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You can help Wikipedia by improving weasel-worded statements. | The Johannine works are the Gospel of John, the first, second, and third epistles of John, and the Book of Revelation. All five show certain similarities in theological background, but also certain differences, leading to the current debate. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ...
Download high resolution version (545x607, 12 KB) The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ...
Download high resolution version (545x607, 12 KB) The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ...
El Greco (probably a combination of the Castilian and the Venetian language for The Greek, 1541 – April 7, 1614) was a prominent painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. ...
John the Apostle (×™×•×—× ×Ÿ The LORD is merciful, Standard Hebrew Yoḥanan, Tiberian Hebrew YôḥÄnÄn), also known as John the Revelator, was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. ...
The Gospel of John is the fourth gospel in the canon of the New Testament, traditionally ascribed to John the Evangelist. ...
(Redirected from 1 John) The First Epistle of John is a book of the Bible New Testament. ...
The Second Epistle of John is a book of the Bible New Testament. ...
The Third Epistle of John is a book of the Bible New Testament. ...
God is victorious! Visions of John of Patmos, as depicted in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. ...
All of these books of the New Testament have traditionally been attributed to John the Apostle, assumed to be identical to John the Evangelist, except for 2 John, which was officially regarded as distinct since the Council of Rome; however, especially since the rise of higher criticism, the question of the authorship of the Johannine works has been disputed. Before the rise of higher criticism, the question of authorship of the five works was hardly breached. However, the decree of the Council of Rome (382) differentiates the Gospel, first epistle and Book of Revelation, which it attributes to John the Apostle, from the second and third epistle, which it attributes to "John, a priest". See John the Presbyter. John 21:1 Jesus Appears to His Disciples--Alessandro Mantovani: the Vatican, Rome. ...
John the Apostle (×™×•×—× ×Ÿ The LORD is merciful, Standard Hebrew Yoḥanan, Tiberian Hebrew YôḥÄnÄn), also known as John the Revelator, was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. ...
St John the Evangelist, imagined by Jacopo Pontormo, ca 1525 (Santa Felicità , Florence) John the Evangelist (? - c. ...
The Council of Rome was a meeting of Western church officials and theologians which took place in 382 under the authority of Pope Damasus I. The previous year, the Emperor Theodosius I had appointed the dark horse candidate Nectarius Patriarch of Constantinople. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with The Historical-Critical Method. ...
The Council of Rome was a meeting of Western church officials and theologians which took place in 382 under the authority of Pope Damasus I. The previous year, the Emperor Theodosius I had appointed the dark horse candidate Nectarius Patriarch of Constantinople. ...
Events October 3 - Theodosius I commands his general Saturninus to conclude a peace treaty with the Visigoths, allowing them to settle south of the Danube. ...
The shadowy figure of John the presbyter (John the Elder) formed a link in the chain of Early Christian oral tradition that Papias of Hierapolis recorded in the early 2nd century, in five volumes called Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord (Greek — Kyriakôn logiôn exêgêsis...
Today the texts continue to be approached separately; viewpoints on the issue of authorship in each of the Johannine works range from affirming the authorship of the Apostle, to affirming the authorship of another author, called "John" for convenience, to theories of group authorship.
History of use of the Johannine works
In the first two centuries of Christianity, the Gospel of Matthew was the primary instrument for catechesis. John was always considered the last to be written, traditionally given a date between 90 and 100, though modern scholars often suggest an even later date. Under the influence of Irenaeus' four-gospel "canon of truth", the Gospel of John became a cornerstone of baptismal catechesis in Rome. In the First Council of Nicaea, the Gospel was one of the major supports for the high Christology proposed by the council fathers. This article is becoming very long. ...
The Gospel of Matthew (literally, according to Matthew; Greek, Κατά Μαθθαίον or Κατά Ματθαίον) is one of the four Gospel accounts of the New Testament. ...
Codex Manesse, fol. ...
An engraving of Irenaeus ( 130–202), bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul (now Lyon, France). ...
Baptism in early Christian art. ...
The First Council of Nicaea, held in Nicea in Bithynia (in present-day Turkey), convoked by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325, was the first ecumenical[1] conference of bishops of the Christian Church, and most significantly resulted in the first uniform Christian doctrine. ...
Christology is that part of Christian theology which studies and attempts to define Jesus the Christ. ...
On the one hand, several Church fathers of the 2nd century never quoted John, and on the other, the earliest extant written commentary on any book of the New Testament was that written on John by Heracleon, a disciple of the gnostic Valentinus. Texts of the Nag Hammadi library show that many of the Gospel of John's earliest readers responded to the text "in surprising and imaginative ways" (Pagels 2003 p 115 –117). Origen, Augustine, John Chrysostom and Cyril of Alexandria all provided commentaries on the Johannine works, with those of Augustine being the most numerous. In the Middle Ages, important mainstream commentaries were written by Rupert of Deutz and Thomas Aquinas. -Quevedo Valentinius, also called Valentinus (c. ...
The Nag Hammadi library is a collection of early Christian Gnostic texts discovered near the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945. ...
Origen (Greek: Ōrigénēs, 185–ca. ...
For the first Archbishop of Canterbury, see Saint Augustine of Canterbury. ...
A millennium-old Byzantine mosaic of Saint John Chrysostom, Hagia Sophia John Chrysostom (347 - 407, Greek Ιωάννης ο ΧÏυσόστομος ) was a notable Christian bishop from the 4th and 5th centuries in Syria and Constantinople. ...
St. ...
The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ...
Saint Thomas Aquinas [Thomas of Aquin, or Aquino] (c. ...
