The Gospel of Signs: A Reconstruction of the Narrative Source Underlying the Fourth Gospel

280 Pages·1970·15.739 MB·English

by  Robert Tomson Fortna

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FOR SEW T!STAMIST STUDI ES
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THE
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GOSPEL OF
SIGNS
It RECONSTRUCT I ON OF
T H E NARRATI VE SOURCE
UNDERLY I NG THf.
FOURTH GOSPEL
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-
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ROBERT T. FORTNA
CAY 'UlIDGE UN IVERSITY PRESS
THE GOSPEL OF
SIGNS
A RECONSTRUCTION OF THE
NARRATIVE SOURCE UNDERLYING
THE FOURTH GOSPEL
BY
ROBERT TOMSON FORTNA
Associate Professor of Religion
Vassar College
CAMBRIDGE
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1970
SOCIETY FOR NEW TESTAMENT STUDIES
MONOGRAPH SERIES
GENERAL EDITOR
MATTHEW BLACK, D.D., F.B.A.
11
THE GOSPEL OF SIGNS
Published by the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press
Bentley House, 200 Euston Road, London N.W.I
American Branch: 32 East 57th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 74---93708
Standard Book Number: 521 07624 2
Printed in Great Britain
at the University Printing House, Cambridge
(Brooke Crutchley, University Printer)
To EvelYn
CONTENTS
Preface page ix
List of Abbreviations
Xl
Methodological introduction
The place of source criticism in Fourth Gospel research and
the presuppositions entailed 2
2 Criteria for the source analysis of Johannine narrative 15
a Ideological I 5
h S~listic I 7
c- Contextual 19
3 A starting point: the miracle stories
PART ONE: THE 'SIGNS SOURCE'
A. The miracle stories in John
Water changed into wine (2: I-II)
2 A nobleman's son healed (4: 46-54)
3 A thirty-eight-year illness healed (5: I-g)
4 The multitude fed (6: 1-14)
5 Walking on water and a miraculous landing (6: 15-25)
6 A man blind from birth healed (g: 1-8)
7 A dead man raised (II: 1-45)
8 A miraculous draught offish (21: 1-14)
B. The structure of the source
Its integrity 98
2 The number of signs 100
3 The order and interconnection of the signs 102
PART TWO: THE PASSION AND
RESURRECTION NARRATIVES
The arrest (18: 1-12) 114
2 Jesus in the high priest's house (18: I3-28a) I17
3 The trial before Pilate (18: 286-19: 16a) 122
4 The Crucifixion and burial (19: 16b-42, 3: 1) 128
vii
CONTENTS
5 The Resurrection (20: 1-20) page 134
6 The prelude to the Passion 144
a The cleansing of the Temple (2: 14-19) and death plot
(II: 46ff.) 144
b The anointing at Bethany (12: 1-8) 149
c The triumphal entry (12: 12-1 5) 152
d The Last Supper (ch. 13) 155
PART THREE: OTHER PRE~]OHANNINE MATERIAL
I John the Baptist and the first disciples (ch. I, 3: 23 f.)
a The Exordium (I: 6 f.)
b The Baptist's testimony (I: 1g -34)
c The conversion of the first disciples (3: 23 f., I: 35-50) 179
2 Jesus and the Samaritan woman (4: 4-42) 189
3 An unrecoverable fragment: Peter's confession (6: 67-71) 195
A note onJn 7: 3 ff. 196
4 The Peroration (20: 30 f.) 197
A note onJn 12: 37 f. 199
5 Sayings? 199
PART FOUR: STYLISTIC TESTS OF THE
SOURCE'S PURITY AND INTEGRITY
The method of Schweizer and Ruckstuhl 203
2 The source's style 214
PART FIVE: THE CHARACTER OF THE SOURCE
Origin and purpose
2 Relation to the Synoptic Gospels and historical value
3 Theology
Appendix: The text of the source
Bibliography
Indexes
Index of passages cited 257
Index of Greek words and phrases 27
1
Index of authors 273
VUl
PREFACE
This study is occasioned by the recent emergence of Redaktions
geschichte as a method of gospel research. If, as that discipline
proposes, an evangelist's purpose and meaning are to be investi
gated by examining his redaction of the sources available to him,
it is obviously necessary to identify as objectively and distinctly
as possible the exact form of a Vorlage. This is relatively simple
