Download Chapter 18 – The Letters of John

Chapter 18 – The Letters of John
I. The History of the Johannine Community
Most scholars believe that the Gospel of John and the three Epistles of John originated in a
distinctive Christian community distinguished by a uniquely high Christology. Close study of
the Gospel and Epistles suggests that a variety of Jewish or other Palestinian groups,
including former disciples of John the Baptist, Samaritans, Essenes, Hellenist Jews, and
proto-Gnostics, influenced to different degrees the different stages of the community’s
development and hence of the Gospel’s composition. Several influential New Testament
scholars, notably Raymond E. Brown in The Community of the Beloved Disciple, J. Louis
Martyn in History and Theology in the Fourth Gospel, and Oscar Cullman in his The
Johannine Circle have employed sociohistorical methods to reconstruct the evolution of the
community that produced the Johannine literature.
Although scholars do not agree on the Johannine group’s precise stages of development—
reading the Johannine literature for its community history is an uncertain thing that is not
likely to produce consensus in the details—most accept some general inferences about the
community. (Here we follow Brown’s reconstruction most closely). Like most early Christian
believers, members of what would become the Johannine community were Jews with
connections to local synagogues. They probably differed from their compatriots only in their
belief that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Davidic Messiah, a relatively low Christology.
The galvanizing force behind this group may have been one of Jesus’ followers who later
became known as the Beloved Disciple. At some point relatively early in the community’s
growth, some members introduced ideas typical of the Qumran teachings, with their
dualistic concepts of cosmic opposites: Light-Dark, Good-Evil, Truth-Lie, Spirit-Flesh, and
children of God (the believers’ group. versus children of the devil (the believers’ religious
critics, come to be known as “the Jews”). As the community promoted an increasingly
exalted view of Jesus, identifying him with the heavenly Wisdom by which the universe was
created, its burgeoning claims for Jesus’ divinity brought it into open conflict with some
synagogue leaders, who probably saw Johannine Christology as a threat to Jewish
monotheism. Conflict with orthodox Judaism may have been exacerbated as Samaritans—
whom Jews regarded as heretics — also influenced the community, their presence reflected
in the Gospel’s stories of Samaritan conversions (John 4. and Jewish accusations that Jesus
was a Samaritan (8:48). Incorporating the Signs Gospel, a narrative of Jesus’ public miracles,
the first edition of John’s Gospel probably appeared in the 90s C.E., shortly after Johannine
Christians were expelled from the synagogue (John 9). By that time, Johannine believers
had expanded their Wisdom christology to believe that that Jesus was God’s Eternal Word
who descended from heaven to reveal divine knowledge (1:1-4, 14; 17:3., ascended to his
celestial place of origin, and caused followers to be “born from above.” Under the
guidance of the Beloved Disciple, the community also emphasized the continuing reality of
Jesus’ presence in the Paraclete, which illuminated their understanding of Jesus’ divine
nature. After their insistence on Jesus’ near-equality to God had alienated them from the
synagogue, further speculation on Jesus as pure spiritual Being apparently produced a
decisive split within the community membership, a division reflected in the Epistles of John.
Perhaps about 100—110 C.E., the anonymous writer of 1 John criticized a segment of his
group that had withdrawn from the Johannine community, accusing them of going over to
the world and being anti-Christs. He states that the secessionists deny that Jesus has come
“in the flesh” (in genuinely human form) suggesting that the author’s opponents were
proto-Gnostic Christians who viewed Christ as entirely spirit. After their bitter parting, the
two Johannine groups moved in different directions. The secessionists, who took John’s
Gospel with them, seem to have entered the (much wider. Gnostic movement, accounting
for the historical fact that the Fourth Gospel was widely used in Gnostic circles. The other
Johannine group, which had produced the Epistles denouncing an extreme Gnostic
interpretation of Jesus, eventually merged with the main church, bringing their Gospel and
its explicit pre-existence christology with them. Thus, John’s Gospel became the work that
ultimately defined Christian belief in Jesus’ dual nature.
Brown’s reconstruction of the History of the Johannine Community
PHASE ONE:
ORIGINS
(mid-50s to
late 80s.
ORIGINATING GROUP: In or near Palestine,
some Jews, including followers of John the
Baptizer, accepted Jesus as the Davidic
Messiah. Among this group was a man
who had known Jesus during the ministry
and who would become the Beloved
Disciple.
SECOND GROUP: Jews of an
anti-Temple bias who
believed in Jesus and made
converts in Samaria entered
the originating group. They
understood Jesus against a
Mosaic rather than a Davidic
background. Like Moses, he
had been with God, seen
God, and brought down
God’s words to people.
The acceptance of the Second group
catalyzed the development of a high, preexistence christology. This led to debates
with Jews who thought the Johannine
community was abandoning Jewish
monotheism by making a second God out
of Jesus. Ultimately the leaders of these
Jews had the Johannine Christians expelled
from the synagogues. The latter, alienated
from their own people, saw "the Jews" as
children of the devil. They stressed a
realization of the eschatological promises in
Jesus. The Disciple made this transition and
helped others to make it, thus becoming
the Beloved Disciple.
GENTILE CONVERTS:
Non-Jews enter the
Johannine community,
Samaritans at first and then
converts from other religions.
PHASE TWO:
GOSPEL
(CA. 90.
Since "the Jews" were blinded, the coming
of the Greeks was God's plan of fulfillment.
This contact brought out the universalistic
possibilities in Johannine thought.
However, rejection by others and
persecution by "the Jews" convinced
Johannine Christians that the world was
opposed to Jesus, and that they should not
belong to this world which was under the
power of Satan. Rejection of the high
Johannine christology by Jewish Christians
was seen as unbelief and led to a breaking
of communion. Communications were
kept open to the Apostolic Christians with
hopes for unity, despite differences of
christology and church structure.
The defensive concentration on christology
against "the Jews" and the Jewish
Christians led to a split within the
Johannine community.
PHASE THREE:
EPISTLES
(CA. 100.
THE ADHERENTS OF THE AUTHOR OF
THE EPISTLES: To be a child of God one
must confess Jesus come in the flesh
and must keep the commandments.
The secessionists are the children of the
devil and antichrists. Anointing with
the Spirit negates the need for human
teachers: test all who claim to have the
Spirit.
THE SECESSIONISTS: The One who
has come down from above is so
divine he is not fully human; he
does not belong to the world.
Neither his life on earth nor that of
the believer has salvific import.
Knowledge that God's Son came
into the world is all-important, and
those who believe in this are
already saved.
PHRASE FOUR:
AFTER THE EPISTLES
(2nd century.
UNION WITH THE GREAT CHURCH:
Unable to combat the secessionists
simply by appealing to tradition, and
losing out to their opponents, some of
the author's adherents accepted the
need for authoritative official teachers
(presbyter-bishops). At the same time,
the “great church” showed itself open
to the high Johannine christology.
There was a gradual assimilation into
the great church which was slow,
however, to accept formally the Fourth
Gospel since it was being misused by
gnostics.
ROAD TO GNOSTICISM: The larger
part of the Johannine community
seems to have accepted secessionist
theology which, having been cut off
from the moderates through
schism, moved toward true
docetism and gnosticism. They took
the Fourth Gospel with them; it was
accepted early by Gnostics who
commented on it.