Sense Perception and Testimony in the Gospel According to John (eBook)

Sunny Kuan-Hui Wang (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2017 | 1. Auflage
272 Seiten
Mohr Siebeck (Verlag)
978-3-16-155115-4 (ISBN)

Infos

In this book, Sunny Kuan-Hui Wang explores the relationship between sense perception and testimony in the Gospel of John. While Johannine scholars tend to focus on one or the other, she shows that sense perception and testimony are both significant and are used together with the intention of drawing readers into the narrative so that they become witnesses in an emotionally engaged way. It is argued that John's use of sense perception together with testimony is rooted in Jewish literature. Yet John also employs a Graeco-Roman rhetorical technique, enargeia, which appeals to the persuasive power of sense perception to make his narrative vivid. John does not downplay sense perception. Rather, he uses it in the context of testimony as a means of persuasion to draw the readers, in their imagination, into the experience of the first disciples and thus deeper into faith and witness.

Born 1975; since 2014 Assistant Professor of New Testament at the Central Taiwan Theological Seminary.

Inhalt

Cover 1
Preface 8
Table of Contents 10
Abbreviations 16
Chapter 1: The Focus of the Study 18
1. Introduction 18
2. History of Scholarship 19
2.1 Sense Perception 19
2.1.1 Sense Perception and Faith 19
2.1.2 Symbolic Interpretation of Sense Perception 24
2.1.3 The Range of Senses 27
2.2 Testimony 30
2.2.1 Testimony and Revelation 32
2.2.2 Rhetorical Purpose and Technique 32
2.3 Sense Perception and Testimony 35
3. The Aim and the Structure of this Study 37
3.1 The Aim of this Study 37
3.2 The Structure of the Study 38
Chapter 2: An Overview of Sense Perception and Testimony 39
1. Statistics and Distribution 39
1.1 The Prologue (John 1:1–18) 40
1.2 The Testimony of the Baptist and the First Disciples (John 1:19–51) 42
1.3 The Public Ministry of Jesus (John 2–12) 44
1.4 The Farewell Discourse (John 13–17) 46
1.5 The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus (John 18–21) 47
2. Problems with Sense Perception 49
2.1 The Undefined Object 49
2.2 The Vision of the Invisible: Glory, the Spirit and the Lamb of God 50
2.3 The Perception of God by Privileged Witnesses 51
2.4 The Perception of Signs within the Narrative 51
2.5 Perception Pre- and Post-Easter 52
3. John’s Use of Testimony Language 53
Chapter 3: The Intended Audience and the Purpose of the Gospel 55
1. John 20:30–31 56
1.1 Textual Variant in John 20:31a 57
1.2 The Construction of ??? + ??????? 60
2. John’s Concept of Faith 63
3. The Content of the Gospel 64
3.1 Structure and Presentation 64
3.2 The Language of Abiding and Indwelling 65
3.3 Ambiguities and Allusiveness in Language 65
3.4 The Paraclete 66
3.5 The Mission Motif 67
4. Conclusion 67
Chapter 4: Sense Perception, the Knowledge of God and Testimony in the Jewish Scriptures 69
1. Theophany 71
1.1 Jacob’s Ladder ( ??? ) (Gen 28:10–17) 72
1.2 Theophany on Mount Sinai 75
1.2.1 The Israelites’ Perception of God (Exodus 19–20) 75
1.2.2 Moses’ Perception of God (Exodus 33–34) 78
2. The Exodus Miracles 80
3. Communal Vision in Deuteronomy 84
4. The Tabernacle and the Ark of Testimony 87
5. Prophetic Sign-Acts 90
6. The Book of Isaiah 94
6.1 The Motif of Blindness and Deafness 96
6.2 The Motif of Light and Darkness 99
6.3 The Motif of Trial and Sense Perception 100
7. Conclusion 102
Chapter 5: Sense Perception and Testimony in the Graeco-Roman World 104
