Overview of the Johannine Corpus

The Johannine literature consists of five books in the New Testament. These include John’s

Gospel (also known as the Fourth Gospel), the three Johannine epistles (1, 2, and 3John), and the

book of Revelation (or the Apocalypse, a title that reflects the opening of the book, 1:1). The

Johannine corpus provides us with something unique in the NT. Like the Pauline corpus, it

includes three letters; like the Luke-Acts corpus, it includes a Gospel. Unlike any other, however,

it includes an apocalypse.

The Authorship and Interrelationship of the Johannine Books

The perennial Catholic tradition has always attributed five New Testament books (the Gospel, 1,

2, 3 John, and Revelation) to St. John the apostle. The books themselves make different claims

with respect to their authors. Today, some critics still question the Johannine authorship of the

books.

The Gospel of John

John 21:20-24 suggests that it is the “disciple whom Jesus loved” that testifies to these things

and wrote them. But the text did not explicitly state that the name of this beloved disciple was

John.

The Johannine Epistles

I John does not mention the name of the writer. It only suggests that the author is passing on an

old and authoritative tradition (1 John 1:1-4). 2 & 3 John mention that their author is the “Elder,”
but there is no clarification on the claim the title is making. This is because an “Elder could be a

designation for someone with authority in the community. It could also be that the person has

spent a long time in the Church community and have first-hand knowledge of the traditions.

The Book of Revelation

Only the Book of Revelation mentions that the author is John (1:2-4; 22:8) but it never claims

that this John is one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. The authorship of these five is still being

contested among critical scholars.

Note

It is important to note that the first century Christians believed on the immediate return of Jesus

and as a result, the compilation of the writings of the apostles was not considered an immediate

priority. However, in the few hundred years that followed, authentic letters from apostles as well

as pseudepigraphical works began to circulate. This gave rise to the need to define and separate

the authentic writings from the apostles from the pseudepigrapha through the process of

canonization. But one of the challenges in this process is that most of the NT books

(manuscripts) had no title appended on them. The titles of these books which includes the 3

Johannine epistles were later assigned to them by the Second century scholars and Church

leaders. Their names represent what the early Church understood the books to be based on

tradition or deduced from the contents of the work in question.

Similarities and Differences of the Johannine Books

The book of Revelation is clearly different from other four Johannine books. It is written in a
different genre known as apocalypse. The content with bizarre images is different. The literary
style is very different. The social situation is also different. The book of Revelation opposes
emperor worship, whereas this issue does not arise in the other books. But there are themes that
Revelation and the Gospel of John share in common. For instance, both books talk about God
and light or fire together. Rev 1:14 says that the Son of Man’s eyes are “like a flame of fire”
while John 1:9 talks about the “true light” which is Jesus Christ. Another similarity is calling
Jesus “The Word” or “Word of God” (Cf. John 1:1; Rev 19:13). Jesus is called “The Word of
God.” All the Johannine books including the Book of Revelation affirm both the humanity and
divinity of Jesus (John 1:1; 20:31; Rev 5).

In all five of the Johannine writings there is a formal dualism that sets out fundamental issues
with stark clarity. The polarities of this dualism (*light and darkness, *truth and lie, from above
and from below, *faith/*obedience and unbelief/disobedience) are unambiguously present in the
Fourth Gospel, become tied to crucial pastoral and ecclesiastical issues in the Johannine letters,
and then take on apocalyptic overtones in Revelation. In the latter book, the contest between
good and * evil includes new polarities: * Babylon and the new * Jerusalem;

Four of the Johannine books have great similarities in content, style, and social situation.

(1) 2 & 3 John are very closely similar. They have remarkable overlaps in language, imagery,

and content. Both are about the same length and they deal with the issue of granting and

withholding of hospitality to traveling missionaries (Cf. 2 John. 12-13, & 3 John 13-14).

(2) 1 John and 2 John have many similarities as well. Both include references to a new

commandment (2 John 5, 1 John 2:7- 8). They both speak about the deceivers who deny that

Jesus is the Christ who has come in the flesh (2 John 7, 1 John 4:1-3).

(3) 1 John and the gospel have many similarities. One can immediately see the similarities in

both the opening verses (John 1:1:1-4, 1 John 1:1-3), and the ending (John 20:31, 1 John 5:20).

The gospel too talks about the “new commandment” (13:34) and insists that Christ came in the

flesh (1:14).

(4) All four documents share the stylistic simplicity of basic sentences with a very restricted

vocabulary.
There are also considerable differences in style and thought between the gospel and the epistles

especially the first epistle. For instance, "oun" ("so") which occurs over 190 times in the gospel

never appeared in 1 John. The differences may be due to differences in genre and situation and

need not imply different authors. While the similarities between the documents may be due to a

common community theology and writing style.

