Gospel Of John

The Gospel according to Saint John (Greek , is the fourth gospel canon of the New Testament. It has no author's name, but is traditionally attributed to the apostle John , and this, in the second half of the ^second century by Irenaeus.

Like the three synoptic Gospels ( Matthew , Mark and Luke ), he relates some of the actions and words of Jesus , but is distinguished by his charisma and his emphasis spiritualizing. It emphasizes the mission of Jesus of redemption of humanity rather than his department to teach earth, cast out demons and to comfort the poor.

In doctrine the Trinity , the Gospel of John is the most important in terms of Christology , as it implicitly sets the divinity of Jesus ^{Summary and structure of the Gospel of John}

After the famous prologue John 1. 1-5 : "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." narrative of the gospel begins with verse 6, and can be separated into two parties, Raymond E. Brown called the book of signs (or miracles) and the Book of Glory . The first part (1:6-ch. 12) tells the public ministry of Jesus from his baptism by John the Baptist until his arrival in Jerusalem. This first part highlights seven miracles ("signs") of Jesus. The second part (ch. 13-21) presents the dialogues between Jesus and his chief disciples (13-17) and describes his passion , his crucifixion and his appearances to his disciples after his resurrection (18-20). In the last chapter (21), in the form of "Appendix" Jesus forgives Peter 's denial, he predicted his death, and speaks of the death of the "disciple whom Jesus loved" and it also asks Peter three time to graze his herd.

Map

• 1.1-18: Prologue
• 1.19 to 12.50: the "Book of Signs"
  • 1.19 to 2.11: beginning of the revelation of Jesus to his disciples
  • 2.12-4: from first to second miracle at Cana ( Marriage of Cana , changed water into wine; purification of the Temple of Jerusalem , Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, healing of the son of an official)
  • 5 to 10: Replacement of fasting of the Old Testament
    • 5: Jesus reiterates the commandment of rest from Sabbath
    • 6: Jesus replaces the manna of the Exodus by the Bread of Life
    • 7 to 10.21: the source of Living Water and Light of the world replace the ceremonies (water and light) of the Feast of Tabernacles
    • 10.22-42: Jesus is devoted to the place of the altar of the Temple of Jerusalem
  • 11 to 12: Resurrection of Lazarus and the end of Jesus' public ministry (sentenced to death by the Sanhedrin ; anointing at Bethany; entry into Jerusalem)
• 13 to 20: the "Book of Glory"
  • 13 to 17: Last Supper and Jesus' final discourse
    • 13: meals, washing of feet, betrayal of Judas, early speech (commandment of love, betrayal of Peter)
    • 14-17: Jesus' final discourse
      • 14: Jesus' departure remains divine sending of "Defender" ( Paraclete )
      • 15-16: vines and branches, hate the world, demonstrating the Paraclete
      • 17: Priestly Prayer
  • 18 to 19: Passion and death (arrest, interrogation before the high priest and Peter's denial, Pilate's trial, crucifixion and death, burial)
  • 20.1 to 29: Resurrection (two scenes at the tomb, two in the Upper Room)
• 20.30 to 31: Conclusion of the Gospel
• 21: Epilogue (appearances of the risen Jesus in Galilee; second conclusion)

Manuscripts

The manuscript of the library Ryland P52 , dated around 125 is the oldest fragment of the Gospel according to St. John.

The oldest manuscript known New Testament is a fragment of the Gospel according to St. John. This papyrus fragment , the size of a credit card was discovered in Egypt in 1920 and is now preserved at the John Rylands Library of Manchester , under reference P52. It contains pieces of the trial of Jesus by Pilate ( John 18. 31-33 on one side and John 18. 37-38 on the other). It is generally dated to about 125 ^, . The difficulty of accurately dating a fragment by the methods Paleographs still allows a range of 100 to 175. The small size of the fragment that P52, although a refund can be made plausible for most of these fourteen lines, it is hardly usable for text analysis .

The earliest version is almost complete that of Papyrus 66 , the Bodmer Foundation in Geneva. The Bodmer papyri were found in Egypt in 1952. The text is dated from the mid second century . Particular, it lacks the passage of the adulterous woman.

Attribution and dating of the text

St. John the Evangelist , by Carlo Crivelli , c. 1475.

The award of this gospel is a subject of controversy since at least the ^second century. In Christian tradition the author is the apostle John. This view is still defended by some Christian scholars, but most modern scholarship the author (or authors) is an unknown, non-contemporary of Jesus, the text was written around 90 (with a range of 60-140). For the award, the questions that arise are the following:

• Can we identify "the disciple whom Jesus loved" and the author of the gospel?
• Can we identify them (together or separately) with the apostle John?
• The New Testament texts traditionally ascribed to John, the gospel, three epistles and the Apocalypse (also called Johannine writings ) are they the same author?