Though most of the above is called into question due to Rylands Library Papyrus P52 which possibly dates a section of the gospel of John to between 125 and 160 CE. As well as the recent work of Charles Hill's The Johannine Corpus in the Early Church. In which Charles Hill gives evidence that the Gospel of John was used between CE 90 and 130, the possible use of uniquely Johannine gospel material in several works which date from this period. These works and authors include Ignatius (c.107); Polycarp (c.107); Papias’ elders (c.110-120); Hierapolis' Exegesis of the Lord’s Oracles (c.120-132). Hill assesses that many historical figures did indeed reference the Gospel of John. Justin Martyr (c100AD to 165AD) also quoted from the gospel of John this would also support that the Gospel was indeed in existence by the beginning of the second century. Also that it was considered valid by these fathers of mainstream christianity. John Rylands Library Papyrus P52, recto The Rylands Library Papyrus P52, also known as the St Johns fragment, is a papyrus conserved at the John Rylands Library, Manchester, UK. The front (recto) contains lines from the Gospel of John 18:31-33, in Greek, and the back (verso) contains...
Ignatius of Antioch (probably died AD 107) was the third patriarch of Antioch, after Saint Peter and Euodius, who died around AD 68. ...
Polycarp of Smyrna (martyred in his 87th year, ca. ...
Papias (working in the 1st half of the 2nd century) was one of the early leaders of the Christian church, canonized as a saint. ...
The theatre Hierapolis (Arabic Manbij or Mumbij) is an ancient Syrian town occupying one of the finest sites in Northern Syria, in a fertile district about 16 miles southwest of the confluence of the Sajur and Euphrates. ...
Justin Martyr (Justin the Martyr, also known as Justin of Caesarea) (100 – 165) was an early Christian apologist. ...
History of critical scholarship The era of critical scholarship on the works opened with K.G. Bretschneider's 1820 work on the topic of Johannine authorship. Bretschneider called into question the apostolic authorship of the Gospel, and even stated on the basis of the author's unsteady grip on topography that the author could not have come from Palestine. He argued that the meaning and nature of Jesus presented in the Gospel of John was very different from that in the Synoptic Gospels, and thus its author could not have been an eyewitness to the events. Bretschneider cited an apologetic character in John, indicating a later date of composition. Karl Gottlieb Bretschneider (1776 - 1848), German scholar and theologian, was born at Gersdorf in Saxony. ...
Map of the British Mandate of Palestine. ...
Jesus (8–2 BC/BCE to 29–36 AD/CE),[1] also known as Jesus of Nazareth, is the central figure of Christianity. ...
The Synoptic Gospels is a term used by modern New Testament scholars for the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke of the New Testament in the Bible. ...
This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Following from the philosophy of Hegel, F.C. Baur negated any historical value for the Fourth Gospel. He stated that it was solely a work of synthesis of thesis-antithesis according to the Hegelian model—synthesis between the thesis of Judeo-Christianity (represented by Peter) and the antithesis of Gentile Christianity (represented by Paul). He also cited in the epistles a synthesis with the opposing dualist forces of Gnosticism. As such, he assigned a date of 170 to the Gospel. Many modern critics follow him in this late dating[citation needed]. The Death of Socrates, by Jacques-Louis David (1787) depicts the philosopher Socrates carrying out his own execution. ...
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (August 27, 1770 - November 14, 1831) was a German philosopher born in Stuttgart, Württemberg, in present-day southwest Germany. ...
Ferdinand Christian Baur (June 21, 1792 - 1860), was a German theologian and leader of the Tübingen school of theology. ...
This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...
The Gospel
Literary criticism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Although the critical movement reached almost complete agreement about the two-source hypothesis for the Synoptic Gospels, no agreement has been reached about the literary sources for the Johannine works. A perhaps typical example of a critical theory of the development of these was provided by Julius Wellhausen in 1908. He hypothesized a base document which was heavily modified by a later editor. He claimed to have been able to separate the base document from the editings, praising the base document, and condemning the later editor for his intrusion. Other critical scholars, such as E. Schwarz, listed dozens of "apories" or indications of rupture in the narratives and discourses. The Two-Source Hypothesis is the most commonly accepted solution to the synoptic problem among biblical scholars, which posits that there are two sources to Gospel of Matthew and Gospel of Luke: the Gospel of Mark and a lost, hypothetical sayings collection called Q. The Two-Source Hypothesis was first...
The Synoptic Gospels is a term used by modern New Testament scholars for the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke of the New Testament in the Bible. ...
Julius Wellhausen (May 17, 1844 - January 17, 1918), was a German biblical scholar and Orientalist. ...
Criticism in the early twentieth century centered on the idea of the Logos (word), which was perceived as a Hellenistic concept. Thus H. J. Holtzmann hypothesized a dependence of the work on Philo Judaeus; Albert Schweitzer considered the work to be a Hellenized version of Pauline mysticism, while R. Reitzenstein sought the work's origin in Egyptian and Persian mystery religions. The Greek word λόγος or logos is a word with various meanings. ...
Philo (20 BCE - 40 CE) was an Alexandrian Jewish philosopher born in Alexandria, Egypt. ...
Albert Schweitzer, M.D., OM, (January 14, 1875 – September 4, 1965) was a German Alsatian theologian, musician, philosopher, and physician. ...
Paul of Tarsus (b. ...
Motto: de facto: EsteqlÄl, ÄzÄdÄ«, jomhÅ«rÄ«-ye eslÄmÄ« (Persian for Independence, freedom, (the) Islamic Republic de jure: Allaho Akbar (Arabic for God is Great)[1] Anthem: SorÅ«d-e MellÄ«-e ĪrÄn Capital (and largest city) Tehran Persian Government Islamic Republic - Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali...
