Cover

Table of Contents

Foreword

Abbreviations

Part 1: Confronting the Challenges of the Prologue

R. Alan Culpepper: The Prologue as Theological Prolegomenon to the Gospel of John

I. The Work of Creation through the Logos (v. 3)

II. The Giving of the Law through Moses (v. 17)

III. The Sending of John the Baptist (vv. 6–8, 15)

IV. The Coming of the Light (v. 9)/the Incarnation of the Logos (v. 14)

V. The Birth of the Children of God (vv. 12–13)

VI. Synthesis

John Ashton: Really a Prologue?

I. Some False Routes

II. The Logos Hymn

III. An Historical Parenthesis

IV. A Real Prologue

1. The Logos Hymn

2. Moses and the Law

3. Revelation

William R. G. Loader: The Significance of the Prologue for Understanding John’s Soteriology

Jan van der Watt: John 1:1 – A “Riddle”? Grammar and Syntax Considered

I. Introduction

II. Grammatical Issues in John 1:1

1. Ἐν ἀρχῇ: Definite or Indefinite?

2. Is the πρός in πρὸς τὸν θεόν Grammatically Used in a Riddle-Like Way?

III. Is the Absence of the Preposition in the Phrase καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος in 1c Irregular?

1. A Definite Use

2. An Indefinite Use (the Word Was a God)

3. Interchangeability

4. Qualitative Use

5. Theological Considerations

6. Idiomatic Use?

IV. The Syntactical Dynamics of John 1:1

V. Concluding Remarks

Catrin H. Williams: (Not) Seeing God in the Prologue and Body of John’s Gospel

I. Who Can See God?

II. Moses and “Seeing God”

III. Isaiah and “Seeing the Glory”

IV. Concluding Reflections

Ruben Zimmermann: John (the Baptist) as a Character in the Fourth Gospel: The Narrative Strategy of a Witness Disappearing

I. A Brief Introduction to Different Approaches to “Character and Characterization”

II. John (the Baptist) in the Johannine Prologue

1. Inventory of Characters

2. Constellation of Characters

3. Characterization

4. Character Traits

III. John (the Baptist) in the Body of the Gospel

1. John 1:19–36: Threefold Witnessing

2. John 3:23–30, 31–36: He Who Has the Bride …

3. John 5:31–38: Testimony of the Lamp

4. John 10:40–41: Many Believers across the Jordan

IV. The Concept of Character

1. Substantial Conceptualization (Character Traits; Character and Plot)

2. Formal Conceptualization (Focalization and Characterization)

Michael Theobald: Eine Gemeinschaft von „Zeugen“ (von Joh 1:7, 15 bis 3 Joh 12): Beobachtungen zur Genese des Corpus Iohanneum auf der Basis des Prologs

I. Die johanneische Zeugnisterminologie und ihre Verteilung auf das Corpus Iohanneum

Exkurs: Das Corpus Iohanneum und die Johannesoffenbarung

II. Schlussfolgerungen aus dem Befund sowie weitere Fragen

III. Zur Deutung der „Autorisierungsformeln“ Joh 21:24 und 3 Joh 12

1. Zur Deutung von Joh 21:24

2. Zur Deutung von 3 Joh 12

IV. Zur diachronen Zuordnung der „Autorisierungsformeln“ Joh 19:35; 21:24 und 3 Joh 12

V. Die Konstruktionsprinzipien des Corpus Iohanneum – ein Resümee

Anhang: Der Topos Sehen und Bezeugen im Corpus Iohanneum

Christos Karakolis: The Logos-Concept and Dramatic Irony in the Johannine Prologue and Narrative

I.

II.

III.

