Required Readings:

John’s Gospel, Ezekiel

Additional Readings:

The names of suggested books and articles (non-essential) that may be useful for those who want to delve deeper into the lecture topics.

Assessment:

15% - Daily Quiz (Lowest Grade will be dropped), 

40% - Final written exam

45% - Plan a 12-week sermon series or 12-week Bible study on the Gospel or write an essay (3500 words) comparing Ezekiel to John 

Assessment Policies:

Do not cheat in your academic pursuit of Christ. Anyone who cheats to become a leader in the Church (whether lay or ordained) is not fit for such a service but rather must confess, repent, and make reparations. Though a first offense may be forgiven after a reprimand and resubmission of the work, a second offense will lead to a failing dismissal from the course. Cheating means submitting work that is not the student’s, whether these be looking at someone else's answers on a test, stealing exam questions in advance of a test, using another person’s words without proper citations and credit, or any other creative means whereby a student tries to gain an advantage through sinful means. 100% attendance and attention are expected and prerequisite to grasping the material.

Communication:

Whatsapp: +216 93 428 353 available M-F 9-5.

Gracious God and most merciful Father, you have granted us

the rich and precious jewel of your holy Word: Assist us with

your Spirit, that the same Word may be written in our hearts

to our everlasting comfort, to reform us, to renew us according

to your own image, to build us up and edify us into the perfect

dwelling place of your Christ, sanctifying and increasing in us all

heavenly virtues; grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s

sake. Amen.

Schedule

Lecture 1

Background: Who wrote it? To whom? Why? When? Where?

Author: 

1. No author is named within the text of the Gospel or within the Bible.

2. The most common suggestions are: John of Zebedee, John the Presbyter, or the "School of John" (i.e., John's disciples)

3. Other interesting possibilities: James the brother of Christ, the Apostle Thomas, Lazarus

4. All of the Gospels are anonymous within the text itself → “According to…” part of the final, “published” form (as early as 150 AD)

5. There is a very strong tradition that points to John the son of Zebedee as the author of John's Gospel. 

6. The Anonymous Narrator: this is a theory that the intention is for the reader to become the transmitter of the Gospel. The Gospel is meant to be transmitted and to become the reader's testimony.

Circumstances: 

1. Date: Early Date: 50-70 (likely after the book of Acts but before 70), Late Date: 90-110

1.  NB: there is no evidence for any dating, except that others had written about it, and it had been “handed down” to others by the mid-second century. (Irenaeus, Eusebius, Polycrates, Papias, etc.)

2. a later date is preferred by scholars for two reasons:

1. Temple destruction in AD 70

1. Rebuttal: If the destruction was so important to John, why not mention that it had occurred? When Jesus enters the temple for the first time, why not mention, “Now this occurred before the temple’s destruction”? The temple is spoken of as if it were still standing. The same is true for all of the Gospels and Acts as well. In fact, one of the most surprising things about the NT is that it does not mention the destruction at all.

2. The rumor that the disciple would not die (John 21:23)

1. What if the rumor was not circulated because of his old age, but rather because attempts to kill him had failed miraculously? What if he had been raised from the dead by Jesus and so everyone wondered what would happen to him 

3. Discovery of P52 fragment of John 18 may suggest an earlier date 

1. Date of this papyrus is unknown, however it closely matches the writing (paleography) of a copy of the Iliad dating to AD 100. 

2. It was found in Egypt; so it must have been either copied from an older text in Egypt or else brought there, both of which suggest an established written tradition of John from before AD 125 and possibly before AD 100

3. It is part of a codex (bound book), the contents of which are unknown → was this a codex of John only? Or was it a codex of the Gospels? Or of some other mixture of Scriptures? The possibilities are exciting.

2. Where & to whom was it written: depends on who wrote it; very little evidence within the text; tradition says it was written by John to his church in Ephesus.

3. Biblical Theology: What does this Gospel give us that the rest of Scripture does not?

1. Most famously: the Word was made flesh

2. Unity between the Father and the Son more in focus

Structure: An Outline of John

This course suggests three possible ways of dividing John's Gospel into sections. This is an attempt to understand the author's intent, not a reader's observation.

