Scriptural Coding in the Fourth Gospel WOLFGANG ROTHbibl323.weebly.com/uploads/7/6/7/8/7678021/... · 2020. 2. 4. · activity. Best known are the references to three Passovers (2:13;

Scriptural Coding in the Fourth Gospel

WOLFGANG ROTH

Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois

Introduction "The New Testament lies hidden in the Old, the Old Testament

lies open in the New/' St. Augustine's striking formulation, adapted from his Quaest in Heptateuch LXXIII (on Ex 20:19), is not only readily remembered as a convenient sumary of a widely accepted early Christian hermeneutic, but also defines the internal relation between the two parts of the Christian Bible by the contrast ''latency — patency." It suggests that the relationship between the two testaments is as much to be affirmed as to be discovered, as much real as it is mysterious.

I wish to demonstrate the truth of this ancient insight in a new way — a way which suggested itself to me unexpectedly in the course of my work with the Hebrew Scriptures. Moreover, the interpretive perspective which informs my approach arises from a manner of probing Scripture which also differs from that of much of contemporary biblical scholarship.

Hence first a methodological consideration. My interest lies in a literary work as it presents itself in its literary and conceptual integrity. It is the latter which I define as primary horizon of in-terpretation and seek to analyse first. Thus I am not proceeding as a form-, tradition- and redaction critic would, who assumes that its present form is to be interpreted basically as result of a process of transmission, interpretation and redaction. Employing what might be called a "synchronic" approach I explore the work as it stands, probing its structure and its narrative plot. What are the scenes through which it moves from beginning to end? What figures constitute the cast and how do the actors carry the plot? How do narrated time and space function in the work? Further-

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more, is it necessary to identify constraints which play a role in the shaping of the work in its entirety? Can a literary model be discerned which determines its profile and provides a conceptual medium? An example of such procedure is the examination of the manner in which the juxtaposition of two figures as fore-runner - successor pair provide plot structure and actor profiles in the design of a work. For instance, the Elijah - Elisha cast as fore-runner and successor in 1 Kgs 1 7 - 2 Kgs 13 appears modelled after the Moses - Joshua pair in Deut-Josh. On the other hand, the Elijah - Elisha pair provides a plot design for the presentation of the John - Jesus pair in the Synoptic Gospels and for Luke's narration of the Peter - Paul succession in Acts.

It is on premises such as these that the following exploration of the composition of the Fourth Gospel is based. My thesis, by way of preview, is this: The work of John is a selective and in-verted, narrative re-writing of "The Law" and "The Prophets" of the Hebrew Bible, climaxed in the portrayal of a new creation through the gift of Spirit by the risen Jesus. In other words, it is a transfiguration of the evangelist's Scriptures which may be compared to the way in which John's Jesus, according to the story of the wedding at Cana, transforms the waters of Judean purifica-tion rites into the wine needed for the guests.

My argumentation moves, at times in detail and at times sum-marily, through four stages:

(1) The isolation of six references to "festivals of the Judeans" or as celebrated "in Jerusalem," appearing at intervals throughout the work without clear motivation, and their tentative identifica-tion as markers of six sections of Jn (excluding the prologue 1:1-18, the epilogue 21:1-25, and the postscript 20:30-31).

(2) The detection of a veiled, narrative-thematic correspondence of each section in plot and execution to one of the five fifths of 'The Law' (Gen - Deut) and to the model story of prophetic action in 'The Prophets,' that is, the Elijah - Elisha Narrative (1 Kgs 17 - 2 Kgs 13).

(3) The thesis that the spiritualized themes of the scriptural model sections represent a thematic progression of six gifts, begin-ning with that of 'water' and moving through those of 'health', 'sustenance', 'sight', and 'life' to that of 'Spirit', thus generating a topical movement 'from water to spirit.' Furthermore, the recogni-

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tion of a parabolic preview of the work's thematic structure as present at the beginning of the work in the story of "the master sign," which portrays Jesus changing six vessels of water into thè best wine that has been left to the last.

(4) Having shown that the narrative code of the Fourth Gospel "lies hidden in the Old Testament," and that its identification sup-plies to this work a new, or rather an old, already scriptural key, the paper concludes with a discussion of John's hermeneütic activity in the light of the first three gospels and of its possible audience.

1. Six Parallel Signals The Johannine work periodizes the duration of Jesus' public

activity. Best known are the references to three Passovers (2:13; 6:4; 11:55) — a feature which led already in the Ancient Church to debates whether Jesus' public activity lasted three years or, as the other canonical gospels seem to suggest, only one year. Be that as it may, the three Passover references in Jn are not the only ones alluding to festivals observed by Jesus. There are three more: The mention of "a (some textual witnesses: the) festival of the Judeans," unidentified as to its nature (5:1), then the reference to "the festival of the Judeans, (that of) Tabernacles" in 7:2 (cf. 14 and 37), and finally in 10:22 the mention of "the (Temple) Dedication in Jerusalem." The full texts are:

2:13 "And there was near the Passover of the Judeans» so Jesus went up . . /' (additional reference to this feast: 2:23, 4:45)

5:1 "Afterwards there was a (the) festival of the Judeans, so Jesus . . ."

6:4 "Now the Passover, the festival of the Judeans, was near."

7:2 "Now there was near the festival of the Judeatis, the Tabernacles." (additional references to this feast: 7:8, 10, 11, 14, 37)

10:22 "Then there came the Dedication in Jerusalem . . ." 11:55 "Now the Passover of the Judeans was near, so many

went up . . ." (additional references to this feast: 11:56, 12:12, 20, 13:1, 29)

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The six passages not only exhaust references to a "festival" in Jn, but in their cumulation also are, as already noted, without parallel in the other New Testament gospels, hence uniquely Johan-nine. They appear at intervals throughout that work and are similar in formulation: Each time it is a "festival," all but once identified by name, and each time that feast is said to be celebrated by "the Judeans" (five times) or "in Jerusalem" (once).

