|
The Textual Structure
Of John's Gospel
|
|
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(Click on items to go directly to that text.)
|
|
DISCUSSION
NOTES ON TABLE I
DEDUCTIONS BASED ON THE
TABULATION
|
STATISTICAL EVALUATIONS
INFERENCES
INSIGHTS FROM REVELATION
|
|
ABSTRACT
|
|
Textual analysis suggests the Gospel was first
a collection of notes on specific topics. The notes were then organized into
incremental codex half-page and page segments. These segments were later woven
into a continuous narrative. This structure led to dislocation of text sometime
before publication. The evidence suggests final organization and editing were
done without the influence of John, perhaps after his death.
|
|
DISCUSSION |
|
Since early Christian days various individuals
expressed dissatisfaction with the chronology of John's Gospel. A disturbed
sequence in Chapters 4 to 7 was noted by Tatian, who copied large sections of
the Gospel into his Diatessaron. He placed the order as Chapter 6,
4.4-45, 5 and 7. If we follow the traditional text we find Jesus with ministry
in Judea, 3.22-30, going up to Samaria and Galilee in 4.4-54, coming back to
Jerusalem in 5.1-40, and back to "the other side of the Sea of Galilee" in 6:1.
How could he go to "the other side" if he was in Jerusalem and not already in
Galilee? Many have commented on his cleansing of the temple in 2.13-25. Did the
cleansing take place during his last visit when he denounced the scribes and
Pharisee, rather than at the beginning of his teaching ministry, when he would
be more concerned with public reaction? (See Matthew 23, a section not included
in John's Gospel.) The most notorious dislocation is in 14.31 where Jesus gives
the command "Arise, let us go hence," as though the group should disburse, but
then continues to discourse through Chapters 15 and 16. Other early Christians,
including Irenæus and Origen, also made remarks which indicated dissatisfaction
with the text(1).
In 1928 J. H.
Bernard and A. H. McNeile published a comprehensive analysis of the apparent
dislocations. They proposed a cause that was dependent upon the structure of the
text. According to their study, the remarkable aspect of the proposed
dislocations is that they follow integral segments of size. By counting Greek
letters, and noting that the text was apparently written originally as a codex,
they proposed the movement of integral codex leaves, either accidentally or
perversely to unknown criteria(1).
|
(Manuscripts arranged in codex leaves began to appear near the
end of the first century. They gradually replaced the older system of scrolls.)
The oldest known manuscript evidence of the New Testament is a
short fragment of John's Gospel containing Pilate's famous question, "What is
truth?" Paleographic comparisons date this fragment to the latter part of the
first century or beginning of the second. Except for an iotacized dipthong,
there is no difference between the text in that
papyrus and our modern text(2). The recto contained portions of lines from 18.31-33 while the
verso contained 18.37-38. Reconstruction of the lines shows that the manuscript
averaged 31 or 32 letters per line, and that a page had approximately 20 lines.
Thus a page contained between 620 and 640 letters, while a leaf of the codex had
double that number.
Other ancient manuscripts and fragments show
other page sizes. The Egerton 2 fragment had 17 lines/page with about 26
ltrs/line; the Bodmer II papyrus had 25 lines with about 28 ltrs/line(2).
These two codices would have had about 880 and 1400 ltrs/leaf respectively.
Bernard and McNeile cite the Oxyrhynchus papyrus (#208 and #1781) at about 710
ltrs/page for 1420 ltrs/leaf, and the papyrus codex #1780 at only about 700
ltrs/leaf(1).
Bernard and McNeile proposed leaf movements in
John's text, based on 750 ltrs/leaf, from an original manuscript that then
became the Nestle standard. (This standard was revised and updated under the
coordination of Kurt Aland in 1966(3),
cataloguing and compiling all known and newly discovered manuscript materials.)
