THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
I have considered many ways to describe the Gospel of John. Unlike the Synoptic Gospels, the Gospel of John is not a linear telling of Jesus' life and ministry, though its authors borrow some stories from those Gospels upon which to build a narrative where Jesus is understood as the only-begotten Son of God through whom all things came into being.
Without a doubt the Gospel of John is the most influential New Testament Gospel, if not the most influential book in shaping Christianity's understanding of who Jesus is. Ingeniously, on the part of its authors, it is is largely written in Jesus' voice in which most of what Jesus says in this Gospel is not found in the Synoptic Gospels and is not something Jesus would have likely said nor, for that matter, would any reasonable person say about himself. Had Jesus talked the way he talks in this Gospel, he would have likely been stoned to death long before he was crucified. In psychoanalytical terms, Jesus comes across as a narcissist in this Gospel.
In short, Jesus in the Gospel of John is not the Jesus portrayed in the Synoptic Gospels. As such, it can be considered a work of theology (Christology to be exact) about Jesus. Beyond that, the Gospel of John casts Christianity as a mystery religion, in which a catechumen or an initiate, for instance, is taken on spiritual journey into communion with God through Jesus Christ. As such, there are some who consider the Gospel of John to be a Gnostic gospel that has been refurbished to suit an orthodox perspective of Jesus in the Church sanctioned by the Roman Empire of the late 4th century, CE.
But what is it, literarily speaking? Is the Gospel of John one big parable about Jesus? Is it some sort of early catechism in which Jesus through various "I am" statements explains various aspects of his divine nature as God's only-begotten? For the purpose of this post, I am presenting the entire Gospel of John as myth into what Christian liturgy calls the Mystery of Faith. To get a good sense of this Gospel being a myth, I suggest the reader take time to read the entire Gospel of John in one sitting.
MYTHOS
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
John 14:6
Perhaps John 14:6 best describes what the Gospel of John is ultimately about; getting to know God by getting to know Jesus as portrayed by this Gospel. Getting to know Jesus, however, requires a spiritual journey that begins with Jesus being described as the Word:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... And the Word was made flesh (human) and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth."
In short, Jesus is the Word; therefore, Jesus is God in human form. It is a reversal or a remake of Genesis 1 which says:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth... And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: ...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
In John 1, it is God, the creative Word who incarnates (makes God's self in the image of a physical human) into Jesus.
* * *
I am not going to pursue every mythic aspect of the Gospel of John in this post. I have already written as series of eighteen posts beginning April 4, 2016 that is basically my commentary on the Gospel of John which the reader can access by going to the archive of my posts on the right side of this page and clicking into the 2016 file. I have also written other posts regarding John that served as homilies which I delivered at the Episcopal church I am a member of. These are peppered throughout my blog. What I will offer here is my thoughts on why I consider the Gospel of John to be a myth.
In my opinion, what makes the Gospel of John a myth is not only what it says about Jesus, but also what it doesn't say when compared to the Synoptic Gospels. For instance, while John the Baptizer is prominently mentioned in the first chapter of this Gospel, John does not baptize Jesus but proclaims Jesus to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. As there is no baptism of Jesus, there is no story of Jesus being sent into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Jesus knows who he is. He is God in the flesh as God's only-begotten Son. If there is any doubt about that, Jesus will tell the reader in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Yes, that is Jesus talking about himself.
The journey into knowing God through the incarnate Son of God begins with being called as one of Jesus' disciples as depicted in the story of Jesus calling Andrew, Peter, Phillip, and Nathaniel. The next part of the journey involves turning water into wine, as told in the story of Wedding at Cana. This is a metaphorical story which outlines the journey to God in Christ from the rite of baptism into the death of Jesus, as represented by the jars of water used in the purification of a recently deceased person to its being turned into the wine of Holy Communion. To experience the new life in Christ Jesus, one must first experience his death.
This journey begins with Jesus cleansing the Temple of the money changers. Jesus is brutal. He not only overturn the money-changers tables, but is also beating them out of the Temple' precincts with whips he made out of corded rope. This is the event where Jesus, when asked for a sign whereby the people knew what authority he is authorized to beat the moneychangers, Jesus famously says, "Destroy this Temple and I will raise it in three days."