Furthermore, in at least one case the reference stands in ob-vious narrative tension to what follows: When according to 6:4 the Feast of Passover was near, Jesus proceeds to feed 5,000: what he actually offers are 5 loaves and 2 fishes — clearly not the food associated with the Passover. Generally, Jesus' discourses, conver-sations and actions may broadly be taken to be occasioned by his observance of the feast, yet expressly refer to their festal set-ting only when Jesus' activity within the festival's week of days is further periodized (e.g. 7:14 and 37). On the other hand, the first feast reference (2:13) introduces a portrayal of Jesus' activity which is located in Jerusalem (2:14-3:21), then in Judea (3:22-4:3), then in Samaria (4:4-45) and in Galilee (4:46-54) — a journey one might understand as that of the pilgrim's return to his home. Final-ly, the second feast reference (5:1) does not provide the festival's name at all — does this suggest that the reference to a "feast" — any feast — suffices for purposes of the evangelist's narrative goals?

In short, the six festival references call attention to themselves through their presence, distribution, formulation and, more notably, in at least two cases through lack of narrative fit with their con-texts. Moreover, they stand in a peculiar relationship to stories of signs within the work of John, a composition expressly iden-tified as "a book of signs" (20:30-31): The first feast reference (2:13) follows the first expressly counted sign, that at Cana (2:1-11), the second festival mentioned (5:1) follows the second, expressly numbered sign, that of the restoration of the sick boy (4:46-54), and the same feast text as well as the four others each precede a text unit which contains a sign story (5:1 - 5:2-9; 6:4 - 6:5-13; 7:2 - 9:1-7; 10:22 - 11:1-44; 11:55 - 20:1-18). In other words, seven sign stories frame six festival references.

These observations suggest questions such as these: What is the function of the references to festivals of the Judeans? Does

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their number have significance — the very numerical value which appears in the master sign story? And, given their narratively awkward nature, do they serve as indicators which point to a sec-tioning of the work? If that question is tentatively answered in the affirmative, the following text units, apart from prologue (1:1-18), epilogue (21:1-25), and postscript (20:30-31), are identified:

(1) 1:19-4:54 (2) 5:1-47 (3) 6:1-71 (4) 7:1-10:21 (5) 10:22-11:54 (6) 11:55-20:29 The sections are, to be sure, of different lengths, but this feature

does not in principle militate against the division. On the other hand, once sections are delineated in this manner, each feast reference comes to introduce and provide a (formal) frame for each set of discourses, conversations and a sign story which follow. The narrative arrangement then comes to suggest a progression through a three year period which, as references to specific days of each seven-day festival period (7:2, 14, 37; 12:2, 12, 13:1) in-dicate, is distributed over the festival's week of days.

What is the reason of this sixfold division? Is there a con-straint which demands it, or a model which suggests it? And if this is indeed the case, where may this paradigm be found? Is the Johannine call to "search the Scriptures" (5:39) a pointer? More precisely still, is the identification of the canon "The Law and The Prophets" in the story of Philip's and Nathanael's call at the beginning of the work (1:45; cf. 43-51), the indicator as to where, that is, in what body of writing, the search must begin?

2. Veiled Motif Correspondences Alerted by the insight that "The Law and The Prophets" is

already in the beginning of the gospel presented as the scriptural canon according to which Jesus' appearance is to be perceived and measured, its readers' memories are activated in relation to that part of the Hebrew Scriptures, where the five fifths of "The Law," that is, the books Gen — Ex — Lev — Num — Deut, are followed by a sustained narration, which tells Israel's story from a prophetic perspective in order to introduce four named, pro-phetic books. But how are the six tentatively identified sections of Jn related to these writings? The following reflection on peculiar features of the second and shortest of the Johannine sections begins the search.

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a· Jn 5:1-47 and the Book of Deuteronomy Three phrases appearing in Jn 5:1-47 draw the readers' atten-

tion because they are unusual in one way or another. (1) The first is the description of the nameless sick man lying

near the Pool of Bethesda, as one who had been there "38 years in his weakness" (5:5). The mention of the number "38" together with the noun "years" reminds readers steeped in "The Law and The Prophets" of its only occurrence there — in the book of Deuteronomy. This (framed) farewell speech Moses (1:6-30:20) begins with a review of Israel's years of being tested in the wilderness (1:6-4:40). In that selective recapitulation of the people's wilderness journey from Kadesh-barnea the lawgiver also refers to the span of time from Israel's departure from that oasis to its crossing of the brook Zered (which marks Moab's border). He describes that period as the one during which the whole rebellious (first wilderness) generation had been consumed and gives its duration as "38 years" (Deut 2:14):

And the time from our leaving Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until the entire generation, that is, the men of war, had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them.

Thus this numerical phrase is negatively qualified in the sense that it refers to the period of trial and punishment for Israel's disobedient exodus generation. Since the phrase, as already noted, appears only at this place in "The Law and The Prophets," it raises the possibility of some unique kind of correlation between that text in Jn and this text in Deut.

(2) A second unusual phrase occurs at the end of Jn's second section. There Jesus' discourse ends with the affirmation that not he but Moses' writings accuse his unbelieving hearers (5:45-47). The notion of Scripture as witness against Israel cannot but re-mind readers of the end of Deut where Moses has "the book of the law" deposited by the side of the ark of the covenant so that it serve as a witness against them (Deut 31:26-27, cp. 24-29):

Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may

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be there for a witness against you. For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are; behold, while I am yet alive with you, . . . how much more after my death! It is striking that the motif of the Law of Moses as witness

against Israel, not used elsewhere in "The Law," also appears at the end of Jn's second section.

(3) What further suggests a unique connection between the second section of Jn and Deut is a third phrase which occurs in the middle of both text units, that of "righteous judgment." In the Johannine context Jesus emphasizes that what he renders according to his father's will is "righteous judgment" (5:30) — the very term which Deuteronomy's Moses employs in the preface to his promulgation of laws to be observed in human relation-ships wherever Israelites live (Deut 16:18-20 - 16:19-25:16):

You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns which the LORD your God gives you, . . . and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment . . . . Thus there appear to exist three singular, exclusive correlations

between Jn's second section and Deut. What — if anything — do they signify? Are they coincidences? Or is more evidence available which also points to a singular relation of the second section of Jn to the fifth book of the Law of Moses?

