Chapter 9, interpreted in terms of its macro-micro structure, fits into the overall literary and theological framework of the Book of Signs. The controversy between Jesus and the Jewish leaders depicted in chapters 7-10 is taken up by Chapter 9 in a particular manner. This study employs the socio-rhetorical perspective to critically investigate the notion of discipleship. It differs from previous studies as they were undertaken from the historical, socio-scientific and narrative perspectives, and Robbins' sociorhetorical methodology is applied to the Chapter 9 in order to dissect the notion of discipleship as a theological problem. In Chapter 9, the blind man emerges as the paradigm of the disciple as he exemplifies the principle of John 8.12. The `Jews', concerned with their need both for self-definition and the survival of Judaism, attempt to contain the growth of Christianity. The conflict is conceived as a `conflict between darkness and light' and the healed man emerges as a hero of the community. His triumph over darkness contrasts him with the Pharisees who misguidedly follow the way of darkness and reject God's self-revelation. To summarize, by applying for the first time a multidimensional and comprehensive approach to John 9, three important characteristics of discipleship in the Fourth Gospel emerge: (1) it is not just simple enthusiasm and zeal, but rather a firm commitment, and strong and courageous determination to bear witness based upon an experience of the divine. Disciples are required to maintain their readiness for struggles, even death, for the sake of their faith; (2) discipleship is conceived as redefining the believer's covenant relationship with God which takes place through Jesus' identity and work. Therefore, the notion of `disciples of Moses' is no longer defensible; (3) discipleship is nothing less than a `discipleship into light' since it implies a duty to plead everywhere and always the cause of the Light in the sphere of darkness and in the world dominated by many kinds of ideologies (religious, cultural, political, etc.). The disciple must be prepared to be marginalized, not only by the dominant society, but also by his/her own family and familiar world. / NEW TESTAMENT / DTH (NEW TESTAMENT)

This dissertation examines temporal frames in the Gospel of John and the Johannine letters and traces the ways that these texts and those who received them constructed and employed temporality to shape belief in Christ. Building on existing scholarship on Johannine literature and temporality, I situate these writers and their readers within their contemporary Greek, Roman, and Jewish social and rhetorical contexts, exploring the use of temporal markers, calendrical calculations, and claims about the past, present, and future in ancient discourses of self-definition. The Gospel of John uses an account of Jesus’s life and deeds to assert the God of Israel’s exclusive prerogative to create, control, and dominate not only time but also earthly authorities. The writer(s) of the Gospel place the Logos “in the beginning,” situate events within Jewish temporal frames, and align Jesus’s resurrection with solar time to portray Jesus as a sovereign, divine agent. The Johannine letters also employ temporality, but differently. The letters link the past with the present to establish an identity for the audience by assuring them of their genealogical and temporal bonds with Jesus. The letters seek to distance perceived opponents, who are labeled “Antichrist,” by describing them as agents of the devil who sinned “from the beginning.” A later group of Christ believers known as the “Quartodecimans” received and adopted Johannine temporality for their own purposes. Celebrating Easter in full coordination with the Passover, for example, Melito of Sardis envisioned God’s salvific work in a continuity that directly linked salvation from the Exodus to Jesus’s death and resurrection. Melito employed temporality to create a mobile and porous boundary between Christ believers and other groups and to claim the theological superiority of his own group. This analysis of Johannine literature indicates that ancient writers widely employed claims about temporality to distinguish their perceived audiences from other groups. These writers sought to persuade the followers of Christ to adopt particular temporal outlooks and to ascribe them to concomitant theological assertions. They thus established their exclusive authority to interpret Jesus’s life and deeds and defame false teachings.

In recent decades, most scholars have understood the Gospel of John and three letters of John as a mirror to the so-called "Johannine community"/"Johannine Christianity", whose existence is usually derived from literary and compositional aspects of Johannine corpus. In the following study I am arguing that in order for the term Johannine Christianity to be relevant and meaningful for the study of early Christianity and New Testament literature, we cannot focus on literary aspects of Johannine corpus but on a comparative work and define the term through the internal structure of religion. To be a historically relevant term, the term Johannine Christianity, therefore has to bear, in the context of the New Testament and early Christianity, distinctive doctrine, ritual practices, and institution. In the first part of this paper, I am dealing with literary and stylistic aspects of the Johannine corpus (authorship of gospel and letters, genre and 21st chapter of John's gospel, the beloved disciple, etc.) and arguing that these aspects are not a definite proof of the existence of so- called Johannine community. In the second part, I am arguing that theology, ritual practices, and institutions we find in Johannine corpus, are typical for mainstream Christianity of 1. and 2. century and therefore terms "Johannine...

