The Gospel of John

645 Pages·1986·40.503 MB·English

by  Barnabas Lindars

THE
NEW
CENTURY
BIBLE
COMMENTARY
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
BARNABAS LINDARS
THE NEW CENTURY BIBLE COMMENTARIES
EXODUS U. P. Hyatt)
LEvrncus AND NUMBERS (N. H. Snaith)
DEUTERONOMY (A. D. H. Mayes)
JOSHUA, JUDGES AND RUTH Uohn Gray)
EZRA, NEHEMIAH AND ESTHER (L. H. Brockington)
JOB (H. H. Rowley)
PSALMS Volumes I and 2 (A. A. Anderson)
ISAIAH 1-39 (R. E. Clements)
ISAIAH 4<r6ti (R. N. Whybray)
EZEKIEL Uohn W. Wevers)
THE GOSPEL OF MATIHEW (David Hill)
THE GOSPEL OF MARK (Hugh Anderson)
THE GOSPEL OF LUKE (E. Earle Ellis)
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN (Barnabas Lindars)
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES (William Neil)
ROMANS (Matthew Black)
I and 2 CORINTHIANS (F. F. Bruce)
GALATIANS (Donald Guthrie)
EPHESIANS (C. Leslie Mitton)
PHILIPPIANS (Ralph P. Martin)
COLOSSIANS AND PHILEMON (Ralph P. Martin)
I PETER (Ernest Best)
THE BOOK OF REVELATION (G. R. Beasley-Murray)
Other titles in prtparation
NEW CENTURY BIBLE
COMMENTARY
Based on the Revised Standard Version
The Gospel
of
JOHN
BARNABAS LINDARS
WM. B. EERDMANS PUBL. Co., GRAND RAPIDS
MARSHALL, MORGAN &SCO'IT PUBL. LTD., LONDON
Copyright to Marshall, Morgan & Scott 1972
First published 1972 by Marshall. Morgan & Scott. England
Softback edition publishcd 198 I
Reprinted, March 1986
All rights rescn'cd
Printcd in the U nitcd States of America
for
Wm. B. Ecrdmans Puhlishing Company
255 Jefferson Ave. S.E .• Grand Rapids. Mich. 49503
and
Marshall. Morgan & Scott
A Pentos company
I Bath Strcct. London EelV 9LB
ISBN 0551008482
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Lindars, Barnahas.
The Gospel ofJ ohn.
(Ncw ccntury Bible commental'ics)
Rcprint of the cd. published by Oliphants. London.
which was issued in sel'ies: New century Bible.
Bibliography: p. 13
Includes index.
I. Bible. N.T. John - Commcntaries. I. Titlc.
I I. Series. New century Biblc commcntary.
II I. Serics: Ncw ccntury Bible.
[BS2615.3.L54 1980] 226'.507 80-18297
ISBN 0-8028-1864-1
The Bible references in this publication are taken from the Rel'/sed Stmu/rmi
Version of the Bible, copyrighted 1946 and 1952 by the Di"ision of Chi,tiall
u.s
Education, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the .A .• mit/usn/
by permission.
CONTENTS
PREFACE 7
ABBREVIATIONS 9
BIBLIOGRAPHY 13
INTRODUCTION 23
1 The Central Message of the Fourth Gospel 24
2 John and the Synoptic Gospels 25
3 Authorship 28
4 Background of Thought 35
5 Date and Place 42
6 The Language of John 44
7 The Making of the Fourth Gospel 46
8 The Historical Value of the Fourth Gospel 54
9 Special Issues 56
10 The Permanent Value of the Fourth Gospel 63
COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 75
INDEX 643
To the Mem01yof
Brother Peter, S.S.F.
PREFACE
The Fourth Gospel has attracted the interest of an overwhelming
number of scholars, because of the range and intricacy of the
problems which it presents. But for most people its attraction lies
in what it is in itself-a strange but compelling picture of the
irruption of Jesus Christ on to the stage of history to claim the
allegiance of men. My own interest was aroused in the mid-I950s,
when for several years I conducted a daily Bible study for the
mission team of a Mission to hop-pickers in Kent, led by the late
Brother Peter, S.S.F. (J. P. Searle). The subject was always St
John. Sitting round trestle-tables in a disused oast-house, we
sought to unlock the riches of the Fourth Gospel, and discovered
that it is pre-eminently an evangelistic work. Subsequently I was
asked at very short notice to deputize for one of the principal
speakers at the Fourth Theology and Ministry Convention at
Oxford in 1956. The lecture had to be produced in a single after
noon, without access to any reference books; it was published
under the title of 'The Fourth Gospel an Act of Contemplation'
in the conference volume, Studies in the Fourth Gospel, edited by
F. L. Cross (1957).
Since then my work has taken me into other fields. But the
request to contribute the commentary on St John for the present
series was one which could not be refused. The work has had to be
done more rapidly than I could have wished; but I hope that the
result will commend itself to scholarly judgment, and will be
found useful by students and the general reader alike.
