John, Jesus, and History. Volume 1, Critical Appraisals of Critical Views (Society of Biblical Literature Symposium Series)

357 Pages·2007·1.71 MB·English

by  Paul N. Anderson

JOHN, JESUS, AND HISTORY, VOLUME 1:
CRITICAL APPRAISALS OF CRITICAL VIEWS
Symposium Series
Victor H. Matthews,
Series Editor
Number 44
JOHN, JESUS, AND HISTORY, VOLUME 1:
CRITICAL APPRAISALS OF CRITICAL VIEWS
JOHN, JESUS, AND HISTORY, VOLUME 1:
CRITICAL APPRAISALS OF CRITICAL VIEWS
Edited by
Paul N. Anderson,
Felix Just, S.J.,
and
Tom Thatcher
BRILL
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2007
JOHN, JESUS, AND HISTORY, VOLUME 1:
CRITICAL APPRAISALS OF CRITICAL VIEWS
Copyright © 2007 by the Society of Biblical Literature
This edition published under license from the Society of Biblical Literature by
Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by
means of any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permit-
ted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission
should be addressed in writing to the Rights and Permissions Office, Society of Biblical
Literature, 825 Houston Mill Road, Atlanta, GA 30329 USA.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
John, Jesus, and history / edited by Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, and Tom Thatcher.
p. cm. — (Society of Biblical Literature symposium series ; 44)
Contents: v. 1. Critical appraisals of critical views.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN: 978-90-04-15743-9 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Bible. N.T. John—Criticism, interpretation, etc.—Congresses. 2. Jesus Christ—
Historicity—Congresses. I. Anderson, Paul N., 1956– II. Just, Felix. III. Thatcher, Tom,
1967–. IV. Title. V. Series.
BS2615.52.J65 2007b
226.5'067—dc22 2007034759
ISSN: 1569-3627
Printed in The Netherlands
on acid-free paper.
Contents
Abbreviations ...............................................................................................................vii
Prologue: Critical Views of John, Jesus, and History
Paul N. Anderson ....................................................................................................1
Part 1: Introductory Matters
Introduction: The John, Jesus, and History Project
Tom Thatcher ...........................................................................................................9
Why This Study Is Needed, and Why It Is Needed Now
Paul N. Anderson ..................................................................................................13
Part 2: Reviews of the Literature:
How Did John Become the “Spiritual” Gospel?
The Dehistoricizing of the Gospel of John
Robert Kysar...........................................................................................................75
The “Spiritual Gospel”: How John the Theologian Writes History
Marianne Meye Thompson ................................................................................103
The De-Johannification of Jesus: The Revisionist Contribution of Some
Nineteenth-Century German Scholarship
Jack Verheyden ...................................................................................................109
The De-Johannification of Jesus: The Twentieth Century and Beyond
Mark Allan Powell ..............................................................................................121
The Challenge of the Balkanization of Johannine Studies
D. A. Carson .......................................................................................................133
Part 3: Disciplinary Approaches to the Issues:
Grinding New Lenses and Gaining New Insights
John: A Source for Jesus Research?
D. Moody Smith ..................................................................................................165
vi CONTENTS
“We Know That His Testimony Is True”: Johannine Truth Claims
and Historicity
Andrew T. Lincoln ..............................................................................................179
New Historicism and the Historical Jesus in John: Friends or Foes?
Colleen M. Conway ............................................................................................199
John’s Literary Unity and the Problem of Historicity
Gilbert Van Belle with Sydney Palmer..............................................................217
Memory Holds the Key: The Transformation of Memory in the
Interface of History and Theology in John
John Painter ........................................................................................................229
Part 4: Ways Forward: A Case Study
The Historical Jesus, the Scene in the Temple, and the Gospel of John
Paula Fredriksen .................................................................................................249
On Deal-Breakers and Disturbances
Mark Allan Powell ..............................................................................................277
Part 5: Concluding Matters
Getting a “Sense of the Meeting”: Assessments and Convergences
Paul N. Anderson ...............................................................................................285
Epilogue: Where Do We Go from Here?
Felix Just, S.J. .......................................................................................................291
Bibliography ...............................................................................................................295
Contributors ...............................................................................................................327
