Studies in John's Gospel and Epistles: Collected Essays by Maarten J. J. Menken

Abstract

Reviewed by: Studies in John's Gospel and Epistles: Collected Essaysby Maarten J. J. Menken Paul B. Decock Menken, Maarten J. J. 2015. Studies in John's Gospel and Epistles: Collected Essays. Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology77. Leuven: Peeters. Paperback. ISBN 978-9042932012. Pp. xiv + 455. $75.59. This collection of 22 articles, five of which had not previously been published in English, includes publications from 1980 to 2014. In his introduction, Professor Menken states: "I have been attracted especially by Johannine Christology and by the Johannine use of the OT and Jewish tradition: in an intriguing way, both are so to speak anti-Jewish in a Jewish way, that is, in both fields we can perceive how Christian Jews articulated their position over against other Jews" (1). The first part of this collection comprises studies of themes, while the second part focuses on particular passages. The first chapter studies the theme of "divine begetting," arguing that the widely accepted translation "being born of God" is incorrect and that it should rather be "begotten by God." The second chapter is a survey of literature on John's Christology from 1985 to 1990. Käsemann's view of John's naïve Docetism is not accepted. Against Bultmann's emphasis on the "ordinary" aspect of Jesus's ministry, the "extraordinary" aspect is recognised. In the third chapter, on the Johannine Christology, Menken acknowledges that we "meet here a group of communities and an ecclesiology with their own biases and their own possibilities" (71). These communities had relatively little structure. The images of the shepherd and the vine rather "draw attention to the relation between Jesus and the individual believer" (71). The fourth chapter considers the authority of John's Gospel and concludes that "the Gospel replaces its protagonist, Jesus, so that it has the same impact on people as Jesus had; the Gospel is a new [End Page 202]holy Scripture, fulfilling and exceeding the old Scriptures" (89). We may ask, however, whether the expression "replacing Jesus" is not an unfortunate choice. Perhaps the formulation of Sandra Schneiders, that the readers meet the presentJesus in the Gospel, would be more accurate. It would correspond to a widespread view in the early church. In the fifth chapter, which is about the significance of the OT in the Fourth Gospel, Menken concludes that "to John, the Scriptures, both their text and the history recorded in them, legitimate Jesus, not vice versa… [R]eal revelation of God is to be found not in the Scriptures, but exclusively in Jesus" (110). The sixth chapter examines the observation that, unlike the Synoptics, John does not articulate the resurrection of Jesus as fulfilment of the Scriptures, except for the general statement in John 20:9. The explanation for this lies in John's view that full belief in the resurrection involves understanding it as the fulfilment of Scripture. The texts to which 20:9 refers are about the vindication of the suffering righteous one. Menken proposes that John's Christology focuses on the incarnation and the crucifixion; these events have a "material outside" and a "spiritual inside." It is by means of the Scriptures that the spiritual inside (the resurrection) is manifested in the material outside (the death on the cross). The seventh chapter argues that John shows a particular interest in creation and the fall, on the one hand, and the Abraham stories, on the other. Abraham, like the Scriptures in toto, witnesses to Jesus, "the creative word of old that has now realized a new creation" (p. 145). Respectively, chapters eight to ten focus on the Minor Prophets (with special attention to Zech 9:9 in John 19:37), on allusions to the Minor Prophets, and on the Jewish feasts. Chapter eleven turns to the structure of 1 John and argues for a concentric construction, with 2:28–3:24 as its centre. Chapter twelve proposes that the opponents in the Letters are best understood as real opponents and not as a pragmatic device. They are those who have wrongly interpreted the Fourth Gospel. The second part of the work focuses on individual passages. Chapter thirteen links the Lamb of John...