(4) A look at the plot of Jn's second section is now indicated. After the man has endured 38 years of weakness, his healing oc-curs at Jesus's word. Now he can get up, walk and even carry his stretcher, and all this without having even touched the waters of the Pool of Bethesda which are believed to bring healing to those who touch them first after an angel has brought motion to them. Also, upon recovery the restored man goes to the Tem-ple, presumably in order to give thanks, and it is there that Jesus encounters him again and confirms the gift of well-being.

This storyline resembles that of Deut in that Israel's second wilderness generation is after 38 years of punishment of the first (wilderness) generation readying itself to enter the land of well-being where after entry they are to congregate in gratitude at the one place which the LORD chooses. According to Deut

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that gift is mediated through the land, according to Jn through Jesus' word. The general plot correspondence is reflected in the temporal and spatial staging of the narrative of Jn 5.

(a) The motif of "38 years of weakness ended" suggests, when pondered in the light of Israel's (traditional, scriptural) 40 years of wilderness sojourn, that two more years must pass before the people actually enter into the promise. It seems that Jn motivates in this way the two years span from first to third Passover which the work in fact proceeds to narrate.

(b) The placement of the healing encounter at a body of water, the traversing of which under certain conditions brings well-being, relates the (in Deut) anticipated crossing of the Jordan to the (hoped-for) passing through Bethesda's waters. Moreover, in both cases the water does not touch those made well.

(5) Finally, Deut looks forward to, but Jn actually portrays the passage into well-being. The figures who bring the healing both have the same name: Joshua - Jesus. And a count indicates that this name is found 9 times both in Deut and in Jn 5!

To conclude: A number of unique connections, evident in the presence of what may be called connector phrases within the nar-rative of the second section of the Johannine work argue for a singular correspondence between the two texts. Put differently, Jn's second section seems in certain respects narratively and thematically modelled by Deut. Do other sections in Jn provide similar evidence? b. Jn 6:1-71 and the Book of Numbers

Jn 6:1-71 employs four word combinations which uniquely relate it to that fifth of "The Law" which precedes Deut. On the one hand, multiples of "1,000" appear in the census figures and in the Johannine story of the feeding of 5,000, and in both cases it is stated that only "males" are counted. On the other hand, the combinations of "murmuring" with the term "manna," or with the heavenly food's "descent," or with that of "drinking blood" appear in both Jn's third section and in Num.

(1) Num contains the narrations of two "numberings" of the people, the first (1:1-46) before the spy story (Num 13-14) and the second (26:19-51) after the death of the (first) wilderness genera-tion has been told. The word "number(ing)" appears not fewer than 33 times in Num while in the rest of the Pentateuch it appears only 15 times, distributed fairly evenly over the other

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books. By the same token, in Jn the word (arithmos) appears on-ly once and in this section (6:10). The general notion of "number(ing)" is both in Jn 6:1-71 and in Num connected with two specific numerical values: that of "1,000's" in the census figures of the people (cf. Num 1:19-46 and 26:19-51 with Jn 6:10) and that of "12" in relation to a list of persons set apart for a special function in relation to the people at large (cf. Jn 6:67-70 with Num 34:13-29, also with 1:4-16 and 13:1-16). In short, the com-bination of these number-related words serves to alert the Johan-nine audience that with 6:1-71 the evangelist's narration progresses, so to speak, from Deut to Num.

(2) The unique relation is also discernible in a word combina-tion which points to the theme of Jesus' fourth sign and his discourses initiated by it: the supply of "manna." In Num the "murmuring" of the people, due to insufficient supply of sustenance in the desert, is answered by the gift of "manna" from heaven and of "water" from the rock, cf. "murmur(ing)" in Jn 6:41, 43 with Num 11:4-6, 10, 20; "manna" in Jn 6:31, 49 with Num 11:6, 7, 9 and "water" in Jn 6:35 with Num 20:1-13. Thus the sign of Jesus' feeding 5,000 (Jn 6:1-15) is evidently based on the manna miracle of Num 11:4-34 and Ex 16:1-35, in Jn 6:31 directly iden-tified by the quotation of Ps 78:24. Jesus' discourses in Jn 6:26-58 then cannot but remind hearers or readers of the plot of that biblical story, thus establishing a second, explicit link between John's third section and the book of Num, though not in as exclusive a fashion as elsewhere because the manna story appears also in Ex.

(3) However, there are two further motif words, both connected with the theme "miraculous supply of sustenance," which relate Jn 6 unambiguously to Num: One is the notion of the "descent" of the heavenly bread, cf. the use of katabainein in Jn 6:33, 38, 41, 42, 50, 51 and 58 with its occurrence in Num 11:9 (but not in Ex 16), the other the stark and jarring notion of "drinking blood." cf. haima pinein in Jn 6:53, 54, 56 with Num 23:24 (the only occurrence of the phrase in 'The Law and the Prophets.'

(4) These connector phrases invite the Johannine audience to search for further indications of the relationship to Num, com-parable to that identified between Jn 5 and Deut. Indeed, not only the storyline but also narrated space and time echo those of the fourth book of the Pentateuch. Thus in the light of Jn 6

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the plot of Num may be described as that of a miraculous rescue through the gift of "manna" from dire hunger in the wilderness which, while testing the people at large, ends with the selection of twelve (mostly tribe related) men who will apportion Canaan, the land of promise. Thus the identification of "The Twelve" at the end of the section (Jn 6:60-71) corresponds to the appoint-ment of the ten tribal leaders who, under Eleazar's and Joshua's supervision, are charged with the allotment of Canaan to the nine and a half tribes (Num 34:13-29)

(a) By the same token, the narrative location of Num in the wilderness is echoed by its Johannine counterpart in that the miraculous feeding is located in a place somewhat removed from settled areas, cf. the wilderness references in Num 1:1, 10:11-12, 12:16, 14:32-35, 20:1 with Jn 6:1-3 and 15.

(b) Furthermore, the connection of Jn 6 with a Passover celebra-tion (6:4) alludes to the "Passover in the Wilderness" observance narrated in Num 9:1-14. Finally, the seemingly unmotivated shift from Jerusalem as locale of Jesus' activity in Jn 5 to a deserted area beyond the Sea of Galilee in Jn 6:1-15 is, so to speak, due to the gospel's narrative progression from Deut to Num.