This thesis was written with two purposes: first, to consider the practice of foot-washing as a sacrament/al; and, second, to apply what was learned in order to appropriate the practice of foot-washing for contemporary worship services. Several methodologies advanced the work. A theological approach enabled a comparison of the definitions of “sacrament,” “sacramental,” and “sacramentality,” which led to a demonstration of foot-washing as a “sacramental” insofar as it has the capacity to reveal the divine and possibly to be a means of grace. Historical and socio-contextual approaches undergirded the examination of three Christian traditions that regarded foot-washing as a sacrament or sacramental: the Johannine community of John 13; Ambrose of Milan’s community and its post-baptismal practice; and the Mennonites. With the tools of liturgical analysis, examination was made of foot-washing as it appears in liturgical texts for several current Christian denominations in the United States and Korea. The themes inherent in these newer uses of foot-washing were compared with those of the three historical Christian traditions. The research disclosed that, in terms of contemporary usage, foot-washing is primarily located in rites for Maundy Thursday, while marginalized or absent in other worship contexts. This limitation called for the development of a “sacramental” foot-washing rite for ordinary worship services. The proposed foot-washing rite not only provides an opportunity to meditate on Jesus’ death and sacrificial love in connection with the Triduum, but also accentuates themes such as Jesus’ humility, God’s reconciliation with humanity, forgiveness of sin, and the consolidation of the church community.

What sources informed the resurrection narrative of Jesus in the Gospel of John? Some scholars argue that the author of John used the Synoptic Gospels along with oral traditions as sources, but others maintain that John used only independent traditions to write his resurrection story. This paper argues that John did not use the Synoptics for this narrative because the reconstructed history of the Johannine community provides an adequate basis for postulating independent traditions which succeed at explaining both the similarities and differences between John and the Synoptics. While it does not claim to prove that the author was unaware of the Synoptics, it maintains that the evidence for the use of those Gospels in addition to tradition is too weak, whereas independent traditions alone can account for the material. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Since the Greek phrase ἐγώ εἰµι has been used as a form of the divine name by God to reveal himself in the Septuagint, biblical scholars generally acknowledge that the appropriate interpretation of this phrase is important for understanding John’s unique presentation of Jesus. However, scholars have not reached a consensus on the interpretation of Johannine “I am” and there are several problems with contemporary interpretive works. First, the extant studies rely heavily on the background of the “I am” phrase and draw their conclusions almost on the basis of diachronic data only. Consequently, the significance of this phrase in the Gospel of John itself has not been fully understood. Second, the linguistic features that are actually essential for the appropriate interpretation of this particular linguistic structure have not been fully assessed in current biblical scholarship. Third, the existing research normally interprets the “I am” phrases individually but fails to explore the relationship between these uses. In the Gospel of John, the Greek phrase ἐγώ εἰµι and its variants occur in Jesus’ utterances in thirty-one verses, namely John 4:26; 6:20, 35, 41, 48, 51; 7:34, 36; 8:12, 18, 23, 24, 28, 58; 10:7, 9, 11, 14; 11:25; 12:26; 13:19; 14:3, 6; 15:1, 5; 17:14, 16, 24; 18:5, 6, 8. This study conducts a discourse analysis based on the theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to interpret these thirty-one occurrences of “I am” in Jesus’ utterances, concentrating on their interpretation and significance within the Johannine context. This new methodological framework can analyze the linguistic features of the New Testament text and may offer new insights into the current research of Johannine “I am” in most regards. Examining the function of this phrase through a functional-semantic analysis and a rhetorical-relational analysis, this study argues that the thirty-one occurrences of “I am” in Jesus’ utterances throughout the Gospel of John reinforce John’s portrayal of Jesus’ divinity. According to John’s construing of Jesus’ divinity, this study demonstrates how Johannine Christology is expressed through the narrative of John’s Gospel with various textual characteristics.