A much overlooked section in chapter 2 where this is recorded is the following odd statement:
"Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person." John 2:23-25 (NIV)
Here, Jesus demonstrates the omniscience of God which is presented in a somewhat negative manner. One can only wonder why Jesus would not entrust himself to those who saw the signs he performed and believed on his name. He claims he did not need any testimony about mankind because he knew what was in each person. Again, this is not the Jesus found in the Synoptic Gospels who could be surprised by people's faith.
This odd statement about Jesus not trusting people who believed in his name is a way of saying people could not choose him. Jesus did the choosing because Jesus knew what was in each person. If this Gospel was intended as some form of initiation manual into the Mystery of Faith, the initiate was chosen to be an initiate by Christ. One does not choose to follow Jesus. One is called to do so. As such, I consider the Gospel of John as an "in-house" Gospel; that is, it is not intended as the type of "Good News" one would spread around to the uninitiated or those outside the Church. It is a Gospel written for those "who know" or the initiate who wants to know, which lends credibility to its being a Gnostic Gospel.
* * *
For the purposes of this post, I want to underscore some obvious mythic elements employed in this Gospel. To understand this Gospel, one must have an appreciation for numerology, astrology, and Greek mythology which are cryptically woven into its narrative.
Numerology
As always, numbers mean more than a numeric value. They are codes that give meaning to what is being talked about. For example, the numbers 5 and 2 and their multiples are notable in this Gospel. As mentioned in previous posts, 5 and any multiple of 5 is code for grace. The story of the healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda or at the gate is notable for this gospel's mention of five covered colonnades. John's version of the miracle of Feeding the Five Thousand involves five loaves of bread and two fish. The combination of the 5 loaves and 2 fish result adds up to the holy number of 7 feeding the remanent of Israel as represented by the 12 baskets of left over bread.
Astrology
One cannot help but notice that many of the stories found in the Gospel of John are not found anywhere else in New Testament. John does not contain any of Jesus' parables found in the Synoptic Gospels, but there appear to be parabolic stories about Jesus in John involving other individuals, which I will get to. The first is Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well. There is an astrological overtone to this story. The image of a woman bearing a water jug to the well of Jacob to get water and Jesus offering her living water brings to mind the symbol for Aquarius, frequently symbolized by water being poured out by a woman or a man. For Jesus living water is the truth of God manifested in himself. The woman is truthful also. She tells Jesus the truth about her life and Jesus offers her the truth of who he is. What is interesting about this story is that it involves a Samaritan women, someone who would be below the dignity of Jewish man to converse with. It is Jesus who asks her for a drink (an invitation to converse) and ends up quenching her thirst for life. Astrology is also present in the Feeding of the Five Thousand as Jesus is presented with two fish by a young boy. The two fish is a Piscean symbol that in Christian astrology represents the age of faith and, as noted in my post on the Feeding of the Four and Five Thousand the Greek word for fish is ICTHYS which serves as an anagram for Jesus Christ God's Son (our) Savior.
Greek/Roman Mythology
Speaking of the young boy, the Feeding of the Five Thousand in the Gospel of John is the only Gospel that mentions this boy. There is something Eleusinian about the presence of this boy. In Ovid's Metamorphosis reference is made to a minor Greek diety, Iacchus, who Ovid refers to as the puer aeternus, the eternal boy, who interestingly represents the god of resurrection. While the young boy is not identified by name, his presence would not have gone unnoticed by people living in an era and culture where his story would have been know. There is so much packed into this miracle story, that it is the most obvious mythic story told about Jesus.
I Am
Jesus makes many "I am" statements throughout John. One cannot help but see as a direct reference to God, as in God's declaration to Moses near the base of Mount Sinai where God is in the burning bush and where God identifies as, "I am who I am." In other words, God will be whatever God will be at any given moment. In the Gospel of John, Jesus identifies as the following:
I am the Bread of Life.
I am the Light of the World.
I am the Gate of the Sheep.
I am the Good Shepherd.
I am the Resurrection and the Life.
I am in my Father.
I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
I am the True Vine.
