John 9 as a Microcosm of the Gospel of John

The Gospel of John as Literature: An Anthology of Twentieth Century Literature, New Testament Tools, Studies and Documents, Vol. 17, Brill, 1993

A narrative analysis of John 9. This article first appeared in Kenneth R. R. Gross Louis (ed), Literary Interpretations of Biblical Narratives. Vol.II. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1982).

The Gospel of John: A Universalistic Reading, 2020

A Brief Review of the Book The Fourth Gospel functions as a literary masterpiece that facilitates a narrative beyond the time and space aspects. The Gospel's linguistic phenomena and stylistic aspects are peculiar as they attune the attention of the reader toward a dramatic and ideological world of its own. The connection between the narrator and the historical/implied/contemporary reader is established from an eternal vantage point as the narrator directs the reader toward atemporal and universal realities. The author as a classicist encompasses the socio-cultural and religio-political realities of the Greco-Roman world, incorporates the hope of the Jewish society, foregrounds the contextual realities and the struggles of the Johannine community, and fulfils the various demands and requirements of the future generations of readers and believers. The peculiar linguistic and idiosyncratic techniques of the narrator have the power to absorb the attention of the reader not only from a 'there and then' and 'here and now' senses but also from an 'everywhere and ever' perspective. In that sense, the Fourth Gospel functions as a gnomic and universalistic artistry. John's Gospel can be considered as a commentary in its own terms. The extended episodes of the Fourth Gospel, different from the Synoptic style of pericopes, foreground the ideas of the author through the exchange and episode developments. The Logos-Christology and the poetic demonstration of the coming of Jesus (1:1-18) reveal its universalistic aspects. John interprets history in the form of a quasi-poem, an interpretation, or ultimately a commentary in its own way. This style of the Gospel is designed with a gnomic perspective. The Fourth Gospel's 'vertical' and 'realizing' eschatology and the 'ever-continuing' present aspect support its gnomic and universalistic development. The Gospel's pre-existent Christology and the emphasis on life/eternal life take the reader's attention toward the everlasting perspective. The maxims like the "I AM Sayings" and the symbolic presentation of the Signs attune the attention of the reader toward the universal significance of the Gospel. The narrator and the implied reader dynamism of the text enable the modern reader to understand the narrative world of the gospel. The contemporary readers find the unique dynamism of the text as an interpretative means to get engaged with the text. The purpose statement of the Gospel (20:30-31; cf. 21:25) makes the implied reader aware of the logic behind all the events and the coherence of the discourses units. The narrator is fully concerned to inspire readers in/with the text to believe/continue to believe in Jesus that he is the Messiah and the Son of God and that through believing they may receive 'eternal life' and be saved. Thus from the soteriological point of view, the Gospel promises eternal guarantee and protection. The dialogues as active voice and direct speech units influence the reader to be a 'believer' and to be saved. This feature of the dialogue enables it to be a performative act in itself. It provides pleasure to the reader and helps her/him to be persuaded, provoked and transformed. Thus the text works with all the characteristic features of rhetoric. The text, in that sense, cannot be reckoned as a 'passive' treatise rather as an 'active' counterpart to the modern reader. It happens only when the narrator takes extra effort to tell the story dramatically through the means of showing and telling (cf. Quintilian, Inst

John 10 is a difficult chapter when considering its chronological order and apparent displacements. Some critics have held that chapter 10 is disordered and therefore have argued for its rearrangement. This thesis is an analysis of the discourse features investigating the unity and argument of chapter 10. The research opens with exploring the historical views regarding the unity and argument of John 10 in the introduction. Following this is an examination of the literary components that make up the overall literary structure of John’s Gospel and how chapter 10 fits into its literary flow. This provides a foundation for a study of the semantic relations and the micro-level markers of cohesion and shift together with the macro-level markers of cohesion discussing discourse features in John 10. The objective is to discover what the discourse features reveal about the unity and argument of the chapter. The analysis suggests that John did not adhere to the strict rules of narrative when writing his Gospel, but that he sought to implement a certain Christian view using particular facts that where available to him. Therefore John was free to form his narrative on a purposeful artistic arrangement which is unified and coherent.

In this article, the problems revolving around the Prologue and its relationship with the rest of the Gospel are investigated from a theological perspective. The research has tended to focus on such issues as the views of revelation and salvation found in the Prologue and the subsequent narrative and on their respective use of symbolism.

1992

The question of how to read the Bible is a perennial one. How do we interpret the God who claims to transcend our human categories? The difficulty is particularly acute in John's Gospel with its account of a man, Jesus, who claims to be God. Based on the principle that a text can present the radically transcendent only by disrupting itself, this book considers not just the sense of the Gospel, but also the breakdown of this sense. Focusing on its failure to humanly locate its central character and on the many misunderstandings which surround him, it presents a new approach to the Gospel's paradoxes. The result is a new definition of this sacred text based on a new hermeneutics.

Asia Pacific Journal of Academic Research in Social Sciences, 2020

John's Gospel is considered a unique testimony concerning Jesus Christ, though different from the Synoptic. Modern scholarship discourse of John's gospel brings several issues (structure, authorship, recipient and many more) in to lime light. The focus of this discourse is the quest for the central theme of John's Gospel; which makes the prologue (1:1-18) and farewell discourse (14-17) the spotlight of this research. Many Johannine scholars have concentrated on the Prologue and have studied its themes, theologies and structure, with varying results. However, there have been limited attempts to contrast it with the farewell discourse; thus, this research employs a descriptive and analytical methodology to engage the highlighted sections with the aim of conveying a lucid understanding of the two sections "the central theme" of John's Gospel and it's applicability to the contemporary Christian community. The Christian Community is of great advantage having the same sections in one piece, to enrich and provide Christians with enough information concerning the account of Jesus Christ.

This outline traces the argument of the Gospel of John with selected annotations in footnotes.

This document discusses introductory issues to the Gospel of John