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Is John's Gospel Anti-Sacramental? – a New Solution in the Light of the Evangelist's Milieu*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Kikuo Matsunaga
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Abstract

Problem

In the Fourth Gospel there are many symbols and the related texts which can be interpreted sacramentally. On the other hand, it seems to omit accounts of the Baptism of Jesus and the Institution of the Holy Communion, both important to the origin of the sacraments. In addition there are strong tendencies towards the Spiritualisierung of the symbols and the related texts. Therefore, it has been a big issue for Johannine scholarship whether the Evangelist is anti-sacramental or not.

Type
Articles
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , July 1981 , pp. 516 - 524
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

NOTES

[1] The Baptism of Jesus is recorded in Mark, i. 9–11;Google ScholarMatt., iii. 13–17;Google ScholarLuke, iii. 21–22.Google Scholar The Institution of the Holy Communion is recorded in Mark, xiv. 22–25;Google ScholarMatt., xxvi. 26–29;Google ScholarLuke, xxii. 15–22.Google Scholar The Institution of the Baptism is found in Matt., xxviii. 16–20.Google Scholar As to the Baptism of Jesus, the Evangelist of the Fourth Gospel seems to have known it as a tradition similar to the one behind the Synoptic Gospels. See note 20. As to the Institution of the Holy Communion, it is unlikely that the Evangelist did not know a tradition on it, very similar to the one behind the Synoptic Gospels. For apparently he knows the tradition in which Jesus foretold the betrayal of Judas Iscariot, (xiii. 21–30)Google Scholar very similar to the one behind Mark, xiv. 17–21Google Scholar and its parallels. The Evangelist seems to have replaced the Institution of the Communion with the account of Feet-Washing, as he did the same with Jesus’ Prayer in Gethsemane, replaced with the High Priestly Prayer in Chapter 17 (cf., xii. 27). Many commentators regard Chapter vi. 1–51b (or -59) as a ‘Spiritualisierung’ of the Institution of the Communion.Google Scholar

[2] Brown, Cf. R. E., The Gospel of John, Vol. 1 (Garden City, New York, 1966), pp. cxi-cxiv.Google Scholar

[3] Klos, Cf. H., Die Sakramente im Johannesevangelium (Stuttgarter Bibelstudien 46), S. 11–44;Google ScholarYamauchi, M., ‘Anti-Sacramentalism? – John's Gospel and the patristic writings’, Shingaku 41 (Tokyo, 1979), 29–42 (in Japanese). Both summarized the history of research on this problem very well.Google Scholar

[4] Passages like iii. 3–5, vi. 51c-58, xix. 34, were regarded as not a part of the original text of chaps. i-xx, although there are differences of opinion how to evaluate these texts, by Bultmann, R., Lohse, E., Bornkamm, G., Köster, H., Schweizer, E., et al.Google Scholar

[5] Martyn, Cf. J. L., History and Theology in the Fourth Gospel, revised and enlarged edition (Abingdon, Nashville, 1979);Google Scholar and The Gospel of John in Christian History, Essays for Interpretation (New York/Ramsey/Toronto, 1978).Google Scholar

[6] Brown, Cf. R. E., The Gospel according to John (the Anchor Bible), (Garden City, New York, Vol. 1, 1966; Vol. 2, 1970);Google ScholarNew Testament Essays (Milwaukee, 1965);Google ScholarThe Community of the Beloved Disciple, The Life, Love, and the Hates of an Individual Church in New Testament Times (New York/Ramsey/Toronto, 1979).Google Scholar

[7] Barrett, Cf. C. K., The Gospel of St John (London, 1978, second edition), pp. 301–8;Google ScholarBrown, R. E., op. cit., Vol. 1 (Garden City, New York, 1966), pp. 295–304;Google ScholarSchnackenburg, R., The Gospel of St John, English translation, Vol. 2 (New York, 1980), pp. 70–8;Google ScholarFortna, R., The Gospel of Signs, A Reconstruction of the Narrative Source Underlying the Fourth Gospel (Cambridge, 1970), pp. 195 f.Google Scholar

[8] Cf., Fortna,Google ScholarIbid.

