Lesson 5: The Gospel according to John and Gnostics thing Flashcards
what does Jesus confess and do in gospel of john that makes this gospel unique?
he says that he is:
- “the bread of life”
- “the light of the world”
- “the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep”
- “the way, the truth, and the life
This is the Gospel that identifies Jesus as the Word of God “through whom all things were made.”
the astonishing claim that “before Abraham was, I am,” where he confesses that “I and the Father are one,”
Jesus performs many of his most memorable acts: turning the water into wine, raising his friend Lazarus from the dead, and washing his disciples’ feet
the socio-historical method
seeks to understand how a literary text reflects the social world and historical circumstances of the author who produced it
one of the prerequisites for applying this method is a detailed knowledge of the text itself
what type of text is the Gospel of John
Greco Roman Biography
the Johannine Prologue of the Gospel of John
provides a kind of mystical reflection on the “Word” of God
–> a being from eternity past who was with God and yet was God, who created the universe, who provided life and light to all humans, and who entered into the world that he had made, only to be rejected by his own people
the Farewell Discourse
longest discourse of the Gospel of John
Jesus states that he is soon to leave the disciples to return to the Father
he will send the Disciples another comforter, the Holy Spirit
how are Jews depicted in the Gospel of John?
Are Jesus and his followers Jews in the gospel or nah?
portrayed as the enemies of Jesus who are consequently opposed to God and aligned with the Devil and the forces of evil
–> important to note that not all Jews are lumped together and branded as the enemies of God
–> the ennemies are “the Jews” of the local synagogue who have opposed his Christian community
Jesus and his followers are portrayed as Jews who subscribe to the authority of Moses and participate in the Jewish cult and the Jewish festival
how is Jesus identified in the prologue of John?
what is odd about this?
the prologue identifies Jesus as the Word of God who has become human
he is never explicitly called this anywhere else in the Gospel
main themes in John?
Jesus speaks of possessing the glory of the Father “before the world was made”
Jesus says “I and the Father are one”
Jesus claims to be “the resurrection and the life”
Jesus says that he is “the light of the world”
Jesus is “sent” from God
Jesus is rejected by “the Jews”
Jesus is the Word of God, the creator of the universe, the equal of God, or the one sent from heaven and soon to return
what is unique about the John?
if we use the comparative method, we see that most of the main themes used are not in the synoptic gospels
none of the main stories from the synoptics are found in John
–> ex: Bethleem, Jesus wanting to stay discreet, Jesus not being sure about dying, etc
the majority of John’s stories are unique to John; they are found nowhere else
Whereas Jesus scarcely ever talks about himself in the Synoptics, that is virtually all he talks about in John
explain the differences between the stories that John and the rest synoptics share
Jesus does not do as many miracles in John as he does in the Synoptics, but the ones he does are, for the most part, far more spectacular
–> unlike in the Synoptics, Jesus does nothing to hide his abilities
unlike the Synoptics, why does the Fourth Gospel use Jesus’ miracles?
to convince people of who he is
“Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe”
done publicly in order to convince people of Jesus’ identity so that they may come to believe in him
note that in the synoptics, Jesus refuses to do miracles to prove his identity
in the Fourth Gospel, why do we say “signs” instead of “miracles” when Jesus does some godly actions?
miracles = demonstration of power
“signs” = for they are signs of who Jesus is
do scholars think John used the Synoptics as source?
why?
nah
too many differences
they do not have extensive verbatim agreements, even in the stories that they happen to share
John probably didn’t know about them
The few similarities between John and the Synoptics derive from where?
from related oral traditions in circulation in their respective communities
the evidence that we have that John used other sources
passages appear to come from different writers (writing style changes)
There are several passages in this Gospel that appear redundant, where similar accounts are repeated in slightly different words
–> probably deriving from different sources
Inconsistencies in John’s narrative (literary seams)
the central theme of the John prologue?
Jesus is the Word made flesh
Character of the Sources in John
The Signs Source
Discourse Sources
Passion Source
Other Sources
The Signs Source
a source that described the signs of Jesus
written to persuade people that he was the messiah, the Son of God
how many signs in the gospel of john?
what important about that number?
how is this a scam?
there are seven signs in the Gospel
seven is the perfect number, the number of God; is it an accident that there were seven signs?
a scam because the source may have described the signs that Jesus did in sequence and enumerated each one
–> John kept the first two enumerations but for some unknown reason eliminated the others
–> Jesus does other signs between the first two signs
Discourse Sources
there must have been more than one of the speech sources
–> the best explanation for the literary problems in the Farewell Discourse
Passion Source
Most scholars are persuaded that John’s Passion narrative derives from a source that was similar in many ways to the narrative that is found in Mark
Other Sources in John
there were other sources for the prologue and different stories
what do we need for the socio historical perspective?
the context of the people living
their personalities
most importantly, their experiences
what language were the stories in the gospel of john first told in?
in Aramaic
the Johannine community originated from what?
as a group of Jews who came to believe that Jesus was the messiah and who nonetheless continued to maintain their Jewish identity and to worship in their Jewish synagogue
The Johannine community of Jewish believers may have owed its existence to a follower of Jesus whom they later called “the beloved disciple”
what is the plausible scenario that led to the Johannine community being excluded by the Jews?