Roughly speaking, Jesus makes nearly one hundred "I am" statements throughout the Gospel of John. These specific "I am" statement serve as markers along a catechumen's or an initiate's journey into the mystery of faith. The elemental nature of Holy Communion is outlined in the I Am the Bread of Life and I am the true vine which implies a grape vine or wine. Along the way Jesus is portrayed as the Light of the World, the Gatekeeper into Kingdom of God's fold, the Good Shepherd who cares for his sheep. Jesus is the puer aeternus, the "god of resurrection", the eternal child of God. As such Jesus is the true way to the Father.
Them/Us
There is a dark side to this particular Gospel. There are believers and there are unbelievers. There are Christians (the new chosen people of God) and there are Jews (the once chosen people of God). John's Gospel is written in response to the growing chasm between traditional Judaism and the Christian movement after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE which became the point where Judaism and Christianity parted ways. For Jewish Christians, in particular, this was an extremely difficult period of time and there are two stories within John that make the painfulness of this division clear.
The first is the story alluded to earlier in John 5, the healing of the paralytic man at the pool of Bethesda. One of the interesting features of the healing stories found in the Gospel of John is person who is healed does not ask to be healed. In this particular story, Jesus asks the paralytic if he wants to be healed. The person tells Jesus that he has no one to help him get to the pool when the water is stirred. Jesus tells the man to pick up his mat and walk, which the man does. This healing occurs on the Sabbath. Telling the man to pick up his mat and walk is a violation of the Sabbath rule of not doing work on the Sabbath. The "Jewish leaders" informed the man that he was breaking the law and asked who healed him, but the man didn't know. Latter Jesus finds the man by the Temple and tells him who he is and instructs the man not to sin anymore "in case something worse should happen to him." Summarily, the healed man tells the leaders that it was Jesus who healed him.
While the story does not specifically say that this healed man telling the Jewish leaders who healed him was a sin, the implication is that it was. One can fill in the reasons based on the practice at the time that when someone was healed the person often went to the Temple to show him/herself to the priests so that they would acknowledge that a person was healed and thus free from whatever sin (their own or a relatives) caused their condition. That the man went back to tell these leaders that it was Jesus after Jesus warned him not to sin, implies that this is something Jesus didn't want him to do; in part, because the Temple ( as a symbol of Judaism) is not the living Temple that Jesus is; the place where God dwells.
The second story is found in John 9, the healing of the blind man from birth. Here we are confronted with the ancient idea that such conditions are the result of sin. Jesus' disciples ask a rather naive question, "Who sinned, this man or his parents?" They may not have known he was blind from birth, but we do because the Gospel says so. Jesus says he was blind from birth for the purpose of Jesus restoring this man's sight.
On this occasion the blind man knows that it is Jesus who healed him. Apparently, he doesn't go to the Temple or to the religious leaders of the local synagogue. People are confused because he looks like the blind man they had known for most of their lives. The Pharisees set out to investigate and the former blind man tells them Jesus healed him. They accuse Jesus of not being from God because he doesn't keep the Sabbath, but the now seeing man claims that Jesus is a prophet who indeed healed him.
The Pharisees then ask his parents if the man is their son. They admit that he is and that he was blind from birth, but they claim they do not know how it came to be that he can see because they were fearful of the "Jews" because anyone who mentioned Jesus in the synagogue would be thrown out and this is the sad fate of the healed blind man. He is thrown out. It is obvious that this story was told to assure that being thrown out of the synagogue, which likely was happening to Jews who were Christian, was a badge of honor because in rejecting a Christian, the leaders of the Synagogue (the Pharisees after the destruction of the Temple) were rejecting Christ and no long considered God's Chosen people. At the end of this story Jesus points out it is the Pharisees who remain in their sin.
Resurrection
The prequel to the resurrection of Jesus is the story of Jesus raising Lazarus in John 11. It is in this story that Jesus tells Lazarus' sister, Martha, that he is resurrection and the life. As if to underscore that Lazarus is truly dead, Martha makes the point that Lazarus has been dead in his tomb for four day and is likely in a putrefying state of decay before Jesus demands that the stone of his tomb be moved.
Jesus calls Lazarus to come out of the tomb and Lazarus does. After word is spread that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the Chief Priest and other leaders plot not only to kill Jesus but were hatching a plot to kill the recently raised Lazarus. While we know that Jesus ends up being crucified, we don't hear about the fate of Lazarus beyond that point in the story.