Examples given by Bernard and McNeile are:
|
|
Chapter
segments
displaced
|
No. of
letters
displaced
|
At 750
letters
per leaf
|
Difference
|
|
3:22-30
|
730
|
1 lf
|
-20 ltrs
|
|
5
|
3630
|
5 lvs
|
-120 ltrs
|
|
7:15-24
|
763
|
1 lf
|
+13 ltrs
|
|
10:1- 18
|
1495
|
2 lvs
|
-5 ltrs
|
|
12:36b-43
|
598
|
1 lf
|
-152 ltrs
|
|
13:31-14:31
|
3120
|
4 lvs
|
+120 ltrs
|
|
|
The average error at 750 ltrs/leaf is -27 ltrs. If the average
number of ltrs/line was 30 the difference from integral leaf segments was less
than one line for three of the cases, and four or five lines for the other
three, (out of 25 lines per leaf.) Certainly, this is strong support for the
proposal.
The proposal invokes two assumptions.
One, the scribe conservatively filled all leaves; he did not
leave large blank spaces in pages. The desire to conserve writing materials is
witnessed in available manuscripts by the stringing together of words without
space separation, and the breaking of words from one line to the next when a
line was filled.
Two, he maintained the same style and size of writing throughout
the text. In some manuscripts letters are crowded together in one line, while
other lines are more spaced(2). For example, in a letter from an official under Hadrian in 135,
Berlin papyrus #173, the average number of letters over nine lines is 26. But
the first line is crowded with 35 letters. The first page of the Bodmer II
papyrus has 36, 39, 32, and 31 letters respectively in the first four lines but
in subsequent lines the scribe settles down to an average of only 27 letters.
Thus we cannot rule out the possibility that deficient or excess letter counts
affect leaf calculations due to scribal inconsistencies.
If the proposal for the movement of leaves is valid it
necessitates interchange with other integral leaves. However, Chapter 6, if
switched with Chapter 5, has a calculated value of 7.5 leaves at the 750
ltrs/leaf proposed by Bernard and McNeile, short by one page. If 3.22-30 made up
one leaf, and was later inserted before 3.31-36 to make our present text, the
latter section should be an integral leaf also. (This assumes that 4.1 continues
as a different episode with its own dedicated section.) But 3.31-36 makes up
only one-half leaf (439 letters), one page (plus two
|
lines). Obviously, a total count of all letters of all sections
is necessary to demonstrate rigorously that the proposed dislocations are due to
leaf movements.
In order to evaluate the assumption of 750 ltrs/lf used by
Bernard and McNeile, and to obtain quantitative values, I estimated letter
counts for all segments of the Gospel text, divided according to the thematic
sections given by Bernard and McNeile.
I asked if all the thematic sections were designed in similar
manner, as integral page or leaf segments . Why would Chapter 6 be moved as an
integral unit unless it was written according to an integral leaf design? If
other sections were composed as integral leaves they should appear also. Next I
used values from 710 to 790 ltrs/lf, in increments of 20 ltrs/lf, to determine
how individual sections would appear when tabulated in comparison columns. I
determined that a more realistic value for leaf design was 770 ltrs/lf.
In fact, the calculations provided truly
startling results.
To first recognize integral segments of text consider sections
which are easily distinguishable because of their independent subject matter.
The prayer of Jesus in Chapter 17 is famous. It is two lines short of three
leaves, based on my assumed value of 770 ltrs/lf. The story of the woman caught
in prostitution in 8.1-11, hotly contested as an extraneous insertion into the
text, and not included in the Bernard-McNeile tabulation, is a mere 8 letters
more than one leaf. Jesus' teaching in the temple, 7.14-24, is two lines more
than an integral leaf. Jesus' entry into Jerusalem in 12.12-19 is two lines
short of an integral leaf. Jesus' foretelling the betrayal and Judas' departure
in 13.21-30 is again a mere 8 letters above one leaf. And so on. Obviously, the
text is structured in many places into integral leaf segments. But not always.
See Table I.
Return to Top of Page
|
|
NOTES ON
TABLE I |
|
The sections given by Bernard and McNeile are
shown in Column I, except as follows:
I condensed Chapter 5.1-40 into one unit to
save table space.
I follow the traditional sequence in Chapters
10 through 12.
