Rhetoric at the Boundaries: The Art and Theology of New Testament Chain-Link Transitions

chapter 8

Part 1: Chain-Link Interlock in John 12:20-50§8.1 Thematic Reiteration in John 12:37-50§8.2 Thematic Anticipation in John 12:20-36§8.3 Summary and Supporting Evidence§8.4 The Significance for Narrative and Theological Analysis Part 2: Chain-Link Interlock at the Original Seam Prior to John 18§8.5 John 14:30-31 in Its Contexts§8.6 The Chain-Link Interlock at John 14:31/18:1-8§8.7 The Theological Lens of the John 14/John 18 Chain-Link Interlock§8.8 The Effects of Compositional History on the Theology of the Interlocks§8.9 Appendix: The Compositional History of the John 12 Chain Link In his important article “The Man from Heaven in Johannine Sectarianism ,” Wayne Meeks wrote concerning the Johannine Gospel that the “major literary problem of John is its combination of remarkable stylistic unity and thematic coherence with glaringly bad transitions between 121 c h a p t e r 8 Chain-Link Interlock and the Theology of the Fourth Gospel episodes at many points.”1 In this chapter we will study two of the main transitions of the Johannine Gospel, at least one of which has frequently been characterised as “glaringly bad.” As will be shown, a chain-link construction has formed the basis for both of these transitions. If the discussion of these Johannine transitions takes us a little way into the complex and extensive debate concerning the Gospel’s composition history, readers of this chapter might take encouragement from John Ashton’s suspicion that “the study of the awkward transitions in the Gospel could prove a useful tool for determining how it was composed.”2 Although that target evades our grasp due to its complexity, an analysis of the two chain links of the Johannine Gospel nonetheless moves us a little way in its direction. One aspect of Johannine chain-link construction will be demonstrated in this chapter. That is, Johannine text-unit interlock establishes an interpretative lens through which aspects of the larger narrative are to be viewed and understood. Johannine chain links highlight particular themes and crystallise the main ingredients of the narrative in a densely compacted form. This function of chain-link transitions in the Johannine Gospel, which plays no part in Lucian’s or Quintilian’s description of the function of text-unit interlock, will not be set out as a hypothesis to be tested. To proceed in this fashion would be to lengthen the discussion unnecessarily and redundantly. Instead, the claim is simply made at the outset, and the supporting evidence appears in the process of assessing the relevant material. In Part 1, the case for seeing a chain link in John 12:20-50 will be set out, while in Part 2 the same will be established for the original transition prior to John 18. Along the way the chain links are analysed in relation to the Gospel’s composition history, and consideration is given to the relevance of chain-link interlock for certain kinds of narrative and theological readings of the Johannine Gospel. Part 1: Chain-Link Interlock in John 12:20-50 A chain-link interlock can be seen in John 12:20-50, at the point where the public ministry of Jesus comes to a close, giving way to the second half of the narrative, which involves his final instructions to his disciples (John 13–17) and the crucifixion-resurrection narratives (John 18–21). Rhetoric at the Boundaries 122 1 W. A. Meeks, “The Man from Heaven in Johannine Sectarianism,” in The Interpretation of John (2d ed.; ed. J. Ashton; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1997), 172. He continues: “The countless displacement, source, and redaction theories that litter the graveyards of Johannine research are voluble testimony to this difficulty.” 2 J. Ashton, Understanding the Fourth Gospel (London: Clarendon Press, 1991), 81. Few would dispute that the Johannine Gospel consists of two prominent text units that meet at the boundary between John 12 and John 13. According to John Ashton, there are “four simple but strong reasons for retaining the break at the end of chapter 12,” these being: (1) that chapter’s particularly solemn conclusion, which rounds off what Jesus has to say to the world; (2) the exceptionally weighty and measured introduction to chapter 13; (3) the change of audience from “the Jews” to Jesus’ disciples, to which corresponds to a shift in...