Dialogue in the Book of Signs: A Polyvalent Analysis of John 1:19-12:50

559 Pages·2015·5.893 MB·English

by  Johnson Thomaskutty

Dialogue in the Book of Signs
Biblical Interpretation Series
Editors in Chief
Paul Anderson (George Fox University)
Yvonne Sherwood (University of Kent)
Editorial Board
A.K.M. Adam (University of Oxford)
Roland Boer (University of Newcastle, Australia)
Musa Dube (University of Botswana)
Jennifer L. Koosed (Albright College, Reading, USA)
Vernon Robbins (Emory University)
Annette Schellenberg (Universität Wien)
Carolyn J. Sharp (Yale Divinity School)
Johanna Stiebert (University of Leeds, UK)
Duane Watson (Malone University, USA)
Ruben Zimmermann (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz)

Volume 136
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bins
Dialogue in the Book of Signs
A Polyvalent Analysis of John 1:19–12:50
By
Johnson Thomaskutty

LEIDEN | BOSTON
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thomaskutty, Johnson.
 Dialogue in the Book of signs : a polyvalent analysis of John 1:19–12:50 / by Johnson Thomaskutty.
   pages cm. — (Biblical interpretation series, ISSN 0928-0731 ; Volume 136)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-30159-7 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-30161-0 (e-book) 1. Bible. John, I, 19-XII,
50—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 2. Dialogue in the Bible. I. Title.
BS2615.52.T4655 2015
226.5’06—dc23
2015020173
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issn 0928-0731
isbn 978-90-04-30159-7 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-30161-0 (e-book)
Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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Contents
Foreword, R. Alan Culpepper ix
Acknowledgements xii
Abbreviations xiv
List of Figures xvii
Introduction 1
Rationale, Aim, and Task 1
Previous Studies on Johannine Dialogue 3
Methodology of Research 19
Use of ‘Dialogue’ as a Literary Genre 27
A Proposed Defijinition of Dialogue in John 40
Plan of the Research 41
Micro- and Meso-Analyses of the Dialogue in the Book of Signs
(John 1:19–12:50)
1 A Glory-focused Revelatory Dialogue (1:19–2:12) 45
Setting of the Dialogue 45
Micro-Analysis 47
Meso-Analysis 86
2 A Challenge and Riposte Dialogue (2:13–22) 93
Setting of the Dialogue 93
Micro-Analysis 94
Meso-Analysis 103
3 A Pedagogical Dialogue Leading to a
Monologue (3:1–21) 107
Setting of the Dialogue 107
Micro-Analysis 109
Meso-Analysis 121
4 A Report-and-Defense Dialogue to a Narrative Commentary
(3:22–36) 124
Setting of the Dialogue 124
Micro-Analysis 125
Meso-Analysis 133
vi contents
5 An Inter-Religious Dialogue in Dual-stage Setting (4:1–42) 136
Setting of the Dialogue 136
Micro-Analysis 138
Meso-Analysis 163
6 A Request-Rebuke-Response Dialogue (4:43–54) 169
Setting of the Dialogue 169
Micro-Analysis 170
Meso-Analysis 177
7 A Sign and a Controversy Dialogue Leading to a Monologue
(5:1–47) 181
Setting of the Dialogue 181
Micro-Analysis 183
Meso-Analysis 201
8 From Sign-centric Dialogues to Question-and-Answer Dialogues
(6:1–71) 206
Setting of the Dialogue 206
Micro-Analysis 208
Meso-Analysis 243
9 A Religious-Theological Dialogue Formed in a Series of Challenge-and-
Riposte (7:1–52; 8:12–59) 249
Setting of the Dialogue 249
Micro-Analysis 253
Meso-Analysis 305
10 A Dramatic Dialogue Leading to a Monologue and a Community
Dialogue (9:1–10:21) 310
Setting of the Dialogue 310
Micro-Analysis 313
Meso-Analysis 347
11 A Forensic Dialogue Develops from-Antithetical-to-Synonymous Mode
(10:22–42) 354
Setting of the Dialogue 354
Micro-Analysis 356
Meso-Analysis 364
Contents vii
12 A Glory-focused Revelatory Dialogue (11:1–53) 368
Setting of the Dialogue 368
Micro-Analysis 370
Meso-Analysis 400
13 A Conflict-centric Dialogue as a Conclusion (11:54–12:50) 405
Setting of the Dialogue 405
Micro-Analysis 407
Meso-Analysis 425
Macro-level Analysis
Exchange, Episode, and Narrative Developments 433
Dialogue and Its Polyvalent Connections 447
Content, Form, and Function of the Dialogue 453
Dialogue and the Rhetorical Thrust of the Book of Signs 464
Concluding Remarks 475
Further Considerations 481
Bibliography 485
Index of Authors 524
Index of Ancient Sources 533

Foreword
Typically the narrative sections of the Gospel of John have received more
attention than the dialogue and discourse sections. This division of the Gospel
into narrative and discourse can be traced at least to Rudolf Bultmann’s magis-
terial commentary in which he attributed the narrative sections to the semeia-
source and a pre-Johannine passion narrative, and the discourse material to
the Offfenbarungsreden (revelatory discourse source).1 His theory of a semeia-
source has been more widely accepted than his proposal that the Johannine
discourses derived from a pre-Johannine source that was not connected with
the signs until the fourth evangelist composed the Gospel using these sources.
For refijinements of the theory of a source for the Johannine signs material,
one can now consult the monographs by Robert T. Fortna and the commen-
tary by Urban C. von Wahlde.2 C.H. Dodd found a much more integral connec-
tion between the Johannine signs and discourses, observing that the fijirst two
signs (2:1–12 and 4:43–54), like the synoptic miracle stories, are not followed by
discourses.3 Then, the signs in chapters 5, 6, and 9 are followed by discourses
that develop themes related to the foregoing sign. With the raising of Lazarus
and the death of Jesus, the discourses precede the sign and prepare the reader
to understand their signifijicance.
With the emergence of narrative criticism and rhetorical analysis, the func-
tions of the Johannine discourses began to attract the attention of Johannine
scholars. Not surprisingly, the longest discourse section, the Farewell Discourse
in John 13–17 was the fijirst to be studied as an integral unit within the Gospel.
Fernando Segovia mined the resources of ancient rhetoric for interpreting
the functions of the farewell discourse within the narrative in which it is
embedded,4 and D.F. Tolmie applied narrative criticism to this non-narrative
section of the Fourth Gospel.5
1  Rudolf Bultmann, The Gospel of John: A Commentary, Johannine Monograph Series 1 (trans.
by G.R. Beasley-Murray et al., 1971; Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2014).
2  Robert T. Fortna, The Gospel of Signs, SNTSMS 11 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1970; idem, The Fourth Gospel and Its Predecessor: From Narrative Source to Present Gospel
(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988). Urban C. von Wahlde, The Gospel and Letters of John
(3 vols.; Eerdmans Critical Commentary; Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2010).
3  C.H. Dodd, The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1953), 363.
4  Fernando F. Segovia, The Farewell of the Word (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991).
5  D.F. Tolmie, Jesus’ Farewell to the Disciples: John 13:1–17:26 in Narratological Perspective, BINS 12
(Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995).