These differences do not alter conclusions
drawn from the Table.
|
A letter count is provided for each section of
text in Column 2. These are estimates, not actual counts. To save labor I took
sample lines from my Greek edition, counted the number of letters, averaged, and
then multiplied by the number of lines per section. Bernard and McNeile gave 598
letters for 12.36b-43; I estimated 603. This sample is estimated slightly high;
my method should average around the actual counts. Other sections may be
estimated slightly low.
Column 3 shows the number of calculated leaves
for each section at 770 ltrs/lf.
Column 4 shows the nominal number of leaves
for each section. These values are rounded from the calculated values of Column
3.
In rounding the numbers I calculated to the
nearest half-page segment of text. [The (X)'s show half-page segments. ]
I then placed sections into groups. I did so wherever I could
find segments with integral leaf values. For example, 1.1-18 at 1.5 leaves, (3
pgs), when combined with 1.19-51 at 3.5 leaves, (7 pgs), made 5.0 leaves (10
pgs) within one line of text out of 127 (at 30 ltrs/line). These groupings were
designed to show the integral leaf design, not to maintain thematic
relationship. Leaf grouping is necessary to evaluate how text may have been
dislocated. Groups are shown with light shading in the Table.
Thus Chapter 1, with two major themes, 3 pages
and 7 pages in length respectively, is an integral group section of 5 leaves,
within 39 letters. Chapter 2, as a unit, is an integral section of 5 pages,
within 43 letters. When the discourse with Nicodemus in Chapter 3 is added the
unit becomes an integral 4 leaves, within two lines (77 letters). Similar
groupings can be seen down through the Table. Organization into integral leaf groups was not always possible.
See segments 3.16-30, 6.16 and following text, and so on.
Some Bernard-McNeile sections clearly showed
with half-page or page values, but when added to following sections made full
leaf values. See 2.1-12 through 3.1-15. This strongly suggested design to make
segments meet integral leaf values over extended sections of text.
As a consequence, some groups, although
deviating greatly from integral values in their portions, when added together
made excellent integral leaf values. See 7.1-9 through 8.1-11.
Return
to Top of Page
|
Except for four segments, shown with heavy
shading, all sections or groups deviated less than five per cent from the
nominal value of the segment. However, expression as a percentage does not
adequately describe how close to the nominal values are many of the segments.
For example, the group from 7.1-9 to 8.1-11 has only eight letters deviation
from the (estimated) integral value over five leaves. The group from 4.1-42 to
6.1-15 is only thirty-one letters, (one line), above the integral value of seven
leaves.
These deviations could easily be due to
vagaries in letter spacing by the scribe. Or perhaps the scribe, through
practice or calculation, knew how much he might have to separate or condense
letters to achieve his goal of integral values. This would be very similar to
modern techniques of letter, word and space sizing to bring a line to full
justification. 6.16-25 and 6.26-59, by themselves, fall within my of rounding to
2 pages (plus 2.5 lines) and 7 pages (plus nearly two lines), but when added
together the errors throw the grouping beyond 9 pages by four or five lines.
Again perhaps, for appearance sake, he
maintained the same number of lines per page. Unless we examine ancient
manuscripts with great care we might not detect such design parameters.
My limits for rounding of numbers in all
sections fall well within the criteria used by Bernard and McNeile.
The Commentaries, shown by black shading, seem to be odd
insertions in the text. They appear between whole integrals of leaf design. This
is seen in 3.16-21 and 3.31-36, in 12:36b-43, and the concluding Commentary in
20:30-31. (Again, the two last Commentaries help to fill out whole integral leaf
values with a page value in 20.19-29.) In fact, now that we have the design more
clearly evident in Table I, and the Commentaries shown as odd insertions, the
relocation of 3:31-36 by Bernard and McNeile seems quite arbitrary, no longer
validated by the thematic similarity.
Within the criteria established above the five
Commentaries all have lengths of one page, 3.31-36, one-half page, 20.30-31 and
21.24-25, or one and one-half pages, 3.16-21 and 12.36b-43. They seem to have
been sized to help meet requirements of integral leaf values with surrounding
sections.