It has been my primary aim to show the vital contact between
John's presentation of the Gospel narrative· and the living tradi
tion of the words and deeds of Jesus. Discussion of the sources of
the Fourth Gospel has been dominated by what I can only
regard as false criteria: it is only in recent years that a proper
employment of form-critical techniques has begun to appear in
Johannine studies. I have tried to interpret the Gospel afresh from
this point of view, so as to expose the underlying traditions which
John had at his disposal, and to trace his creative use of them for
his theological design.
The literature listed in the bibliography is confined to works
which are actually mentioned in the course of the commentary,
but I have added publications of my own in which some of my
7
PREFACE 8
thinking on John has been worked out. It will be evident from the
commentary which are the authors to whom I am most deeply
indebted. At the time of writing only the first volumes of the
commentaries of R. E. Brown (The Anchor Bible) and of R.
Schnackenburg (Herders theologischer Kommentar) were avail
able.
I would like to thank my colleagues in the Faculty of Divinity
for kindly arranging to free me from teaching duties during the
past academic year, and for their help and encouragement.
B. L.
28th October 1969
ABBREVIATIONS
BIBLICAL
OLD TESTAMENT (OT)
Gen. Jg. I Chr. Ps. Lam. Ob. Hag.
Exod. Ru. 2 Chr. Provo Ezek. Jon. Zech.
Lev. I Sam. Ezr. Ec. Dan. Mic. Mal.
Num. 2 Sam. Neh. Ca. Ros. Nah.
Dt. I Kg. Est. Isa. Jl Rab.
Jos. 2 Kg. Job Jer. Am. Zeph.
APOCRYPHA (Apoc.)
I Esd. Tab. Ad. Est. Sir. S. 3 Ch. Bel. I Mac.
2 Esd. Jdt. Wis. Bar. Sus. Man. 2 Mac.
Ep.Jer.
NEW TESTAMENT (NT)
Mt. Ac. Gal. I Th. Tit. I Pet. 3Jn
Mk Rom. Eph. 2 Th. Phm. 2 Pet. Jude
Lk. I C. Phil. I Tim. Heb. I In Rev.
In 2 C. Col. 2 Tim. Jas 2Jn
DEAD SEA SCROLLS
CD Damascus Document (fragments of a Zadokite
work)
IQH Hymns of Thanksgiving
IQM War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of
Darkness
IQS Rule of the Community (Manual of Discipline)
JEWISH WRITINGS
B Babylonian Talmud (B-Babli)
Y Jerusalem Talmud (Y-Yerushalmi)
GENERAL
AG A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early
Christian Literature, trans. and ed. of Walter Bauer's
Griechische-Deutches Worterbuch zu det! Schriften des Neuen
Testaments und der iibrigen urchristlichet! LiteratuT, by W. F.
Arndt and R. W. Gingrich (Cambridge, 19524)
9
ABBREVIATIONS 10
AV Authorized Version 161 I
BDF A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and ot!l£r Early Christian
Literature, trans. and rev. by F. Blass, and A. Debrunner's
Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Griechisch, by R. W. Funk
(Cambridge, 1961)
BJRL Bulletin of the John Rylands Lib1"ary, Manchester
BZ Biblischer Zeitschrijt, Paderborn
BZNW BeiheJte zur Zeitschrijt fur die neutestamentliche Wissenscllf-!fi,
Berlin
CBQ Catholic Biblical Qparterry, Washington (D.C.)
CQEG De Congressu Quaerendae Eruditionis Gratia (Philo)
ET Expository Times, Edinburgh
EvTh Evangelische Theologie, Munich
FRLANT Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neucn Testa
ments, Gottingen
HE Historia Ecclesiastica (Eusebius)
HTR Harvard Theological Review, Cambridge (Mass.)
IDB Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, 4 vols (New York and
Nashville, 1962)
JB The Jerusalem Bible (London, 1966)
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature, New York
JJS Journal of Jewish Studies, London
JTS Journal of Theological Studies, Oxford
LSJ
A Greek-English Lexicon, by H. G. Liddell and R. Scott,
rev. H. S. Jones, 2 vols (Oxford, 1925-40)
LXX Septuagint
MM The Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament, illustrated from
the papyri and other non-literary sources, by J. H. Moulton and
G. Milligan (London, 1914-29)
MS(S) Manuscript(s)
NEB(mg) The New English Bible (London, 1970), (margin)
NT(Sup) Novum Testamentum, Leiden, (Supplements)
NTS New Testament Studies, Cambridge
para(s) parallel(s)
RB Revue Biblique, Paris
RGG Die Religion in Geschichte uttd Gegenwarl. 3rd edn, 6 vols
(Tiibingen, 1957-62)
RV(mg) Revised Version (1884), (margin)
RSV(mg) Revised Standard Version (1952), (margin)
SB Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch,
by H. L. Strack and P. Billerbeek, 5 vols (1922-55)
SBT Studies in Biblical Theology, London
TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testammt, translation of