Israel in the fourth gospel

• Published in: Neotestamentica Vol. 20; no. 1; pp. 13 - 20
• Main Author: Geyser, A. S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bloemfontein, South Africa The New Testament Society of South Africa / Die Nuwe-Testamentiese Werkgemeenskap van Suid-Afrika 01-01-1986; New Testament Society of Southern Africa; New Testament Society of South Africa
• Subjects: Anti-Judean; Apocalypticism; Christianity; Churches; Eschatology; Fourth gospel; Gospels; Jewish diaspora; Jewish peoples; Judaism; Kingship; New Testament; Parables; Redaction; Scrolls; Theology
• ISSN: 0254-8356; 0254-8356

Shorn of its pro-and epilogue, the fourth gospel starts with the confession, "You are the King of Israel" and ends with the indictment, Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum, and half-way between Cana and Calvary stands the Jerusalem crowd to acclaim Jesus "King of Israel". So much the more remarkable is the almost complete absence of "kingdom" in this gospel and, barring the above, of "Israel". By contrast, "the Jews" hardly mentioned in the synoptics, abound here and almost invariably in a pejorative context. The traditional "Jew" for 'Ιουδαῑοι, should read "Judeans" in the geographical sense of the word. The gospel is not anti-Jewish, it is anti-Judean, being against the inhabitants of Judea as represented by their religious leaders. John, next to Revelation, is the most Jewish book in the New Testament. It reaches out to the remnants of the lost tribes in the persons of those marginal Jews, the Samaritans, the Galileans and the diaspora Jews, rejected, or at best, tolerated by the "pure" Judean Jews. It proclaimed to these that with Jesus' coming had started the ingathering of the tribes into the restored kingdom of David as promised by the prophets since Moses.