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John's Gospel: A Two-Level Drama?

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Author

  • Tobias Hägerland

Summary, in English

During the past decades, scholars have attempted to reconstruct the history of a Johannine community through reading John's Gospel as a two-level drama. According to this understanding, the Gospel relates events that took place in the community after Jesus' earthly ministry, while these events are presented as a story about Jesus himself. The present essay evaluates this allegorical reading of the Gospel, first through a search for ancient parallels that would constitute a genre of the two-level drama, secondly through a discussion of the alleged intra-textual indications of the Gospel's allegorical character. The conclusion arrived at is that both the search for an ancient two-level genre and the search for hints of allegory in the text are unsuccessful. The hypothesis of a Johannine two-level drama is therefore highly implausible.

Publishing year

2003

Language

English

Pages

309-322

Publication/Series

Journal for the Study of the New Testament

Volume

25

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Topic

  • Philosophy, Ethics and Religion

Keywords

  • Johannine community
  • Gospel of John
  • allegory

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0142-064X