A Complicated Love Story

Focus on the Fourth Gospel

V. George Shillington

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781532689598
  9781532689604
• eBook ISBN:
  9781532689611
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

The Fourth Gospel, otherwise known as the gospel of the beloved disciple of Jesus, has captivated the imagination of myriads of people worldwide. Echoing one of its major themes, namely water, this gospel has been described as one in which a child can wade and an elephant can swim. Of the four gospels in the New Testament, this one stands out from the other three at several levels. In the Fourth Gospel the extraordinary acts of Jesus are labeled consistently as signs, not miracles. In the second major part, however, the signs give way to reality found uniquely in the life and death of Jesus on behalf of benighted humanity. He is the true light that enlightens every one and every thing. There are no parables in the Fourth Gospel. A parable is something that is literally thrown alongside the ordinary world of the day. The Fourth Evangelist focuses on truth, one of its major themes. There are puzzling pieces mixed in with the good news, which serves to make this gospel captivating to the reader. Through all of the complex twists and turns in this gospel the theme of love shines forth brilliantly, especially so in the second half.

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Introduction

Charting the Way Ahead

This book is for everyone interested in rediscovering the heart and soul of the Fourth Gospel of the New Testament. By “rediscovering” I mean finding meaning and purpose in the various literary episodes and themes that may have eluded the reader to this point, as they did me. Fascinated with this Gospel since my youth, I have taught a course at university for many years on its literary and theological character and nuances. In the process of writing this book I discovered new horizons of understanding not noticed during those years of teaching. The work on such literature is never really complete. It is like an unfinished symphony. I trust this offering will prove fruitful for everyone ready to garner fresh insights from engaging this unique Fourth Gospel.

My main purpose in writing this book is to engage familiar texts and themes again in this beloved Gospel, with a view to enhancing understanding. I would like to know, for example, why the author found it expedient to write this Gospel as he did, in sharp distinction from the other three Gospels, called “Synoptic”: seeing with singular vision. Like all fresh approaches to ancient literary texts, especially those of the Bible, this one will exhibit some critical wrestling with the shape and substance of the various texts. The process will involve challenging some traditional interpretations of the early and later Christian communities. I think the effort is just. If it were not so, I would be wasting time, my own and the reader’s. I consider the Fourth Gospel to be a complex work of literature in its time, but not a work of fiction. To be sure, there are parts that stretch human imagination almost to breaking point. The author’s theological and cosmological imagination comes to expression in many and varied ways in keeping with his time and place in history. What he presents as real historical events are often set forth to make a point that will spur his early-second-century community to greater heights. What follows is a bird’s-eye view of what to expect in the ensuing fourteen chapters.

Church Leaders of the Third Century Ascribed Names to Gospels

Let me be abundantly clear here, the author of the Fourth Gospel is anonymous, unlike Paul in his letters to churches he founded. But the particular community of Christ-followers who received the Fourth Gospel would know who he is. (There may be more than one hand behind the extant text. I will use the singular for the sake of tradition.) He was their mentor, and probably the founder of their community. They will recognize his themes and typical vocabulary, and will expect to find some new insights woven into the familiar literary fabric. It is much harder for us in our time and culture to grasp the insights within our postmodern environment today.

The church hierarchy, which came to the forefront a century after the composition of this Fourth Gospel, chose a name for the author. That name thereafter became the name assigned to the Gospel. The name that ancient clerics chose as author of the Fourth Gospel was simply “John.” The framers identified him as the son of Zebedee, a Galilean fisherman who became a disciple of Jesus. Moreover, the same ecclesiastical elite concluded that the nameless disciple appearing only in the second main part of the Fourth Gospel, identified as the one whom Jesus loved, was the same “John” who wrote this distinctive Gospel in proper Greek language. Their decision has reigned supreme in church circles to the present time, as though it were chosen by divine inspiration. It wasn’t. The anonymity is one of the motifs of this Gospel, and should be respected for what it is. So when I cite a text from the Fourth Gospel in the chapters that follow, I will do so with only the number of the chapter and verse, e.g. 3:16, rather than John 3:16. References to other Scriptures will have the adopted title of the document in question, together with the number of chapter and verse, e.g. Romans 1:1–7; Matthew 5:31.