Part 2: Reading the Language and Concepts of the Prologue in Their Philosophical Context

Udo Schnelle: Philosophische Interpretation des Johannesevangeliums: Voraussetzungen, Methoden und Perspektiven

I. Einleitung

II. Voraussetzungen

1. Theologie als Philosophie/Philosophie als Theologie

2. Die Bildung der neutestamentlichen Autoren

3. Die Stellung der neutestamentlichen Schriften in der antiken Literaturgeschichte

4. Die Paulus- und Johannesschule

5. Hermeneutische Dimensionen: Sinn und Deutung, Kontexte, Anschlussfähigkeit und Diskurs

III. Die Methodik einer philosophischen Interpretation des Johannesevangeliums

1. Beispiel 1: Kosmologie und Logos

2. Beispiel 2: Wahrheit

3. Beispiel 3: Gottesdefinitionen

IV. Perspektiven

Jörg Frey: Between Torah and Stoa: How Could Readers Have Understood the Johannine Logos?

I. The Enigma of the Logos in Scholarship

1. The Introduction of the History-of-Religions Perspective

2. The Presentation of the Logos in Some Recent Commentaries

3. Reopening the Window: The History of Religions and the Reception Perspective

II. The Early Reception as an Indication of Potential Philosophical Reading Contexts

III. Greco-Roman Contexts

1. The Wide Range of Meanings

2. Greek Philosophical Dimensions of the Term

a) Heraclitus and the Rise of the Λόγος Concept

b) The Stoic Concept

c) Later Platonism

d) Hermetism

e) Greek Hypostases of the Logos

IV. Biblical and Early Jewish Contexts

1. The Biblical Notion of Word of God in Creation and History

2. The Wisdom Tradition and Hypostatic Wisdom

3. The Various Functions of the Logos in Philo

4. Targumic and Rabbinic Ideas about the Word of God

5. The Word in the Early Christian Tradition

V. Clarifications in the Reading Process

1. How Could the Logos Be Known?

2. The Intertextual Link to Genesis and the Creation Discourse

3. Contextualizing ὁ λόγος in Reading the Prologue

4. An Open Opening and Its Hermeneutic Potential

VI. Concluding Perspectives

1. John in Cross-Cultural Perspective

2. Methodological Perspectives for History-of-Religions Research

Craig R. Koester: “Spirit” (Pneuma) in Greco-Roman Philosophy and the Gospel of John

I. Pneuma in Philosophical Sources

II. Pneuma in John’s Gospel

III. Recent Proposals on Pneuma in John and Stoicism

IV. John and Stoicism on “God is Pneuma” (John 4:24)

George L. Parsenios: Confounding Foes and Counseling Friends: Parrēsia in the Fourth Gospel and Greco-Roman Philosophy

I. Introduction

II. Boldness among Both Foes and Friends

III. Boldness, Cowardice and Vanity

IV. Boldness between Opponents: Parrēsia, Elenchus and the Exposure of Sins

V. Parrēsia and Personal Peril

VI. The Silence of Jesus before His Accusers

VII. Boldness among Friends: Parrēsia and Philia

VIII. Conclusion

Marianne Meye Thompson: “Light” (φῶς): The Philosophical Content of the Term and the Gospel of John

I. Light in Ancient Philosophical Sources: Two Patterns

II. Light in the Gospel of John

III. A Brief Concluding Remark

Jean Zumstein: „Zeichen“ (σημεῖον): Philosophischer Inhalt und Gebrauch des Begriffs im Johannesevangelium

I. Das philosophisch-religiöse Verständnis des Zeichens in der Antike

1. Einige Beispiele aus der philosophischen Tradition (von Aristoteles bis Sextus Empiricus)

2. Semeion in der antiken Literatur und Historiographie

3. Semeion in der Literatur des antiken Judentums

II. Das johanneische Verständnis des Zeichens

1. Das Zeichen

2. Das Objekt

3. Interpretant

a) Ignoranz und Anfechtung des Zeichens

b) Die nomistische Interpretation

c) Die triumphierende Interpretation (Kapitel 6)

d) Die jesuanische Interpretation bzw. die Interpretation des Erzählers (Joh 2:11; 9; 11)

III. Schluss

List of Contributors

Bibliography

Index of Ancient Authors

Index of Modern Authors