The Johannine Literature in a Greek Context

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This chapter focuses on the scholarly debate in the twentieth century about the relationship between John’s Gospel and Greek philosophy. Initially, attention is drawn to the link, which characterises the discussion in the first part of the century, between the dating of the Fourth Gospel and its ideological worldview. Next, it turns toward the alleged inspiration from Jewish Wisdom traditions in the composition of the Prologue and demonstrates how scholars’ references to Wisdom have served the most diverse—and even opposing—purposes: to ward of philosophical speculation, to replace Jewish mythology and apocalypticism by Greek rationality, to illustrate the Prologue’s Middle Platonism, and to introduce Stoicism into John’s thinking. Finally, it demonstrates how readings of the Prologue in light of Aristotle’s theory of epigenesis have displaced the focus from the logos to the pneuma and thereby managed to extend the discussion about influence from Greek philosophy beyond the Prologue.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Oxford Handbook of Johannine Studies
EditorsJudith M. Lieu, Martinus C. de Boer
PublisherOxford University Press
Publication date2018
ISBN (Electronic)9780198739982
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018

ID: 173892862