[9] In each case the Evangelist used a stereotyped formula, ‘Some say… but others say…’, which indicated the contrast between two groups among the people, the Pharisees, and the Jews concerning who Jesus is (vii. 41–42; ix. 16; x. 20–21. Cf., xii. 29).Google Scholar

[10] ‘ζω αίωνίος’ and ‘γινώσκειν’ are improtant to the Johannine vocabularies. And the use of πιοτεύειν with γιγώσκει, especially in perfects, is frequent in John (see Barrett, , op. cit., p. 306).Google Scholar

[11] It is known that in John λόγος and ͊μα are used indiscriminately.

[12] See Barrett, Brown, Schnackenburg, ad loc.

[13] J. L. Martyn suggested that the conflict between the Jewish synagogue and John's church might have the connection with the Eighteen Benedictions which seemed to denounce for the first time legally the Christian churches as heretics. It is apparent that in the historical milieu of the Evangelist the high Christology was the centre of the turmoil. Matsunaga, Cf. K., ‘“Θεός” Christology in the Gospel of John’, Shingaku 36–37 (Tokyo, 1975), 61–76 (in Japanese). An enlarged and English version will appear in Annual of the Japanese Biblical Institute (Tokyo, in future).Google Scholar

[14] Cf., Brown, op. cit.,Google Scholar ad loc. Also in Matsunaga, K., Powers in Conflict, a new clue to the interpretation of the Fourth Gospel (Ph.D. dissertation at McGill, 1970,Google Scholar unpublished), the present writer discussed the use of πνευ͊μα in John. Its essence can be found in Japanese, ‘“The Holy Spirit” or “the holy spirit”, a study of πνευ͊μα in the Fourth Gospel’, Shingaku 39 (Tokyo, 1977), 38–58.Google Scholar

[15] See the present writer's articles in note 14.

[16] It is known that in John until ‘the time of Jesus’ comes and the spirit-paxaclete is given no one can know, see, believe who Jesus, is (vii. 39).Google Scholar

[17] See Matsunaga, K., ‘The Galileans in the Fourth Gospel’, Annual of the Japan Biblical Institute 2 (Tokyo, 1978), 149, footnote 1 (in English).Google Scholar

[18] In the Synoptic Gospels Luke alone identifies Judas with a devil, in his case with Satan, (22. 3).Google Scholar

[19] Thomas is told by Jesus, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.’ The present writer suggested in the article above that ‘those who have not seen and yet believe’ were the members of John's church who believed Jesus through the Kerygma of John's church without seeing the earthly Jesus, at the end of the first century A.D. (cf., 17. 20); ‘I do not pray for these (disciples of the earthly Jesus) only, but also for those who believe in me through their word (the Kerygma of John's church).’Google Scholar

[20] Bultmann, Cf. R., The Gospel of John, English translation (Oxford, 1971), pp. 84 ff.;Google ScholarSmith, D. M., The Composition and Order of the Fourth Gospel, Bultmann's Literary Criticism Theory (New Haven/London, 1965), pp. 119–25;Google ScholarBrown, , op. cit., Vol. 1, pp. 55–71;Google ScholarSchnackenburg, , op. cit., Vol. 1, pp. 296–306;Google ScholarBarrett, , op. cit., pp. 1708;Google ScholarFortna, , op. cit., pp. 167–78.Google Scholar

[21] It does not deny, indeed, that there was a tradition behind xiii. 1–20.Google ScholarCf., Bultmann, op. cit., ad loc.; Brown, op. cit., Vol. 1, pp. 548–72;Google ScholarBarrett, , op. cit., pp. 435–49;Google ScholarFortna, , op. cit., pp. 155–8.Google Scholar Some suggest the relation of the Baptism to the Feet-Washing (cf., Brown, op. cit., pp. 5668;Google ScholarBarrett, , op. cit., pp. 440–2).Google Scholar

[22] The historical situation of the Evangelist's church might be fitted into Phase II of R. E. Brown's reconstruction of the ‘history’ of John's community and Period III of J. L. Martyn's.