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

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
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.

In the Beginning was the Word

2019 ◽  
pp. 101-148
Author(s):  
George Pattison
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
New Testament ◽  
German Idealism ◽  
Rudolf Bultmann ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Michel Henry ◽  
John's Gospel ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
Original Interpretation

Turning to the New Testament, the chapter examines the prologue to St John’s Gospel as an exemplary commentary on Christian vocation. However, this requires rejecting interpretations that have seen John’s logos in terms of Platonic ideas or ‘ratio’, as in much ancient and medieval commentary (Eckhart’s commentary is used for illustration). German Idealism (Fichte) refigures ratio in terms of will, and in the twentieth century, Michel Henry foregrounds ‘life’. A rediscovery of the word element is found in Ferdinand Ebner and Rudolf Bultmann. Their insights are used to develop an original interpretation of the Gospel, contrasting John’s existential focus on calling and the name with Platonizing interpretations.

The Use and Abuse of P52: Papyrological Pitfalls in the Dating of the Fourth Gospel

2005 ◽  
Vol 98 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent Nongbri
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Gospel Of John ◽  
Second Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Fourth Gospel ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Justin Martyr ◽  
John's Gospel

The thesis of this paper is simple: we as critical readers of the New Testament often use John Rylands Greek Papyrus 3.457, also known as P52, ininappropriate ways, and we should stop doing so. A recent example will illustrate the problem. In what is on the whole a superb commentary on John's gospel, D. Moody Smith writes the following about the date of John:For a time, particularly in the early part of the twentieth century, the possibility that John was not written, or at least not published, until [the] mid-second century was a viable one. At that time Justin Martyr espoused a logos Christology, without citing the Fourth Gospel explicitly. Such an omission by Justin would seem strange if the Gospel of John had already been written and was in circulation. Then the discovery and publication in the1930s of two papyrus fragments made such a late dating difficult, if not impossible, to sustain. The first and most important is the fragment of John chapter 18 … [P52], dated by paleographers to the second quarter of the second century (125–150); the other is a fragment of a hithertounknown gospel called Egerton Papyrus 2 from the same period, which obviously reflects knowledge of the Gospel of John…. For the Gospel of Johnto have been written and circulated in Egypt, where these fragments were found, a date nolater than the first decade of the second century must be presumed.

Moses and Abraham Go Arctic

2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 363-374
Author(s):  
Christina Petterson
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Gospel Of John ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Contemporary Situation ◽  
John's Gospel ◽  
Spatial Construction

AbstractThis paper reads the Gospel of John as expounded by Musa W. Dube in her article 'Savior of the World but not of This World: A Post-Colonial Reading of Spatial Construction in John' alongside the religious situation in contemporary Greenland, itself an often ignored example of the dilemmas of colonisation and postcolonialism. Tensions between the Danish Lutheran State Church and anti-Danish members of the indigenous Inuit populations over the place of Christianity in contemporary Inuit identity are analogous to the tension in John's gospel over who can claim to be Israel. In making this comparison, I hope not to exemplify what David Jobling warns us about: "Simple links between biblical and current situations, whether they leave the Bible looking good or bad, convey no lasting benefit." I seek to overcome the theoretical problems inherent in blindly adopting Dube's intertextual methods by employing Jonathan Z. Smith's observations on comparison. This in turn poses another range of problems about identity and method for readers as well as for the text which will be outlined here. Both the New Testament and the contemporary situation reveal the complexity of identities which simple categories of 'coloniser' and 'colonised' do not encompass.

scholarly journals Waren Judas en Thomas gnostici? Het evangelie naar Johannes met gnostische ogen gelezen

2008 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Van de Beek
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Gospel Of John ◽  
Psychological Understanding ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
John's Gospel

Jude and Thomas, were they Gnostics? Reading the Gospel according to John from a Gnostic perspective The discoveries of Gnostic texts since the mid of the twentieth century challenge biblical scholarship to read New Testament texts from new points of view. It is remarkable that Jesus’ disciples who are prominently present in Gnostic texts, especially Jude, Thomas and Philip are also more conspicuous characters in the Gospel of John than in the Synoptics. This challenges scholars to read these sections in relation to Gnosticism. The article aims at reading the scenes dealing with Jude and Thomas in John’s gospel with a Gnostic framework in mind. These texts gain more profile than by a traditional reading which is often based on a psychological understanding of Jude and Thomas. The article demonstrates that the author of John’s gospel uses these passages in an anti-Gnostic discourse. Thomas is a Gnostic who could fully understand Jesus’ words in a Gnostic way until he encounters the bodily risen Lord. Jude does not make such a conversion and disappears in the night. These are the option for Gnostics: either convert to the type of Christianity the Gospel of John teaches or being lost in darkness.

Meeting Nicodemus: A Case Study in Daring Theological Interpretation

2013 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
David F. Ford
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Gospel Of John ◽  
Synoptic Gospels ◽  
Theological Interpretation ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Key Features ◽  
John's Gospel ◽  
Opening Up

