Anti-Judaism in the fourth Gospel : a contribution to Christian-Jewish dialogue

Abstract

This dissertation will be dealing with one of the most recent and old topics in the study of the Fourth Gospel, namely, anti-Semitism. This work will examine whether we can really accuse the author of this Gospel of being anti-Semitic as some scholars did in the past. In order to do so, our first task is to define and to distinguish between anti Semitism and anti-Judaism. Our ultimate aim is to use the Fourth Gospel as a foil in order to contribute for the present dialogue between the Christians and the Jews. We will develop our arguments in these four main chapters. In the first chapter we will examine the meaning of Anti-Semitism and attempt to trace its origins to Classical Antiquity. We will also bring out the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism. Therefore we will try to show how the anti-Judaism which we find in the Fourth Gospel and in the Patristic literature of the Fourth Century does not reflect a rejection of the Law and the Prophets or contempt to the Jewish nation as such. In the second chapter we will examine and define who are 'the Jews' in the Fourth Gospel by looking at different interpretations given by various scholars. In fact not all scholars agree on the meaning of what has been called a 'theological theme' in John, namely 'the Jews'. We hope to illustrate that 'the Jews' in John are not simply an ethnic group, but rather a group in allegiance with those who still refuse to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. They therefore belong to the Johannine dualism which distinguishes between those who believe and those who do not. Also in this chapter we will continue to pursue this question by showing how modern Johannine scholars have read this Gospel as a two-level drama. On one level, there is the contemporary situation of the Evangelist and the community to whom he was writing. According to many scholars this community was in conflict with the Synagogue over the identity of Jesus Christ. Jewish-Christians were being expelled from the Synagogue because of their faith in Jesus Christ. Scholars like Raymond E. Brown and J. Louis Martyn have argued that this situation was being projected back on that of Jesus and his contemporaries in the Gospel narrative. In view of this context, one may understand better the identity and function of 'the Jews' in the Fourth Gospel. In the third chapter, we will thus examine the conflict material in the Fourth Gospel, starting from Jn 5-12. In this part of the Johannine narrative one encounters various attempts to arrest or to kill Jesus, because he was claiming equality with God.