Because of the similarities between 2 John and 1 John, it is probably best to assume the author is

the same, though the documents do not claim a common authorship.

A Johannine School/Community?

Due to the close similarities between the Johannine books, many modern critics have posited the

existence of a Johannine school or community who were responsible for the production of these

texts. Major proponents of a Johannine community are J. Louis Martyn, Raymond Brown and

Wayne Meeks. These scholars argue for a community of writers rather than a single individual

that gave final form to the work.

Opinion differs with respect to the relationship of John to this “Johannine community” or which

John headed the school. Some posit John the apostle as the head of the school, others assume the

leader was a student of John the apostle, and others propose John the elder which they claim is

different from John the apostle. Still others assume different members of the community wrote

the various Johannine books. While the existence of some type of Johannine School is generally

accepted, a consensus has not been reached.

read: “This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these

things, and we know that his testimony is true.” It is very clear in this passage that someone else

speaks in the third person plural (“we”), apparently as the voice of a community that believes the

testimony of the “beloved disciple” to be true. Many scholars consider this passage as a proof

that the Beloved Disciple is not the author of the entire Gospel of John and by extension the

other Johannine book. Rather, he was accompanied by a wider circle of disciples or co-workers

who were active in the Johannine mission corporately testifying to the truth of the Gospel

witness. Some these co-workers may have functioned as amanuenses (sectaries) (cf. Rom 16:22)

Some scholars such as Charles E. Hill and Richard Bauckham have refuted the common view

that the John 21:24 refers to a Johannine “community” or “school” According to them, the plural

“we” should be understood as “authorial we” which has nothing to do with a numerical plural.1 If

Hill and Bauckham are right, then this passage is not indicating the existence of a Johannine

community, but a style of writing highlight the trustworthiness of the testimony of the Beloved

Disciple using the authorial we language.

Source Criticism

There is also an unresolved controversy regarding how the Johannine community produced these

documents. Scholars have come up different explanations on how the Johannine corpus was

produced using source criticism. Urban C. von Wahlde, (today’s essay) proposed three stages of

composition which also reflect the social setting of the Johannine community in relation to the

1
Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
2017), 370-83; Charles E. Hill, “The Authentication of John: Self-Disclosure, Testimony, and Verification in John
21:24,” in The Language and Literature of the New Testament, ed. L. K. Dow, C. A. Evans, and A. W. Pitts, BibInt
150 (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 398-437.
Jewish parent body. According to him, the Johannine books (John’s Gospel, 1, 2, & 3 John), and

the community reflected in these texts developed through a process of three stages:

First Version: According to von Wahlde, The Gospel of John under went three different

compositional process. the first edition (ca. 80 AD) was a narrative of Jesus’ ministry. This was

also a period that the community shared a stronger relationship with the Jewish parent body. The

first stage which is reflected in the earliest version of the Gospel of John depicts the Johannine

community as Jewish Christians who may have resided in Palestine (Judea) given the Gospel’s

focus on this area. The audience were Jewish Christians. However, the inclusion of Jesus’

Samaritan miracle and the report of widespread Samaritan belief leads also suggests the

inclusion of Samaritans (Gentiles) with the Johannine community.

Textual Support: Support for this view includes the use of numerous Hebrew and Aramaic

terms, Moses typology, and traditional Jewish Christological categories.

Second Version: The community’s confession of Jesus as Messiah and the claims they make

about themselves in relation to Jesus and God the Father, brought them into tension with the

Jewish religious authorities. When the Pharisees came to power after the First Revolt (70 AD),

they set out to suppress dissident groups with the Jewish community. Jewish Christians were

targeted and were expelled from the synagogue. With the community’s expulsion from the

synagogue, their theology developed especially with regard to the importance of Jesus’ identity

and his work in the outpouring of the eschatological Spirit, so they wrote the second version of

John.
Textual support: (a) References to expulsion (John 9:22; 12:42; 16:2); (b) predictions about the

killing of the disciples (John 16:2-4).

The second stage is a period of conflict between the Johannine and the Jewish parent body and

the religious authorities. Although at this period, the community still identify themselves a

Jewish community, it began to perceive itself as an independent minority entity with less

attachment to the Jewish parent body.  The Johannine community began to perceive the members

of the Jewish majority as representatives of the “world,” while they themselves are regarded as

those "in" the world but not "of the world (John 15:18-19; 17:6, 14-16).

