sense perception and testimony in the gospel according to john

295 Pages·2014·9.37 MB·English

Durham E-Theses
SENSE PERCEPTION AND TESTIMONY IN THE
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN
WANG, KUAN HUI
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2
SENSE PERCEPTION AND TESTIMONY IN THE
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN

BY
SUNNY, KUAN-HUI WANG

SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

AT

DURHAM UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF THEOLOGY AND RELIGION

2014
Sense Perception and Testimony in the Gospel According to John

Sunny, Kuan-Hui Wang

Abstract

This thesis aims to contribute to Johannine scholarship on sense perception and
testimony. While the focus has tended to be on one or the other, this thesis shows that
sense perception and testimony are used together in John with the intention of drawing
the readers into the narrative so that they become witnesses in an emotionally engaged
way.

The first chapter outlines the focus of the thesis and presents the history of
scholarship on sense perception and testimony. In Chapter 2, we survey the Johannine
use of sense perception and testimony to show that there is a prima facie case for
regarding sense perception as important in giving testimony about God. In Chapter 3,
we argue that John is writing to believers to strengthen their faith. The next two
chapters survey possible influence on the Johannine use of sense perception in relation
to testimony within the Jewish Scripture and the rhetorical dimension of Hellenistic
culture.

The sixth to eighth chapters examine the Gospel itself. In Chapter 6, we discuss
how, for John, sense perception is theologically important in coming to a knowledge of
God. In Chapter 7, we look at testimony during Jesus’ public ministry to see how John
emphasises physical sense perception through signs and other types of testimony, such
as the incidents involving the Samaritan woman and the anointing at Bethany. In
Chapter 8, we argue that sense perception and testimony continue to work together
within the community after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Our investigation shows that John’s use of sense perception together with
testimony is rooted in Jewish literature. John also employs a rhetorical technique which
appeals to the persuasive power of sense perception to make his narrative vivid. John
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does not downplay sense perception. Rather, he uses it in the context of testimony as a
means of persuasion to draw the readers, in their imagination, into the experience of the
first disciples and thus deeper into faith and witness.

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Table of Contents

Abstract ...................................................................................................................... i

Table of Contents .................................................................................................... iii

Abbreviations .......................................................................................................... vi

Declaration ............................................................................................................. vii

Statement of Copyright .......................................................................................... viii

Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. ix

Chapter 1: The Focus of the Thesis .............................................................................. 1

1.
  Introduction ................................................................................................... 1

2.
  History of Scholarship ................................................................................... 2

2.1.
  Sense Perception ..................................................................................... 2

2.1.1. Sense Perception and Faith ................................................................. 3

2.1.2. Symbolic Interpretation of Sense Perception ..................................... 7

2.1.3. The Range of Senses ........................................................................ 10

2.2.
  Testimony ............................................................................................. 14

2.2.1. Testimony and Revelation ................................................................ 16

2.2.2. Rhetorical Purpose and Technique ................................................... 16

2.3.
  Sense Perception and Testimony .......................................................... 19

3.
  The Aim and the Structure of the Thesis ..................................................... 22

3.1.
  The Aim of the Thesis .......................................................................... 22

3.2.
  The Structure of the Thesis ................................................................... 23

Chapter 2: An Overview of Sense Perception and Testimony ................................... 25

1.
  Statistics and Distribution ............................................................................ 25

1.1.
  The Prologue (John 1:1–18) ................................................................. 26

1.2.
  The Testimony of the Baptist and the First Disciples (John 1:19–51) . 28

1.3.
  The Public Ministry of Jesus (John 2–12) ............................................ 31

1.4.
  The Farewell Discourse (John 13–17) .................................................. 33

1.5.
  The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus (John 18–21) .......................... 35

2.
  Problems with Sense Perception ................................................................. 37

2.1.
  The Undefined Object .......................................................................... 37

2.2.
  The Vision of the Invisible: Glory, Spirit and Lamb of God ............... 38

2.3.
  The Perception of God by Privileged Witnesses .................................. 38

2.4.
  The Perception of Signs within the Narrative ...................................... 39

2.5.
  Perception Pre- and Post-Easter ........................................................... 40

3.
  John’s Use of Testimony Language ............................................................ 40

Chapter 3: The Intended Audience and the Purpose of the Gospel ............................ 43

