Lesson 5: The Gospel according to John and Gnostics thing

Question 1

what does Jesus confess and do in gospel of john that makes this gospel unique?

Answer 1

he says that he is:

• “the bread of life”
• “the light of the world”
• “the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep”
• “the way, the truth, and the life

This is the Gospel that identifies Jesus as the Word of God “through whom all things were made.”

the astonishing claim that “before Abraham was, I am,” where he confesses that “I and the Father are one,”

Jesus performs many of his most memorable acts: turning the water into wine, raising his friend Lazarus from the dead, and washing his disciples’ feet

Question 2

the socio-historical method

Answer 2

seeks to understand how a literary text reflects the social world and historical circumstances of the author who produced it

one of the prerequisites for applying this method is a detailed knowledge of the text itself

Question 3

what type of text is the Gospel of John

Answer 3

Greco Roman Biography

Question 4

the Johannine Prologue of the Gospel of John

Answer 4

provides a kind of mystical reflection on the “Word” of God

–> a being from eternity past who was with God and yet was God, who created the universe, who provided life and light to all humans, and who entered into the world that he had made, only to be rejected by his own people

Question 5

the Farewell Discourse

Answer 5

longest discourse of the Gospel of John

Jesus states that he is soon to leave the disciples to return to the Father

he will send the Disciples another comforter, the Holy Spirit

Question 6

how are Jews depicted in the Gospel of John?

Are Jesus and his followers Jews in the gospel or nah?

Answer 6

portrayed as the enemies of Jesus who are consequently opposed to God and aligned with the Devil and the forces of evil

–> important to note that not all Jews are lumped together and branded as the enemies of God

–> the ennemies are “the Jews” of the local synagogue who have opposed his Christian community

Jesus and his followers are portrayed as Jews who subscribe to the authority of Moses and participate in the Jewish cult and the Jewish festival

Question 7

how is Jesus identified in the prologue of John?

what is odd about this?

Answer 7

the prologue identifies Jesus as the Word of God who has become human

he is never explicitly called this anywhere else in the Gospel

Question 8

main themes in John?

Answer 8

Jesus speaks of possessing the glory of the Father “before the world was made”

Jesus says “I and the Father are one”

Jesus claims to be “the resurrection and the life”

Jesus says that he is “the light of the world”

Jesus is “sent” from God

Jesus is rejected by “the Jews”

Jesus is the Word of God, the creator of the universe, the equal of God, or the one sent from heaven and soon to return

Question 9

what is unique about the John?

Answer 9

if we use the comparative method, we see that most of the main themes used are not in the synoptic gospels

none of the main stories from the synoptics are found in John

–> ex: Bethleem, Jesus wanting to stay discreet, Jesus not being sure about dying, etc

the majority of John’s stories are unique to John; they are found nowhere else

Whereas Jesus scarcely ever talks about himself in the Synoptics, that is virtually all he talks about in John

Question 10

explain the differences between the stories that John and the rest synoptics share

Answer 10

Jesus does not do as many miracles in John as he does in the Synoptics, but the ones he does are, for the most part, far more spectacular

–> unlike in the Synoptics, Jesus does nothing to hide his abilities

Question 11

unlike the Synoptics, why does the Fourth Gospel use Jesus’ miracles?

Answer 11

to convince people of who he is

“Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe”

done publicly in order to convince people of Jesus’ identity so that they may come to believe in him

note that in the synoptics, Jesus refuses to do miracles to prove his identity

Question 12

in the Fourth Gospel, why do we say “signs” instead of “miracles” when Jesus does some godly actions?

Answer 12

miracles = demonstration of power

“signs” = for they are signs of who Jesus is

Question 13

do scholars think John used the Synoptics as source?

why?

Answer 13

nah

too many differences

they do not have extensive verbatim agreements, even in the stories that they happen to share

John probably didn’t know about them

Question 14

The few similarities between John and the Synoptics derive from where?