To conclude: The singular relationships of the gospel's second and third sections to Deut and Num respectively allow two, still tentative conclusions:

1. The motif and plot correspondences can hardly be coin-cidence. They rather suggest that these two scriptural text units function as conceptual-narrative models for Jn 5 and 6.

2. The relationships of the three remaining Johannine sections to their respective scriptural paradigms can now be extrapolated: the sections Jn 7:1-10:21, 10:22-11:54, and 11:55-20:29 may be ex-pected to align themselves with the three remaining books of the Pentateuch in inverted sequence, that is, with Lev, Ex and Gen respectively. The following discussion of connector words and phrases and the examination of broader corresponding features such as central theme or narrated space and time bear out the accuracy of this extrapolation. c. Jn 7:1-10:21 and the Book of Leviticus

The presence of four motifs relates the fourth section to the third Pentateuchal book: The supersession of the law of sabbath

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observance by the law of circumcision, the commandment to stone the blasphemer, the notion of release from cultic impurity through washing, and that of Moses' mediatorship of the divinely given law. Each of the motifs, formulated in a certain manner, is used in Jn 7:1-10:21 and Lev 1-27.

(1) When Jesus' presence in Jerusalem at the Feast of Booths evokes tension, he responds with a defense of his teachings (7:11-18). He refers to his healing of the man at the Pool of Bethesda on a sabbath — the very issue which had generated opposition to him already at that occasion (5:2-18) but which as such he had not defended then (5:19-47). Now, in the fourth section, Jesus responds with a counter-argument, and does so on the basis of a text from Lev. According to a law concerning circumcision (12:1-3) a male child is to be circumcised on the eighth day, thus manifest-ly ordering the rite to be performed on a sabbath if the child was born on the preceding sabbath (Jn 7:23):

If a human being receives circumcision on a sabbath, so that the Law of Moses not be broken, (why) are you then angry with me because on a sabbath I have made a human being's whole body well?

This argument, appearing as it does (only) in the fourth section of Jn, defends an action told of Jesus already in the second sec-tion. It does so with reference to that book of the Pentateuch which, according to the extrapolated scheme of correspondences, does indeed relate to Lev, the narrative counterpart of Jn 7:1-10:21.

(2) The second connecting motif is "stoning for blasphemy." The sustained exchange between Jesus and certain Judeans who had come to believe in him gradually turns into a series of hostile statements. It is climaxed in Jesus' assertion that "before Abraham was, I am" (Jn 8:31-58). To this the opponents responded not with words but "lifted up stones in order to throw them on him" (59a). Through this action they indicate that in their judgment Jesus has through his reference to his father as "our God" (8:54; some manuscripts read "your [plural] God") blasphemed and is thus liable to death by stoning, in accordance with the Law of Moses in Lev 24:15-16 (cf. 10-23):

Any one who blasphemes his God shall bear his guilt; if he also pronounces the name LORD, he shall be put to death. The whole community shall stone him . . . .

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It is this provision of the third Pentateuchal book which, it appears, motivates Jesus' Law-observant adversaries.

(3) The motif of release from a religiously defined impairment through washing is found in Jn only in this section, and in the Pentateuch only in Lev. The former appears in the fifth sign-story which portrays the coming to sight of a congenitally blind man (Jn 9:1-7), the latter relates to certain parts of the ritual observed on the Day of Atonement through which Israel is released from its sin (Lev 16:1-34). The connecting motif is expressed through the combination of the phrase "sending away" (apostellein - slh with the verb "to wash (louein or niptein). The expressly stated interpretation of the (Hebrew) name of the pool "Siloam" (root slh) with the Greek passive participle (the one who has been sent away" (apestalmenos) suggests that this equation is important to the evangelist's narrative design. And in combination with the no-tion of "(ritual) washing" (niptein in Jn and louein in Lev) it ap-pears in the Pentateuch only in Lev, that one of its five books which relates in a special manner to Jn 7:1-10:21.

(4) Finally, the appeal to Moses' mediatorship of God's speak-ing to Israel is one of the arguments advanced by the Judeans against the credibility of the man given sight by Jesus (Jn 9:24-34). They ask him whether he is a disciple of "that person" and then affirm that "we are Moses' disciples; we do know that (it is) through Moses (that) God has spoken . . ." (Jn 9:28-29). Moses' mediator-ship, expressed syntactically through the dative of instrumentali-ty, is in Jn only here put forth as an argument (cf. the same no-tion expresed in the gospel's prologue by the preposition dia with the genitive; 1:17). In Lev the same notion is summarily set forth at its end with reference to the lawgiver's promulgation of "the ordinances, regulations and of the law which the LORD set up between him and Israel in Mount Sinai through Moses" (26:46; literally: through the hand of Moses; cf. the similarly broad, though less specific reference in Lev 10:11). Thus the summary reference in Jn 9:29 may be heard as allusion to analogous formulations in Lev.

(5) Given these indicators, can also a thematic correspondence between the two text units be identified? The answer is affirmative. The Johannine sign story 9:1-7 makes the gift of sight to the con-genitally blind man the basis for his eventual coming to spiritual

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sight, that is, to belief in Jesus (9:35-38). Thus the sign-story alerts readers and hearers to the theme of spiritual insight as central element of this section of the gospel. Accordingly Jesus says after the healed man has "seen and believed" in him, "for judgment have I indeed come into this world so that the not-seeing may see and the seeing become blind" (9:39). In keeping with this motif the notion of light is especially prominent in this section; only here Jesus points to himself with the words, "I am the light of the world" (8:12, cf. 9:5, but also 12:46).

It appears that the Johannine appropriation of Lev as a con-ceptual model is motivated by the priestly obligation, spelled out fully in Lev, to "distinguish between the sacred and the profane, and between the clean and the unclean," thus enabling the priesthood to "teach the Israelites all the laws which the LORD has imparted to them through Moses" (Lev 10:10-11). Thus the distinction of the holy from its opposite, the central element of the priestly role in Israel, is the theme which the fourth section of Jn transfigures into that of spiritual discernment, that is, the gift of insight into the mystery of Jesus" identity as "the Son of Man." d. Jn 10:22-11:54 and the Book of Exodus

Three short phrases in Jn's fifth section relate it to Ex: Martha's reference to Lazarus' corpse as already "smelling," the evangelist statement that "Jesus wept," and the latter's call to Lazarus to "come out hither!"