Index of Ancient Sources..........................................................................................329
Index of Modern Authors and Authorities ............................................................342
Abbreviations
AB Anchor Bible
ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary. Edited by David Noel Freedman. 6 vols.
New York: Doubleday, 1992.
ACNT Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament
AnBib Analecta biblica
ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur
Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung. Part 2, Principat. Edited
by Hildegard Temporini and Wolfgang Haase. Berlin: de Gruyter,
1972–.
A.J. Flavius Josephus, Antiquitates judaicae (Jewish Antiquities)
BETL Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum lovaniensium
Bib Biblica
BibInt Biblical Interpretation
BIS Biblical Interpretation Series
B.J. Flavius Josephus, Bellum judaicum (Jewish War)
BNTC Black’s New Testament Commentaries
BRev Bible Review
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
ConBNT Coniectanea biblica: New Testament Series
ETL Ephemerides theologicae lovanienses
ExpTim Expository Times
FE Fourth Evangelist
FG Fourth Gospel
FRLANT Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen
Testaments
GBS Guides to Biblical Scholarship
Haer. Irenaeus of Lyons, Contra haereses (Against Heresies)
Hist. eccl. Eusebius of Caesarea, Historia ecclesiastica (History of the Church)
Int Interpretation
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JSHJ Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus
JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament
JSNTSup Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series
-vii-
viii ABBREVIATIONS
JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series
JTS Journal of Theological Studies
NIB The New Interpreter’s Bible: General Articles and Introduction, Com-
mentary, and Reflections for Each Book of the Bible. 13 vols. Nash-
ville: Abingdon, 1994–2004.
NovT Novum Testamentum
NovTSup Novum Testamentum Supplements
NTS New Testament Studies
QRT Quaker Religious Thought
RB Revue biblique
RBL Review of Biblical Literature
RGG3 Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Edited by Kurt Galling. 7
vols. 3rd ed. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1957–65.
SBLDS Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series
SBLSymS Society of Biblical Literature Symposium Series
SBT Studies in Biblical Theology
SNTSMS Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series
SNTSU Studien zum Neuen Testament und seiner Umwelt
Theol Theologica
TRE Theologische Realenzyklopädie. Edited by Horst Robert Balz, Ger-
hard Krause, and Gerhard Müller. 36 vols. Berlin: de Gruyter,
1977–2004.
TRu Theologische Rundschau
TTS Theologische Texte und Studien
TUGAL Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchistlichen Lite-
ratur
TynBul Tyndale Bulletin
WTJ Westminster Theological Journal
WUNT Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament
ZNW Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde
der älteren Kirche
Prologue:
Critical Views of John, Jesus, and History
Paul N. Anderson
For most readers of the Bible, the Gospel of John comes across as a vivid and
graphic narrative, drawing the reader into the story either as a friend or foe of
“the truth,” whatever that might entail. It alone claims to be rooted in eyewit-
ness memory among the canonical Gospels, and yet it is the most different—and
strikingly so. On the one hand, the Johannine perspective is cosmic, beginning
with the advent of the eternal Logos and concluding with the ongoing ministry of
the resurrected Jesus. How could that reflect an earth-fettered historical perspec-
tive? In between are wondrous acts of power, most of them absent from the other
Gospels, and the teaching of John’s Jesus is elevated and theological, referring to
himself and his work rather than diminishing his personal importance and mag-
nifying the character of the kingdom. For these and other reasons, the prevalent
scholarly opinion in the modern era has come to relegate the Johannine Gospel
to the canons of myth and theology rather than history; therefore, John’s Gospel
has become off-limits for historical quests for Jesus.
On the other hand, the critical view of a nonhistorical Gospel of John creates
new problems that cannot be solved by the simplistic relegation of the Synoptic
Gospels to “factual history” and the Johannine Gospel to “idealized theology.” John
has more archaeological content and topographical detail than all the other Gos-
pels put together. John also bears many features of historical realism that contribute
a more plausible view of Jesus’ ministry than the Markan Gospels (or if Matthean
priority is preferred, which most scholars do not, “the Matthean Gospels”). Fur-
ther, John possesses a great deal of mundane and “theologically innocent” material
that cannot be adequately explained on the basis of John’s inferred ahistoricity or
mimetic imitations of reality. And, even as new literary readings of John have con-
tributed greatly to appreciating what is being said by considering how it is being
crafted rhetorically, the literary fact of a story claiming to be rooted in firsthand
experience becomes a new challenge—literarily, if not historically. The traditional
view of John’s authorship has been questioned extensively, but no other single
view has taken its place critically (Anderson 1996, 1–136). Given the facts that
-1-