The disciple whom Jesus loved

Neither the name of the author, nor that of the apostle John, one of the leading disciples in the Synoptic Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles , appear in the Gospel of John. The "John" named in the Prologue and verses 3:23 to 4:3 is John the Baptist.

The phrase "the disciple whom Jesus loved" or "beloved disciple" is used repeatedly in the Gospel of John, when she appears in no other New Testament text. Moreover, in John 11: 5, another disciple is so designated: "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.". In the Gospel according to John at the Last Supper , the beloved disciple, who "lying on Jesus' breast, asked who will betray him ( John 13. 23-26 ). Later at the crucifixion , Jesus entrusted his mother Mary to the beloved disciple, saying: "Woman, behold your son" and to the disciple, "Behold your mother" ( Jn 19. 26-27 ). When Mary Magdalene discovers the empty tomb, she runs to tell the Beloved Disciple and Peter. This is the first to reach the tomb, but Peter is the first to enter. ( Jn 20. 2-8 ). It is still the beloved disciple who recognizes Jesus in the first lake of Tiberias after his resurrection ( Jn 21. 7 ). Finally in the epilogue, Pierre inquire of Jesus about the fate of the disciple ( Jn 21. 20-22 ). The text ends with two verses:

"This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them. And we know that his testimony is true. Jesus did many other things if they were written in detail, I do not think the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. "( Jn 21. 24-25 )

The traditional interpretation, the transition to the first person to identify the author of the Gospel with "the disciple whom Jesus loved" ^{, ,} . Some historians believe that the sudden shift from third to first person in verses 24-25 shows that only the author of the epilogue is based on the testimony of the "beloved disciple" ^, .

In the Christian religious art , the beloved disciple is usually portrayed as a beardless youth. He appears frequently in major scenes of the Gospel of John, particularly the Eucharist (where it is shown resting on the breast of Jesus) and the Crucifixion.

Although identification of the "beloved disciple" to the apostle John is the most common, other identifications have been proposed in a more or less marginal, especially resurrected Lazarus and even Mary Magdalene.

The traditional attribution to St. John the Apostle

Found in the Apology for the Christians of Justin Martyr (~ 100 - ~ 165), sent to the Roman emperor Antoninus to 150, quotes from the Gospel of John . The first mention of the gospel as such, and its attribution to the apostle John is that of Irenaeus of Lyons (~ 130-207) , which will have a decisive influence on the definition of the canon of the four gospels (and rejection of the Apocrypha) and the assertion of his divine inspiration. According to Eusebius of Caesarea (~ 265-339), a century and a half later, this information was Irenaeus Polycarp of Smyrna , himself a disciple of John .

However, as the father of the church Epiphanius of Salamis (~ 315 - 403), a sect of early Christianity, the alogiens , attributed the writing to a Gnostic of the second century Cerinthus. But according to Eusebius of Caesarea (in his Ecclesiastical History, 7, 25, 2), Dionysius of Alexandria (d. 265) says that the Apocalypse of John (but not the gospel) was attributed to Cerinthus by some of his elders. This discussion alogiens is the only example of an allocation of primitive divergent tradition Later .

Regarding the dating, according to Clement of Alexandria , quoted in the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius, John wrote his gospel as a supplement to the other three Gospels, which explains its place in the classic New Testament.

Allocation modern

It is from the ^nineteenth century historicism that critical issues further Johannine authorship of the text, stressing that it was written decades after the events it describes. Scholars of this current base their opinion on the Greek language differences within the same gospel, on the breaks and inconsistencies in some passages about the repetitions of speech as well as insertion sequences of texts clearly out of context, suggesting that several authors and revisions. Historians generally agree that John's Gospel was composed in layers, dating from the first hard left (between 50 and 70 AD) and ending the last to 95-100. The latter date corresponds with the second or third generation disciples after Jesus' death (c. 33), in a group of Christians called Johannine community.

Raymond E. Brown , an academic specialist in the study of the Johannine community identifies three layers of text:

1. An initial version of which Brown believes it is based on an eyewitness who met Jesus.
2. A literary production structured by an evangelist who adds additional sources.
3. The published version that today's reader can read (Brown, 1979).

Comparison with synoptic

The fourth Gospel differs from the synoptic gospels particularly clearly: it fails 90% of the narrative material of the other three gospels . These describe the lives of many more Jesus , his miracles , his parables , his exorcisms. It is surprising therefore to see the influence of material unique to the Gospel of John, very important influence on both historic and contemporary Christianity.

