Problem and Method

Abstract

This chapter presents a study of the alleged community behind the Gospel of John, the so-called 'Johannine community'. The Gospel is analysed with methods primarily derived from sociology and compared to texts from two contemporary Jewish milieus, the community in Alexandria as reflected in writings of Philo Judaeus and the community of Qumran as reflected in some of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Meeks' interests in the social and 'sectarian' function of the Johannine language inaugurated a new trend in Johannine scholarship, although he has various predecessors in the history of the Johannine scholarship. Several scholars present a hermeneutic purpose as their point of departure in a theological understanding of the 'sect' today. The history of the sociological definitions of 'sect' has a distinguished pedigree in the classical literature of the sociology of religion, with a tradition going back to scholars like M. Weber, Troeltsch, and H. Niebuhr.Keywords: Dead Sea Scrolls; Gospel of John; Johannine community; Qumran; sect notion