A mystery religion is any religion with an arcanum, or body of secret wisdom. ...
Rudolf Bultmann took a different approach to the work. He hypothesized a Gnostic origin (specifically Mandaeanism which maintains that Jesus was a mšiha kdaba or "false prophet," ) for the work. He noted similarities with the Pauline corpus, but attributed this to a common Hellenistic background. He claimed that the many contrasts in the Gospel, between light and darkness, truth and lies, above and below, and so on, show a tendency toward dualism, explained by the Gnostic roots of the work. Despite the Gnostic origin, Bultmann commended the author for several improvements over Gnosticism, such as the Judeo-Christian view of creation and the demythologizing of the role of the Redeemer. He saw the Gospel as an investigation into a God who was wholly Other and transcendent, seeing no place in the vision of the author for a Church or sacraments. Rudolf Karl Bultmann (August 20, 1884 - July 30, 1976) was a German theologian of Lutheran background, who was for three decades professor of New Testament studies at the University of Marburg. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Mandaeism. ...
False prophet is a label given to a person who is viewed as illegitimately claiming charismatic authority within a religious group. ...
This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ...
A sacrament is a Christian rite that mediates divine grace—a holy [[Mystery The root meaning of the Latin word sacramentum is making sacred. One example of its use was as the term for the oath of dedication taken by Roman soldiers; but the ecclesiastical use of the word is...
Bultmann's analysis is still widely applied in German-speaking countries, although with many corrections and discussions. Wide-ranging replies have been made to this analysis. Today, most Christian exegetes reject much of Bultmann's theory, but accept certain of his intuitions. For instance, J. Blank uses Bultmann in his discussion of the Last Judgment and W. Thüsing uses him to discuss the elevation and glorification of Jesus. German (called Deutsch in German; in German the term germanisch is equivalent to English Germanic), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and is one of the worlds major languages. ...
Last Judgement. ...
In the English-speaking world, Bultmann has had less impact. Instead, these scholars tended to continue in the investigation of the Hellenistic and Platonistic theories, generally returning to theories closer to the traditional interpretation. By way of example, G.H.C. McGregor (1928) and W.F. Howard (1943) belong to this group. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
Plato (ancient Greek: Πλάτων, PlátÅn, wide, broad-shouldered) (c. ...
More recent criticism The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Qumran marked a change in Johannine scholarship. Several of the hymns, presumed to come from a community of Essenes, contained the same sort of plays between opposites—light and dark, truth and lies—that the Gospel contains. Thus the hypothesis that the Gospel relied on Gnosticism fell out of favor. Many suggested further that John the Baptist himself belonged to an Essene community, and if John the Apostle had previously been a disciple of the Baptist, he would have been affected by that teaching. The current version of the article or section is written like an essay. ...
Qumran (Hebrew:חירבת קומר×ן Khirbet Qumran) is located on a dry plateau about a mile inland from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea in Israel. ...
The Essenes (es-eenz) were followers of a religious way of living in Judaism that flourished from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD. Many scholars today argue that there were a number of separate but related groups that had in common mystic, eschatological, messianic, and ascetic beliefs...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
The resulting revolution in Johannine scholarship was termed the new look by J.A.T. Robinson, who coined the phrase in 1957 at Oxford. According to Robinson, this new information rendered the question of authorship a relative one. He considered a group of disciples around the aging John the Apostle who wrote down his memories, mixing them with theological speculation, a model that had been proposed as far back as Renan's Vie de Jésus ("Life of Jesus ", 1863). The work of such scholars brought the consensus back to a Palestinian origin for the text, rather than the Hellenistic origin favored by the critics of the previous decades. Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 (2001 census). ...
Ernest Renan (February 28, 1823–October 12, 1892) was a French philosopher and writer. ...
In any case, the "Qumran fever" that was raised by the discovery of the Scrolls is gradually dying down, with theories of Gnostic influences in the Johannine works beginning to be proposed again, especially in Germany. Some recent views have seen the theology of Johannine works as directly opposing "Thomas Christians" (Riley 1995; Pagels 2003).
Hugh Schonfield, in The Passover Plot and other works, saw evidence that the source of this Gospel was the Beloved Disciple of the Last Supper and further that this person, perhaps named John, was a senior Temple priest and so probably a member of the Sanhedrin. This would account for the otherwise inexplicable knowledge of and access to the Temple which would not have been available to rough fishermen and followers of a distruptive rural preacher from the Gallilee, one who was being accused of heresy besides. And probably for the evanescent presence of the Beloved Disciple in the events of Jesus' Ministry. On this reading, the Gospel was written, perhaps by a student and follower of this Disciple in his last advanced years, perhaps at Patmos. The Passover Plot (ISBN 1852308362) is the name of a controversial, best-selling book (©1965), by British Biblical scholar Hugh J. Schonfield. ...
Jesus and the Beloved Disciple, polychromed and gilded wood, c 1320 The phrase the disciple whom Jesus loved or Beloved Disciple is used several times in the Gospel of John, but in none of the other accounts of Jesus. ...
Historicity With the exception of Renan's Vie de Jésus, which praised the historical and geographical details present in the Gospel, virtually all critical scholars before the 20th century denied any historical value of the work, largely basing their conclusions on seven particular theses: first, that the tradition of authorship by John the Apostle was created ex post facto to support the book's authority; second, that the book does not proceed even indirectly from an eyewitness account; third, that the book was intended as an apologetic work, not a history; fourth, that the Synoptic tradition was used and adapted very freely by the author; fifth, that these deviations are not due to the application of other sources unknown to the authors of the Synoptic gospels; sixth, that the discourses in the Gospel express not Jesus's words, but those of the evangelist; and therefore, that the fourth Gospel has no value in supplementing the Synoptics.