From Scroll to Codex

In chapter 11 I deal in some detail with the change of writing platform from scroll to codex (book). My reason for doing so is to offer some explanation for the application of specific names to worthy scrolls. In a community such as that of the beloved disciple, the keeper of the scrolls would put important scrolls in a container. Each scroll needed identification on the outside to save time and effort rummaging through the scrolls to find the one required. Otherwise one scroll after another would have to be opened to find the right one. So a slip of papyrus was cut, a specific name inscribed on the slip, and then the inscribed slip pasted on the outside of the scroll for identification. The scroll of the Fourth Gospel was eventually deemed worthy of a place in the developing worldwide church, and thus was copied repeatedly with the same name on the outside, and made available to churches around the Mediterranean. “John” was the name chosen for the Fourth Gospel. That figure was believed to be the author, so the title on the slip of the scroll read, “According to John.” And that practice has influenced the interpretation of the anonymous Fourth Gospel to this day. For that reason I have chosen to use “Fourth Gospel” when referring to the document, and “Fourth Evangelist” when referring to the anonymous author who composed this complicated love story. That approach honors the deliberate anonymity of the author.

By the fourth century the invention of the codex, or book format, had taken hold. The book could carry within its binding a variety of literary material. Eventually every document of the Bible was incorporated into one codex. The invention accommodated the wider distribution of a collection of documents. Reading from a book by turning pages was much more convenient than unrolling a scroll. The Fourth Gospel was first written on a papyrus scroll. By the end of the fourth century it was canonized, and incorporated into a codex along with other canonized books resulting in the Christian Bible, made up of thirty-nine documents taken over from the Hebrew Bible of Judaism, and twenty-seven documents composed in Greek by leaders in the Christian church. Saint Jerome (347–420 CE) translated most of the two-part Bible into Latin, thereafter known as the Vulgate. Influenced, no doubt, by the Vulgate, Latin became the sacred language of the church Mass, and remained so for many centuries.

Identity of the Faith Community that first received the Fourth Gospel

It is not easy to decipher the real identity of a group of readers from the character of writing in one document. That there was a specific group of believers in Jesus Messiah to whom the Fourth Gospel was addressed can be stated with confidence. Altogether there are four documents that exhibit the same linguistic, theological, and conventional pattern: the Fourth Gospel, and the three epistles under the title “John.” Love is a significant theme in all four documents. The symbol of light is also prominent in the first epistle, as it is in the Gospel. The estimated time frame of the four documents is ca. 95–110 CE. The Fourth Gospel would be the first of the four documents, insofar as the epistles carry echoes of the theology, language, and concerns of the Gospel.

The common language of the community would have been Greek, not Hebrew or Aramaic. Moreover, the location of the community that received the Fourth Gospel would almost certainly have been located in a Greek-speaking part of the Roman world. The composition of the group at the time of writing the Fourth Gospel may well have been a mixture of Jews and gentiles, although the likelihood of a large number of Jewish believers in Jesus is slim. Echoes of Paul’s thought in his missionary letters to his churches come through in the Fourth Gospel especially. The community of the Beloved Disciple may owe its existence to that mission. Paul was Jewish, but accommodated gentiles in the new messianic community of Jesus. By the turn of the second century, however, the new leaders of reconstituted Judaism put pressure on Jewish members in the Christian churches to recant and return to the synagogue. So the composition of the community of the beloved disciple at the beginning of the second century would have been largely gentile.

