John

Storyteller, Interpreter, Evangelist

Warren Carter

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2006
• Print ISBN: 9780801045868
• eBook ISBN: 9781441237163
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

The Final Volume in a Well-Received Gospel Study

John: Storyteller, Interpreter, Evangelist is an accessible introduction to the Fourth Gospel. This book examines three aspects of John's Gospel: John's telling of the story of Jesus, his interpretation of Jesus for his readers, and his formulation of all of this into the Gospel of Jesus.

Carter surveys the central issues of this Gospel and engages with narrative and historical approaches, the two dominant methods used in interpreting John's Gospel. In addition, he introduces his readers to a consideration of the Gospel's negotiation of the Roman imperial world.

This book is written for college and seminary students, clergy seeking resources for teaching and preaching, and the laity, especially Bible study groups who like to engage a topic in some depth.

PART ONE

JOHN: STORYTELLER

CHAPTER 1

The Genre of John’s Gospel

“These are written so that . . . through believing you may have life in his name” (20:31). This statement of the gospel’s purpose appears near its end. Such a claim invites us to explore the text in order to learn more about what has been written and about the “life” that this gospel offers its readers. In part 1 we will investigate these issues: What sort of writing is the gospel (its genre; ch. 1)? How does it present the story of Jesus (its plot; ch. 2)? Who are its characters (chs. 3–4)? What sort of language does it use (ch. 5)? What sort of style does it employ (ch. 6)? In exploring these issues related to “these [things that] are written,” we will also build our understanding of the “life” that the gospel presents. What constitutes this life? Is it individual or communal, spiritual or physical? What relationship does it have to existing societal structures and norms?

This chapter begins to answer these questions by examining one aspect of the “these [things that] are written.” What sort of literature are we reading when we read John’s gospel? What is its genre?[1]

Genre

John’s gospel explicitly identifies itself in very general terms as a “book” (20:30). This term, located near the end of the document, can refer to all sorts of writings, and so it is not a very helpful indicator of what we are reading. Rather, we will need to look for other clues in the document to identify what sort of book this is.

As readers, we determine a communication’s genre—whether written or oral—from the various literary conventions or traits that a speaker or author employs in creating the work’s form and content.[2] We observe these conventions or features from the beginning of a work (for a written work, its cover, title, a contents page if it has one, chapter headings, layout, etc.) and confirm or modify our recognition of its genre from subsequent features, such as the settings for events, the types of events, the characters, conflicts, and so forth. These literary conventions or clusters of features signal the sort of work we are engaging. From the cluster of features and from our experience of other literature, we decide what sort of work we are encountering, what we can reasonably expect from it, and what sort of “work” or roles we might have to perform as readers.

Discerning the genre of a piece of literature matters because it offers us clues on how to read appropriately. Getting the genre wrong will inevitably mean little chance of our making satisfactory sense of what we’re reading. If I think I am reading a romance, for example, when in fact I am reading a mystery thriller, I have misunderstood the conventions of the mystery novel that the author uses, and my expectations for the story will be sadly disappointed. I will misinterpret the conventions and so miss what they are signaling. In the romance, declarations of love might be heartwarming; in the mystery thriller they might be deadly. In a romance we are likely to find them comforting and pleasing, especially since the two lovers have usually had to overcome various obstacles to their love. But in a mystery thriller, when we know that nothing is quite as it seems, we might find such declarations suspenseful, frightening, false, and, finally, fatal. A book might deliberately combine features of both mysteries and romances to create uncertainty and tension. James Bond movies combine characteristics from several genres to create suspense, romance, and comedy.

Determining a work’s genre thus involves recognizing the various literary conventions and traits that are employed. Identifying the work’s traits or conventions guides us in our efforts to make appropriate sense of what we are reading.

The Genre of John’s Gospel

What, then, is the genre or genres of John’s gospel?[3] The question might seem unnecessary, since we have been referring to the work as a “gospel.” But this simply takes us in a circle back to the starting point: what is a gospel?

The term “gospel” has two meanings in relation to the early Christian writings. First, “gospel” can refer to certain beliefs and experiences about God’s saving work encountered in Jesus. In some instances, these affirmations are not immediately specified, presumably because they are known to the audience, elaborated elsewhere in the writing, and/or not relevant to the immediate point the writer is making (see Rom 15:16; Gal 1:6–7; Eph 1:13; 2 Tim 2:8–9). But sometimes the writer immediately explains the term, as Paul does in Rom 1:16–17: “I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

Second, “gospel” can refer to written texts, such as John. By one count, thirty-four such writings survive from the early centuries of the Christian movement, but only four of them are included in the Christian New Testament—the gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.[4] None of these New Testament documents calls itself a gospel.[5] Later Christian readers applied the term to them because they saw the four documents doing something similar: telling the story of Jesus from the perspective of faith and for an audience (or congregation) of believers. According to one definition, “a Gospel is a narrative of the public career of Jesus, his passion and death, told in order to affirm or confirm the faith of Christian believers in the Risen Lord.”[6]

If later readers designate the genre of John to be a gospel, what genre might its first readers, late in the first century, have assigned to it to guide their engagement with it? What sorts of literature did it resemble?