In favor of the historical and eyewitness character of the Gospel, a few passages are pointed to. In the second chapter, when Jesus cleanses the Temple, the Jews tell him that the Temple has been under construction for forty-six years. That construction had begun in 20 BC under Herod the Great, putting the cleansing of the Temple in AD 27, precisely when modern scholarship (see Chronology of Jesus' birth and death) places the beginning of Jesus's ministry. Similarly, John's chronology for the death of Jesus seems more realistic, because the Synoptic Gospels would have the trial before the Sanhedrin occurring on the first day of the Passover, which was a day of rest. However, this could simply be due to the authors of the gospels having a clearer and more neutral account of events than would be held by someone present at the time. Schonfield agrees that the Gospel was the product of the Apostle's great age, but further identifies him as the Beloved Disciple of the Last Supper, and so believes that the Gospel is based on first hand witness, though decades later and perhaps through the assistance of a younger follower and writer, which may account for the mixture is Hebraicisma (from the Disciple) and Greek idiom (the assistant). Drawing of the Second Temple in Jerusalem during the time of Herod the Great A stone (2. ...
Hordos (Hebrew: הוֹרְדוֹס, ; Greek: , ; trad. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Detailed timeline for Jesus. ...
For the tractate in the Mishnah, see Sanhedrin (tractate). ...
Passover (Hebrew: פסח; transliterated as Pesach or Pesah), also called חג המצות (Chag HaMatzot - Festival of Matzot) is a Jewish holiday which is celebrated in the northern spring. ...
Fredriksen 2002 (See also http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/apr1995/v52-1-article6.htm) sees the Fourth Gospel's unique explanation for Jesus' arrest and crucifixion as the most historically plausible: "The priests' motivation is clear and commonsensical: 'If we let [Jesus] go on.... the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.' Caiaphas continues, 'It is expedient that one man should die for the people, that the whole nation not perish' (11:48,50)".
Authorship
Early criticism According to some scholars[citation needed], the first persons to use the Gospel of John were Gnostics in the early to mid second century, referring to commentary made on John by the Gnostics Ptolemy and Heracleon, as quoted by Irenaeus and Origen. A medieval artists rendition of Claudius Ptolemaeus Claudius Ptolemaeus (Greek: ; c. ...
Heracleon, a Gnostic who flourished about AD 125, probably in the south of Italy or in Sicily, and is generally classed by the early heresiologists with the Valentinian school of heresy. ...
An engraving of Irenaeus ( 130–202), bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul (now Lyon, France). ...
Origen (Greek: Ōrigénēs, 185–ca. ...
The first certain witness to Johannine theology among the Fathers of the Church is in Ignatius of Antioch, whose Letter to the Philippians is founded on John 3:8 and alludes to John 10:7-9 and 14:6. This would indicate that the Gospel was known in Antioch before Ignatius' death (probably 107). Polycarp of Smyrna (c 80 AD to 167 AD) quotes from the letters of John. As does Justin Martyr(c 100 AD to 165 AD). Icon of Ignatius being eaten by lions St. ...
Polycarp of Smyrna (69?-155?, 80?-166?, 81?-167?, 79?-165?, or 70?-156?) was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now in Asiatic Turkey) in the second century. ...
The earliest testimony to the author was that of Papias, preserved in fragmentary quotes in Eusebius's history of the Church. This text is consequently rather obscure. Eusebius says that two different Johns must be distinguished, John the Apostle, and John the Presbyter, with the Gospel assigned to the Apostle and the Book of Revelation to the presbyter. Papias (working in the 1st half of the 2nd century) was one of the early leaders of the Christian church, canonized as a saint. ...
Eusebius of Caesarea Eusebius of Caesarea (c. ...
The shadowy figure of John the presbyter (John the Elder) formed a link in the chain of Early Christian oral tradition that Papias of Hierapolis recorded in the early 2nd century, in five volumes called Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord (Greek — Kyriakôn logiôn exêgêsis...
God is victorious! Visions of John of Patmos, as depicted in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. ...
Irenaeus's witness based on Papias represents the tradition in Ephesus[citation needed], where John the Apostle is reputed to have lived. Irenaeus was a disciple of Polycarp, thus in the second generation after the apostle. He states unequivocally that the apostle is the author of the Gospel. Some critics [citation needed]reject the reference of Ignatius of Antioch as referring to the Gospel and cite Irenaeus as the first to use it. Some of these [citation needed] go as far as to claim that Irenaeus was the author (or at least final editor) of the book. These scholars [citation needed]claim that the theory of Johannine authorship was created by the early Church to give more authority to the work which they were using to combat Gnosticism. Historical Map of Ephesus, from Meyers Konversationslexikon 1888 Ephesus (Greek: , Turkish: ), was one of the great cities of the Ionian Greeks in Anatolia, located in Lydia where the Cayster River (Küçük Menderes) flows into the Aegean Sea (in modern day Turkey). ...
Polycarp of Smyrna (martyred in his 87th year, ca. ...