It may be helpful to note that my method of estimating counts,
even if biased in one direction, would not affect the conclusions. My method of
determining the number of letters per leaf would merely shift the value; if I
estimated high on section counts, the number of letters per leaf would show
somewhat higher, but the leaf counts would remain the same.
|
DEDUCTIONS BASED ON THE
TABULATION |
Within the limits used by Bernard and McNeile
all segments of text, when associated in groupings, can be accounted as falling
within integral leaf, page, or half-page values! This includes 6.60-71 at 123
letters, four lines, above one leaf, (although I show rounding to a half-page),
and 5.41-47 at 81 letters, three lines, above one page.
It is obvious that chapter and verse divisions
in modern times were done with care and understanding of textual themes.
Otherwise the sections would not calculate so neatly into page and half-page
segments.
Again it is obvious that I did not make great
errors in estimating the section sizes. Otherwise the sections would not
calculate so neatly into page and half-page segments.
Thirdly, it is obvious that the divisions of
text were preserved since the original publication. If serious corruption had
occurred the integral section design would not now be so neatly evident.
The evidence strongly suggests that original
creation of text was based on page or half-page segmentation, and then woven
into leaf quantities. As stated earlier, Chapter 1 shows division into two
themes, both of which were designed around page lengths, and then later added to
make an integral leaf segment. 4.1-42 and 4.43-54 are both segments that end in
half-page lengths. When added together they make up 11 pages of text, within 8
letters.
These illustrations show that my integration
into groups in Table I is almost arbitrary, simply because of the underlying
structure of half-page and page lengths. More rigorous analysis, beyond my
purpose here, might show deeper choices for creating integral segments.
The evidence shows that dislocations cannot be
assigned exclusively to accidental or perverse movement of leaves. If modern
thematic assignments are correct some movements had to take place through
intentional alteration in the placement of page and half-page sections, 3.31-36,
Chapter 6, and so on. Since these movements could not be accidental
interchanging of leaves the appearance of leaf movements is due to the half-page
and page design.
|
Although we cannot rule out the possibility
that leaves were moved around later, this analysis now casts serious doubt on
such suggestion. It is highly dubious that two different episodes in text
misplacement actually took place. We can conclude with considerable assurance
that such displacements did not take place after publication.
The evidence mitigates against editing after
publication. If the commentaries in 3.16-21 and 31-36 were originally one unit,
why would a later editor separate them arbitrarily? This implies that the
Commentaries were inserted at their present locations before publication. If a
later copyist created the misplacement of text he would have had to know the
integral design criteria. Such individual then became an editor who redesigned
the text to meet the integral criteria while moving sections around. Such
proposal does not satisfy the evidence.
More than one design episode did not take
place. If two sequential editors, unknown to one another, altered text one must
suppose that two significantly different versions of the text would have come
into circulation, either preserving the page segmentation while moving text
around, or corrupting the design. There is no evidence for such proposal. In
fact, manuscript evidence shows that different versions of the Gospel were in
circulation, but always short of the standard text, never in alteration of the
section locations(2,3).
Furthermore, the available manuscript evidence
suggests that early Christian fathers fixed on one standard that became
incorporated into our canon. That standard was the complete text, not defective
text, and complete according to the textual design as we now have it.
As a consequence of these factors I am led to
view text displacements as occurring during an editing phase before final
publication. If John had guided this final editing he would have known of the
faults in sequence and chronology. The final editing shows an ignorance of the
proper sequence and chronology. -
Return to Top of Page
|
|
STATISTICAL EVALUATIONS |
|
Could the divisions into page and half-page
segments be fortuitous or the result of my methods of analysis?
In Table I and the above discussion I gave
criteria for acceptance of nominal leaf, page, and half-page counts based on the
number of letters to a leaf. These translate to lines per leaf or page, but we
do not know the number of letters per line in the original manuscript. Using
available manuscript evidence the minimum value would be approximately 25
ltrs/line and the maximum about 32. This translates from 31 to 24 lines per
leaf, 16 to 12 lines per page, and 8 to 6 lines per half page. My criteria for
acceptance into the incremental values then would be +/- 2 to 3 lines per leaf,
less than two lines for a page, and just slightly more than one line for a
half-page. Beyond 3 lines the incremental value shifts to the next half-page
level.