Thesis advisor: Pheme Perkins / This study demonstrates how the Comma Johanneum (1 John 5:7b-8a), a Latin addition and “spurious” text of the New Testament, could proffer valuable meaning-making and intricate sociocultural realia to Christian history, although it has been long neglected in Johannine scholarship. Its first aim is to reconstruct the transmission and reception history of the CJ, starting with the Spanish Latin MSS (the direct evidence) and returning to patristic citations (the indirect evidence). Its second aim is to explore the theological and ecclesiological interpretations of 1 John 5:6-8 from the second through fourth centuries, in which the CJ could have been created. Chapter 1 reviews the history of scholarship on the CJ and the interpretations of 1 John 5 in contemporary Johannine scholarship. Chapter 2 discusses the methodological shift in contemporary text-critical scholarship that enabled the new perspective to appreciate the variant readings. Against the historical background, data, and evidence presented in Chapter 3, in Chapter 4, we reconstruct the transmission history of the CJ text from the seventh through the thirteenth centuries, mainly in the Spanish Latin Bible tradition. The Spanish Vulgate Bible is a mixture of the Old Latin biblical text, particularly in the Catholic Epistles, which also retain variant readings, including the CJ text. The earliest evidence—VL 64 and VL 67—exhibit the transition from North Africa to Visigothic Spain, preserving the seventh-century “Isidorian Renaissance.” The Spanish Latin Bible traditions—Codex Cavensis, Codex Toletanus, and Complutensis primus—all preserve the CJ text while formulating independent recensions. Outside Spain, Théodulf of Orleans, a Visigothic Spaniard, brought a Spanish Vulgate tradition to Charlemagne’s court; thus, Théodulf’s Mesmes Bible (ΘM) preserves the CJ in the textline, with a variant replacing uerbum with filius. Meanwhile, in Switzerland, St. Gall MSS—Cod. Sang 907 (Winithar) and Cod. Sang 83 (Hartmut)—also retain the CJ, along with some Spanish-type paratextual components. In ninth-century Spain and beyond, the Lesionensis group MSS (VL 91, 94, and 95) attest to another endpoint of the CJ’s journey. In addition, VL 95 affirms the date of the inversion of in terra and in caelo to the twelfth or thirteenth century (together with the second hand of VL 54). The CJ text, therefore, survived in the soil of Spanish cultural orbit, where the Vulgate text (mixed with the Old Latin readings) was received and survived. Simultaneously, the study reveals high levels of textual circulation and interregional cultural communication in North Africa, Spain, Gaul, and beyond. In Chapter 5, we examine the indirect evidence, focusing on Priscillian of Avila. While we rehabilitate Priscillian’s citation of the CJ, the earliest and most extended surviving indirect witness, as one recension in Spain, our examination of the indirect evidence also shows that there are at least three receptions of the CJ—(1) the terrestrial witness (in terra), a simple addition to the three witnesses in v.7a; (2) the celestial witness (in caelo), a further addition in v.8a, pointing to the trinitarian “heavenly witnesses,” and (3) a combination, which is the CJ properly so-called and eventually attested in the Vulgate. Finally, in Chapter 6, we explore the patristic interpretations of 1 John 5:6-8 (and John 19:34), which are laden with sacramental and ecclesiological connotations. In the second and third centuries, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Ps.-Cyprian expounded the baptismal interpretation with 1 John 5:6-8, and in the fourth century, Ambrose and Augustine crystalized trinitarian interpretations. Ambrose emphasized the divinity of the Spirit as the heavenly efficacy of the baptismal sacrament, which differentiated the invisible and visible realia of the sacraments. Augustine further developed his trinitarian interpretation of 1 John 5:6-8, grounded in incarnational theology of the Johannine turn; “the three” (tres) thus became the “signs” (signa) of the divine mystery of the Trinity. The CJ text could be another attempt to elucidate the crux interpretationis of 1 John 5:6-8. Exploring the patristic interpretations of these passages revealed the significance of the “lived life” of early Christian communities, which contemporary scholarship has somewhat devalued. This study thus reveals a forgotten sociocultural and religious history along with a journey of the CJ text. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

The Concept of Love in the Epistles of John : Comparison with the Concept of Apostle Paul This thesis concerns the concept of love in John's Epistles. It tries to compare this concept with the way Paul uses the notion of love in his Epistles. It is primarily based on the biblical text, and it gives voice to commentaries in the second plan. Initially, the thesis summarises the development, the situation and the form of the community in John's concept. Subsequently it analyses John's Epistles' language with regard to the Gospel of John and Paul's Epistles. Another part of the thesis studies what were the sources of the author of John's Epistles and how he understood the theology of love which is examined in several points. At first the identity of God is described as the starting point. It is followed by the changed human identity, which puts man into a new situation. Subsequently it is described how does the author understand his own notion of love and what practical conclusions does he draw. The same outline is followed in the description of Paul's understanding of the notion of love. Finally, both concepts are compared and summarised in several points. The goal of the thesis is to cover both authors' basis, opinions and conclusions of understanding the notion of love to show the differences and the...

