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Towards a Symbolic Reading of the Fourth Gospel*

  • Xavier Leon-Dufour
Extract

To speak of the symbolic in exegesis means running into a veritable mine field. Everywhere, you are in danger of finding ‘booby traps’ liable to explode the most solid systematic constructions instantly. However, I would like to venture with you into the field of John's symbolism, since I think that it has been insufficiently explored and appreciated in the classical commentaries. If this seems a bit grandiose, I would like to attenuate my apparent pretension. I would first like to present you with a global approach to the subject and then I would like to investigate with you a few concrete examples: the sign of the temple, a saying addressed to Nicodemus and the ‘bread of life’. We shall try to see what a so-called ‘symbolic reading’ of these passages can contribute to their understanding.

Copyright
COPYRIGHT: © Cambridge University Press 1981
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NOTES

[1] Lalande, , Vocabulaire technique et critique de la philosophie (Paris, 1947 3), p. 1058.

[2] Schnackenburg, R., Das Johannesevangelium, vol. 1 (Freiburg/Basel/Wien, 1965), p. 193.

[3] Léon-Dufour, X., ‘Autour du sèmeion johannique’, in Die Kirche des Anfangs (Leipzig: Festschrift für H. Schürmann, 1978), pp. 363–78.

[4] Cerfaux, L., ‘Le thème littéraire parabolique dans I'Evangile de saint Jean’, in Coniectanea neotestamentica (Lund/Uppsala: Mélanges A. Fridrichsen, 1947), p. 20.

[5] 7. 38–39; 11. 50–52; 12. 16; 12. 32–33.

[6] Léon-Dufour, X., ‘Le Signe du Temple selon saint Jean’, in Mélanges Jules Lebreton, tome I, (Paris, 1951), pp. 155–75.

[7] Schnackenburg, R., Das Johannesevangelium, vol. I (Freiburg/Basel/Wien, 1965), p. 365.

[8] Brown, R., The Gospel according to John (New York, 1966), p. 123.

[9] Léon-Dufour, X., ‘Et là, Jésus baptisait (Jn. 3. 22)’, in Mélanges Eugène Tisserant, tome I (Rome, 1964), pp. 295–309.

[10] de la Potterie, I., ‘“Naître de l'eau et naître de l'esprit”. Le Texte baptismal de Jn. 3. 5’, in Sciences ecclésiastiques, 14 (1962), 417–43.

[11] Köster, H., ‘Geschichte und Kultus im Johannesevangelium und bei Ignatius von Antiochien’, in Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche, 54 (1957), 63–4.

[12] Commentaires de Jean Calvin sur le Nouveau Testament, tome II. Evangile selon saint Jean, Labor et Fides (Genève, 1968), pp. 75–6. The Latin edition said: ‘Non est insolens copulam exegetice sumi, quum scilicet posterius membrum explicatio est prioris’ (In Joannem, Corpus Reformationum, vol. 75 [Brunsvigae, 1892], p. 56).

[13] Barth, M., Die Taufe, ein Sakrament? Ein exegetiseher Beitrag zum Gespräch über die kirchliche Taufe (Zürich, 1951), pp. 443–53.

[14] Léon-Dufour, X., ‘Le mystère du pain de vie (Jean VI)’, in Recherches de Science religieuse, 46 (1958), 481–523.

[15] Schürmann, H., ‘Joh 6, 51c - ein Schlüssel zur grossen johanneischen Brotrede’, in Biblische Zeitschrift, 2 (1958), 244–62.

[16] Schlatter, A., Der Evangelist Johannes (Stuttgart, 1960), p. 178.

* Presidential address delivered at the 35th General Meeting of SNTS, Tornoto, August 1980.

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New Testament Studies
  • ISSN: 0028-6885
  • EISSN: 1469-8145
  • URL: /core/journals/new-testament-studies
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