Not Primarily History

Some people have viewed John as providing an eyewitness account of Jesus’ life, a historical record of what he said and did. But such expectations for the gospel are not sustainable for a number of reasons. Most obviously, John 20:31 confirms that the gospel’s author is not primarily writing history. Rather, it writes about Jesus from the perspective of faith and for believers.

These are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

As we will see in chapters 7–9, below, probably about fifty or sixty years separate the time of Jesus from the time of the gospel’s writing; this makes the survival of eyewitnesses unlikely. There are also telltale signs that our version of the gospel has been expanded and elaborated; this suggests that the gospel has developed through multiple editions and/or employed multiple sources.[7] We will also have to think about the relationship between John’s gospel and the very different presentations of Jesus in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which are called the Synoptic Gospels. Claims, then, of an eyewitness account are not convincing.

Still, scholars agree that although John is not an eyewitness account, it certainly contains historical information about the life and ministry of Jesus. They have debated how much historical information can be demonstrated, the criteria by which to identify it, and the implications of its presence in (or absence from) the narrative. There are essentially three views.

1. Scholars who emphasize considerable historical authenticity[8] appeal to such factors as the significant similarities between John’s contents and the Synoptic Gospels,[9] compatibility with the language and themes in the Dead Sea Scrolls,[10] and the gospel’s “astonishingly accurate geographical, historical, and religious details” about Jerusalem and Judaism.[11] These details include references to places in Jerusalem, such as the pool of Siloam (9:7), the Kidron Valley (18:1), the archaeologically verified pool in 5:2, and the pavement in 19:13.[12]
2. At the other end of the spectrum, the Jesus Seminar, which applies a range of criteria to the sayings and actions attributed to Jesus in John’s gospel, finds only 4:44b to be probably spoken by Jesus (“A prophet gets no respect on his own turf”). In addition, the Seminar decided that John’s gospel includes only a few other pieces of “historically reliable information” that is “virtually certain” or “probably reliable.” This information includes Jesus as a former follower of John the Baptist who attracted some of John’s followers (1:35–51), that Jesus was arrested (18:12b), and taken to Pilate (18:28) who had him beaten (19:1) and crucified (19:16, 18).[13]
3. Scholars occupying the middle ground recognize considerably greater continuities between Jesus and John’s presentation, in both what Jesus says and what Jesus does.[14] For instance, C. H. Dodd finds “mini” or kernel parables that derive from Jesus at the heart of some of Jesus’ sayings and discourses in John, such as the good shepherd (10:1–5) and the grain of wheat (12:24).[15] Many scholars see other actions (at least in some [unrecoverable?] form) as likely being authentic to the historical Jesus. One scholar offers a list, acknowledged as incomplete, that includes traditions about Jesus and about Jesus’ followers: gathering disciples, a number of whom are known by name (John 1); conflict or competition with John the Baptist; challenging the temple (2:13–17); a visit to Samaria; healings; Sabbath disputes; a Nazareth origin and brothers (7:1–10); an awareness of being commissioned or sent from God, who is his Father; numerous visits to Jerusalem; accusations of being demon possessed and/or leading the people astray as a false prophet (7:45–52; 8:48); crucifixion by Pilate.[16]

But although they do not dispute that the gospel employs historical information, most recognize that the gospel is not primarily concerned with the conventional historical tasks of providing accurate and verifiable historical information and of analyzing the causes and effects of historical events. Instead it is much more concerned to present this information in relation to, and as part of, its much larger agenda, namely, to proclaim the significance of Jesus as the one who makes available “life” to those who entrust themselves to him. That is, the gospel is not passing on information about Jesus for its own sake or trying to understand the person of Jesus in a disinterested way. Rather it is deeply invested in the importance of Jesus. It seeks to elicit and sustain the believing response of its readers because it thinks nothing is more important in the whole world—this one and the next. In doing so, the gospel is as much concerned with the present (and future) as with the past, and as much concerned with the response of the reader as with the material it presents. This is more like preaching than historical writing.

Claims, then, of an eyewitness account are not convincing. But even if we were reading an eyewitness account, even if someone had been operating a video camera while Jesus conducted his ministry, we readers would have to recognize the partial nature of John’s story and the particular faith perspective that selects its content and shapes its telling. Moreover we would have to recognize the pastoral goals of securing faith and transmitting life to the reader that shape the story. These observations will help us to determine the gospel’s genre accurately.

Not a Unique Genre

A long tradition of scholarship has claimed that the gospels form their own genre. Some have argued that the gospels are without parallel in other contemporary literature, that they are “of their own kind” (sui generis).[17] This argument appeals primarily to the unique content of the gospels and their proclamation about the identity of Jesus as the risen Christ and Lord in whom people are to believe in order to know life. This proclamation about Jesus in story form utilizes traditions about Jesus that are theologically and pastorally interpreted. The gospels comprise “tradition remembered and interpreted in the light of faith.”[18] Ultimately, so the argument goes, the gospels’ content makes them unique.

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Table of contents

• COVER PAGE
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT PAGE
• CONTENTS
• PREFACE
• ABBREVIATIONS
• JOHN: STORYTELLER
• JOHN: INTERPRETER
• JOHN: EVANGELIST
• POSTSCRIPT: GOOD NEWS? READING JOHN TODAY IN OUR MULTIRELIGIOUS WORLD
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX OF MODERN AUTHORS
• INDEX OF ANCIENT SOURCES