Social Science and the Christian Scriptures, Volume 3

Sociological Introductions and New Translation

Blasi

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781532615139
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Sociologist Anthony Blasi analyzes early Christianity using multiple social scientific theories, including those of Max Weber, Georg Simmel, Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, Max Scheler, Alfred Schutz, and contemporary theorists. He investigates the canonical New Testament books as representative of early Christianity, a sample based on usage, and he takes the books in the chronological order in which they were written. The result is a series of "stills" that depict the movement at different stages in its development. His approaches, often neglected in New Testament studies, include such sociological subfields as sect theory, the routinization of charisma, conflict, stratification theory, stigma, the sociology of knowledge, new religions, the sociology of secrecy, marginality, liminality, syncretism, the social role of intellectuals, the poor person as a type, the sick role, degradation ceremonies, populism, the sociology of migration, the sociology of time, mergers, the sociology of law, and the sociology of written communication. Needing to treat the New Testament text as social data, Blasi uses his background in biblical studies and a review of a vast literature to establish the chronology of the compositions of the New Testament books and to present the "data" in a new translation that is accessible to non-specialists.

Chapter 23

The Johannine Gospel

Introduction

Some commentators use the title Fourth Gospel rather than Gospel According to John because it is not at all clear that John, Son of Zebedee, was the author. The gospel in question, however, seems to be related to the letters of someone commonly referred to as “John,” where the author refers to himself as the Presbyter. The Revelation of Jesus the Messiah, written by an author named “John,” especially the section with letters to specific churches in Asia Minor, also seems to be related to the Presbyter’s letters. Whatever the actual authorship of the gospel might have been, there was a community associated with this literature that is traditionally called Johannine. Consequently, we can call the gospel the Johannine Gospel. This gospel has all the appearances of going through a number of stages of development, and there may have been one author common to each stage, different authors at each stage, or one author for several stages with a different person responsible for the final version. The last possibility appears to be the most likely because someone respected a received text enough to publish it without making changes that would have removed inconsistencies and breaks in the narrative.

Date of Final, Published Edition

The likelihood of stages of composition occurring over a period of time makes it difficult to fix a date on the material, since internal evidence may reflect some stage of development that is earlier than the final one. The one bit of evidence found in the text that helps set a possible date consists of references to an expulsion from the synagogue.605 John 9:22, 35 is an anachronistic account of fear of the Judean authorities on the part of the parents of the man born blind whom Jesus cured; they say they feared being put out of the synagogue. John 12:42 says many Judean notables believed in Jesus but did not declare it out of fear of being excluded from the synagogue. John 16:2 is an allusion in Jesus’ farewell discourse, to his followers being excluded from the synagogue in the future.606 Some have taken these passages to refer to the Birchath ha-Minim, which was formulated against Jewish Christians; it was introduced under the presidency of R. Gamaliel II (ca 80–90) at Jamnia and composed by Shemuel ha-Qatan.607 It was a negative blessing, i.e. a curse, which no crypto-Christian in the assembly would utter.608 The writings of Justin Martyr (ca 114–165) clearly show that Christians in the second century saw the curse as a problem:

. . . and now you reject those who hope in Him, and in Him who sent him . . . cursing in your synagogues those that believe on Christ.609

. . . those of the seed of Abraham who live according to the law, and do not believe in this Christ before death, shall likewise not be saved, and especially those who have anathematized and do anathematize this very Christ in the synagogues. . . .610

But if you curse Him and them that believe in Him. . . .611

There are discourses in the gospel that use abstract language, and that feature made the gospel popular among Gnostics in the third century, a group of spiritual thinkers who oriented themselves in an other-worldly direction and sought to apprehend the divine through mystical experiences. Early in the twentieth century commentators saw these discourses as Hellenistic and late. The discovery of such abstract discourse in the Qumran materials (“Dead Sea Scrolls,” mostly from before the Common Era) has disproven that hypothesis.612 Consequently, other kinds of evidence have received renewed scrutiny. The discovery and analysis of the Rylands Papyrus 457 from Egypt, usually identified as P52, tended to lead commentators toward an earlier date. Taken alone, however, P52 only expands the range of possible dates for the composition of the Johannine Gospel; the papyrus is judged to have been written anywhere from 135 CE to early in the 200’s.613 When considered along with two other papyri, however, the bearing of P52 on the dating of the gospel increases. Bodmer Papyrus II (P66) and Bodmer Papyrus XV (P75) date from about 175 to 225; P52 and P75 have textual variations of the gospel that resemble the readings of the fourth-century Codex Vaticanus (B), while P66 has variations that resemble the fourth-century Codex Sinaiticus (ﬡ). As Raymond Brown noted, it takes time for the copying and recopying of a text to produce such variations.614 Taken together, the three papyri move the known variations in the text of the Johannine Gospel back into the late second century and lead one to presuppose a development before then. Similarly, Heracleon (active around 170 or earlier, in Rome) and Origen (ca 184/185–253/254) appear to have had different variations in their text...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Chapter 17: Pseudepigraphic Letter of James
• Chapter 18: Revelation from Jesus, Messiah
• Chapter 19: The Johannine Letters
• Chapter 20: First Pseudepigraphic Letter of Peter
• Chapter 21: The Pastoral Epistles
• Chapter 22: Pseudepigraphic Letter to the Thessalonians
• Chapter 23: The Johannine Gospel
• Chapter 24: Fragment on the Woman Accused of Adultery (John 7:53—8:11)
• Chapter 25: The Pseudepigraphic Letter of Jude
• Chapter 26: Second Pseudepigraphic Letter of Peter
• References