(1) Readers and hearers of the gospel cannot but notice Martha's blunt description of her entombed brother's physical state on "the fourth day" (Jn 11:39). The verb ozein appears in Jn (and in the NT) only here; it draws attention to itself because also in the Hebrew Scriptures it is a hapax legomenon. In Ex 8:10 it refers to the odor of the piles of dead frogs (cf. 7:26-8:11; the compound verb epozein occurs four times in the OT, also only in Ex where it refers either to the dead fish of the Nile (Ex 7:14-25) or to the manna left overnight on week days except on the sabbath (Ex 16:1-36). This connection, established through the mere use of the word as hapax legomenon (and not through a broader plot cor-respondence), must be combined with the following two other correlations.

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(2) The evangelist's brief comment that "Jesus wept" (11:35) motivates a divided response of the Judeans who were themselves lamenting Lazarus' death (11:33-34, 36-37). Jn uses different verbs: klaiein for the mourners but dakryein for Jesus. Not only the (in the gospel unparalleled) reference to Jesus' weeping but also the use of different, though synonymous verbs for the action itself is noteworthy. The audience may begin to wonder whether the lexically unique reference to Jesus' shedding tears reflects the only occurrence of that notion in Ex: When Pharaoh's daughter opens the box which she had retrieved from the Nile, Moses was "weeping" (Ex: 2:6, cf. 2:1-10). To be sure, the Septuagint renders the Hebrew verb bkh with its ususal Greek equivalent klaiein, and thus the connecting link between Jn 11:35 and Ex is established through the notion of "weeping;" the audience is left to wonder whether the evangelist chooses to single out thè one reference to Jesus' shedding tears in this manner in order to have it reflect the only mention of weeping in Ex.

(3) The command to Lazarus, "Come forth hither!" (deuro exo; Jn 11:44) is the climactic word spoken by Jesus: it effects what it states. Though the adverb deuro appears repeatedly in the Pentateuch in Gen and in Num, it is found in Ex only once: When Moses is first entrusted with his mission, he is told, "And now, come forth so that I send you (MT: w'tthlkh w'slhk . . . ; LXX: kai nyn deuro aposteilo . . .) so that I may send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring forth my people out of Egypt" (Ex 3:10). Thus Jesus' call to Lazarus to come forth echoes that of the LORD to Israel, mediated through Moses (cf. Hos 11:1)

(4) If the gift of life out of death is perceived as the central theme of Jn 10:22-11:54, alluding to the liberation from Egyptian bondage, several additional correlations between the two text units come into focus, (a) Lazarus and Mary appear for the first time in Jn's narration in its fifth section (11:1, cf. 12:1 - 3), correspond-ing to the first appearances of their namesakes Elazar and Miriam in the Pentateuch in Ex (6:23 - 15:20, 21, cf. Num 3:2 - 12:1). By the same token, Jesus is like Moses portrayed as shepherd (Jn 10:27-30) cf. already 10:1-8) - Ex 3:1.) (b) Jesus' anger over the lack of faith he encounters echoes that of Moses when he comes down from the sacred mountain and finds Israel succumbed to apostasy (Jn 11:33,38 - Ex 32:19). Finally, (c) a broader cor-

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respondence is evident in the notion that Jesus' intervention, like that of Moses, serves to disclose not their own "glory" but that of God (Jn 11:4,40 - Ex 16:7). e. Jn 11:55-20:29 and the Book of Genesis

Three words relate the last section of Jn to Gen: "embalming," "heel" and "side (of the rump of the human body)." Each is found in Jn only in this section, and in the Pentateuch only in Gen.

(1) In response to Mary's anointing Jesus' feet and to Judas' complaint concerning the waste of precious ointment which her action entails, Jesus exhorts him, "Leave her unmolested, so that she may carry it (the anointing) out in anticipation of the day of my embalming" (Jn 12:7, cf. 1-8 and 19:14). Verb and noun forms derived from the (compound) wordbase entaph - appear in the Septuagint of the Pentateuch only once, and that in Gen 50:1-14 with reference to Joseph's provision for the embalming of his father Jacob (50:2; MT has a verb form of the root hnt but uses "physicians" (rp'm) to refer to those who do the em-balming). Thus the evangelist's employment of the noun at the beginning of the sixth section directs its audience to the end of the first book of the Pentateuch.

(2) When Jesus during his last meal with the disciples singles one of them out as betrayer (Jn 13:12-30), he quotes Ps 41:10 as Scripture that must be fulfilled, "The one who eats bread with me (has lifted) (his) heel against me." The quote not only relates Jesus' words to this text but through its use of the word "heel" establishes a further connection because that notion appears also in the first book of the Pentateuch (but not in the others). In Gen it is used three times, once with reference to the snake's in-tent to strike at the heel of humans (Gen 3:15), once describing Jacob's holding Esau's heel during their birth (Gen 25:26), and once in Jacob's farewell poem when the tribe of Dan is compared with a viper that "bites the horses' heel" (Gen 49:17). Thus the word refers to a notion prominent in the first book of the Pen-tateuch, and the Johannine quotation of a Psalm text containing the word directs an audience, already alerted to such cor-respondences, to the first book of the Pentateuch.

(3) The third connecting notion is that of the "side" of the human body (pleura) and an opening made into it so that a divine

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purpose is accomplished. After Jesus had expired on the cross earlier than expected, a soldier opened his side with a spear (Jn 19:34), thus leaving a distinguishing mark by which the risen Jesus is later recognized (Jn 20:20,25,27). On the other hand, the word "side" appears in the Pentateuch only in two places, once in Gen 2:21,22 and once in Num 33:55. The latter text speaks of the in-habitants of Canaan whom the Israelites do not displace, as thorns on their "side," while the former passage portrays the creation of Eve from Adam's "side" — a notion easily recognized and remembered.