in the case of Mt and Lk, whose sources are accessible to us.
For Jn, as for Mk, however, it is necessary to reconstruct a
source, if at all, primarily on the basis of data within the gospel.
What is called for, now with special importance, is a renewed
attempt at such a reconstruction in the case of the fourth gospel,
and that is undertaken here for the narrative material. In a
later work I hope to apply to the source reconstructed below
the redaction-critical method which called it forth.
The present work is a version, somewhat revised, of a
doctoral dissertation presented to the faculty of Union Theo
logical Seminary, New York. It owes a great deal, at every
stage of its evolution, to Professor J. Louis Martyn, who has
been not only a critical and demanding 'doctor-father' but also
a generous and uncomplaining friend. This study had its
beginnings in his seminar on the fourth gospel, and it was in
great measure from him that I learned the wissenschaftlich study
of the New Testament in general and of the Gospel of John in
particular.
To Professors J. M. Robinson and R. McL. Wilson lowe
a very great debt of thanks for reading the MS in close detail
and making many helpful suggestions.
I am indebted also to Professors W. D. Davies, Ernst
Haenchen, John Knox, and George M. Landes for their advice
and knowing criticism at a number of points.
I must thank two Vassar students, Miss Donna Bergen and Miss
Alison Hilton, who as research assistants gave me a great deal
of painstaking and loyal help in preparing the MS; Mrs
Barbara Caswell, of the Vassar College Library, for her un
failing efforts in making available any book I needed, however
far afield it lay; and Mrs Mildred Tubby, for skilfully typing so
IX
PREFACE
demanding a text. I am grateful to the Faculty Committee on
Research of Vassar College for several grants in support of this
work.
Finally I would give special thanks to my wife, to whom this
book is affectionately dedicated and without whose patient
moral support it could scarcely have been written.
R.T.F.
November 1968
In
Unless otherwise indicated, the Greek text of which forms
the basis of the source analysis is that of the 25th edition of
Nestle.
x
ABBREVIATIONS
In this book 'John' represents the evangelist, and 'In' the
gospel. 'Johannine' may pertain to either, but usually to the
evangelist as opposed to the author of a source (' pre
Johannine') or a later editor ('post-Johannine'). 'SQ' some
times refers to Bultmann's Semeia-Q,uelle, but more often to our
corrected and expanded version of the pre-Johannine narrative
source. The abbreviations for MSS of the NT are those of
Nestle, even when a variant is found only in Tischendorf or
TGNT.
AUTHORS
The following works are normally referred to by author only.
Works listed in the bibliography at the beginning of any
section are cited in that section by author alone, except where
confusion would result.
Barrett: C. K. Barrett, The gospel according to St John: An intro
duction with commentary and notes on the Greek text (London,
1955)·
Bauer: W. Bauer, Das Johannesevangelium (3rd ed.; Handbuch
zum Neuen Testament, 6; Tiibingen, 1933).
Brown: R. E. Brown, The gospel according to John (i-xii) (Anchor
Bible, 29; Garden City, 1966).
Bultmann: R. Bultmann, Das Evangelium des Johannes (16th ed.
with Erganzungsheft; Meyers Kommentar; G6ttingen,
1959)'
Dodd: C. H. Dodd, Historical tradition in the fourth gospel
(Cambridge, 1963).
Fuller: R. H. Fuller, Interpreting the miracles (Philadelphia, 1963).
Goguel: M. Goguel, Introduction au Nouveau Testament, II (Paris,
1923).
Hirsch: E. Hirsch, Studien zum vierten Evangelium (Beitrage zur
historischen Theologie, 4; Tiibingen, 1936).
Hoskvns: E. Hoskyns, The fourth gospel, ed. F. N. Davey (2nd
ed. rev.; London, 1947).
MolIat: D. Mollat, L'tvangile de Saint Jean (2nd ed.; Bible de
Jerusalem; Paris, 1960).
Xl