Johannine Tradition Research Articles

The Two Asses of Zechariah 9:9 in Matthew 21

Matthew appears to depart from the Synoptics, Johannine tradition and from common sense when he gives Jesus two asses to ride on for his grand entrance into Jerusalem. Most commentators have assumed that Matthew misunderstood the meaning of the parallelism in Zechariah 9:9, which caused him to create another animal to enable Jesus to fulfil the prophecy. It will be suggested here that Matthew understood the concept of parallelism, but that he did not believe that Scripture should be interpreted in that way. This is in line with rabbinic thought of the first century which rejected the concept of parallelism in Scripture.

Review: Jesus in Johannine Tradition

Review: Jesus in Johannine Tradition

Book Review: Jesus in the Johannine Tradition

Book Review: Jesus in the Johannine Tradition

Cerinthus, Gnostic or Chiliast?: A New Solution to an Old Problem

Despite the potential importance of Cerinthus for understanding the development of Christianity in Asia Minor, his teaching and legacy have been obscured in the patristic reports about him. One can identify two contrasting images of Cerinthus in the sources: an early "gnostic" in conflict with the Johannine tradition (Irenaeus); a Judaistic chiliast who opposed the apostles (beginning with Gaius of Rome and culminating with Epiphanius of Salamis). This has resulted in an impasse in understanding the early heretic and his significance which has continued up to the present. This article proposes a way of sorting out the traditions concerning Cerinthus and making sense of the earliest accounts. Upon critical investigation, Irenaeus' profile of Cerinthus as an early ditheistic and adoptionistic Christian emerges as essentially unproblematic and plausible. But most elements of the "Judaic" portrait are shown to be the product of confusion. What remains from this portrait, namely Cerinthus' chiliasm, may however be understood as consistent with Irenaeus' report if it was the type of chiliasm taught later by Marcion. The article shows how Cerinthus' chiliasm finally can be accounted for as a natural, not a heterogenous, part of his dualizing and anti-Judaistic system. It suggests that a coherent picture of Cerinthus' teaching can now be of help in elucidating the background and history of the Johannine churches and the rise of Christian gnosticism.

La memoria simbolica del Gesù terreno nel libro dell’Apocalisse

After an introduction outlining the “status quaestionis” and proposing intertextuality (inter-dependence of texts) as a method of research the author divides the article in three parts. First, “The Gospel tradition and the book of Revelation” in which inter-textual relations of the book of Revelation with Synoptic and Johannine traditions are analysed. Then the author passes on to examine the single syntagma, ‘the testimony of Jesus” as an expression of tradition of the historical Jesus. He arrives at the symbolic apocalyptic representations of Jesus, viz., lamb, bridegroom and eshatological prophet and concludes that the truth of the revelation, a present reality with a view to fulfilment in future, is indeed based on the tradition of the historical Jesus.

The Fourth Gospel and the Jesus of History

In the ‘quest for the historical Jesus’ it has become axiomatic that the Fourth Gospel, with a few notable exceptions (e.g. certain elements in the passion narrative), has little to offer attempts to trace the person and activity of the pre-Easter Jesus. A study of the Johannine presentation of the beginnings of Jesus' ministry, his relationship with the Baptist, the calling of disciples and his presence in the Jerusalem Temple, suggests otherwise. Given the Markan imposition of a ‘framework’ upon the Synoptic tradition, the Johannine tradition may more accurately recall those early events.

