3 Aposynagōgos and Jesus’ Messianic Identity

Abstract

Each of the aposynagōgos passages attests to conflicts of some sort, and indicates unequivocally that Jesus' identity was integral to those conflicts. The argument that the aposynagōgos passages could represent actual conflicts over Jesus' messianic identity during his lifetime is made over and against the Martynian tradition, which supposes that most if not all such conflicts depicted by John's Gospel are properly construed as evidence for Christological controversies within the life of the Johannine community rather than as evidence for Christological controversies during the lifetime of Jesus. Although the neo-Martynian tradition alters certain aspects of the broader tradition which it inherited from classic Martynian scholarship, it has left in place its central, ultimately Bultmannian hermeneutics. A post-Martynian perspective was developed, which argued that the messianic interpretation of Jesus' life and actions could plausibly have contributed to the conflict depicted in the aposynagōgos passages.Keywords: aposynagōgos passages; Bultmannianism; christological controversies; Jesus messianic identity; Johannine community; John's Gospel; Martynian tradition