(4) Here as in the employment of other connector words it is evidently the mere usage of a particular word which suggests a relationship to a specific text of the Hebrew Bible, prompting the audience to search for additional, more encompassing and thematically instructive correlations. The sixth section of the gospel offers both.

(a) Some six motifs which form a distinctive sequence can be identified in the gospel's last section. They are "embalming for burial - farewell discourse - footwashing - discourse on vine -obedience in a garden - breathing of Spirit into disciples" (Jn 12:1-8 - 13:1-17:14 - 13:2-11 - 15:1-17 - 18:1-11 - 20:19-23). This series is an inversion of a sequence of motifs selected from Gen: "breathing the breath of life into Adam - test of obedience in a garden - discovery of the fruit of the vine - footwashing as seal of fellowship - Jacob's farewell - Joseph's embalming Jacob for burial" (Gen 2:4b-7 - 2:8-3:24 - 9:20-27 - 18:1-4 - 48:21-18 - 49:29-50:14). The correspondence cannot be explored in detail here; suffice it to note that the individual Johannine story units invert the order of their scriptural models in the same manner in which the five sections of Jn 5:1-20:29 invert the order of their models, that of the five Pentateuchal books.

(b) Thematically, the sign story of the last Johannine section is placed at its end as climax: the gift of Spirit by the risen Jesus to ten disciples (Jn 20:19-23, cf. 1-29). The verb "to breathe into" (emphusan; Jn 20:22) is the same with which the divine gift of life to Adam is described in Gen 2:7. It is used only in these two Biblical texts. The central themes of the sections of Jn will claim our attention below; suffice it to observe that through the use of this verb in this motif constellation the fourth gospel reaches its climax in the notion of a new creation.

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f. Jn 1:19-4:54 and 1 Kgs 17 - 2 Kgs 13 Before the implications of the findings in relation to the five

Johannine sections (5:1-20:29) are discussed, an exploration of the gospel's first section (Jn 1:19-4:54) is indicated. Since the working scriptural canon of the gospel is identified by Philip in his words to Nathanael as (only) the Law of Moses and the Prophets (Jn 1:45) and since the second to the sixth Johannine sections have been shown to relate in their totality to the former, the first sec-tion may be assumed to relate to the latter. Can that be shown to be the case? If so, of what nature is that correlation?

The section introduces Jesus through the testimony of John the Baptist and then describes the gathering of the first (five) disciples (1:19-51). Then Jesus' mission moves into the foreground (2:1-4:54). The section is related to the first Passover (2:13,23) and framed by two sign stories: that of changing water into wine at the wedding at Cana and that of healing the son of a royal officer stationed in Capernaum (2:1-10, 4:46-54). Jesus' encounters and conversations told in 2:14-4:43 portray him journeying from Cana of Galilee to Jerusalem, then to Judea, and returning from there by way of Samaria to Cana of Galilee. The two sign stories also exhibit features through which a special relationship with a sus-tained and prominent narrative within "The Prophets" is suggested.

(1) Both sign stories are located in "Cana of Galilee" (2:1, 4:46). Evidently the location is important because the evangelist expands the second reference to Cana with the words, "where he had made the water into wine." Furthermore, not only narrated space but also the use of the ordinal "second" in reference to the healing story serialies the two signs: the changing of water is the "first" (literally, the beginning) of the signs, and the healing is the "second" one. Hence the question: Is the serialization of the two stories emphasized because it is designed to fulfil a certain function? More specifically, is its numerically defined sequencing based on a scrip-tural paradigm? It appears that certain features of the Elijah -Elisha Narrative (1 Kgs 17 - 2 Kgs 13) are echoed in the first sec-tion of Jn. Thus the text unit 1 Kgs 17:8-24 is made up of two deeds of power. The first story (17:8-16) relates how Elijah pro-vides miraculously flour and oil for the indigent widow of Zarephat who hosts him, and the following narrative (17:17-24) then tells how the man of God revived her son, prompting the woman to

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acknowledge him, after his second intervention on her behalf, as truly a man of God. The motifs of the two stories may be sum-marized as "miraculous supply of needed sustenance — miraculous revival of a dead son." Since it is the only narrative sequencing of these motifs in "The Prophets," it may be assumed that it is the narrative pattern for the Johannine double motif and its serialization. This thesis would also explain the climactic nature of the second story in relation to the first: the second is needed to authenticate the worker of the signs.

(2) The two Elijah stories are related to their Johannine counter-parts also through connector words and phrases, (a) The mention of "jars" in the first Johannine sign story echoes the use of the same noun in the first Elijah story (cf. hydria in Jn 2:6,7 with 1 Kgs 17:12,14,16). On the other hand, (b) the seemingly harsh words of Jesus to his mother, "What have I and you to do with each other? " is the phrase with which the widow of Zarephat ad-dresses Elijah after her son's death (in the second story, cf. ti émoi kai soi, followed by a vocative in the singular [LXX], Jn 2:4 - 1 Kgs 17:18). Finally, (c) the references to the death or the dying of the child of the royal officer from Capernaum in the second Johannine story corresponds to those of the second Elijah story (apopthneskein - thanatoun, cf. Jn 4:49 with 1 Kgs 17:18-20).

(3) The correlation between the two sets of narratives raises the question: Can also broader compositional correspondences, similar to those encountered in the sixth section of Jn in relation to Gen, be identified? If so, what is the extent of the scriptural paradigm? A review of the sequence of the Johannine narrative motif units suggests that the Elijah - Elisha Narrative (1 Kgs 17 - 2 Kgs 13) provides a motif reservoir in a manner similar to the way in which Gen functions as such for Jn 11:55-20:29. In the part of the first section which is framed by the two sign stories (2:1-4:54), five narrative units follow each other: "temple cleans-ing - entry into the Kingdom of God through water and spirit - superiority of the successor - salvation of Samaria - approba-tion in Galilee" (Jn 2:14-25 - 3:1-21 - 3:22-4:3a - 4:3b-42 - 4:43-45). The motif series appears to be an inversion of a series of similar motifs selected from 1 Kgs 17-2 Kgs 13: "Elijah's approbation on Mount Carmel - intervention on behalf of Samaria - Elisha's superiority over Elijah and the latter's commissioning of the

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former at the Jordan and with the spirit - Joash' temple restoration" (1 Kgs 18:1-46 - 1 Kgs 20:1-34 - 2 Kgs 2:1-8, 13-18 - 2 Kgs 2:2:9-12 - 2 Kgs 12:5-17). A discussion of the cor-respondence goes beyond the scope of the paper; suffice it to note that the inverted motif sequencing observed in this section is com-positionally parallel to that observed in the sixth and last section.