As I have mentioned in another post, plotting to kill Lazarus poses a theological quandary. According to scripture it is appointed for human beings to die once. If Lazarus has truly been dead for four days, could he be killed again? If he wasn't dead after being in the tomb for four days, was he really dead? There is no point in answering either of these question because, quite simply, the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead is a myth that points out Jesus has the power to raise the dead to life.
What is interesting in the resurrection story of Jesus is that the Greek text says that Jesus had risen from the dead. The implication is that Jesus himself had done this as opposed to the more common understanding that God raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus being the divine Son of God since the beginning through whom all things came into being undoubtedly would have the power to literally rise from the dead by himself.
Entry into Communion with God through Christ
The story of Thomas having doubts about Jesus' resurrection is a deliberate construct by the authors of John by which to end this Gospel. Of course, we know there is another chapter to this Gospel that focuses on Peter which I discussed in my previous post. In my opinion, the Gospel of John originally ended with the story of Thomas. The reason I believe this to be true is because this is the story when Thomas, the doubter, is literally invited into the wounded side of the resurrected being of Jesus and thus into the being of God. Thomas represents the catechumen or initiate who has moved from initial doubt to belief.
As I have pointed out in other posts, when Thomas is confronted with the risen Christ and asked to place his hand into Jesus wounded side the Gospel of John doesn't say Thomas actually did so but rather immediately believed once his was asked to do so. It is at this point the catechumen or initiate is also invited into the body and blood of Christ and thus into communion with God and all that God encompasses.
MEANING
The meaning of the Gospel of John is defined by its purpose, and the purpose of the Gospel of John is basically threefold. First, it establishes that Jesus is God incarnate, the very Word of God through whom all things came into being. Secondly, its purpose is to be an in-house Gospel designed to differentiate Christianity from Judaism. Thirdly, it is designed to carry the reader from rebirth, born of water and the spirit to union with God through the body and blood of the risen Christ in the rite of Holy Communion.
Having said that, I have to confess that the Gospel of John is not my favorite Gospel. In fact, I think the New Testament would have been better understood without it. Jesus is too aloof in the Gospel of John to be relatable as a fellow human being. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is God disguised as a human, who knows all things and although he weeps and suffers crucifixion, there is something pre-ordained and scripted as it were rather than a truly human person having spontaneous responses to human experiences with the unexpected which is evident in the Synoptic Gospel but which is often neglected due to the dogmatic rigidity of the Gospel of John which has largely influenced Christian understanding of Jesus.
One of the unfortunate results of this Gospel is its anti-Judaic stance which was used to comfort and strengthen those Jewish Christians being expelled from their synagogues. Although I do not believe the authors of this Gospel intended it to be, this stance forms a Gospel-based premise for anti-Semitism not found in the Synoptic Gospels. The idea of God disguised in human flesh, which orthodox Christianity denies as a heresy, is obviously suggested to be the case in this Gospel which lends itself to believing that Jesus was not really a Jew.
Mythically speaking, the Gospel appears to have borrowed its mystical understanding of Jesus as the only-begotten Son of God from Greek and Roman mythology and mimics the exclusive mystery religions of ancient Greece and Rome. In particular, the Eleusinian and Dionysian mysteries come to mind which would have made Christianity particularly attractive to the inhabitants of the Roman Empire and beyond. It is an example of the Pagan Continuation Hypothesis discussed in Brian Muraresku's book, "The Immortality Key."
Above all, the Gospel of John presents Christianity as an exclusive religion in which there are the called disciples of Jesus and those who are "condemned already" as noted in Jesus' description of those who do not believe that he is the only-begotten Son of God which Jesus declares himself to be in John 3. The Gospel of John is the flagship of what I have referred to as the Johannine school of theology, known today as Christology. The Johanine school of thought is found the Letters of John and the Revelation of John. This Christological perspective of Jesus promotes the being of Jesus as more than the Jewish idea of the Messiah. The Greek term for messiah or the anointed one is Christos, Christ in English. Today, Christ has come to mean more than the anointed one. Today the Christ has been mythologized into a cosmic term; as in, Jesus is the cosmic Christ through whom all things were made and who, at the end of time, will come to be the judge of the world.
* * *
Until next time, stay faithful.
Norm
No comments:
Post a Comment