Die Johanneiche Eschatologie. Band 1, Ihre Probleme im Spiegel der Forschung

Book Review| December 01 1999 Die Johanneiche Eschatologie. Band 1, Ihre Probleme im Spiegel der Forschung Die Johanneiche Eschatologie. Band 1, Ihre Probleme im Spiegel der Forschung, Jorg Frey. G. R. Beasley-Murray G. R. Beasley-Murray Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Journal of Biblical Literature (1999) 118 (4): 764–765. https://doi.org/10.2307/3268144 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation G. R. Beasley-Murray; Die Johanneiche Eschatologie. Band 1, Ihre Probleme im Spiegel der Forschung. Journal of Biblical Literature 1 January 1999; 118 (4): 764–765. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/3268144 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveSBL PressJournal of Biblical Literature Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Peter: apostle for the whole church

Pheme Perkins searches for the historical Peter, and the influence his image has had for both Roman Catholics and Protestants. Pointing to portrayals of Peter in the Pauline and Johannine traditions, the synoptic Gospels, and the Book of Acts, Perkins argues that precisely because there is no single Petrine tradition in the New Testament, the apostle should serve as a unifying figure for many forms of Christianity. She shows how Peter should be viewed as a harmonising figure who captures the Christian imagination, not only because he is the most prominent of Jesus disciples but also because his weaknesses and strengths reveal a character accessible to all Christians.

Amplification Techniques in 1 John: the Interaction of Rhetorical Style and Invention

This study demonstrates that the repetitive and emphatic nature of 1 John is explained by the author's use of recognized techniques of amplification common to Graeco- Roman rhetoric as a major part of his inventional strategy. Part 1 defines ampli fication and describes specific techniques used in 1 John. Among others, these include strong words, augmentation, comparison, accumulation, expolitio, reflexio, regressio, conduplicatio and distributio. Part 2 explains the author's use of ampli fication in the context of the rhetorical species of the letter. The repetitive and amplified nature of 1 John is an integral part of the author's use of epideictic rhetoric to increase his audience's adherence to the traditional truths of the Johannine Community in the face of secessionist challenges. Amplification clarifies the author's themes and topics, as well as the distinctions between Johannine tradition and its aberrant forms.

Book Review: The Anointed Community: The Holy Spirit in the Johannine Tradition

Book Review: The Anointed Community: The Holy Spirit in the Johannine Tradition

The Reworking of the Lake-Walking Account in the Johannine Tradition

The Reworking of the Lake-Walking Account in the Johannine Tradition

The Anointed Community: The Holy Spirit in the Johannine Tradition

The Anointed Community: The Holy Spirit in the Johannine Tradition

The Odes of Solomon and the Johannine Tradition

The Odes of Solomon and the Johannine Tradition

Blindness in the Johannine Tradition

That blindness should be a theme in the Johannine literature need cause no surprise; with the dualism of light and darkness and with the emphasis on what has beenseen, witnessed and believed, the surprise is rather that the theme is not more prevalent. Only at two places in the Gospel and one in the Epistles is the language of blindness explicitly used, in John 9, John 12. 40 and 1 John 2. 11. However, since each of these can be seen as a focal point or interpretative key to the Johannine tradition the theme could be held to present in microcosm the history of the Johannine community. Chapter 9, the healing of the blind man, has played a central role in recent reconstructions of that history, while the reflection on the effects of Jesus's public ministry in 12. 37–50, before he turns away to address ‘his own’, invites similar treatment. Finally, the redirection towards internal opposition of language originally aimed outwards has long been seen as a mark of 1 John and as central to its interpretation. The exploration of the theme may serve in the same way to test in microcosm the presuppositions and results of such reconstruction. It also does more than this, for the imagery of blindness is by no means unique to John and raises clearly the question of the origins as well as of the context of Johannine thought.

Love Relationships in the Johannine Tradition: Agape/Agapan in I John and the Fourth Gospel

Book Review| December 01 1984 Love Relationships in the Johannine Tradition: Agapē/Agapan in I John and the Fourth Gospel Love Relationships in the Johannine Tradition: Agapē/Agapan in I John and the Fourth Gospel, Fernando F. Segovia. Urban C. von Wahlde Urban C. von Wahlde Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Journal of Biblical Literature (1984) 103 (4): 661–663. https://doi.org/10.2307/3260498 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Urban C. von Wahlde; Love Relationships in the Johannine Tradition: Agapē/Agapan in I John and the Fourth Gospel. Journal of Biblical Literature 1 December 1984; 103 (4): 661–663. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/3260498 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveSBL PressJournal of Biblical Literature Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

The Source Analysis of the Fourth Gospel a Growing Consensus ?

