Prayer in John's Farewell Discourse

An Exegetical Investigation

Scott Adams

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781532686856
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Estudios bíblicos

It was reported that a doctoral student at Princeton once asked Albert Einstein, "What is there left in the world for original dissertation research?" He replied by saying, "Find out about prayer. Somebody must find out about prayer." Since Einstein's day, a great deal has been written on the topic of prayer in general. However, relatively little has been written about prayer in John's Farewell Discourse in particular. Therefore, this analysis not only seeks to understand the relationship between Johannine and Jewish, Greco-Roman, and Christian prayer traditions, but also seeks to discern the unique function and application of prayer as it is prescribed in the Farewell Discourse.

Chapter 1

Introduction

It was reported that a doctoral student at Princeton once asked Albert Einstein, “What is there left in the world for original dissertation research?” He replied by saying, “Find out about prayer. Somebody must find out about prayer.”1 In this book I have taken up the task of “finding out” about the topic of prayer in John’s Farewell Discourse in particular for three reasons: First, while much has been written on prayer, generally, relatively little has been written that critically sensitizes Johannine prayer against the backdrop of the Jewish, Greco-Roman, and Christian religious traditions that the Fourth Gospel is situated in and surrounded by. Second, scholarly commentaries2 that examine the Johannine text may be exegetically engaging in certain respects, but they typically fail to examine the function of prayer in the Farewell Discourse amidst the matrix of circumstances and themes that make it relevant for the “implied” and “intended readers.”3 Finally, to my knowledge there are no substantial, scholarly works that juxtapose the prayers of Jesus in John chapters 6, 11, 12, 17, and 19 with the topic of prayer located in chapters 14, 15, and 16. Therefore the analysis that follows seeks to fill in some of the research gaps that remain in order to more fully discern and appreciate the function of prayer in the Farewell Discourse.

History of Research

Of course, a comprehensive overview concerning the research of prayer is beyond the scope of this book since discussions about prayer are as ancient as the practice itself.4 Therefore the following summary centers on the more important works that were published in the mid- to latter part of the twentieth century. In 1967, Joachim Jeremias published a work entitled The Prayers of Jesus. This analysis contains three essays that center their attention on God the Father as Abba, the daily prayer life of Jesus, prayer in the primitive church, and the Lord’s Prayer in light of recent scholarship. While Jeremias’s work does include a discussion of God as Father in both the Old and New Testaments, it is void of any notable analysis concerning the unique Johannine distinction of prayer to the Father in Jesus’ name.

In 1979, Bingham Hunter published a dissertation entitled “The Prayers of Jesus in the Gospel of John.” Most notably, by analyzing passages that highlight Jesus’ prayers to the Father, he filled in some gaps that Jeremias and others had left unaddressed. In particular, Hunter analyzes the prayer report of John 6:11, 23, along with the prayer passages located in 11:41b–42, 12:27–28, and chapter 17. Most helpful is his analysis of the Johannine prayer vocabulary and his rather lengthy treatment of the prayer materials in John 17. However, Hunter’s work lacks any substantial analysis of the prayer passages in John 14–16.

Several decades later, in 1994, a collection of essays titled The Lord’s Prayer and Other Prayer Texts from the Greco-Roman Era was published. Edited by James H. Charlesworth with Mark Harding and Mark Kiley, this work discusses the meaning of Abba, the Lord’s Prayer, and Matthean theology as well as other notable Jewish and Christian prayer texts. Most notable is the book’s inclusion of a collection of works “written from the historical-critical point of view that treat the subject of prayer, especially in the Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman traditions, as a religious phenomenon.”5 Finally, this work includes a generous bibliography of treatments on the Hebrew Bible and Jewish, New Testament, early Christian, Greco-Roman, magical, Gnostic, Hermetic, Manichaean, and Mandaean texts.

About the same time, Oscar Cullmann published a work entitled Das Gebet im Neuen Testament ([1994] 1997) that gave fuller attention to the topic of prayer in the NT. In this work, Cullmann examines prayer in the Synoptic accounts, the Pauline corpus, the Fourth Gospel, the Johannine letters, as well as prayer in Acts, 1 Peter, James, Hebrews, and Revelation. His work also addresses more practical topics that relate to the difficulty of praying and objections to praying, as well as discussions on prayer as it relates to God’s foreknowledge, immutability, and omnipotence. Furthermore, Cullmann devotes considerable attention to the Johannine concepts of prayer in spirit and truth and prayer in Jesus’ name. Like other authors, Cullmann states what prayer is but offers no penetrating analysis concerning how it functions in light of Jesus’ departure. While much space is devoted to prayer in Jesus’ name, the link between prayer and bearing fruit / performing greater works is passed over rather briefly.

In 2000, Robert Karris published an introduction to the latest scholarship on NT prayer entitled Prayer and the New Testament: Jesus and His Communities at Worship. He interacts with prayer passages from a wide lens, including selections from Luke-Acts, the Fourth Gospel and 1 John, the Pauline Corpus, the hymns of Revelation, and the Letter of James. His work includes significant interaction with a variety of scholars working in the field of NT. While he only devotes three pages to discussing prayer in the Farewell Discourse, Karris offers a helpful treatment of prayer in John 17 and 19:28, 30. While Karris’s discussion concerning the link between prayer passages in John 14–16 and Jewish tradition that celebrates individuals who have intercessory power is insightful, his rather brief, three-page analysis leaves many gaps open for further discussion.

A fresh analysis of prayer appeared on the scene in 2001. This work edited by Richard Longenecker is entitled Into God’s Presence: Prayer in the New Testament. It includes contributions from notable scholars including, but not limited to, David Aune, Richard Bauckham, I. Howard Marshall, and N. T. Wright. Like the aforementioned treatments of prayer, this work also covers a wide spectrum of NT texts. Of special note, Andrew Lincoln provides a uniquely enriching chapter that analyzes prayer in the Fourth Gospel. In particular, he highlights the Evangelist’s portrayal of Jesus’ relationship with the Father and discusses how prayer functions within that relational context. He further interacts with how prayer functions in the Farewell Discourse and links prayer to several of the dominant themes in John chapters 14–16. Yet in the final analysis, Lincoln fails to sensitize the text in light of Jewish, Greco-Roman, and Christian prayer traditions. Further, his treatment lacks any significant discussion concerning prayer and friendship with God and overlooks the link between the Paraclete, prayer, and Jesus’ mission through the disciples.

This was followed in 2006 by Karl-Heinrich Ostmeyer’s work Kommunikation mit Gott und Christus: Sprache und Theologie des Gebetes im Neuen Testament, which offers an analysis of how each of the NT authors used the terminology of prayer to elucidate the nature of communication that takes place with God and Christ. The uniqueness of this work centers on its analysis of the variegated profile of NT prayer that is constructed by a wide spectrum of terms and concepts. As such, his work shows the unique theologies and Christologies that are reflected in prayers throu...