The recent discovery of Rylands Library Papyrus P52, typically dated to around 100-175 , suggests, according to Christian apologists, that the text of the Gospel of John spread rapidly through Egypt. The front of the fragment contains lines from the Gospel of John 18:31-33, in Greek, and the back contains lines from verses 37-38. Clement of Alexandria (c 150 AD to 211 AD) mentions John the Apostle's missionary activity in Asia Minor, and continues, "As for John, the last, upon seeing that in the Gospels they had told the corporal matters, supported by his disciples and inspired by the Holy Spirit, he wrote a spiritual Gospel." (Quis dives salvabitur 42,1). Origen responded, when asked how John had placed the cleansing of the Temple first rather than last, "John does not always tell the truth literally, he always tells the truth spiritually" (Commentary on John 10.4.6). In Alexandria, the authorship of the Gospel and the first epistle was never questioned. Bruce Metzger stated "One finds in Clement's workcitations of all the books of the New Testament with the exception of Philemon, James, 2 Peter, and 2 and 3 John." John Rylands Library Papyrus P52, recto The Rylands Library Papyrus P52, also known as the St Johns fragment, is a papyrus conserved at the John Rylands Library, Manchester, UK. The front (recto) contains lines from the Gospel of John 18:31-33, in Greek, and the back (verso) contains...
Clement of Alexandria (Titus Flavius Clemens), was the first member of the Church of Alexandria to be more than a name, and one of its most distinguished teachers. ...
In various religions, most notably Trinitarian Christianity, the Holy Spirit (in Hebrew רוח הקודש Ruah haqodesh; also called the Holy Ghost) is the third consubstantial Person of the Holy Trinity. ...
Origen (Greek: Ōrigénēs, 185–ca. ...
Alexandria Modern Alexandria. ...
Bruce Metzger pictured on the cover of his autobiography Reminiscences of an Octogenarian Bruce Manning Metzger (born 1914) is a professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary and Bible editor who serves on the board of the American Bible Society. ...
Rome was the home to the only early rejection of the fourth Gospel. The adversaries of Montanism were responsible. Irenaeus says that these persons tried to suppress the teaching about the Holy Spirit in order to put down Montanism, and as a result denied the authorship of the Gospel and its authority. Later Epiphanius called this group, who were followers of the priest Caius, the alogoi in a wordplay between "without the Word" and "without reason". Montanism was an early Christian sectarian movement of the mid-2nd century A.D., named after its founder Montanus. ...
Epiphanius (clearly manifested) was the name of several early Christian scholars and ecclesiastics: Epiphanius of Salamis, bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, died 410, author of Panarion Epiphanius of Constantinople, died 535, Patriarch of Constantinople 520—535 Epiphanius Scholasticus, known only as the assistant of Cassiodorus who compiled the Historiae...
Modern criticism The documentation of the traditional authorship of the Gospel has certain weak points that have been exploited by critics[citation needed].. Irenaeus is accused of having made Papias into a disciple of John the Apostle to provide support for his own theories: Eusebius later showed that Papias was a disciple of John the Presbyter[citation needed]. But even Eusebius does not escape without criticism. His citing of John the Presbyter seems to be motivated by his arguments for the authorship of the Book of Revelation. Irenaeus's memories of Polycarp's testimony are childhood memories, and lack clarity. For instance, he cites relationships between Polycarp and a "John", but doesn't specify which John. An engraving of Irenaeus ( 130–202), bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul (now Lyon, France). ...
Papias (working in the 1st half of the 2nd century) was one of the early leaders of the Christian church, canonized as a saint. ...
Eusebius is the name of several significant historical people: Pope Eusebius - Pope in AD 309 - 310. ...
The shadowy figure of John the presbyter (John the Elder) formed a link in the chain of Early Christian oral tradition that Papias of Hierapolis recorded in the early 2nd century, in five volumes called Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord (Greek — Kyriakôn logiôn exêgêsis...
The Gospel of John states explicitly in its text that it was written by the "disciple whom Jesus loved", so that a great deal of effort has been put into determining who this person might be. Traditionally he is identified as John the Apostle, since otherwise, one of the most important apostles in the other Gospels would be entirely missing in the fourth gospel. However, critical scholars have suggested some other possibilities. Filson, Sanders, Vernard Eller [1], and Rudolph Steiner[2] suggest Lazarus, since John 11:31 and 36 specifically indicates that Jesus "loved" him, and it is implied in the Secret Gospel of Mark. However, the fact that Lazarus is never mentioned in the Galilean ministry, and that there is no widespread tradition of Lazarus's apostolic activity after Jesus's death, throws this theory into doubt. Parker suggested that this disciple might be John Mark; nonetheless, the Acts of the Apostles indicate that John Mark was very young and a late-comer as a disciple. J. Colson suggested that "John" was a priest in Jerusalem, explaining the priestly mentality in the fourth gospel. R. Schnackenburg suggested that "John" was an otherwise unknown resident of Jerusalem who was in Jesus's circle of friends. The Gospel of Philip and the Gospel of Mary identify Mary Magdalene as the disciple whom Jesus loved, a connection that has been analyzed by Esther de Boer (in Meyer 2004) and made notorious in the fictional The Da Vinci Code. Finally, a few authors, such as Loisy and Bultmann and Hans-Martin Schenke, see "John" as a purely symbolic creation, an idealized pseudonym for the group of authors. The Gospel of John is the fourth gospel in the canon of the New Testament, traditionally ascribed to John the Evangelist. ...
Jesus and the Beloved Disciple, polychromed and gilded wood, c 1320 The phrase the disciple whom Jesus loved or Beloved Disciple is used several times in the Gospel of John, but in none of the other accounts of Jesus. ...