Answer 14

from related oral traditions in circulation in their respective communities

Question 15

the evidence that we have that John used other sources

Answer 15

passages appear to come from different writers (writing style changes)

There are several passages in this Gospel that appear redundant, where similar accounts are repeated in slightly different words

–> probably deriving from different sources

Inconsistencies in John’s narrative (literary seams)

Question 16

the central theme of the John prologue?

Answer 16

Jesus is the Word made flesh

Question 17

Character of the Sources in John

Answer 17

The Signs Source

Discourse Sources

Passion Source

Other Sources

Question 18

The Signs Source

Answer 18

a source that described the signs of Jesus

written to persuade people that he was the messiah, the Son of God

Question 19

how many signs in the gospel of john?

what important about that number?

how is this a scam?

Answer 19

there are seven signs in the Gospel

seven is the perfect number, the number of God; is it an accident that there were seven signs?

a scam because the source may have described the signs that Jesus did in sequence and enumerated each one

–> John kept the first two enumerations but for some unknown reason eliminated the others

–> Jesus does other signs between the first two signs

Question 20

Discourse Sources

Answer 20

there must have been more than one of the speech sources

–> the best explanation for the literary problems in the Farewell Discourse

Question 21

Passion Source

Answer 21

Most scholars are persuaded that John’s Passion narrative derives from a source that was similar in many ways to the narrative that is found in Mark

Question 22

Other Sources in John

Answer 22

there were other sources for the prologue and different stories

Question 23

what do we need for the socio historical perspective?

Answer 23

the context of the people living

their personalities

most importantly, their experiences

Question 24

what language were the stories in the gospel of john first told in?

Answer 24

in Aramaic

Question 25

the Johannine community originated from what?

Answer 25

as a group of Jews who came to believe that Jesus was the messiah and who nonetheless continued to maintain their Jewish identity and to worship in their Jewish synagogue The Johannine community of Jewish believers may have owed its existence to a follower of Jesus whom they later called “the beloved disciple”

Question 26

what is the plausible scenario that led to the Johannine community being excluded by the Jews?

Answer 26

First-century Jews by and large rejected any idea that Jesus could be the messiah From its earliest days, however, Christianity was a missionary religion, dedicated to converting others to faith in Jesus There was increased antagonism from non-Christian Jews and, on the other, to heightened efforts at evangelism on the part of the Christian Jews Eventually, these believers in Jesus became something more than a headache

Question 27

How did the Johannine community feel about the Jews after being excluded?

Answer 27

They felt prosecuted they had hate for them they called them the enemies of Jesus they had that "us vs them" mentality they believed that Jesus was the representative of God, and the enemies of God could not possibly accept his representative

Question 28

difference between John and the Synoptics when it comes to the after life

Answer 28

For John, eternal life is not a future event --> “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” (3:36) Eternal life in this Gospel does not come at the end of time, when the Son of Man arrives on the clouds of heaven and brings in the kingdom --> That is why Jesus does not deliver an “apocalyptic discourse” in this Gospel Eternal life is here and now, for all who believe in Jesus

Question 29

who do researchers think wrote John?

Answer 29

John the son of Zebedee, commonly thought to be the mysterious “beloved disciple” it was someone other than the author of the final form of the book the Fourth Gospel was probably not the literary product of a single author

Question 30

how many of the New Testament writings are epistles?

Answer 30

seventeen out of twenty-seven books

Question 31

An epistle

Answer 31

a letter, that is, a piece of private or public correspondence sent through the ancient equivalent of the mail writings of Christian leaders to individuals or churches to address problems that have arisen in their communities written in response to situations that the authors felt a need to address

Question 32

contextual analysis

Answer 32

useful in knowing not only what this literature says or teaches but also the specific historical circumstances that led to its production closely related to the socio-historical method described the principal concern is the literary text itself --> the social history of the community that is presupposed by the text is used to explain some of its important features On the basis of the conversation that we do hear, we try to reconstruct the conversation that we do not, and thereby come to a better understanding of what the author is trying to say

Question 33

the shared themes between the epistles and the Gospel of John

Answer 33

The images of light and darkness The new and old commandments Abiding in Christ The command to love one another within the community Being hated by the world Christ “laying down his life” for others Christ as the one sent by God into the world out of love

Question 34

What led a group of Johannine Christians to split from the community?