The community became increasingly sectarian on all fronts. To bolster their fragile identity they

stressed Jesus’ divine authority (e.g., Jn 5:18) and otherness (Jn 8:23), they engaged in anti-

Jewish polemics (Jn 8:42-44), defined Jesus’ saviorhood in exclusive terms (Jn 14:6), claimed to

be over-comers against impossible odds (Jn 16:33), and construed reality starkly as a contest

between light and darkness (Jn 1:5).

The Third Version: The version is the inclusion of apocalyptic materials such as apocalyptic

dualism (light and darkness), the figure of the Son of Man, and emphasis on future eschatology

(final judgement, bodily resurrection) in the second document. “The third version of John's

Gospel likewise places emphasis on the role and permanent validity of the words of Jesus and on

the importance of ethical behavior.”

1, 2, & 3 John
According to von Wahlde, after the second version of John was written, conflict arose over

issues of Christology, Pneumatology and ethics in the community’s interpretation of the

Johannine tradition in the written form of 2Ε. The Elder, an eyewitness to Jesus, wrote 1 John

and later 2 and 3 John to balance the roles of Jesus and he Spirit, underscore the role of ethics

and infuse the story in an apocalyptic worldview.

The Book of Revelation: The book of Revelation reflects the persecution of the Johannine

community, this time not from their Jewish counterpart but from the Roman empire.

In Summary

One could say that the Johannine community is a group of Jews who were devoted to Jesus.

They separated or suffered expulsion from their parent synagogues (the event behind the

Gospel), had strife with at least one rival Christian group holding a different Christology and

ethics (1–3 John), and stood apart from the pagan environment of Asia (the Apocalypse).

Socio-Historical Context of the Johannine Literature:

In order for any interpretation of Sacred Scripture to be properly grounded, there is a vital need

to explore the historical setting of the text in question. This includes socio-historical, cultural,

and religious background features. An informed knowledge of the historical background enables

one to understand the meaning and function of the text in its historical setting. J. Scott Duvall

and J. Darnel Hays writes

“Since we live in a very different context, we must recapture God's original intended meaning as

reflected in the text and framed by the ancient historical-cultural context. Once we understand
the meaning of the text in its original context, we can apply it to our lives in ways that will be

just as relevant.”2

Socio-historical context of a text refers to anything outside the text that will help one in

understanding the text itself (e.g., what life was like for the Israelites as they wandered in the

wilderness). When we inquire into the socio-historical context of a biblical text, we want to

know about the background of the author and the circumstances of the audience (e.g., where does

he come from? when did he write? the relationship between the author and the audience, the

reason or purpose of the text, and background elements within the passage such as the events,

customs that shape the narrative. Emphasizing the relevance of the historical background does

not mean that every available piece of background data will necessarily be germane for the

interpretation of a given biblical passage. What this means is that relevance of a particular piece

of information must be carefully weighed and assessed. Background information should never

override what is stated explicitly in the text. Literary context relates to the context within the

book (e.g., the flow of argument within the book, and the meaning of words and sentences in the

passage).

With regard to history, the Johannine Corpus presuppose that their readers know the Hebrew

Scriptures (the Old Testament) and at least some of the basic history of early Christianity.

1. The Old Testament (The basic doctrines of the Hebrew Scripture)

(i) Ethical Monotheism: The one God who is good.

(ii) Divine Transcendence:

2
J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays, Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and
Applying the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2020), 112.
 (iii) Israel’s Special Election: God has entered into a unique relationship with a

particular people, the Jews. As part of this relationship, God demands that the Jews

keep a special law. he Pharisees, which dominated Judaism during the period when

John's Gospel and Epistles originated, specialized in spelling out what the law

demanded.

(iv) Prophecy: Ancient figures in Jewish history sometimes spoke about future events,

and many of these predictions are recorded in the Old Testament. By the era of the

Johannine writings, people believed that these "prophets" had foretold the future in

detail. One such prediction was that soon the Messiah (a Jewish savior) would come.

(v) Apocalyptic Worldview: Apocalyptic writings flourished among the Jewish writers

between 200 BC - 200 AD. Jewish apocalypticism grew out of Biblical Prophecy and

represents an intensified prophetic response in a time of crisis. As pseudonymous and

prophetic voices arising in the midst of the violence and injustice that the Jews

experienced, the apocalyptists condemn the social evils of their time, and spoke of

something new that God was going to do couching it in the language of “new

creation,” etc. There will be a divine intervention to end the old age and to begin the

new age. But this does not actually mean that all Jewish apocalyptic text arose in a

crisis situation. These texts are particularly marked by a future-looking sense of

history and a search for salvation beyond this world. This is world view that informed

the Book of Revelation and part of John’s Gospel.