(4) Finally, as in the other sections so also here a unifying theme can be discerned. It is the notion of the most basic gift, that of water. Thus the sign of the wedding at Cana speaks of "water" as that which is changed into wine, and later Jesus is portrayed at Jacob's Well conversing with the Samaritan woman about "living water" (4:4-26). In turn, Jesus' nightly conversation with Nicodemus, the teacher of the Judeans (3:1-21), is centered on the affirmation that human beings must be born "of water and spirit" (3:5), thus not only drawing for his fellow teacher a new lesson from 2 Kgs 2:1-18 but also alluding to the first and the last gifts which the gospel has Jesus convey to his own.

3. Thematic Progression and Parabolic Preview The six Johannine sections use "The Law and the Prophets"

as a compositional model, but do so in a veiled, selective and inverting manner. Before these features are discussed in the light of possible parallels and an attempt made to identify its audience, the thematic progression of the six gifts and the parabolic preview of the gospel found in its "master sign" (2:1-10) call for comment.

a. The Six Gifts of the Johannine Jesus Each section is focussed in a gift offered by the bringer of

salvation. In the first section (1:19-4:54) it is "water," in the second (5:1-47) "health," in the third (6:1-71) "manna," in the fourth (7:1-10:21) it is "sight," in the fifth (10:22-11:54) "life," and in the sixth (11:55-20:29) "spirit." In this manner each section is concep-tually unified and describes one aspect of Jesus' mission. By the same token, each section draws the conceptualization and nar-rative imagery of the gift from its scriptural model, thus showing how Jesus offers to his own in a heightened manner what the Hebrew Scripture have offered and continue to offer to the people(s) of God.

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This transfiguration of the scriptural motifs is well illustrated in Jesus' discourse contrasting his father's heavenly bread with the perishable manna of Israel's wilderness sojourn (Jn 6:30-35, 47-51); the discourse is based on the preceding sign story which shows how Jesus actually provides the gift. The four remaining sections give evidence of the same spiritualization. Thus the first (1:19-4:54) presents the gift of living water which (in baptism) con-veys Spirit, cf. esp. Jn 3:5 with 2 Kgs 2:9-12, also Jn 1:32-34 and 4:11-14. The fourth section (7:1-10:21) presents the gift of true sight, cf. Jn 9:1-7 (49) with Lev 10:10-11; it is symbolically portrayed by the coming to sight of the congentially blind man. The fifth offers the gift of life to those held in darkness and death, cf. Jn 11:1-44 with Ex 4:21-23; it is symbolically enacted in the raising of Lazarus. The sixth gift is the highest, that of Spirit, cf. esp. Jn 20:1-29 with Gen 2:7; it is portrayed in the breathing of Spirit by the risen Jesus on his disciples. In sum, the Johannine thematiza-tions of the sustained scriptural text units produce a sequence of six gifts, beginning with that of water, and leading through the four gifts of health, sustenance, sight and life to the crowning one of Spirit. In short, the Fourth Gospel celebrates creation in its offer of a new creation; thus it both affirms and transcends the Scriptures. b. The Master Sign

The sign story which is the first one in the work, may in the light of these findings be read in a new way. The narrative of Jesus' changing water into wine functions as a thematic and struc-tural preview of the whole gospel. The water represents the text of "The Law and The Prophets," the six vessels are the six sec-tions of the work and correspond to the six text units selected from John's functional canon. The image of the more excellent wine which Jesus leaves the wedding guests after their own wine has run out, suggests to those who recognize the code that the Fourth Gospel is not only a transfiguration of the Hebrew Scrip-tures but also presents itself as superior to the scriptural inter-pretations through which the Hebrew Bible had remained alive until then. The steward's words to the groom aptly conclude the preview, "Every man serves the good wine first; . . . but you have kept the good wine until now." Hence this story is not so much the "first" but the "master" sign (arche ton semeion). In sum, it is a parabolic preview of the Fourth Gospel.

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4. Conclusion: John's Hermeneutic Activity The discovery of the presence of a scriptural code in composi-

tion and narration illustrates in its own way St. Augustine's obser-vation that "the New Testament lies hidden in the Old, the Old Testament lies open in the New." To be sure, it does so in a man-ner manifestly not perceived by the Bishop of Hippo, nor, it seems, by students of that gospel since.

The selective, inverted and veiled hermeneutic of the evangelist raises more questions than can be pursued in a concluding reflec-tion. Suffice it to consider two issues: Do early Jewish and Chris-tian compositions offer parallels — and thus throw light on — John's conceptual approach and literary activity? And: Among whom is its audience to be sought? a. The Synoptic Gospels

Already the canonical juxtaposition of the Johannine gospel with three similar works, the "synoptic" gospels, suggests that the latter are of similar nature. My own analysis of the conceptual-literary activity of the Gospel of Mark and another's researcher's examination of the Gospel of Luke bring to light parallels of John's hermeneutic creativity.

(1) Contrary to the widely held opinion that the gospel genre is without antecedent in both Jewish and Hellenistic literature and thus must be an early Christian creation, an investigation of the second gospel, in approach similar to the one adopted in this paper, shows that it is a veiled, selective and non-inverting rewriting of the Elijah-Elisha Narrative. This evangelist is not a redactor-editor but an author who shapes plot and cast, space and time, but does so on the basis of a scriptural paradigm. Moreover, Mk employs 1 Kgs 17-2 Kgs 13 by both following and continuing its storyline so as to comprehend and present Jesus' mission within its con-ceptual framework. Finally, plot and cast of the Elijah-Elisha Nar-rative — witness only the manner in which until Mk 7:31-37 the forerunner-successor pair John and Jesus are imaged as Elijah and Elisha — generate that type of gospel composition which the first and third evangelists exhibit (and modify), thus leading inter-preters to speak of a "synoptic" gospel type. For a fuller presenta-tion see the writer's "The Secret of the Kingdom" (The Christian Century, March 2, 1983; 179-82).