Rudolf Steiner Rudolf Steiner (February 27, 1861–March 30, 1925) was an Austrian philosopher, literary scholar, architect, playwright, educator, and social thinker (see section below with heading social threefolding), who is best known as the founder of Anthroposophy and its practical applications, including Waldorf School, Biodynamic agriculture, the Camphill...
Resurrection of Lazarus by Juan de Flandes, around 1500 For other uses, see Lazarus (disambiguation). ...
The Secret Gospel of Mark refers to a non-canonical gospel which is the subject of the Mar Saba letter, a previously unknown letter attributed to Clement of Alexandria which Morton Smith claimed to have found transcribed into the endpapers of a 17th century printed edition of Ignatius. ...
Mark the Evangelist (מרקוס, Greek: Markos) (1st century) is traditionally believed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark. ...
The Acts of the Apostles (Greek Praxeis Apostolon) is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. ...
The Gospel of Philip is one of the texts of the New Testament apocrypha. ...
The Gospel of Mary was found in the Akhmim Codex, a text acquired by Dr.Rheinhardt in Cairo in 1896. ...
Mary Magdalene is described, both in the canonical New Testament and in the New Testament apocrypha, as a devoted disciple of Jesus. ...
This article is about the novel. ...
Many critical scholars[citation needed] today conclude (with the tradition) that the "disciple whom Jesus loved" was intended to be understood as John the Apostle, though after the discovery of the Secret Gospel of Mark a few have considered that it refers to the youth found semi-naked with Jesus during his arrest, and also the youth found in the tomb (as the same person); however, there remains the question of whether this apostle was actually the author of the texts. Modern critic Elaine Pagels goes further and claims that the author himself was a Gnostic, citing cited similarities with the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Philip. Various objections to John the Apostle's authorship have been raised. First of all, the Gospel of John is a highly intellectual account of Jesus' life, requiring a good level of education. But the Synoptic Gospels are united in identifying John as a fisherman, whom one would not picture as well-educated. Against this objection, might be noted that John was not a hired fisherman, but rather someone who could afford to own a boat, and may thus have had access to sufficient income to pay for teaching. However, the Acts of the Apostles refers to John as "without learning" or "unlettered". The Secret Gospel of Mark refers to a non-canonical gospel which is the subject of the Mar Saba letter, a previously unknown letter attributed to Clement of Alexandria which Morton Smith claimed to have found transcribed into the endpapers of a 17th century printed edition of Ignatius. ...
The Gospel of Thomas is the modern name given to a New Testament-era apocryphon completely preserved in a papyrus Coptic manuscript discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, Egypt. ...
The Gospel of Philip is one of the texts of the New Testament apocrypha. ...
The Acts of the Apostles (Greek Praxeis Apostolon) is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. ...
A second objection to John the Apostle's authorship is the importance that he gives to the traditions of Jerusalem, which would be unusual for a Galilean[citation needed]. The response usually given to this objection is that the knowledge of Jerusalem shown in the text is no more than a yearly pilgrim might pick up. John's interest in Jerusalem seems to be totally dependent on his interest in Jesus.
Finally, it is objected that the "disciple whom Jesus loved" is not mentioned before the Last Supper, so that this disciple would not have been an eyewitness to the earlier events of the Gospel. However, tradition has identified this disciple with the unnamed disciple of the first chapter. The structure of the Gospel also partially explains the "disappearance" of the disciples from the center of the action. The first twelve chapters, the "Book of Signs", concerns Jesus's preaching and miracles among the Jewish people, while the relation of the Last Supper concentrates on his relation to the disciples in particular. According to gospel, the Last Supper was the last meal Jesus shared with his apostles before his death. ...
Most scholars posit a community of writers rather than a single individual that gave final form to the work[citation needed]. In particular, Chapter 21 is very different stylistically from the main body of the Gospel, and is thought to be a later addition (known as the appendix), and the last few verses of the chapter are yet again different, and thought to be an even later addition (known as the appendix to the appendix). Among many Christian scholars the view has evolved that there were multiple stages of development involving the disciples as well as the apostle; R.E. Brown (1970) distinguishes four stages of development: traditions connected directly with the apostle, partial editing by his disciples, synthesis by the apostle, and additions by a final editor. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...
Most scholars[citation needed] date the writing of the Gospel to the last four or five years of the first century. If this is the case, and John the Apostle is the principal author, he would have been some 90 years old at the time of composition, which was a very remarkable age in the first century, when life expectancies were much shorter. On the other hand, if the apostle had actually lived to such an age, it would explain the tradition reported in John 21, that many believed that Jesus had said the apostle would not die (which may have lead to the legend of Prester John). Prester John The legend of Prester John (also Presbyter John), popular in Europe from the 12th through the 17th centuries, told of a mythical Christian patriarch and king said to rule over a Christian nation lost amidst the Muslims and pagans in the Orient. ...
However, as noted above, a few choose a much later date, typically around the time of Irenaeus - circa 180AD. Irenaeus was one of the first people to quote extensively from the Gospel, and hence one of the first witnesses to its existence. Many parts of the Gospel seem to be directly targeting various heresies such as Arianism, which is directly refuted in the opening sentence, docetism, and various more specific gnostic beliefs. However, the heresies in question only arose around the time of the mid second century, and it would be scientifically unlikely for the gospel to be targeting heresies that didn't exist when it was written, and similarly unusual for the heresies to arise when they were so clearly refuted by something that had been circulating for 50 years. This article is about theological views like those of Arius. ...
In Christianity, Docetism is the belief, regarded by most theologians as heretical, that Jesus did not have a physical body; rather, that his body was an illusion, as was his crucifixion. ...