AbstractThe Nicodemus story can be read as a distillation of the Gospel of John and an example of many of its key features. John 3:1–21 poses a wide range of the problems raised by this most distinctive and mysterious of the four gospels. It shows characteristic practices of John as a reader, writer and teacher. In line with John's theology of the Spirit ‘leading into all the truth’, it also shows him as a daring theologian, opening up fresh interpretations and ways of doing theology beyond the Septuagint and the Synoptic Gospels and even beyond his own Prologue (itself a remarkably daring piece of theology). That same Spirit means that John also expects his readers to be led into further truth, and to improvise on his theology as he himself did on the Septuagint and on the Synoptic traditions. His ways of reading, writing and teaching encourage such a response in the Spirit by creating a work rich in intertextuality, imagery and conceptuality which has a ‘deep plain sense’, superabundant in meaning and always inviting the reader to reread, learn more and interpret afresh. So one challenge for readers now is whether they are open not only to thinking along with John but also to thinking beyond him, in ways appropriate to different people and contexts. But this transformation in thought and imagination is not all: it is inseparable from doing the truth ‘in God’. The mutual involvement of seeing, believing/trusting, knowing and living in love is above all communicated in the drama of John's Gospel, whose backbone is a series of meetings with Jesus and the injunction to follow Jesus. More embracing and fundamental than, for example, doctrinal theology or existential decision-making, is the dramatic reality of encountering other people and following Jesus in all the complexities of life in specific contexts. In John 3:1–21 the encounter of Jesus with Nicodemus is the dramatic heart of the passage, blending into a discourse which itself culminates in the ultimate drama of ‘deeds done in God’. But to stop interpretation there would be to refuse the Johannine invitation to enter into more truth with a view to ‘doing greater things’. So the article ends with two midrashic interpretations of Nicodemus for today.

scholarly journals Apocalypse as Perpetual Advent: The Apocalyptic Sermons of Rudolf Bultmann

2018 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-63
Author(s):  
David W. Congdon
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
New Testament ◽  
The Other ◽  
Current Work ◽  
Theology Of The Cross ◽  
Dominant Position ◽  
Rudolf Bultmann ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
History Of ◽  
Christian Thought

The apocalyptic interpretation of the New Testament was developed in the mid-twentieth century in explicit opposition to the work of Rudolf Bultmann, and this conflict has persisted despite the changes that have taken place within the field of apocalyptic theology. This article interrogates the relation between Bultmann and apocalyptic in two ways. First, it takes a second look at the history of twentieth-century theology and shows that the work of Ernst Käsemann, who was instrumental in retrieving apocalyptic as normative for Christian thought, contained two distinct definitions of apocalyptic, only one of which Bultmann rejected. The other definition became the dominant position in later apocalyptic scholarship. Second, the article gives a fresh hearing to Bultmann’s theology by exploring his often overlooked Advent and Christmas sermons. Whereas current work in apocalyptic theology focuses on Paul’s theology of the cross, Bultmann develops a distinctively existential apocalyptic on the basis of John’s theology of advent.

The Question of God’s Perfection

2021 ◽  
pp. 014610792110306
Author(s):  
Cornell Collin
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
The State ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Theological Interpretation ◽  
World Religions ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Present Essay

Is God perfect? The recent volume entitled The Question of God’s Perfection stages a conversation on that topic between mostly Jewish philosophers, theologians, and scholars of rabbinic literature. Although it is neither a work of biblical theology nor a contribution to the theological interpretation of scripture, The Question of God’s Perfection yields stimulating results for these other, intersecting projects. After briefly describing the volume’s central question and contents, the present essay situates the volume’s offerings within the state of the biblical-theological and theological-interpretive fields. In its next section, it considers—and compares— The Question of God’s Perfection with one twentieth-century theological antecedent, the Dutch theologian K.H. Miskotte. In closing, it poses questions for ongoing discussion. The Question of God’s Perfection: Jewish and Christian Essays on the God of the Bible and Talmud, edited by Yoram Hazony & Dru Johnson. Philosophy of Religion – World Religions 8. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2019. ISBN 9789004387959

scholarly journals Indicators of the church in John’s metaphor of the vine

2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johann Fourie
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Gospel Of John ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Unity In Diversity ◽  
The Church

This article aims to answer the question of what belongs to the essence of the church, as God intended it to be, by identifying certain indicators of the essence of the church through a study of one of the central metaphors of the New Testament: the vine in the Gospel of John. Through structural analyses, commentary and metaphorical analyses, several indicators of unity as part of the essence of the church emerge in this metaphor. These indicators are the primacy (or authority) of Christ, trinitarian balance, equality, interdependence, inclusivity, growth and unity (in diversity).Hierdie artikel poog om die volgende vraag te beantwoord: Wat behoort tot die essensie van kerkwees soos God dit bedoel het? Dit word gedoen deur sekere aanwysers van die essensie van kerkwees te identifiseer vanuit ’n studie van een van die essensiële metafore vir kerkwees in die Nuwe Testament, naamlik die Wynstok in die Evangelie van Johannes. Deur middel van struktuuranalise, kommentaar en metaforiese analise kom verskeie eenheidsaanwysers as deel van die essensie van kerkwees in hierdie metafoor na vore. Hierdie aanwysers is die hoër gesag (of outoriteit) van Christus, die balans van die Drie-eenheid, gelykheid, interafhanklikheid, inklusiwiteit, groei en eenheid (in diversiteit).

Ecclesia as Gathering Only? Evaluating the use of Scripture in Proposals of the “Knox-Robinson Ecclesiology”

2020 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-69
Author(s):  
C. Ryan Fields
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
New Testament ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Church

Broughton Knox and Donald Robinson, Sydney Anglicans serving and writing in the second half of the twentieth century, offered various theological proposals regarding the nature of the church that stressed the priority of the local over the translocal. The interdependence and resonance of their proposals led to an association of their work under the summary banner of the “Knox-Robinson Ecclesiology.” Their dovetailed contribution offers in many ways a compelling understanding of the nature of the ecclesia spoken of in Scripture. In this paper I introduce, summarize, and evaluate the Knox-Robinson ecclesiology with a particular eye to Knox's and Robinson's use of Scripture in authorizing their theological proposals. I argue that while they provide an important corrective to the inflation of the earthly translocal dimension of the church, they are not ultimately persuasive in their claim that the New Testament knows only the church as an earthly/heavenly gathering.

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