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It is striking that the synoptic gospel type, especially Mk, is related to the Elijah - Elisha Narrative in a manner similar to John's correlation with the text series 1 Kgs 17-2 Kgs 13 - Deut - Num - Lev - Ex - Gen, except that the Fourth Gospel inverts its model's sequence. Thus the plot elements a b c d of the Elijah-Elisha Narrative appear in Mk as a' b' c' d' but in John's first section (1:19-4:54) as d' c' b' a'. Whatever the broader significance of inversion and non-inversion and of their relation to each other in the cases of Jn and Mk, it explains for instance why the temple cleansing motif of 2 Kgs 12:5-17 appears in Mk near the end of the narration of Jesus' public activity (Mk 11:15-18, 27-33) while in the Johannine work it is placed near the beginning (Jn 2:14-11)! By the same token, the presence of the footwashingnnotif in Jn is due to Jn's use of Gen as model in its sixth section; thus the motif is necessarily unparalleled in the first three gospels because their scriptural base model is (only) the Elijah-Elisha Narrative.

Moreover, Mk's relation to its scriptural paradigm is not only a conceptual and compositional analogy to Jn's hermeneutic ac-tivity but also suggests that they are interrelated. Are author and audience of Mk the audience of Jn, and vice versa? The enquiry into the presumed audience of Jn will be taken up below; suffice it to observe that several generations in early Judaism professed to be instructed by theological schools, headed by named, well known teachers such as Hillel and Shammai, who debate with each other and in this way together carry on the religious tradition.

(2) The title of Thomas Louis Brodie's unpublished disserta-tion Luke the Literary Interpreter: Luke - Acts as a Systematic Rewriting and Updating of The Elijah-Elisha Narrative in 1 and 2 Kings (Rome: Angelicum University, 1981) summarizes his thesis; it supports in its own way the approach and some of the findings of this paper.

His essay "Greco-Roman Imitation of Texts as a Partial Guide to Luke's Use of Sources" (in: Luke - Acts. New Perspectives, Charles H. Talbert, ed., Crossroads, 1983; 17-46) seeks to relate in a thorough and cautious argumentation the hermeneutic activi-ty of Luke-Acts to the Roman-Hellenistic notion of "imitatio." He notes that "no single clear-cut theory of literary imitation" existed in antiquity (19), rather, it was "a multi-faceted concept" compris-ing "different activities" (20). One of these is "inventive imita-

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tion," which Brodie describes as "a tense blend of imitation and inventio (creativity), a combining of old material with new . . . Much of what Greco-Roman writers have to say about imitation is concerned precisely with this rather unpredictable blending of fidelity and creativity . . ." (20). Thus Brodie can conclude his survey with the observation that "imitation is not a narrow category of literary dependence. It is, rather, a whole world of transforma-tion, the broad context within which diverse writers combine tradi-tion and innovation. It is not tidy and predictable . . . On the contrary, since it is a complex arena of artistry, it allows for con-stant surprises" (22). At this point the words of the first evangelist with which the parable section conclude, come to mind," . . . Every Scripture scholar who has been discipled to the Kingdom of the Heavens is like a steward who brings out of his treasure both what is new and what is old" (Mt 13:52). b. In Search of the Audience

Who were the addresses of a work which is full of clues and allusions, assuming that its readers and hearers can and will recognize with growing clarity outline and motifs of a literary-conceptual model? Is it reasonable to posit the existence of an audience steeped to such an extent in the Scriptures so that discovered correspondences may be expected to make the evan-gelist's case?

In relation to these questions it is instructive that J. Louis Martyn (History and Theology in the Fourth Gospel, rev. ed.; Abingdon, 1979) posits in the context of an assumed "expectation of a Mosaic Prophet-Messiah," the emergence of "an inner-synagogue group of Christian Jews" (117). He observes that the latter had to cope with fellow Jews not following Jesus, especially the teachers and theologians among them, who applied disciplinary pressures on their schismatic fellow Jews. One manner of avoiding confrontation was the way of "secret believers," that is, of those who "are afraid to confess their faith in Jesus . . . unless they are assured of convincing midrashic grounds for defense. (Thus) . . . the issue must be settled by exegesis. Unless they can defend their faith on the basis of midrash, they feel they must choose between hiding their faith and being excommunicated." Thus the Fourth Gospel may have arisen, Martyn argues, as an attempt not

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only to offer "powerful midrashic demonstration that Jesus fulfils the hope for the Prophet-Messiah like Moses," but also to "convince larger numbers of the common folk" (118).

Martyn's description of Jn as "powerful midrashic demonstration" (certain reservations concerning the suitablity of the term "midrash" notwithstanding) is not only broadly analogous to the interpretation of Jn presented here but may also explain why in early Christian literary creativity the gospel genre, at least in its (later canonized) form, appears only in the second half of the first century CE: was it designed to persuade secret believers such as Nicodemus (Jn 3:1,4,9,7:50, 19:39) or persons minded like the Judean opponents of Jesus portrayed in Jn 8:21-59? They not only cherished their Scriptures but could also be expected to recognize the veiled, but consistent scripturality which lies deeply imbedded in the Fourth Gospel. Suffice it to note that Aileen Guilding's thesis of a connection of the feast related sectioning and narrative execution of Jn to the Palestinian triennial cycle of the Jewish lectionary system (The Fourth Gospel and Jewish Wor-ship; Clarendon, 1960) would be consistent with Martyn's and my findings.

However, once a generation or two had passed after the destruc-tion of the temple and the lines of separation between Judasim and Christianity hardened, gospel writing made way for a genre which seeks not to persuade but to prove the opponent wrong: the adversial "Adversus Judaeos" genre. With the disappearance of the gospel's audience also its veiled scripturality was no more recognized and so had to remain hidden.

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