1. Techniques in Judicial Oratory to ‘bring before the eyes’ the thing told: ???????? and ???????? 106
1.1 ???????? 106
1.2 ???????? 108
2. Rhetorical Appeal to Emotion 110
3. Ways to Achieve ???????? 114
4. An Analysis of Plato’s Apology and Cicero’s Verrine Orations 118
4.1 Plato’s Apology 118
4.1.1 Repetition and the Presence of the Crowd 119
4.1.2 Repetition, Contrast and Creating a Pictorial Image by Noting Particular Features of Actions and Objects 120
4.1.3 Verbal Cues to Prompt Imagination 122
4.1.4 Repetition with a Description of Sudden Actions 122
4.2 Cicero’s Verrine Orations 125
4.2.1 Using Dialogues, Contrast and Creating a Pictorial Image by Noting Particular Features of Actions and Objects 126
4.2.2 Creating a Pictorial Image by Noting Particular Features of Actions and Objects and Mentioning the Presence of a Crowd 128
4.2.3 Contrast 130
4.2.4 Using Verbal Cues to Trigger Imagination 132
4.2.5 Repetition and the Presence of the crowd 133
5. Conclusion 134
Chapter 6: The Theological Significance of Sense Perception 137
1. The Theological Significance of Jesus’ Sense Perception and Testimony 138
1.1 Jesus’ Divine Origin and His Exegesis of God 138
1.2 Jesus’ Perception of God 145
1.2.1 Jesus Sees the Father (John 5:19–20, 37 6:46)
1.2.2 Jesus Hears the Father (John 8:26, 40) 149
1.2.3 Seeing Jesus is Seeing the Father (John 14:7–11 cf. John 12:45)
1.3 Jesus’ Testimony 151
1.4 Jesus’ Perception of the First Disciples 154
2. Characters Who ‘Saw and Testified’ to Jesus 157
2.1 The Baptist as a Privileged Witness 158
2.2 The Beloved Disciple as a Privileged Witness 162
2.3 Conclusion 163
3. The Ideology of the Narrator 164
4. Sense Perception and Spiritual Insight 166
Chapter 7: Testimony During Jesus’ Public Ministry 167
1. Signs and Faith 168
1.1 Changing Water into Wine 172
1.2 Healing the Official’s Son 177
1.3 Healing the Paralysed Man 182
1.4 Feeding the Five Thousand 184
1.5 Healing the Blind Man 187
1.6 The Raising of Lazarus 190
2. Other Testimonies 193
2.1 The Samaritans and Their Testimony (John 4:7–30, 4:39–42) 193
2.2 The Cleansing of the Temple 194
2.3 The Anointing of Jesus 195
3. The Close of Jesus’ Public Ministry 197
4. Conclusion 198
Chapter 8: Witnessing the Passion, Death and Resurrection 200
1. The Absence of Jesus and the Coming of the Spirit 201
1.1 Promise of the Paraclete 201
1.2 ‘Doubting Thomas’ and Later Generations of Disciples 206
1.2.1 The Character of Thomas (John 11:16 14:5 and 20:24–29)
1.2.2 The Meaning of John 20:29 213
1.2.3 Conclusion 216
2. Sense Perception and Testimony 217
2.1 Jesus’ Testimony to the Truth 217
2.1.1 The Use of ’???????? in Jesus’ Passion, Death and Resurrection 218
2.2 The Disciples’ Testimony to Jesus: Models of Seeing and Believing 221
2.3 A Prophetic Sign and Its Imitation in the Life of the Church 225
2.3.1 Footwashing as a Prophetic Sign-Act 226
2.3.2 Vivid Description of Footwashing 228
2.4 Sense Perception and Testimony in Johannine Tradition 230
2.4.1 Sense Perception and Testimony in John 21 231
2.4.2 Sense Perception and Testimony in 1 John 232
3. Conclusion 233
Chapter 9: Conclusion 235
Bibliography 240
Primary Sources 240
Secondary Sources 241
Index of References 258
Old Testament 258
New Testament 261
Other Ancient Sources 265
Index of Modern Authors 268
Index of Subjects 272

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.6.2017
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Christentum
• ISBN-10: 3-16-155115-X / 316155115X
• ISBN-13: 978-3-16-155115-4 / 9783161551154