• Did the Johannine Community Exist?

    Author(s):
    Hugo Mendez (see profile)
    Date:
    2020
    Group(s):
    Biblical Studies, Catholic Biblical Association
    Subject(s):
    History, Ancient, Bible, Church history--Primitive and early church, Christian literature, Early, Bible. New Testament
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Ancient history, Biblical studies, Early Christianity, Early Christian literature, New Testament
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/h9qp-ha31
    Abstract:
    This article challenges the historical existence of the ‘Johannine community’ – a hypothesized group of ancient churches sharing a distinctive theological outlook. Scholars posit such a community to explain the similarities of John to 1, 2 and 3 John as well as the epistles’ witness to a network of churches. Against this view, this article calls attention to evidence of literary contact between the four texts and the presence of dubious authorial claims in each. Taken together, these features cast John, 1 John, 2 John and 3 John as unreliable bases for historical reconstruction, whose implied audiences and situations are probably fabrications. The article proceeds to develop a new history of the Johannine texts. Those texts represent a chain of literary forgeries, in which authors of different extractions cast and recast a single invented character – an eyewitness to Jesus’ life – as the mouthpiece of different theological viewpoints.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.1177/0142064X19890490
    Publisher:
    SAGE Publications
    Pub. Date:
    2020-3-2
    Journal:
    Journal for the Study of the New Testament
    Volume:
    42
    Issue:
    3
    Page Range:
    350 - 374
    ISSN:
    0142-064X,1745-5294
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    3 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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