The Jews and the World in the Fourth Gospel
Parallelism, Function, and Context
by Lars Kierspel
In our post-Holocaust context, the Gospel of John has aroused the suspicion of being a Christian text with an anti-Jewish message. Statements such as the Jews were persecuting Jesus, the Jews were grumbling about him, or the Jews said to Jesus, ‘You have a demon’ are seen as vicious generalizations that wrongly blame a whole nation. New translations of the Gospel respond to these charges and either omit the term or limit its reference to ‘Judeans’ or ‘Jewish leaders’. Lars Kierspel shows that the Gospel’s narrative focus lies not on the Jews, mostly used by the narrator, but on the parallel term the world which is mostly used by Jesus, the main protagonist. Statements such as the world a hates me (Jesus), the world hates you (the disciples), and the world has hated them (the disciples) reflect a conflict of the early church with an opponent that cannot be limited to the synagogue. The Jews emerge as part of a theodicy which does not stigmatize one particular race but situates the opposition of the historical master Jesus in a post-Easter context of his servants who experience hate and persecution in the larger Greco-Roman world.
- By (author) Lars Kierspel
Other Titles in this Series
Matthaeus Adversus Christianos
The Use of the Gospel of Matthew in Jewish Polemics Against the Divinity of Jesus
Volume 350
Schriftdiskurse im Johannesevangelium
Eine narrativ-intertextuelle Analyse am Paradigma von Joh 4 und Joh 7
Volume 380
Paul and Sacrifice in Corinth
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Volume 623
Das Romische Imperium im Lukanischen Doppelwerk
Darstellung und Ertragspotenzial fur christliche Leser des spaten ersten Jahrhunderts
Volume 547
Early Christian Teachers
The 'Didaskaloi' from Their Origins to the Middle of the Second Century
Volume 516
The Righteousness of God
A Lexical Examination of the Covenant-Faithfulness Interpretation
Volume 386
Die Ethik des Johannesevangeliums im sprachlichen Feld des Handelns
Kontexte und Normen neutestamentlicher Ethik / Contexts and Norms of New Testament Ethics. Band V
Volume 359
Sturmfahrt und Schiffbruch
Zur lukanischen Verwendung eines literarischen Topos in Apostelgeschichte 27,1-28,6
Volume 274
Sunde und Rechtfertigung bei Paulus
Eine exegetische Untersuchung zum paulinischen Sundenverstandnis aus soteriologischer Sicht
Volume 318
Religious Experience of the Pneuma
Communication with the Spirit World in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14
Volume 230
La reconfiguration epistemique du lecteur de Marc
Perspectives synchroniques et diachroniques sur le recit du demoniaque de Gerasa (Mc 5.1-20) mis en resonance avec les jeunes hommes de 14.51-52 et 16.1-8
Volume 569
Johannine Belief and Graeco-Roman Devotion
Reshaping Devotion for John's Graeco-Roman Audience
Volume 528
Proclaiming the Judge of the Living and the Dead
The Christological Significance of Judgement in Acts 10 and 17
Volume 494
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