What We Have Heard from the Beginning: The Past, Present and Future of Johannine Studies

12: THE PROLOGUE AND CHAPTER 17 OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

215 I started studying the Gospel of John more than forty years ago. Since that time, certain chapters or sections have become part of my never–ending quest to understand the mentality of the author, or the inspirer, of this Gospel, as well as the community from which it came. I have particularly struggled to grasp the relationship between the farewell discourses, especially chapter 17, and the rest of the Gospel. I have also wondered about the origin of the prologue (John 1:1–18) and the relationship between these opening verses of the narrative and all that follows. Sometime in the future, exegetes will have to pay more attention to the seventeenth chapter, in particular verse 19: “For their [the disciples’] sakes I sanctify myself so that they also may be sanctified in truth.” In my opinion, this chapter, along with the prologue, can offer insights into the mentality both of the author of the Gospel of John and of the community from which this text arose. Into the Whirlwind Over the centuries, those who have read or studied the Gospel of John have recognized the poetic quality of this last written Gospel. The prologue is easily recognized as poetry, and I contend that the same can be Chapter 12 THE PROLOGUE AND CHAPTER 17 OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN John F. O’Grady 216 JOHN F. O’GRADY said of chapter 17. Readers usually accept that the meaning of this Gospel goes far beyond a simple analysis of the words employed. While every Gospel is both spiritual and theological, the Fourth Gospel, to many, offers more to the person of faith than the other three. John’s symbolism, irony, plays on words, and allusions to the Old Testament, Hellenism, Gnosticism, and a host of other possible influences can leave the reader caught in a whirlwind that returns us again and again to the place of origin and that allows us to see again for the first time (Kysar 1975, 2). C. K. Barrett refers to this circular motion of both the prologue and the larger narrative when he says, “The gospel [of John] was intended to be read many times. . . . after the first reading the process is a circular one. The next time I read the prologue I shall read it in the light of the whole book and when I go on to read the rest of the book, I shall read it in the light of the knowledge of the prologue” (1972, 29). Something similar may be said of chapter 17. Such rereading seems to be not only an aspect of an approach to good literature, but also an approach to understanding life. Surely this has been part of my experience of this Gospel. In the words of T. S. Eliot, We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time Through the unknown remembered gate. (Four Quartets, “Little Gidding”) As a Roman Catholic growing up in the 1950s, I was most familiar with John’s prologue as the “last Gospel”—in every Mass, the priest read the first thirteen verses of the Gospel of John between communion and the final blessing. These verses exemplify many characteristics of the entire Gospel. In some ways, the seventeenth chapter of John also exemplifies many of the characteristics of the entire book. Symbolism abounds in both the prologue and the seventeenth chapter. In the prologue , we find word and flesh; light and darkness; irony; the world was made through him but the world knew him not; he came to his own and his own received him not; “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”; “In the beginning was the Word”; and references to the lo/goj (“word”); allusions to Greek philosophy and Hermetic literature; an understanding of the memra, Wisdom traditions. The whirlwind continues in the seventeenth chapter, where the author begins with relationship to God as Father; speaks of “glory”; makes reference to power over THE PROLOGUE AND CHAPTER 17 OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 217 all flesh; eternal life; discipleship; words; truth; the world; acceptance and rejection; and, finally, union with God through Jesus. Just as the Word that became flesh remains in the bosom of the Father whom Jesus has made known (prologue), now the union with God the Father includes Jesus’ disciples...