First-century Jews by and large rejected any idea that Jesus could be the messiah
From its earliest days, however, Christianity was a missionary religion, dedicated to converting others to faith in Jesus
There was increased antagonism from non-Christian Jews and, on the other, to heightened efforts at evangelism on the part of the Christian Jews
Eventually, these believers in Jesus became something more than a headache
How did the Johannine community feel about the Jews after being excluded?
They felt prosecuted
they had hate for them
they called them the enemies of Jesus
they had that “us vs them” mentality
they believed that Jesus was the representative of God, and the enemies of God could not possibly accept his representative
difference between John and the Synoptics when it comes to the after life
For John, eternal life is not a future event
–> “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” (3:36)
Eternal life in this Gospel does not come at the end of time, when the Son of Man arrives on the clouds of heaven and brings in the kingdom
–> That is why Jesus does not deliver an “apocalyptic discourse” in this Gospel
Eternal life is here and now, for all who believe in Jesus
who do researchers think wrote John?
John the son of Zebedee, commonly thought to be the mysterious “beloved disciple”
it was someone other than the author of the final form of the book
the Fourth Gospel was probably not the literary product of a single author
how many of the New Testament writings are epistles?
seventeen out of twenty-seven books
An epistle
a letter, that is, a piece of private or public correspondence sent through the ancient equivalent of the mail
writings of Christian leaders to individuals or churches to address problems that have arisen in their communities
written in response to situations that the authors felt a need to address
contextual analysis
useful in knowing not only what this literature says or teaches but also the specific historical circumstances that led to its production
closely related to the socio-historical method described
the principal concern is the literary text itself
–> the social history of the community that is presupposed by the text is used to explain some of its important features
On the basis of the conversation that we do hear, we try to reconstruct the conversation that we do not, and thereby come to a better understanding of what the author is trying to say
the shared themes between the epistles and the Gospel of John
The images of light and darkness
The new and old commandments
Abiding in Christ
The command to love one another within the community
Being hated by the world
Christ “laying down his life” for others
Christ as the one sent by God into the world out of love
What led a group of Johannine Christians to split from the community?
they did not hold the same beliefs about Jesus than the rest of the group
they were called the Anti-Christ
people such as Ignatius, believed everything Jesus did was for show and he didn’t actually feel anything when he died
ever since they were excluded, the Johannine community started to believe that Jesus was more and more divine
–> Some of them took their christology a step further: not only was Jesus equal with God, he was God himself, totally and completely
–> if he was God, he could not be flesh because God was not composed of flesh; Jesus therefore merely appeared to be a human
what did the author of the epistles think of the sececionnists?
The Johannine epistles were written by an author who thought that the secessionists had gone too far
–> For this author, Christ was indeed a flesh-and-blood human being; he was the savior “come in the flesh,” whose blood brought about salvation from sin
do we actually know about the Johannine secessionists?
No, what we know how the author of 1 John portrayed them
Christian gnostics
These groups were not unified among themselves: there were lots of different gnostic groups and they taught lots of different things
For all of them, this world was an evil place in which to live, and those who wanted to escape needed to acquire the knowledge (gnosis) necessary for liberation
some of these Christian Gnostics produced Gospels of their own, books that never became part of the New Testament
The Fourth Gospel enjoyed particular success among many of the communities of Christian Gnostics
what did proto-orthodox church fathers like Justin, Irenaeus, and Tertullian think of Gnosticism?
perceived it as a major threat to the success and unity of Christianity
pulled out all the stops in their assaults on it
claim that certain groups of Gnostics engaged in wild sexual orgies and bizarre nocturnal rituals that involved eating babies
Gnosticism
refers to a diverse set of views, many of them influenced by Christianity, that may have been in existence by the end of the first century but certainly by the middle of the second
The World: Metaphysical Dualism
Gnostics understood the world in radically dualistic term
All of existence could be divided into matter and spirit
how did gnostics believe that the world was created
the creation of the world was the result of a cosmic catastrophe
they did not believe that the one true God had created this world
–> For them, the material world was inherently evil
–> the true God, author of all good, could not have created something that was evil
Aeons
according to some of the Gnostic myths
offspring of the one true God
The reason Gnostics feel so alienated in this world
because they actually are alienated
they believe that each has a spark of the divine, entrapped by alien beings who are committed to keeping it imprisoned for their own purposes
know that they do not belong in this material world; heaven is their home
only way that Gnostics claimed that a person could be saved from this material world
only by acquiring the proper knowledge.
the favorite gospel of Gnostics?
the Gospel of Mark
three classes that the human race could be divided according to some Christian Gnostics
(a) the Gnostics themselves
(b) other Christians, who mistakenly believed that they had the truth
c) all other persons, who had no part of the divine within them and were destined for destruction along with the rest of the material world when the salvation of the divine sparks had been complete
some of the same (or similar) stories are found in both John and the synoptics
the feeding of the five thousand
the walking on the water
many of the events of the Passion narrative
Jesus’ anointing
his entry into jerusalem
his betrayal and arrest
the denial by peter
the roman trial
crucifixion
limitation to the contextual analysis
words convey meaning only within a context; thus, when you change the context of words, you change what they mean
Sethian Gnostics
understood themselves to be the spiritual descendants of Seth, the third son of adam and eve
sfethian myths
present detailed and complex myths that explain the origins of the divine realm, the material world, and the humans who inhabit the material world
begin by describing the original, single, perfect divine
–> the invisible spirit