Answer 34

they did not hold the same beliefs about Jesus than the rest of the group they were called the Anti-Christ people such as Ignatius, believed everything Jesus did was for show and he didn't actually feel anything when he died ever since they were excluded, the Johannine community started to believe that Jesus was more and more divine --> Some of them took their christology a step further: not only was Jesus equal with God, he was God himself, totally and completely --> if he was God, he could not be flesh because God was not composed of flesh; Jesus therefore merely appeared to be a human

Question 35

what did the author of the epistles think of the sececionnists?

Answer 35

The Johannine epistles were written by an author who thought that the secessionists had gone too far --> For this author, Christ was indeed a flesh-and-blood human being; he was the savior “come in the flesh,” whose blood brought about salvation from sin

Question 36

do we actually know about the Johannine secessionists?

Answer 36

No, what we know how the author of 1 John portrayed them

Question 37

Christian gnostics

Answer 37

These groups were not unified among themselves: there were lots of different gnostic groups and they taught lots of different things For all of them, this world was an evil place in which to live, and those who wanted to escape needed to acquire the knowledge (gnosis) necessary for liberation some of these Christian Gnostics produced Gospels of their own, books that never became part of the New Testament The Fourth Gospel enjoyed particular success among many of the communities of Christian Gnostics

Question 38

what did proto-orthodox church fathers like Justin, Irenaeus, and Tertullian think of Gnosticism?

Answer 38

perceived it as a major threat to the success and unity of Christianity pulled out all the stops in their assaults on it claim that certain groups of Gnostics engaged in wild sexual orgies and bizarre nocturnal rituals that involved eating babies

Question 39

Gnosticism

Answer 39

refers to a diverse set of views, many of them influenced by Christianity, that may have been in existence by the end of the first century but certainly by the middle of the second

Question 40

The World: Metaphysical Dualism

Answer 40

Gnostics understood the world in radically dualistic term All of existence could be divided into matter and spirit

Question 41

how did gnostics believe that the world was created

Answer 41

the creation of the world was the result of a cosmic catastrophe they did not believe that the one true God had created this world --> For them, the material world was inherently evil --> the true God, author of all good, could not have created something that was evil

Question 42

Aeons

Answer 42

according to some of the Gnostic myths offspring of the one true God

Question 43

The reason Gnostics feel so alienated in this world

Answer 43

because they actually are alienated they believe that each has a spark of the divine, entrapped by alien beings who are committed to keeping it imprisoned for their own purposes know that they do not belong in this material world; heaven is their home

Question 44

only way that Gnostics claimed that a person could be saved from this material world

Answer 44

only by acquiring the proper knowledge.

Question 45

the favorite gospel of Gnostics?

Answer 45

the Gospel of Mark

Question 46

three classes that the human race could be divided according to some Christian Gnostics

Answer 46

(a) the Gnostics themselves (b) other Christians, who mistakenly believed that they had the truth c) all other persons, who had no part of the divine within them and were destined for destruction along with the rest of the material world when the salvation of the divine sparks had been complete

Question 47

some of the same (or similar) stories are found in both John and the synoptics

Answer 47

the feeding of the five thousand the walking on the water many of the events of the Passion narrative Jesus’ anointing his entry into jerusalem his betrayal and arrest the denial by peter the roman trial crucifixion

Question 48

limitation to the contextual analysis

Answer 48

words convey meaning only within a context; thus, when you change the context of words, you change what they mean

Question 49

Sethian Gnostics

Answer 49

understood themselves to be the spiritual descendants of Seth, the third son of adam and eve

Question 50

sfethian myths

Answer 50

present detailed and complex myths that explain the origins of the divine realm, the material world, and the humans who inhabit the material world begin by describing the original, single, perfect divine --> the invisible spirit