The Guiding Theme of Love Above All

I think it is safe to say that love permeates the Fourth Gospel, the second main part in particular. The two principal parts of the Fourth Gospel are rightly called “the Book of Signs” (chapters 2–12), and “the Book of the Passion” (chapters 13–20). Chapter 21 is an appendix. While the theme of love is clearly evident in the Book of Signs, it is overflowing in the Book of the Passion. The love of Jesus for his disciples is unwavering. On the basis of that unconditional love the disciples are asked to love one another. Love is, in short, the way of God and the way to God. One of the most famous verses in the Fourth Gospel is 3:16. But it is also strangely complex. It is said in that promising text that God loved the world so much that he provided his only Son to bring that love to life in the human family, which Jesus did through his life and ministry, but especially through his death.

Hence, the second main part of the Fourth Gospel has love overflowing through the life and work of Jesus of Nazareth. To complicate matters even more, there is one disciple that Jesus loves above all the others. He comes across in the second part of the Fourth Gospel as a symbolic figure, while operating as a truly human character. He outperforms all the other disciples, including especially Peter. As a symbolic disciple he points the way for other disciples to follow. As a historical figure he is flawless in his character, perfect in his commitment to Jesus, and without blemish in his everyday behavior. The reader will have to decide what to think of this rather enigmatic figure as he comes through in the relevant chapters.

Two further points on the dominant theme of love in the Fourth Gospel must suffice. First, in the appendix of chapter 21 Jesus tests Peter’s love for him. The beloved disciple stands aside as witness to the three movements in the test, and also its outcome. Peter fails the test. His love for Jesus is less than it should be. I develop this interesting story in chapter 11. Second, we find a sharp dialogue in chapter 8 between Jesus and “the Jews,” presumably meaning “some Jews” from the Pharisees who question the way Jesus operates with his disciples and others. The response of Jesus to the critique from “the Jews” comes across as belittling rather than loving. The statement is severe: “You [Jews] are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (8:44).

Deciphering the Motif of Anonymity

I consider anonymity a recurring motif in the Fourth Gospel, not an oversight and not an accident. What to make of it is another matter. Atop the list of instances of anonymity is the nameless mother of Jesus. Whereas Matthew and Luke make much of the mother of Jesus, named Mary, the Fourth Evangelist not so much. The figure of the mother of Jesus is highlighted in two auspicious occasions: at the scene of Jesus’s first sign in Cana of Galilee on the occasion of a wedding feast, and at the foot of the cross at the occasion of Jesus’s crucifixion. In neither setting is the mother of Jesus named. Otherwise she is effectively out of the picture in the Fourth Gospel. Ironically, Joseph is named as the father of Jesus at two points in the unfolding drama (1:45; 6:42).

The woman at the well (chapter 4) doubtless had a name. We shall never know. But her character and her probing questions and her missionary zeal is manifest. She is purposely portrayed as an honest, yet misguided, inquirer eager to have the living water that Jesus promises. Notably, the woman is a Samaritan who is more appreciative of Jesus and his teaching than many of his own people. She can worship the God of the universe along with every other human being, for “God is spirit, and those who worship [God] must worship in spirit and truth” (4:24). That is, God is neither Jew nor Samaritan, but Creator of both, along with everyone and everything else besides.

The outstanding case of anonymity I have mentioned in passing—let me fill that out further. The nam...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Ambiguous World
• Chapter 3: Key Witness: John the Baptizer
• Chapter 4: Anonymous Mother—Nominal Father
• Chapter 5: Two Inquisitive Neighbors: Different as Night and Day
• Chapter 6: The Brothers
• Chapter 7: Signs of a Super Physician
• Chapter 8: Lazarus of Bethany
• Chapter 9: Concerning “the Jews”
• Chapter 10: Jesus’s Inauspicious Entrance into Jerusalem for Passover
• Chapter 11: The Beloved Disciple in the Spotlight
• Chapter 12: Pontius Pilate and the Question of Truth
• Chapter 13: Playing Politics: The Case Against Jesus
• Chapter 14: Temporary Tomb
• Chapter 15: The Reality of Jesus Resurrected
• Chapter 16: Conclusion
• Bibliography