Some seven years ago DWIGHT MOODY SMITH published his article, The Sources of the Gospel of John: An Assessment of the Present State of the Problem 1), in which he reviewed the work of HEINZ BECKER, WILHELM WILKENS, and SIEGFRIED SCHULZ endeavoring to penetrate behind the fourth gospel to the sources utilized by the evangelist. He concluded his essay by suggesting a number of trends which seemed to betray an emerging consensus in the source criticism of the fourth gospel: First, John did not use the synoptic gospels, even though he may have drawn some of his material from a tradition having some points of contact with the synoptic oral tradition; second, some interest in the genre of johannine Reden seemed to be arising; and third, the fundamentally semitic background of the johannine tradition seemed agreed upon, thanks in part to the discoveries at Qumran 2). While SMITH'S observations concerning the degree of consensus in Fourth gospel source criticism were accurate, it is instructive that he did not at the time of the publication of his article propose that an actual consensus was emerging among the critics as to which johannine passages are most likely to have been taken from a source and which originated from the hand of the evangelist. In the time which has elapsed since SMITH'S observations, we have had more opportunity to appropriate the contributions of the works he considered, and more important we have had new efforts at the task of the source critical study of the fourth gospel 3). For those

St. Luke and the Johannine Tradition

Research Article| December 01 1971 St. Luke and the Johannine Tradition F. Lamar Cribbs F. Lamar Cribbs Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Journal of Biblical Literature (1971) 90 (4): 422–450. https://doi.org/10.2307/3263613 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation F. Lamar Cribbs; St. Luke and the Johannine Tradition. Journal of Biblical Literature 1 December 1971; 90 (4): 422–450. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/3263613 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveSBL PressJournal of Biblical Literature Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 1971 Society of Biblical Literature1971 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

A Critical Comparison of the Dualism in 1QS III, 13–IV, 26 and the ‘Dualism’ Contained in the Fourth Gospel

Qumran dualism and its possible relation to Johannine ‘dualism’ has been a subject of considerable interest and discussion. In the light of recent studies and with the subsidence of the Qumran fever, the time may be opportune for a fresh assessment of the evidence. In this paper we shall confine ourselves to the crucial passage in IQS iii, 13–iv, 26. After examining the type of dualism reflected there, we shall proceed first to investigate the Johannine ‘dualism’ sepqrately, secondly to draw comparisons and contrasts, and finally to ask whether we are thereby led to any conclusions about the provenance of the Johannine tradition.

The Quartodecimans and the Synoptic Chronology

There is hardly a point in the whole Quartodeciman question that has not, at one time or another, been vigorously contested. Since the days when the Tübingen school interpreted the struggle to support their separation of the Fourth Gospel from the Johannine Tradition, there has grown up a veritable library of controversial literature on the subject. Perhaps the most judicious statement of the problem in English appeared in Stanton's The Gospels as Historical Documents (Part I, pp. 173–197), which was dependent upon Schürer's De Controversiis Paschalibus (1869). Since that time, however, the question has been re-opened by Schmidt's learned Excursus appended to his text of the Epistola Apostolorum. Dating this work in the 60's of the second century, he claimed that in Chapter 15 there was a reference to the Paschal controversy that confirmed his view. Furthermore, he contended that this section of the Epistola had once for all settled a number of uncertain problems. Chief among these was the significance attached by the Asiatic Church to the 14th of Nisan. Schmidt concluded from the words, “But do ye commemorate my death,” that on this day the Easterners celebrated the Passion. Henceforth it would be impossible to claim that the Quartodeciman rite implied a Christian “Passover” which commemorated the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist (pp. 600–601). Indeed, he went so far as to urge that the whole Asiatic practice was centered in the Passion to the exclusion of the Resurrection. Contrasting the Quartodeciman with the Catholic custom he wrote, “Dort Passah, hier Ostern!” (p. 579).