Differences from the Synoptic Gospels

The fourth Gospel differs significantly from the synoptic gospels. Among these differences, one can notice that:

• The Gospel of John describes three feasts of Passover, suggesting that Christ's ministry lasted between two and three years, whereas the synoptic gospels are the same ministry in one year.
• The phrase " kingdom of God "is only used twice. This is especially important to note that the "kingdom" is a concept of great significance in the synoptic gospels. The Jesus that John describes announces its own kingdom, which is "not of this world."
• Technically, John's Gospel contains no parables. It nevertheless contains stories metaphoric meaning, like the good shepherd. The parables of the synoptic gospels are poetic stories, each illustrating a single message or a single idea. Jean metaphorical stories are more like allegories , in which each element has a symbolic correspondence with an element or group of selected items. The medieval exegetes sometimes assigning an allegorical meaning to the individual elements of the parables, but modern historians find this view most theologically interesting historically.
• The recurring phrase "Who has ears to hear! "Does not exist in John.
• There is no exorcism reported.
• The number of miracles is much smaller than in John Mark, Luke and Matthew.
• Great speeches of the synoptic gospels are absent, as the Sermon on the Mount and the Mount of Olives. Also lack the instructions that Jesus gave to the apostles in the synoptic before sending them to preach throughout the world. In their place are the Sermon on the Sea of Galilee, and the temple of the Lord's Supper.
• The scene where Jesus drives out the merchants from the temple appears at the beginning of Jesus' ministry in John, and late in the Synoptics.
• Much of the Gospel of John takes place in the province of Judea and Jerusalem , very little takes place in Galilee, and the events recounted by Jean unfolding in Galilee are found in the synoptic gospels.
• The date of the crucifixion is placed by Jean one day before that of the Synoptics, the 14th of the month of Nisan , instead of 15.
• Not found in John's rhetoric eschatological found in the Synoptics (Matthew 25, for example).

The comparative importance of John and the synoptic historical perspective

Since the late ^nineteenth century and the " radical critique ", historians largely reject the Gospel of John as a reliable source of information on the historical Jesus . In particular, the Fourth Gospel, "which does not or does not come from the apostle John" , is often challenged as historical reference in its conventional sense. Its author was given the utmost freedom, transposing the events to shed a new light, some writing himself speech and illustrating concepts with images specific to it. And so if we can not deny his work elements of tradition, authority on the life of Jesus is questionable. Only a fraction of what it says is accepted by most historians in the historical sense of the term ^Sources

Theory of Rudolf Bultmann

In 1941, Rudolf Bultmann suggested the existence of an oral tradition, or even a manuscript focused on the miracles of Christ and was independent of the synoptic gospels. This "gospel of signs" have circulated since before 70. Its traces are visible through to residual structure of narrative accompanying miracles own in the fourth gospel (which is not found in the Synoptics). The signs (name used in the fourth gospel for a miracle, Semei in Greek) which is found only in John always take place in the presence of John, they have an unusually dramatic connotation and, unlike the synoptic gospels, they are not a consequence of faith: they are there for the cause (John 12:37). These miracles are different from both other miracles of the fourth Gospel and those of the synoptic gospels, Bultmann concludes that the author has reinterpreted a primitive tradition of Hellenistic Christianity. This assumption, despite the high reputation of its author, found little positive response in the research community.

Common elements with Gnostic thinking

Although it would be inaccurate to call Gnostic Gospel of John contains some good elements suggesting an influence or possible crosses with Gnosticism . It is almost certain that the Gnostics have read the Gospel of John, since elevations were passages in their texts. The principle of Gnosticism is that salvation comes from gnosis, a secret knowledge. During almost all of the five chapters of the last speech of Christ to the disciples (John 13 , 18 ), Jesus speaks only to the twelve apostles. Jesus existed before he was born of the flesh, he is named in the prologue (John 1) as "the Word" ( logos ). All this could get closer to the Gnostic definition of the Aeon (an emanation of God) sent from the Pleroma (light region) coming to give humans the knowledge necessary to attach themselves pleroma.

The opposition of John of the flesh and spirit, also present in Paul, is also a strong theme of Gnosticism . But here it is exceeded , "since the flesh itself, and receptacle symbol of evil, as is spiritualized by the Incarnation of the Word" .

Is sometimes explained by the hypothesis that proximity to common sources of inspiration of John and the Gnostics in the Jewish apocalyptic literature .

Christology

Stephen L. Harris says that John describes Jesus as "a brief manifestation of the eternal Word, whose immortal spirit is still present among the Christian faithful . Another theory, after the Anglo-Saxon school , anchors the character hypostasis of the Logos of John in the Jewish tradition after Philo of Alexandria and the neo-Platonic school of Alexandria

In the traditional Christian reading, the gospel of John focuses much more than others on the mystical relationship that unites the Father and the Son. It is often argued that it is based on it has been produced the doctrine of the Trinity. The fourth gospel deals more specifically than others to the relationship of the Redeemer to believers, the announcement of the Paraclete , likened to the Holy Spirit , and as comforting as a defender. What marks the foremost minds is of course the development of the theme (Johannine par excellence) of the rule of love in Christian doctrine and Christian life.

The absence of Parousia

A very important theological point in the Gospel of John, is that it contains no explicit reference to the Parousia , a name that was given at that time to the return of Christ. Some academics have even suggested that to John, Christ has already returned spiritually . But the Apocalypse of John is dedicated to the Parousia.

References

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