Consequently several scholars have proposed that the Gospel was deliberately written in the late second century to explicitly oppose those heresies, when the synoptic Gospels fail to do so. Some scholars have even proposed that Irenaeus himself, who had a similar writing style, theology, and knowledge of literary Greek, was the author. Even in the early church there was a doubt over its authenticity, and both Marcion and Celsus heavily criticized it as a clear forgery. The Synoptic Gospels is a term used by modern New Testament scholars for the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke of the New Testament in the Bible. ...
Marcion of Sinope (ca. ...
Celsus (Greek: ) was a 2nd century Greek philosopher and opponent of Christianity. ...
First epistle The phraseology of the first letter of John is very similar to that of the fourth gospel, so that the question of authorship is often connected to the question of authorship of the gospel. There are several turns of phrase that occur only in the Gospel and First Epistle and nowhere else in the New Testament, such as "have a sin", "do the truth", "remain" in some mystical state (in the Father, in the Son, in my love), and so forth. Both works have a very Semitic flavor to the Greek -- many sentences begin with "all" or with "and", use of "literary inclusion" (the repetition of a phrase to indicate that the material between the inclusions belongs together), minimal use of the Greek illative particles. Both works have the same basic concepts that are being explored: the Word, the Only Begotten, the incarnation, the passing from death to life, the truth and lies, etc. In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic (from the Biblical Shem, Hebrew: ש×, translated as name, Arabic: سام) was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages. ...
Illative case in the Finno-Ugric languages Illative (from Latin inferre to bring in) is, in the Finnish language, Estonian language and the Hungarian language, the third of the locative cases with the basic meaning of into (the inside of). An example from Hungarian would be a házba (into...
The book was not among those whose canonicity was in doubt, according to Eusebius; however, it is not included in an ancient Syrian canon. Theodore of Mopsuestia also presented a negative opinion toward its canonicity. Outside of the Syrian world, however, the book has many early witnesses, and appears to have been widely accepted. The biblical canon is a list of books written during the formative periods of the Jewish or Christian faiths. ...
Theodore (c. ...
Given the similarity with the Gospel, most critical scholars assign the same authorship to the epistle that they assign to the Gospel. Most refer to a Johannine school from which the letter stemmed, possibly even from the hand of the apostle himself.
Second and third epistles While tradition normally assigns the second and third epistles to John the Apostle, the fact that the author identifies himself as "the presbyter" (or "the priest") cast doubt on this assignment, even within the early Church. There are enough literary and theological similarities with the first epistle that these two are normally assumed to have stemmed from the same circle of theologians. Thus most scholars assume that some personality in the circle of disciples of John was the author of these books. The similarities between the two books make it unlikely that they have two separate authors. This hypothetical author is usually called "John the Presbyter" to distinguish him from the apostle.
Medieval legend, on the other hand, equated "John the Presbyter" with "John the Apostle", and since some read chapter 21 of the Gospel as indicating that John the Apostle never died, produced the story of Prester John, who was said to be the apostle, still alive and writing in the Middle Ages. Prester John The legend of Prester John (also Presbyter John), popular in Europe from the 12th through the 17th centuries, told of a mythical Christian patriarch and king said to rule over a Christian nation lost amidst the Muslims and pagans in the Orient. ...
The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ...
Revelation The author of the Book of Revelation identifies himself as "John", so that the book has been traditionally credited to John the Apostle. Evidence of this identification is found as early as Justin Martyr, in his Dialogue with Tryphon. Other witnesses to this tradition are Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian. God is victorious! Visions of John of Patmos, as depicted in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. ...
Justin Martyr (Justin the Martyr, also known as Justin of Caesarea) (100 – 165) was an early Christian apologist. ...
Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicized as Tertullian, (ca. ...
The first doubts about the apostolic authorship of the book came in the third century. The priest Caius of Rome (one of Epiphanius's "alogoi") identified the author as Cerinthus, whom he considered a heretic. Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria rejected apostolic authorship, but accepted the book's canonicity. Epiphanius claimed that Roman Caius believed that Cerinthus, a gnostic, was the author of the Apocalypse [1]. More radically, in the fourth century, much of the Eastern Church rejected the book's canonicity. This viewpoint was shared by several Fathers of the Church, such as Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzus, John Chrysostom, and Theodoret. It was also rejected in Syria. Cerinthus was the leader of a late first-century or early 2nd century sect, an offshoot of the Ebionites yet similar to Gnosticism in some respects, interesting in that it demonstrates the wide range of conclusions that could be drawn from the life and teachings of Jesus. ...
Heresy, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a theological or religious opinion or doctrine maintained in opposition, or held to be contrary, to the Catholic or Orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church, or, by extension, to that of any church, creed, or religious system, considered as orthodox. ...
Dionysius served as Patriarch of Alexandria (head of the church that became the Coptic Church and the Orthodox Church of Alexandria) between 248 and 264. ...
Epiphanius (ca 310–20 – 403) was a Church Father, a heresiologist who was a strong defender of orthodoxy, known for tracking down deviant teachings (heresies) wherever they could be traced, during the troubled era in the Christian Church following the Council of Nicaea. ...
Cerinthus was the leader of a late first-century or early 2nd century sect, an offshoot of the Ebionites yet similar to Gnosticism in some respects, interesting in that it demonstrates the wide range of conclusions that could be drawn from the life and teachings of Jesus. ...
Gnosticism is a blanket term for various religions and sects most prominent in the first few centuries A.D. General characteristics The word gnosticism comes from the Greek word for knowledge, gnosis (γνῶσις), referring to the idea that there is special, hidden mysticism (esoteric knowledge...
