Commentary on John 1:19-34

Conférence

In order to tackle the complex question of incarnation from my standpoint as an exegete, I propose to enter the text of the prologue of the fourth Gospel into a dialog, firstly with itself, secondly with the Johannine narrative (today, due to limited time, only with one episode, that of the resurrection of Lazarus in John 11). 1. The Johannine prologue in tension with itself What do I mean by « incarnation »? Simply this, from the prologue: the Word/the logos, that which John tells us was with God, has become flesh. Hence this challenge that the Gospel of John aims at meeting: to read together both of these two declarations, one on the heels of the other, "θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος (Joh 1:1-1c)" and "ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο (Joh 1:14a)". How is it possible to grasp the distance between those two assertions? The first one puts the logos on the side of a transcendence, a kind of verticality, an heterogeneity from the world, an alterity to the kosmos (to use Johannine vocabulary). The second one inscribes the logos in immanence, horizontality, homogeneity, identity with the world. In the Gospel according to John, the logos may be known first as that which is before God and is God, and also as the figure of Christ, word become flesh and whose travels in this world are recounted in the narrative that follows the prologue. For John, the logos is God at the same time as it is flesh. The logos is radically other, at the same time as it is immanent, mortal, finite. The interface between those two modes of being of the logos probably lies in the famous "I am" (egô eimi) of the Johannine Jesus, scattered all along the narrative of his ministry (the bread of life, the light of the world, the door, the good shepherd, the resurrection

John the Baptist is considered as an important figure within Second Temple Judaism. His innovative use of ritual immersion is explored, as is also his social context and relationship with Jesus. The published book is now available here as I have retrieved the rights from Eerdmans and can make it freely available.

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies, 2018

Three aspects of the Prologue and its background in the Gospel of John make it clear that in the Bible God meets people where they are. He inspires ordinary human beings to write in the language, culture, and concepts that would be familiar to their original readers. First, John made use, for example, of an early Christian hymn to express his exalted insights into the nature and character of Jesus Christ. Second, he also structured the Prologue in ways that would make logical sense to a Jewish reader. Third, he gave Jesus a title (the Word) that was far better known in the pagan Gentile world than such Jewish titles such as Messiah or Son of Man. By these strategies John, under inspiration, created a Prologue that would speak powerfully to every reader of his day, whether Christian, Jewish, or pagan. These three strategies will be examined in greater depth. Based on an Early Christian Hymn First of all, there is considerable evidence that major parts of the Prologue to the Fourth Gospel were drawn from an early Christian hymn. John 1:1, 2, for example, although written in Greek, displays the poetic parallelism so common to Hebrew poetry and song: In the beginning was the Word and was the Word with God and was the Word God In the beginning was this One with God The hymn-like nature of the Prologue is further seen in the "stairstep parallelism" of verses 4 and 5.

In die Skriflig / In Luce Verbi, 2020

This article focusses on how this interaction presents the characterisation of Jesus in the First Gospel, Matthew. In this Gospel, material about John predominates in chapters 3 and 11. Meier (1980:387) pointedly refers to Matthew 3 as 'the Baptist's view of Jesus and himself' and to the first half of Matthew 11 as 'Jesus' view of the Baptist and himself'. In addition to these two chapters, shorter references to the interaction or relation between Jesus and John are made in Matthew 14, 16, 17 and 21. This article explores all these passages that emphasise the relation and interaction between Jesus and John. While verses are explored in which explicit interaction between Jesus and John is narrated, these verses are read within their immediate contextual narrated scenes. While attending to Matthew's narrative, comparisons are made with parallel passages in the other Synoptic Gospels to further sharpen the discussion of the Matthean narrator's unique contribution. 1.The 'story' of a narrative includes events, setting and characters (Kingsbury 1986:9; Powell 2009:45-52). Authors bring characters to life by way of characterisation (Anderson 1994:78; Powell 1990:51; Tolmie 1999:41). Characterisation can take place by letting the characters act and speak by themselves, or to let other characters talk to or about them, or to react towards them. See Viljoen (2018a:3-6) for a more extensive discussion of how characterisation is established in a narrative text. 2.The Gospels are read as narratives with references to their so-called narrative worlds, without invalidating their historical references. The basis of this approach is that the biblical texts are historical, as they stem from a historical context. They are primarily referential, referring to entities beyond the texts themselves, and not purely 'literary'. The narrators wrote historical narratives, addressing religious communities that were confronted with real social and historical issues (Viljoen 2018a:2). It goes without saying that Jesus is the protagonist, the main character, in the Gospel narratives. Much of this characterisation is achieved by presenting his speech and actions. As his speech and actions occur in relation to other major and minor characters in the narrative, much of the characterisation is achieved by presenting the interaction between Jesus and these other characters. Among humans, John the Baptist acts as Jesus' main supporting character. He is portrayed as a reliable witness to Jesus' life, of the one to come. This article focusses on the characterisation of Jesus in the First Gospel, based on examining his relation to and interaction with John. Passages in this Gospel narrating the relation and interaction between John and Jesus are explored to identify Jesus' character traits. These are multi-faceted and relates to Messianic expectations described in Jewish writings. Yet, the Matthean narrator argues that Jesus surpasses these expectations-even those of John the Baptist himself.

In: Hearing and Doing the Word, 2021

As widely (though not universally) agreed and as assumed here, Mark wrote his Gospel first, Matthew second, Luke third, John last of all; and these evangelists pick up the story of Jesus at successively earlier points:  Mark at John the Baptist's introduction of Jesus onto the public stage;  Matthew at Jesus's birth;  Luke at the prior birth of John the Baptist; and  John the evangelist at the beginning, prior even to creation. John's starting at an earlier point than all the rest sets the stage for an analogous dating of events earlier than they occur in the synoptic Gospels: According to Matthew and Mark, Jesus described his coming death as a sacrifice not until he had passed the midpoint of his public ministry, and did so only in private to his disciples: "even to give his life as a ransom in substitution for many" (Mk. 10:45; Mt. 20:28). In John's Gospel Jesus is publicly proclaimed to be a sacrifice already by the Baptist: "Look! The lamb of God that takes away the world's sin!" (1:29, 36). In Mark, no human being recognizes and declares the divine sonship of Jesus till his death-and then only, though importantly, on the part of a centurion: "Truly this human being was God's Son" (Mk. 15:39; similarly Mt. 27:54 with the addition of the centurion's fellow guardsmen). But in Matthew, eleven of the twelve disciples recognize and declare it on their own