Of proposed 25 sections 19 fall within two
lines of the incremental leaf and page hypothesis. Of proposed 18 sections 14
fall within one line of the incremental half-page hypothesis. Certainly, these
are fair limits for acceptance. The remaining 16 sections fall slightly beyond
these criteria.
Such tight criteria prohibit the leaf, page
and half-page assignments from being mistaken for the next incremental page
value.
A histogram of the calculated leaf counts
normalized to incremental leaf values, (for example 4.22 to 0.22) shows a
definite clustering around the 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1.0 leaf values. 75% of the
sections fall within the tight limits I used to demonstrate my hypothesis. It is
highly improbable such large proportion of the sections would fall within those
tight limits strictly by chance. To propose chance distribution voids the
rewards of this analytical study that provides such deep insights.
I examined various statistical methods to
determine if there were other underlying causes to the segmentations. These
included distribution of the number of groups by group size, size of the
sections according to sequence in the text, and deviation
Return to Top of Page
|
of the sections from nominal values. I could
discover no subtle natural or accidental causes which might have created the
integral segmentations.
The uncertain sections becloud a clean
demonstration of the half-page design. But those sections were deliberately
interwoven into larger integral groups. 7.10-13 and 7.25-36 add to 1.72 leaves
for a nominal value of 1.75. 10.1-6 and 10.7-18 add to 1.97 leaves, for a
nominal value of 2.0. The uncertain sections are related in other ways.
Evaluation of the raw data does not expose the
creative design used by the scribe for groups. This design may be seen more
readily by calculating the group distributions in macroformation.
Jesus' prayer in Chapter 17, and the woman
caught in prostitution in 8.1-11, both as independent subjects with integral
leaves, serve as boundaries for a larger grouping of sections between those two.
Where 8.12-59 and 9.1-41 add to 9.5 leaves, and the Last Discourse is 10.75
leaves, the Commentary in 12.36b-43 is 0.75 leaves, to make that macrogroup
exactly 40 integral leaves. Thus the scribe may have adjusted his Commentary to
create such a large macro integral value. Another macro group may be seen from
18.1 to the end of the Gospel where the count is exactly 17 integral leaves. The
section at 20.19-29 is 1.5 leaves, but the two commentaries are both 0.25 leaves
to provide the integral count. The group from 7.14 to 8.11 is 5 leaves, but this
cannot be considered strictly as a macro group. The section from 1.1 to 5.47 add
to 27.5 leaves. This is the only exception to an integral leaf count in the
macrogroups, but it is an integral page count.
Note that this one exception is caused by
6.60-71 and 5.41-47, which add to 1.77 leaves for a nominal value of 1.75. Note
also that this exception falls within a portion of text which has been subject
to doubt since early Christian days.
With a page short from an integral leaf in
this macrogroup, the scribe could easily have pushed all following text up by
one page to end with a blank page on the last leaf.
|
|
INFERENCES |
|
This analysis profoundly impacts upon the task
of devising an explanation for the evidence. I propose that the Gospel was
originally composed in small segments, by subject, as a group of notes. The
notes were then sized to incremental half-pages, pages, and leaves. This complex
was then woven into the complete document.
Did John write the notes?
He could have prepared and collected them over
a considerable length of time. Or he could have dictated them over a shorter
period to a personal scribe. They certainly show first-hand knowledge of events.
But the confusion in the text was due to the working of the assemblage into a
complete document that did not have John's direct guidance.
Textual comparison between the Gospel and the
Book of Revelation shows considerable differences in vocabulary and
style. These differences are convincing that two different scribes composed
those works. If John used a scribe for collation and editing of the Gospel
notes, that scribe was educated beyond the literary level displayed in the
Book of Revelation. Thus we have a more obvious explanation for the
controversy over the respective authorships. John could have used two different
scribes for the respective works.
Given that the Gospel notes were sized to fit
incremental leaf and page values, we are forced to ask how a scribe may have
edited the material. Since the evidence speaks so strongly to a hand other than
John's we must ask how far that hand went in editorial creativeness.