Structure A:

1. John’s Testimony: 1-3:36

2. The signs’ testimony: 4-11

3. Passion’s Testimony

4. (Resurrection Testimony)

Structure B:

1. Prologue

2. Book of Judgment

3. Book of Glory

Structure C:

1. Prologue: Chapter 1

2. John’s ministry: Chapter 2-4

3. Public ministry: Chapter 4-12

4. Farewell address: Chapter 13-17

5. Passion: Chapter 18-20

6. Epilogue: Chapter 21

Themes:

1. Light and Dark

2. Seeing and blindness

3. Belief and unbelief

4. Temple

5. Water

6. Passover

1. Lamb

7. Shepherd

8. The Testimony & the Testifier

1. 5:31-38 (John)

2. 4:28-29 (Samaritan)

3. 9:13-17, 24-34 (blind man)

4. 20:11-18 (Mary Mag.)

5. 15:18-27 (Disciples)

6. 19:35, 21:24 (The Beloved D.)

What will you believe?

Each chapter brings the reader to a decision. What will you believe and what will you do with your belief? 

> The Gospel calls us to believe (see, receive, etc.) and to testify.

Uniqueness

1. Theology/Christology/Soteriology

1. Prologue

2. Signs unique to John

3. Thomas’ declaration

4. Maundatum

1. Focus on love in the Church as an expression of God’s nature

5. Intentional Omissions:

1. Lord’s Prayer (Our Father)

2. Sermons

3. Parables

4. Sacraments: Lord’s supper & baptism

Lecture 2

John 1-3: Prologue, Theophany, & the Baptizer’s Testimony

1. Prologue

1. “The subsequent narrative ‘shows’ what the Prologue ‘tells’”

2. John’s use of Ezekiel → theophany

1. John’s baptism: Ezekiel 34:24-30

3. The Word & the Testimony

1. Note the relationship between Word and testimony in the context of the Creation narrative; it produces the sense that we are truly made in the Word’s image when we testify; Just as God created mankind in his image in Genesis 1, so here the Word has created (genetao) a man in his image as testifier

2. The phrase “The word of the Lord came to me” appears 49 times in Ezekiel

4. The Light

1. The darkness did not overtake the light

1. This may be a Janus: it did not overtake it in the Fall, and will not overtake it by the end of this story I am about to hear

2. We have seen his glory

1. Again Temple/tent imagery

5. The Disciples receive the testimony (but don’t yet believe)

1. Nathaniel’s skepticism answered by Philip: Come and see

1. An invitation to us to come and see

6. Nicodemus & the Spirit: Ezekiel 36 & 37

Lecture 3

John 4-8: Who is the Son of Man?

Lecture 4

John 9-11: These signs are recorded that you may believe and have eternal life

Lecture 5

John 12-13: Triumph and service; Glorification and love; Sacramental living

Lecture 6

John 14-17: The final address, prayer, and the final decision

Lecture 7

John 18-19: Behold the Paschal Lamb of God

Lecture 8

John 20-21: Resurrection & epilogue: What do we do now?

Lecture 9

Excursis: Ezekiel and John

> Temple

> Water

> Shepherd. 

> Signs

> Theophany -> the beginning and end of John vs. the beginning and end of Ezekiel

>> John 1 cf. Ezek 1

>> John 19-20 cf. Ezek 40+ (Temple & river, the Son and Holy Spirit)

>> John 12-13 cf. Ezek 8 (including 13 because just as the Marduk exodus isn’t completed in Ezek, so the 4 cups of passover are not completed in John)

Course Materials

Sign Acts of John’s Gospel

1. Water to wine: John 2:1-12

2. Healing the nobleman’s son: John 4:46-54

3. Healing the man at the Pool of Salome: John 5:1-11

4. Feeding the 5000: John 6:1-15

5. Walking on water: John 6:16-21

6. Healing the blind man: John 9

7. Resurrection of Lazarus: John 11

I Am Statements

1. the bread of life (6:35)

2. the light of the world (8:12)

3. the door/gate (10:7)

4. the good shepherd (10:11, 14)

5. the resurrection and the life (11:25)

6. the way the truth and the life (14:6)

7. the true vine (15:1).

Exam questions:

1. What is Proto-Gnosticism?

2. Provide an overview of the structure of John’s Gospel.

3. How many I Am statements are there in John’s Gospel? 

4. How many signs are recorded in John’s Gospel? 

5. How does John use the notion of time to drive his testimony?

6. How does John use the metaphor of light/dark and seeing/not seeing to drive his testimony?