Dualism or Paradox? A New ‘Light’ on the Gospel of John

Abstract

Abstract Modern scholarship maintains the Gospel of John is dualistic. This view is uneasily held as there is a growing move to distance the gospel from the original history-of-religions concept of dualism that reached its peak in the mid-twentieth century with expectations of incipient Gnosticism in John. Instead of further nuancing the dualistic-sounding ideas in John, this essay challenges directly the claim that John is dualistic—and it proposes that what is often understood to be a dualistic metaphysic is actually paradoxical language as part of the Gospel’s oral and literary language games. Starting with a survey of how dualism entered into the scholarly purview of John, the essay then turns to the meaning and function of paradox in the ancient world. Since scholars point to John’s ‘light’ and ‘darkness’ imagery as the most prominent example of dualism, this essay uses the paradox language of ‘light’ and ‘darkness’ as a test case to demonstrate how paradox, and not dualism, is a more accurate and historical descriptor for John’s communicative strategy.