It is seems incredible that John went to the
trouble of designing his notes around incremental leaf and page values. We do
not normally think, nor write, with such segmentation. Editing to half-page,
page, or leaf segments also is not natural. Normally, when one writes, one
places on paper one's thoughts or presentation, not heeding where it will end.
If a partial page hangs over, so be it. Editors for journals will edit an entire
document for brevity, or perhaps remove an unimportant section, and size to fit
their design goals, but they will not segment such a large document to the
criteria displayed in John's Gospel. The half-page segments suggest more than a
mere relating of accounts. They suggest a rigorous editing to limit to those
discrete size segments. Thus it is very possible the scribe used a free hand,
not only in design toward integral page and leaf values, but in text content to
create those integral values. This could take the form of both additions and
deletions.
The Commentaries are telling evidence.
Although they are related to adjacent text, were they part of the note
assemblage which the scribe felt had to be incorporated into the text? 3.16-21
and 3.31-36 suggest he respected the materials although he may not have fully
understood the original purpose. When faced with them he may have felt it
awkward to place both comments as contiguous; they may have seemed repetitive to
him. Perhaps he solved the problem by assigning them to two different sources,
John and the Baptist.
But other views of textual design may be
derived from the Commentaries. If a scribe did not understand the continuity of
events, as evidenced by the confusion in Chapters 5 and 6, in the Last
Discourse, and so on, he may not have recognized it in Jesus' Passion remarks.
Thus he could easily slip 12.36b-43 into the text in its present location to
fill out that macrogroup. The Commentaries on the scope and purpose of the
Gospel and its authentication, in Chapters 20 and 21, now appear more naturally
as compositions by the scribe to fill out the last macrogroup. Perhaps all the
commentaries were scribal creations to meet the design requirements of the
macrogroups, although I personally wish that John was the original inspiration
behind their creation. This possibility raises serious question of their
authorship, including the fundamental definition of Christian hope in 3.16.
Why would a scribe devise such a design?
It may have been a peculiarity of his
personality, a way to clearly organize and track the material from subject to
subject. Or it may have been his method of computing the length of the document
and keeping order in the different episodes. Perhaps there were other reasons
which escape us.
The dislocations may not have been perverse
text movements. It may be erroneous to view them in that light. The scribe who
wove the segments into the final text may not have understood the sequence of
the original composition. He may have had within his hands a loose assemblage of
notes and was faced with the task of making a sensible account from them. This
|
person could have been the one who made the
original notes, or another person who came into possession of them before
publication.
All of this implies that John was not present
when the assemblage of notes was woven into our present text. Although the
scribe generally followed John's sequence in composition, he did not appreciate
the chronology, or logic, for all sections of the text. When faced with the task
of weaving it together he did not have John's advice to guide him.
If John had rehearsed chronology with the
scribe it seems doubtful he would have confused sequence. This lends support to
the proposition that the assemblage of notes came into possession of another
scribe when John's influence was no longer present.
The assemblage of notes may have become
confused merely by accidental shuffling before a later scribe came into
possession of them. This placed a burden upon him to determine correct sequence.
He may not have been of great analytical mind, although displaying good literary
style.
Other deductions can be drawn from the
evidence. Jesus' prayer in Chapter 17 now becomes suspect as a literal, verbatim
report. It may reflect John's memory but we cannot say with certainty how much
it may have been edited, or even created by a later scribe.
The temple cleansing in Chapter 2 seems to be
out of place chronologically. We would not expect Jesus to create animosity for
himself and his teaching mission before he barely gets started. The cleansing
probably took place at the end of his mission, along with the condemnation of
the scribes and Pharisees, the announcement of his Passion, and other terminal
events. Examination of this segment in relation to neighboring segments, now
easily recognized in Table I, suggests a movement to fill out an integral page
increment.
The Commentaries, gross misplacement of the
Temple cleansing, the sizing of Jesus' prayer, and other elements lead one to
suspect that the integral page, leaf and group design may have strongly
influenced the scribe in his choices, and his editorial freedom.
