the Johannine community
  • 2.2 Assessment of Martyn’s contribution to the history of the Johannine Community
  • 3 Traces of Jewish expectations in the Fourth Gospel
  • 4 Reading the FG from the community’s elaborated Christology
  • 5 Was the Johannine community a sectarian group?
  • 5.1 State of question
  • 5.2 Comparison of the Johannine community with Qumran and Jewish groups: an assessment
  • 5.3 Toward the understanding of the Johannine community from the perspective of the GraecoRoman World and through its own language
  • 6 Conclusion: Johannine community
• Chapter 7 SOCIO-RHETORICAL READING OF JOHN 9 FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF DISCIPLESHIP
• Chapter 8 CONCLUDING REMARKS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

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A COMPREHENSIVE READING OF JOHN 9: A SOCIO-RHETORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF DISCIPLESHIP IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN