The Gospel of John RUDOLF BULTMANN translated by G.R. BEASLEY-MURRAY, R.W.N. HOARE, and J.K. RICHES; introduction by WALTER SCHMITHALS Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1970. xvi, 744. $32.95

For more than one hundred years scholars have endeavoured to discover and separate the sources or literary strata believed to be embedded in the Gospel of John. Previous attempts to explain the origin of the Fourth Gospel by theories of a Grundschrift or literary sources and redaction, not to mention rearrangement, found their culmination and were probably superseded when, over twenty years ago, Rudolf Bultmann set forth a comprehensive literary theory in his magisterial Das Evangelium des Johannes. Bultmann's work has given a measure of unity to the subsequent discussion of the literary problem where it has been taken into account. Those who sharply disagree with Bultmann have found it a convenient bench-mark by which to gain a perspective on the problems of the gospel. His theory, worked out in most minute detail, involves the evangelist's use of sources, the presumably accidental disruption of the original textual order, and the (incorrect) restoration and editorial expansion of the text by an ecclesiastical redactor. Any discussion of recent developments in this area will naturally and appropriately begin with his work.

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Rudolf Bultmann: Sy mees invloedryke bydrae in die 20ste eeu: ‘Urchristentum’, ‘Jesus’, ‘Johannes’-kommentaar?

HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies ◽

10.4102/hts.v67i3.1076 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 67 (3) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Andries G. Van Aarde

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Gospel Of John ◽

Current Phase ◽

Theological Interpretation ◽

Historical Discourse ◽

Rudolf Bultmann ◽

Theological Discourse ◽

The New Testament ◽

Hellenistic World ◽

John's Gospel

Rudolf Bultmann: His most influential contribution in the 20th century: ‘Urchristentum’, ‘Jesus’, ‘Commentary on John’s gospel’? This article pays tribute to Rudolf Bultmann as a scholar of faith who fulfilled the most influential role in the interpretation of Jesus and the New Testament during the twentieth century. In the article Bultmann’s leading publications are discussed against the background of the question of which one has been the most significant. Three important publications are identified, namely his book on the socio-cultural environment of the earliest followers of Jesus in first-century Semitic-Hellenistic world, his book on the historical Jesus, and his commentary on the Gospel of John. Various criteria are applied to value the significance of these three publications. They are Bultmann’s understanding of what the scientific nature of the theological discourse principally would entail; how modern-day believers could adhere to an ancient mythological discourse; the way in which today a historical discourse could existentially been engaged with and why Jesus of Nazareth would be regarded as theologically significant. Both the depth of Bultmann’s understanding of the substance of the theological discourse found in John’s gospel and the quality of Bultmann’s historical-critical analysis of John’s gospel lead to the finding that this commentary should be considered to be not only the most significant for the twentieth century but beyond that time even into the current phase of biblical and theological interpretation.

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Introduction

John among the Apocalypses ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198784241.003.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-14

Author(s):

Benjamin E. Reynolds

Keyword(s):

Gospel Of John ◽

Synoptic Gospels ◽

Central Focus ◽

Early Judaism ◽

Rudolf Bultmann ◽

The One ◽

Insight Into

The Gospel of John has long been recognized as being different from Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The theme of revelation and the portrayal of Jesus as descending from heaven are some of the more obvious and significant differences from the Synoptic Gospels. The theme of revelation is evident in the Gospel’s language and presentation of Jesus as the Revealer, but John’s revelatory perspective is often assumed. Revelation, which is the disclosure of knowledge by divine or supernatural means, is evident in Jesus’s signs, his teaching, the Gospel’s emphasis on sight, and its language of revealing, seeing, and knowing. The background for this revelatory telling of Jesus’s life may be found, not in Gnosticism as Rudolf Bultmann and others have argued, but in early Judaism. More particularly, the revelation portrayed in Jewish apocalypses offers insight into the Gospel’s central focus on the theme and its depiction of Jesus as the one who makes the Father known.

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