The Sources of the Gospel of John: An Assessment of the Present State of the Problem

Abstract

For more than one hundred years scholars have endeavoured to discover and separate the sources or literary strata believed to be embedded in the Gospel of John. Previous attempts to explain the origin of the Fourth Gospel by theories of aGrundschriftor literary sources and redaction, not to mention rearrangement, found their culmination and were probably superseded when, over twenty years ago, Rudolf Bultmann set forth a comprehensive literary theory in his magisterialDas Evangelium des Johannes. Bultmann's work has given a measure of unity to the subsequent discussion of the literary problem where it has been taken into account. Those who sharply disagree with Bultmann have found it a convenient bench-mark by which to gain a perspective on the problems of the gospel. His theory, worked out in most minute detail, involves the evangelist's use of sources, the presumably accidental disruption of the original textual order, and the (incorrect) restoration and editorial expansion of the text by an ecclesiastical redactor. Any discussion of recent developments in this area will naturally and appropriately begin with his work.