Submitted by admin tede (tede@pucgoias.edu.br) on 2018-10-04T20:25:30Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DANILO DOURADO GUERRA.pdf: 31229801 bytes, checksum: b25e131e1f31bdfac6a72253b3e68f48 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-10-04T20:25:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DANILO DOURADO GUERRA.pdf: 31229801 bytes, checksum: b25e131e1f31bdfac6a72253b3e68f48 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-08-17 / GUERRA, Danilo Dourado. Heroes on the scene: the paradigmatic countercultual construction of mesochristology Johannine. Thesis (PostGraduate Program in Religious Studies) - Pontifical Catholic University of Goias, 2018. This investigation has as object of research the hero incarnation homologesis (confession), in Jo 1,14. Using a diachronic-synchronic analytical methodological referential of pendular type, the objective is to carry out the exegetical-reconstitutive tracing of the Christological content implicit in Jo 1,14 and its interface with the socioreligious context experienced by the Johannine groups. In response to this demand, the hypothesis to be demonstrated is that the discourse of the Johannine hero's incarnation, structured within a prologue sequential poetic, echoes the Christological saga of the community and reveals the genetic-noematic configuration of the Johannine mesochristology. It is a protocristological model that is made heterotopic and theo-political construction in relation to the Roman apotheosis, and, therefore, establishes itself as Christolatric, Christocentric and paradigmatic construct in relation to the imperial cult and the theatercratic structures engendered in it. The main objective of the thesis is to explain that the original Johannine Christianity establishes itself as a Christological-cultual prototype, which kerygmatize and claims a devotional praxis centered on Jesus. In this sense, the mesochristological gens, implicit in the Johannine hero incarnational discourse, was implanted like a paradigmatic homologetic construct in relation to any divinizing and cultual praxis, theatrercratically forged under non-Christocentric hermeneutic devices throughout history. / GUERRA, Danilo Dourado. Heróis em cena: a construção paradigmática contracultual da mesocristologia joanina. Tese de Doutorado (Programa de Pósgraduação em Ciências da Religião) – Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Goiás, 2018. Esta investigação tem como objeto de pesquisa a homologese (confissão) da encarnação do herói, em Jo 1,14. Utilizando-se de um referencial metodológico analítico diacrônico-sincrônico do tipo pendular, objetiva-se efetuar o rastreamento exegético-reconstitutivo do conteúdo cristológico implícito em Jo 1,14 e a sua interface com o contexto sociorreligioso vivenciado pelos grupos joaninos. Diante desta demanda, a hipótese a ser demonstrada é que o discurso da encarnação do herói joanino, estruturado dentro de uma poética sequencial do prólogo, repercute a saga cristológica da comunidade e revela a configuração genético-noemática da mesocristologia joanina. Trata-se de um modelo protocristológico que se faz construção heterotópica e teo-política em relação à apoteose romana, e, por conseguinte, estabelece-se como construto cristolátrico, cristocêntrico e paradigmático em relação ao culto imperial e às estruturas teatrocráticas engendradas neste. Esta tese tem como finalidade principal explicitar que o cristianismo originário joanino instaura-se como protótipo cristológico-cultual cristolátrico que kerigmatiza e reivindica uma práxis devocional centralizada em Jesus. Nesse sentido, a gens mesocristológica, implícita no discurso encarnacional do herói joanino, implanta-se como construto homologético paradigmático em relação a qualquer práxis divinizante e cultual, forjada teatrocraticamente sob dispositivos hermenêuticos não cristocêntricos ao longo da história.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T12:21:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carlos Josue Costa.pdf: 2447371 bytes, checksum: 47cf58fd686d7cd2a56c059eb2295957 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-05-31 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta tese tem como objetivo demonstrar que o conflito existente na comunidade joanina e presente no texto é uma estratégia literária do autor para construir identidade e fortalecer a fé dos seus leitores. Para isso escolhi uma perícope (Jo 8,31-59) onde verifico e comprovo essa dinâmica. O texto é produto literário, tem lógica: início, fim, coesão. É também produto relacional, responde a uma lógica redacional. O autor é o protagonista do texto e nele revela sua teologia. Busco entender sua vida e tudo dele para saber do seu texto. O texto é reflexo de uma realidade nas formas de expressão que é redigido. Há muitos conflitos no texto. Para entender o conflito devo olhar a partir de sua complexidade literária. Do conflito à revelação da verdade que liberta da incredulidade, do medo, da insegurança, da ideologia que escraviza, do mal que impede acolher Jesus, o Messias e Filho de Deus.(AU)