1.
  John 20:30–31 ............................................................................................. 44

1.1.
  Textual Variant in John 20:31a ............................................................ 45

1.2.
  The Construction of ἵνα+πιστεύω ........................................................ 48

2.
  John’s Concept of Faith ............................................................................... 52

3.
  The Content of the Gospel ........................................................................... 54

3.1.
  Structure and Presentation .................................................................... 54

3.2.
  The language of Abiding and Indwelling ............................................. 54

3.3.
  Ambiguities and Allusiveness in Language ......................................... 55

3.4.
  The Paraclete ........................................................................................ 56

3.5.
  The Mission Motif ................................................................................ 57

4.
  Conclusion ................................................................................................... 57

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Chapter 4: Sense Perception, the Knowledge of God and Testimony in the Jewish
Scriptures .................................................................................................................... 59

1.
  Theophany ................................................................................................... 61

1.1.
  Jacob’s Ladder (םלס) (Gen 28:10–17) .................................................. 62

1.2.
  Theophany on Mount Sinai .................................................................. 65

1.2.1. The Israelites’ Perception of God (Exodus 19–20) .......................... 65

1.2.2. Moses’ Perception of God (Exodus 33–34) ..................................... 69

2.
  The Exodus Miracles ................................................................................... 72

3.
  Communal Vision in Deuteronomy ............................................................. 77

4.
  The Tabernacle and the Ark of Testimony .................................................. 81

5.
  Prophetic Sign-acts ...................................................................................... 84

6.
  The Book of Isaiah ...................................................................................... 88

6.1.
  The Motif of Blindness and Deafness .................................................. 91

6.2.
  The Motif of Light and Darkness ......................................................... 95

6.3.
  The Motif of Trial and Sense perception .............................................. 96

7.
  Conclusion ................................................................................................... 99

Chapter 5: Sense Perception and Testimony in the Graeco-Roman World ............. 100

1.
  Techniques in judicial oratory to ‘bring before the eyes’ the thing told:
Ἐκφρασις and ἐνάργεια .................................................................................... 102

1.1.
  Ἐκφρασις ............................................................................................ 102

1.2.
  Ἐνάργεια ............................................................................................. 104

2.
  Rhetorical Appeal to Emotion ................................................................... 107

3.
  Ways to achieve ἐνάργεια ......................................................................... 111

4.
  An Analysis of Plato’s Apology and Cicero’s Verrine Orations ............... 117

4.1.
  Plato’s Apology ................................................................................... 117

4.1.1. Repetition and the Presence of the Crowd ..................................... 118

4.1.2. Repetition, Contrast and Creating a Pictorial Image by Noting
Particular Features of Actions and Objects .............................................. 119

4.1.3. Verbal Cues to Prompt Imagination ............................................... 121

4.1.4. Repetition with a Description of Sudden Actions .......................... 121

4.2.
  Cicero’s Verrine Orations. ................................................................. 124

4.2.1. Using Dialogues, Contrast and Creating a Pictorial Image by Noting
Particular Features of Actions and Objects .............................................. 125

4.2.2. Creating a Pictorial Image by Noting Particular Features of Actions
and Objects and Mentioning the Presence of a Crowd ............................. 127

4.2.3. Contrast ........................................................................................... 131

4.2.4. Using Verbal Cues to Trigger Imagination .................................... 133

4.2.5. Repetition and the Presence of the crowd ...................................... 134

5.
  Conclusion ................................................................................................. 136

Chapter 6: The Theological Significance of Sense Perception ................................ 139

