"the gospel of john as not only a spiritual gospel."
TRANSCRIPT
The Gospel of John:
not only a spiritual Gospel.
Papyrus P52 (2nd century CE): Manchester J. Rylands Library
“Again, in the same books, Clement gives the tradition of the earliest presbyters, as to the order of the Gospels, in the following manner: the Gospels containing the genealogies, he says [that is Clement of Alexandria: P.A-S], were written first. The Gospel according to Mark had this occasion. As Peter had preached the Word publicly at Rome, and declared the Gospel by the Spirit, many who were present requested that Mark, who had followed him for a long time and remembered his sayings, should write them out. And having composed the Gospel he gave it to those who had requested it. When Peter learned of this, he neither directly forbade nor encouraged it. But, last of all, John, perceiving that the external facts had been made plain in the Gospel, being urged by his friends, and inspired by the Spirit, composed a spiritual Gospel. (HE. 6.14.5-7)”
• How to make a bridge between the spiritual Gospel of John and our experience of life in parishes, hospitals, church offices, universities, schools and even here in Southwark Cathedral?
• How to be nourished by the Gospel of John when we are tired as human beings?
1. Let’s begin with the senses, what the so-
called spiritual Gospel can tell us about the
value of our flesh, our bodies and our
sensual perception of reality?
• Sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing are
hugely important to John’s theology. Let’s
look into some examples…
Sight…
• (1:38-39) Turning round, Jesus saw them following and asked, ‘What do you want?’ They said, ‘Rabbi’ (which means ‘Teacher’), ‘where are you staying?’ ‘Come,’ he replied, ‘and you will see.’ So they went and saw where he was staying...
• (4:48) Unless you see signs and wonders,’ Jesus told him, ‘you will never believe.’
• (6:40) For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in
• him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.
• (9:1-12) with the miracle of healing the blind man with this detail: After saying this, he spat on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ‘Go,’ he told him, ‘wash in the Pool of Siloam’ (this word means ‘Sent’). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
Smell…• (11:39) Jesus said,
‘Take away the stone.’
Martha, the sister of the
dead man, said to him,
‘Lord, already there is
a stench because he has
been dead for four days.’
• (12:3) Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
Touch…
(20:17) Jesus said to
her, ‘Do not hold on
to me (or literarily
‘do not touch me’:
Μή μου ἅπτου),
Because I have not
yet ascended to
the Father.
Taste…
• (2:9) When the steward tasted the water that
had become wine, and did not know where it
came from (though the servants who had drawn
the water knew), the steward called the
bridegroom.
Hearing…
• (1:37) The two disciples
• heard him say this, and
they followed Jesus.
• (3:8) The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it…
• (3:29) He who has the bride is the bridegroom; the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him.
Dorothy Lee, “The Gospel of John and the Five
Senses”, Journal of Biblical Literature, 129 (1),
March 2010, 115-127.
Dorothy Lee is Dean of the Theological School and the Frank Woods Professor in New Testament. She was born in Scotland and spent her childhood between the UK and Australia. Her first degree was in Classics, before studies in Divinity.
Her main research interest is the narrative and theology of the Gospels, and particularly the Fourth Gospel.
In November 2015, Dorothy was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the highest honour available for achievement in the humanities in Australia.
2. The conversation of Nicodemus with
Jesus.
• Jouette Bassler, “Mixed Signals: Nicodemus in the Fourth
Gospel”, Journal of Biblical Literature, 108, (1989), 635-46.
• Colleen Conway “Gender Matter in John”, in A feminist
companion to John, ed. A-J Levine, M. Blickenstaff, vol. 2,
London-New York: Bloomsbury (2003), 86.
• Margaret, M. Pazdan, 'Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman:
contrasting models of discipleship', Biblical Theology Bulletin,
vol. 17 (1987), 145-48.
3. The episode with the Samaritan
woman.
• Teresa Okure, ‘Jesus and the Samaritan Woman (JN 4.1-42) in Africa’, Theological Studies (2009), 401-18.
• Surekha Nelavala, ‘Jesus asks the Samaritan woman for a drink: a Dalit feminist reading of John 4”, LectioDifficilior, 1, (2007), 1-25.
• Jean K. Kim, “A Korean Feminist Reading of John 4: 1-42” , Semeia 78 (1997), 109-20.
• Tal Ilan, “Post biblical and Rabinic women” in Jewish Women’s Archive - Encyclopaedia online, last visited 2 October 2017: http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/post-biblical-and-rabbinic-women
• Raymond Brown, “Roles of Women in the Fourth Gospel”, Theological Studies 36 (1975), 688-99.
Tal Ilan:
“Women’s support for sectarian organizations and nascent religious and ideological movements is a universal-social phenomenon. We can therefore interpret this phenomenon within Judaism of the Second Temple period as a means of social and vocational expression open to oppressed groups (such as women), who were barred from participating in the central and official power and influence systems. It should come as no surprise that once some of the sects here mentioned, primarily the Pharisees and Christianity, became part of the establishment they not only legislated against women holding positions of equality and power, but likewise attempted to erase any traces of the support women had once rendered them. Women’s support in the eyes of the establishment was generally viewed as embarrassing [my Italic].”
Raymond E. Brown*:
“That the Samaritan woman has
a real missionary function is made
clear by the dialogue between Jesus and his male disciples which precedes the passage we have been discussing. In 4:38 we have one of the most important uses of the verb apostellein in John […] To some extent she serves to modify the thesis that male disciples were the only important figures in church founding.”
*See his “Roles of Women in the Fourth Gospel”, Theological Studies 36 (1975), 688-99.
4. Last supper – washing of the feet: what our worship would look
like in our parishes if we had only John’s version of the last
Supper?
Richard Bauckham, “Did Jesus Wash His Disciples' Feet?" in Authenticating the Activities of Jesus, Bruce Chilton and Craig A. Evans, Editors, Brill: Leiden, (1999), 411-29.
5. God’s mystery: noli me tangere….
Image, touch and message.
Turid Karlsen Seim “Women and
negotiations of Gender”, in
Gospels: Narrative and History,
eds. M. Navarro Puerto, M. Perroni,
Atlanta: SBL Press, (2015), 215-44.
“In John 20, various senses are emphasized: touching, hearing and seeing. Mary’s recognition of Jesus is stirred by her hearing his voice call her name. This makes her turn towards him, which indicates that she also looks at him. In her subsequent account to the disciples, the emphasis is on her seeing and hearing him. It is widely recognised that when Jesus calls her by name, the description of ‘his own’ in John 10 is called to mind. This represents a clear progress in relationship, different from Jesus’s continued demarcations of distance in relation to his mother in 19:25-26. It is also notable that Mary Magdalene is the only woman in the Gospel of John who is addressed by name. Moreover, Jesus directs her not towards but away from himself and to his brothers (and sisters) in order to proclaim to them the new degree of intimacy in their shared relationship to God.”
Turid Karlsen Seim: