ACADEMIC PAPER - A LITERARY EXPLICATION OF JOHN 4 - JESUS’ ENCOUNTER WITH THE WOMAN AT THE WELL.pdf (original) (raw)
Related papers
2019
The Gospel of John relates intense dialogues, often long and complexly difficult, between Jesus and the most diverse people. The first is with Nicodemus, in chapter 3; then we encounter the Samaritan woman (4), the man born blind (9), Martha and Mary, upon the death of their brother, Lazarus (11). They are called dialogues of "revelation" because they become occasions of "self-revelation", wherein Jesus, while talking with one of these personalities, reveals Himself, and tells the paradigmatic reader something of Himself. To Nicodemus, who knows all the laws, who goes to Him by night, Jesus speaks of himself as a free and limitless love, which brings you where you do not know; to the Samaritan woman, who has a great thirst for love, who comes there with the baggage of her wounded and complex history, He speaks to her of living water; to the blind man he reveals Himself as light; to the sisters of Bethany, who are weeping at the death of their dear one, Jesus is resurrection and life. Modern disciples are thus affirmed that Jesus reaches and enters every human story. He is at one with all humanity: and thus, He reveals Himself. And while He reveals Himself, something happens in the one He is speaking to, who becomes involved in the dialogue, so in the end he finds himself different from what he was at the beginning of the encounter: life is transformed by it and salvation happens in every story.
Case Study: How the Apostle John Contextualized
Journal of Adventist Mission Studies, 2018
Three aspects of the Prologue and its background in the Gospel of John make it clear that in the Bible God meets people where they are. He inspires ordinary human beings to write in the language, culture, and concepts that would be familiar to their original readers. First, John made use, for example, of an early Christian hymn to express his exalted insights into the nature and character of Jesus Christ. Second, he also structured the Prologue in ways that would make logical sense to a Jewish reader. Third, he gave Jesus a title (the Word) that was far better known in the pagan Gentile world than such Jewish titles such as Messiah or Son of Man. By these strategies John, under inspiration, created a Prologue that would speak powerfully to every reader of his day, whether Christian, Jewish, or pagan. These three strategies will be examined in greater depth. Based on an Early Christian Hymn First of all, there is considerable evidence that major parts of the Prologue to the Fourth Gospel were drawn from an early Christian hymn. John 1:1, 2, for example, although written in Greek, displays the poetic parallelism so common to Hebrew poetry and song: In the beginning was the Word and was the Word with God and was the Word God In the beginning was this One with God The hymn-like nature of the Prologue is further seen in the "stairstep parallelism" of verses 4 and 5.
https://www.augsburgfortress.org/store/product/9781451470062/Encountering-Jesus. Applying a comprehensive theory of character to the Gospel of John, Cornelis Bennema provides a fresh analysis of both the characters and their responses to Jesus. While the majority of scholars view most Johannine characters as “flat,” Bennema demonstrates that many are complex, developing, and “round.” John’s broad array of characters and their responses to Jesus correspond to people and their choices in real life in any culture and time. This book highlights how John’s Gospel seeks to challenge its readers, past and present, about where they stand in relation to Jesus.
John 4:1-42 among the Biblical Well Encounters: Pentateuchal and Johannine Narrative Reconsidered
(contents, sample pages, indices) WUNT II 542. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020
This study proposes a new approach to an ongoing scholarly discussion. How can the relationship among the encounters at wells narrated in the Pentateuch (Genesis 24 and 29, Exodus 2) and the New Testament (John 4) be defined? Does the Gospel episode assume the reader’s familiarity with these Torah texts? If so, what sort of interpretation of them is presupposed, and what significance does this have for the exegesis of the Gospel pericope? What comes to light is a complex interrelation which does not fall neatly into a single category. There are numerous literary parallels, but in the Johannine rereading these have come to be thematically refocused, and intertwined with words and actions of Jesus. The resultant dynamic invites readers to interpret John 4:1–42 in light of three passages from the Pentateuch, and vice versa.