1.
  The Theological Significance of Jesus’ Sense Perception and Testimony 140

1.1.
  Jesus’ Divine Origin and His Exegesis of God .................................. 140

1.2.
  Jesus’ Perception of God .................................................................... 148

1.2.1. Jesus sees the Father (John 5:19–20, 37; 6:46) .............................. 149

1.2.2. Jesus hears the Father (John 8:26, 40) ............................................ 152

1.2.3. Seeing Jesus is Seeing the Father (John 14:7–11; cf. John 12:45) . 153

1.3.
  Jesus’ Testimony ................................................................................ 155

1.4.
  Jesus’ Perception of the First Disciples .............................................. 158

2.
  Characters Who ‘Saw and Testified’ to Jesus ........................................... 161

2.1.
  The Baptist as a Privileged Witness ................................................... 162

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2.2.
  The Beloved Disciple as a Privileged Witness ................................... 167

2.3.
  Conclusion .......................................................................................... 168

3.
  The Ideology of the Narrator ..................................................................... 169

4.
  Sense Perception and Spiritual Insight ...................................................... 171

Chapter 7: Testimony During Jesus’ Public Ministry .............................................. 173

1.
  Signs and Faith .......................................................................................... 174

1.1.
  Changing Water into Wine ................................................................. 178

1.2.
  Healing the Official’s Son .................................................................. 184

1.3.
  Healing the Paralysed Man ................................................................. 189

1.4.
  Feeding the Five Thousand ................................................................ 192

1.5.
  Healing the Blind Man ....................................................................... 196

1.6.
  The Raising of Lazarus ....................................................................... 199

2.
  Other Testimonies ..................................................................................... 202

2.1.
  The Samaritans and Their Testimony (John 4:7–30, 39–42) ............. 203

2.2.
  The Cleansing of the Temple ............................................................. 204

2.3.
  The Anointing of Jesus ....................................................................... 205

3.
  The Close of Jesus’ Public Ministry .......................................................... 206

4.
  Conclusion ................................................................................................. 208

Chapter 8: Witnessing the Passion, Death and Resurrection ................................... 210

1.
  The Absence of Jesus and the Coming of the Spirit .................................. 211

1.1.
  Promise of the Paraclete ..................................................................... 211

1.2.
  ‘Doubting Thomas’ and Later Generations of Disciples .................... 217

1.2.1. The Character of Thomas (John 11:16; 14:5 and 20:24–29) .......... 217

1.2.2. The Meaning of John 20:29 ............................................................ 225

1.2.3. Conclusion ...................................................................................... 228

2.
  Sense Perception and Testimony ............................................................... 229

2.1.
  Jesus’ Testimony to the Truth ............................................................ 229

2.1.1. The Use of ’Ενάργεια in Jesus’ Passion, Death and Resurrection . 230

2.2.
  The Disciples’ Testimony to Jesus: Models of Seeing and Believing 234

2.3.
  A Prophetic Sign and its Imitation in the Life of the Church ............. 239

2.3.1. Footwashing as a Prophetic Sign-Act ............................................. 240

2.3.2. Vivid Description of Footwashing ................................................. 242

2.4.
  Sense Perception and Testimony in Johannine Tradition ................... 245

2.4.1. Sense Perception and Testimony in John 21 .................................. 245

2.4.2. Sense Perception and Testimony in 1 John .................................... 247

3.
  Conclusion ................................................................................................. 248

Chapter 9: Conclusion .............................................................................................. 250

Bibliography ......................................................................................................... 257

v
Abbreviations

All abbreviations of ancient literature, academic journals and monograph
series follow the forms indicated in the SBL Handbook of Style: For
Ancient Near Eastern, Biblical, and Early Christians Studies (Peabody:
Hendrickson, 1999).

vi
Declaration

This work has been submitted to the University of Durham in accordance
with the regulations for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. It is my own
work, and none of it has been previously submitted to the University of
Durham or in any other university for a degree.

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