THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

New Testament 1701p Fall 1999

Bangor Theological Seminary Wednesdays 3:30-6:15 p.m.

Portland, Maine Ramsey Michaels, Professor

I. The Nature of the Course

This course is a literary study of the Gospel of John with particular attention to its value for contemporary theology and the contemporary church. It is primarily a reading of the text, not an analysis of the sources behind the text, and not an investigation of the historical events narrated by the text. Its goal is to determine what the author or authors intended to say to the original readers, and what the text has to say to us today about Jesus of Nazareth, the world, and the Christian life.

II. Meeting Times

The course will meet September 8, 15, 22, 29; October 6, 20, 27; November 3, 10, 17; December 1, 8, and 15. We will not meet October 13 (Reading Week) or November 24 (Thanksgiving Break).

Sept. 8: Reading the whole Gospel of John. Your assignment is to do just that (preferably at one sitting if you can arrange it), and to be prepared to discuss its overall structure. Special attention will be given to the so-called Prologue (1:1-18; I do not usually call it the Prologue, for reasons we will discuss).

Sept. 15: Reading 1:19-2:12.

Sept. 22: Reading 2:13-3:36.

Sept. 29: Reading chapter 4.

Oct. 6: Reading chapter 5.

Oct 20: Reading chapter 6. One hour mid-term exam at 5 p.m.

Oct 27: Reading chapters 7-8.

Nov 3: Reading chapters 9-10.

Nov 10: Reading chapters 11-12.

Nov 17: Reading chapter 13-14.

Dec 1: Reading chapters 15-17.

Dec 8: Reading chapters 18-19.

Dec 15: Reading chapters 20-21. Take-home final exam is due.

IV. Required Books

One good Bible translation. I recommend either the RSV, NRSV, or NIV (or better, more than one for the sake of comparison).

I am assigning one major commentary, one which uses a literary approach similar to the one we are taking in this course. It is The Gospel of John, by Francis J. Moloney (Sacra Pagina Series, 4). Moloney is an Australian Roman Catholic now teaching at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. I am using Moloney because his method agrees with the method I am using in this course, even though his conclusions are often different from mine. Each week I will assume you have read Moloney’s comments on the passage we are discussing as well as the passage itself. Or if not, then something equivalent (see below, Further Bibliography). Your goal is not to follow Moloney’s reading, much less mine, but to make your own reading of the text. We will be talking a lot about "the Gospel writer" (or ‘John’ if you prefer), and his or her intentions, and about "the reader." When we say that, we try to imagine the original readers and how they would have read the text, but in the last analysis, "the reader" is You.

V. Further Bibliography

There is an abundance of literature on John’s Gospel. Moloney (pp. 24-31) has a good General Bibliography, but I will call your attention to the following (with a few simplistic labels attached to give you some idea of where they are coming from, geographically and theologically).

C.K. Barrett, The Gospel According to St. John (2d.ed., 1978). English, Methodist (I think).

G.R. Beasley-Murray, John (Word Commenary, 1987). English, Baptist.

Raymond Brown, The Gospel According to John (Anchor Bible: 2 vols., 1966-70). American, Catholic.

Rudolf Bultmann, The Gospel of John: A Commentary (1941). German, Protestant.

Donald A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (1991). Canadian (I think), Baptist and Evangelical.

C.H. Dodd, The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel (1953). English, Congregationalist.

________, Historical Tradition in the Fourth Gospel (1963).

Ernst Haenchen, John 1-2 (Hermeneia; 2 vols., 1984). German, Protestant.

Barnabas Lindars, The Gospel of John (1972). English, Anglican.

J.R. Michaels, John (NIBC; Hendrickson, 1989). American, Baptist.

Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John (rev. ed., NICNT, 1995). Australian, Anglican and Evangelical.

Rudolf Schnackenburg, The Gospel According to St. John (3 vols., 1968-82). German, Catholic.

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Among Patristic commentators, see Origen, Commentary on the Gospel According to John (Fathers of the Church, Vols. 80 and 89), Chrysostom, Homilies on St. John (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 14, pp. 1-334), and Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, 7-452).

Responsibility for one hour of a class session. I will require of you a written list of questions or observations which you used to stimulate discussion (due the day you are up), and a written evaluation of your session after the fact (due one week later). This, together with your week-by-week contribution to the class, will count 30% of your grade.

A mid-term examination on October 20 at 5 p.m. This essay exam will count 30% of your grade.