This analysis offers much better appreciation
for composition of the text, and dispels much myth centered around it. The
Commentaries could easily have been later scribal creations to fill in integral
text segments. The section on the woman caught in prostitution, 8.1-11 also now
shows more clearly as a possible later insertion into the text, borrowed from
some strong early Christian tradition.
It seems highly doubtful that a text which had
the blessing of John would have been altered. Neither could a mind capable of
remembering such details of history have been too weak to know the proper
sequence of events, unless the notes were created much earlier and later given
to a scribe to collate. Therefore the weaving into a continuous, but erroneous,
narrative had to be done after John's influence no longer existed. The
manuscript was removed from his presence, he became too feeble, or he died.
I have not attempted analysis to determine
deeper logic which may lie behind the design, nor is it the place of this paper
to engage in further textual study that may be derived from this analysis. I
leave that to others.
The results of this study obviously have
profound ramifications on our understanding of the creation and organization of
the Gospel, as well as the Book of Revelation, and John's letters. If
John was an uneducated man, he may have felt impelled to rely on scribes to
compose his works. This relationship then left him exposed to the vagrancies of
those other persons. If he asked them to assist him in creation they may have
felt privileged to participate in such activity. But their feeling of privilege
may have been amplified into self-esteem that gave them a sense of implied
control over the documents. Perhaps John's Revelation was subject to even
greater corruption in text; if a less educated or less astute scribe helped in
that composition he may have felt less constrained in his final editing.
While all of this is speculative, we now have
quantitative grounds for such speculations.
A whole new light is now cast on the proposed
divine inspiration of the New Testament. John's Gospel vividly displays purely
human elements in its design. It would be idiocy to assign those to God. We now
have a much more realistic grasp on the creation of John's Gospel and, by
extrapolation, perhaps all New Testament documents.
Return to Top of Page
|
|
INSIGHTS FROM REVELATION |
|
The foregoing discussions and deductions are
based strictly on analysis and interpretation of the textual structure of the
Gospel. The Urantia Papers offer this information:
Page 1342:
"The Gospel according to John relates much
of Jesus' work in Judea and around Jerusalem which is not contained in the other
records. This is the so-called Gospel according to John the son of Zebedee, and
though John did not write it, he did inspire it. Since its first writing it has
several times been edited to make it appear to have been written by John
himself. When this record was made, John had the other Gospels, and he saw that
much had been omitted; accordingly, in the year A.D. 101 he encouraged his
associate, Nathan, a Greek Jew from Caesarea, to begin the writing. John
supplied his material from memory and by reference to the three records already
in existence. He had no written records of his own. The Epistle known as "First
John" was written by John himself as a covering letter for the work which Nathan
executed under his direction."
The dramatic difference between John's Gospel,
and his Book of Revelation shows that John used scribes to create those
documents, and that at least two different scribes were used. This would be
natural if twenty years separated their creation.
|
The evidence of John's Gospel shows that at
least two difference scribes were involved in that creation. The first worked
directly with John, to create the main chronology we now find in that document.
We do not know if that scribe created the integral segments of text, but the
evidence suggests so. A later scribe, faced with confusion in the displacement
of leaves, then reconstructed according to his best view, but without the hand
of John to guide him. The point at which the Commentaries, or the woman in
prostitution, or Jesus' prayer, or other segments, were inserted is impossible
to say. The first scribe may have inserted those pieces as part of the original
integral design, or a later scribe may have done so, or a combination of both.
If the latter the evidence shows that he recognized the integral design an
obeyed its principles, although confused by the chronology.
Thus the textual analysis supports the
assertions made by divine Revelation.
The statement shows that John worked from
memory, not from notes. The notes, which were later reworked into integral
segments of text, would then have been created by Nathan, working directly under
John.
Return to Top of Page
|
References:
1. -- J. H. Bernard
and A. H. McNeile, Gospel According to St. John, International Critical
Commentary, T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1928.
2. -- V. Salmon,
translated by M. J. O'Connell, The Fourth Gospel, The Liturgical Press,
Collegeville, MN, 1976.
3. -- Kurt Aland, et
al, The Greek New Testament, United Bible Societies, 1966.
Ernest P. Moyer
|