Look up Apocalypse in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Cyril of Jerusalem was a distinguished theologian of the early Church ( 315 - 386). ...
An icon of Saint Gregory Nazianzen the theologian holding a Gospel Book Saint Gregory Nazianzen (AD 329 - January 25, 389), also known as Saint Gregory the Theologian, was a 4th century Christian bishop of Constantinople. ...
A millennium-old Byzantine mosaic of Saint John Chrysostom, Hagia Sophia John Chrysostom (347 - 407, Greek Ιωάννης ο ΧÏυσόστομος ) was a notable Christian bishop from the 4th and 5th centuries in Syria and Constantinople. ...
Theodoret (393 – c. ...
The question of canonicity was reopened in the West by the Reformers. The Roman Catholic Council of Trent, on the other hand, reaffirmed its canonicity. Most Christians today accept the book as part of the canon. The Protestant Reformation was a movement in the 16th century to reform the Catholic Church in Western Europe. ...
The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ...
The Council of Trent is the Nineteenth Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. ...
There are various affinities between the book and the Fourth Gospel: use of allegory, symbolism, and similar metaphors, such as "living water", "shepherd", "lamb", and "manna". However, the differences between the two are perhaps even more notable. The Book of Revelation does not go into several typically Johannine themes, such as light, darkness, truth, love, and "the world" in a negative sense. The eschatologies of the two works are also very different. Look up eschatology in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Precise identification of an author is near impossible given the lack of evidence. Nonetheless, the work is normally assigned to the circle of disciples around the Apostle John. The date of composition is widely disputed. Irenaeus cited the end of the reign of Domitian (this is repeated by Eusebius and Jerome). This is the most common opinion among those modern critics who consider the work to have been written as a whole. Nonetheless, Epiphanius cited composition in the reign of Claudius, and the Muratorian fragment suggests composition at the time of Nero. Domitian bust in the Louvre Titus Flavius Domitianus (24 October 51 – 18 September 96), commonly known as Domitian, was a Roman emperor of the gens Flavia. ...
Jerome (ca. ...
For other uses, see Claudius (disambiguation). ...
Among Christians, the Muratorian fragment is known as a copy of perhaps the oldest known list of New Testament books that were accepted as canonical by the churches known to its anonymous compiler. ...
Nero[1] Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (December 15, 37 – June 9, 68), born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and last Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty (54–68). ...
Some exegetes (Touilleux, Gelin, Feuillet) distinguish two dates: publication (under Domitian) and date of the visions (under Vespasian). Various editors would have a hand in the formation of the document, according to these theories. The dating of the work is still widely debated in the scholarly community. Imperator Caesar Vespasianus Augustus (November 17, 9 – June 23, 79), known originally as Titus Flavius Vespasianus and usually referred to in English as Vespasian, was emperor of Rome from 69 to 79. ...
See also John the Apostle (×™×•×—× ×Ÿ The LORD is merciful, Standard Hebrew Yoḥanan, Tiberian Hebrew YôḥÄnÄn), also known as John the Revelator, was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. ...
St John the Evangelist, imagined by Jacopo Pontormo, ca 1525 (Santa Felicità , Florence) John the Evangelist (? - c. ...
The shadowy figure of John the presbyter (John the Elder) formed a link in the chain of Early Christian oral tradition that Papias of Hierapolis recorded in the early 2nd century, in five volumes called Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord (Greek — Kyriakôn logiôn exêgêsis...
Saint John on Patmos by Hans Baldung Grien, 1511 Saint John of Patmos, by Jean Fouquet John of Patmos is the name given to the author of the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. ...
The Gospel of John is the fourth gospel in the canon of the New Testament, traditionally ascribed to John the Evangelist. ...
Jesus and the Beloved Disciple, polychromed and gilded wood, c 1320 The phrase the disciple whom Jesus loved or Beloved Disciple is used several times in the Gospel of John, but in none of the other accounts of Jesus. ...
This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...
Textual criticism or lower criticism is a branch of philology or bibliography that is concerned with the identification and removal of errors from texts. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with The Historical-Critical Method. ...
A 19th century picture of Paul of Tarsus The Pauline epistles are those books in the New Testament that are traditionally attributed to Paul of Tarsus. ...
John Rylands Library Papyrus P52, recto The Rylands Library Papyrus P52, also known as the St Johns fragment, is a papyrus conserved at the John Rylands Library, Manchester, UK. The front (recto) contains lines from the Gospel of John 18:31-33, in Greek, and the back (verso) contains...
References - de Boer, Esther, 2004. Essay in Marvin Meyer, The Gospels of Mary HarperSanFrancisco. ISBN 0-06-072791-8
- Denzinger, Heinrich and Rahner, Karl. Enchiridion Symbolorum Definitionum et Declarationum. 28th Edition. Herder: Freiburg, 1952.
- George, Augustin and Grelot, Pierre. Introducción Crítica al Nuevo Testamento. Herder: Barcelona, 1992. ISBN 84-254-1277-3
- Pagels, Elaine, Johannine Gospels in Gnostic Exegesis
- Pagels, Elaine, 2003. Beyond BeliefISBN 0-375-70316-0
- Riley, Gregory J., 1995. Resurrection Reconsidered: Thomas and John in Controversy (Minneapolis)
- Wijngaards, John. Handbook to the Gospels. ISBN 0-89283-136-7
- Wiles, Maurice F., 1960. The Spiritual Gospel: The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel in the Early Church, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Elaine Pagels (née Hiesey, born February 13, 1943), is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. ...
Elaine Pagels (née Hiesey, born February 13, 1943), is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. ...
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