2. History: Some of the major periods, persons, and events of ancient Judaism as recorded

in the Hebrew Scriptures.

become the ancestors of the Jews (Hebrews, Israelites) first encountered God and received

prophetic promises concerning their descendants. The most memorable of the Patriarchs were

Abraham and Jacob (whose name was changed to Israel). At the end of the period, the Jews

migrated to Egypt where they fell into slavery.

b. The Exodus (13th. cent. BCE): The biblical accounts of this period tell the story of God’s

intervention to liberate the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt and their journey to the

promised land. In the desert the people entered into a covenant relationship with YHWH, and

God gave them his divine law.

c. The Era of the Judges (12th cent. BCE). This is the period when the Jews had local

charismatic figures who ruled a decentralized Israelite state.

d. The Monarchy (11th cent. - 6th cent. BCE). For half a millennium a series of kings ruled

Israel. The most important of these was the second one, David, who founded a continuing

dynasty. The United Kingdom of David and Solomon would eventually become divided after the

death of Solomon.

5. The exile and post-exilic period (6th cent. -4th cent. BCE). The Northern kingdom of Israel

was the first to fall around 722 BC during the Assyrian invasions. Then the Babylonians

conquered Judah around 586 BC, and they took the Jewish leaders into exile. Subsequently, the

Persians conquered Babylon and allowed Jews to return to Israel. Darius was the Persian king

who issued the edict that the Jews should return to their homeland in 538 BC. The Jews began

the rebuilding of the temple in 536 under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah. The temple was
completed in 516. After the exile, the Samaritans (northern Jews) broke with the rest of the

community and began to worship at their own temple rather than the one in Jerusalem.

The Period of the Second Temple 516 BC – 70 AD.

6. The Hellenistic period (330-165 BCE). The Greeks conquered all of the Middle East

(including Israel), and Greek became the dominant language in many areas and remained so for

centuries. The Gospel of John, the Epistles, and the Book of Revelation are written in Greek.

With the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, his kingdom was divided among his four

generals Cassander, Lisimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus. Palestine/Judah came under the rule of

Ptolemy 1 of Egypt until 199 when the Seleucids took control of Palestine from the Ptolemies.

Things became really bad for the Jews during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes IV (175-164).

His radical Hellenization program culminated in the erection of a statue of Zeus and the sacrifice

of a pig in the Jerusalem Sanctuary. This forced policy of Hellenization of the Jews and the

Jewish Temple led to Maccabean/Hasmonean revolution and rule in 164 BC

7. The Hasmonean Period (164 BCE). the Jews successfully revolted against Greek rule and

remained independent for a century.

8. The Roman Era: In the centuries immediately before the Common Era, the Romans

gradually conquered the entire Mediterranean. They took control of Jerusalem in 63 BCE. And

they remained in power throughout the Mediterranean during the first century when Jesus lived

and the Johannine books were written.

The Romans maintained an indirect rule of Jews as they ruled Palestine/Judah using ruthless and

wicked Jewish persons (such as King Herod the Great) who were subject to the Roman authority.
When Herod the Great died in 4 BC, Augustus re-divided the Judean kingdom among the three

sons of Herod and named them tetrarchs instead of kings. Jesus was born around the same year

(4 BC) that Herod the Great died. During the time of Jesus, Herod Antipas was in charge of

Galilee (Mark 6:14; Luke 13:32). The Roman emperor at the time was Augustus. This period

was known as the time of the great Roman Peace (Pax Romana). It was marked with prosperity

and tranquility in the Roman empire. Today it has become obvious that the Roman empire

maintained the so called pax roman through brutal domination and exploitation of weaker

nations. Emperor Tiberius who was reigning when Jesus began his public ministry, and Pontius

Pilate was the procurator or prefect of Judea.

The Religious Context of the Johannine Community

1. Second Temple Judaism

Second Temple Judaism is really diverse with different sects propagating different

theological views. Some of these groups are: the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Essenes, the

Zealot, the Scribes, etc. One of these group—the Pharisees deserves further consideration

because of Paul’s affiliation with the group. Paul affirms that he was a Pharisee (probably from

the word “paruschim”, which means “the separated one”) before he met Christ (Phi 3: 5-6). The

term connotes the idea of separation, that is, the members separated themselves probably from

those who did not follow the law in all its ramifications, or because of their apparent holiness. As

a group within Judaism, the Pharisees were strongly committed to the written and oral Torah.

They adhere strongly to the Jewish cultic/ritual laws. There were two rival Pharisaic school in

Paul’s day: the school of Hillel, and the school of Shammai. Both school commanded influence.

Hillel’s School emphasized tradition over the written law while Shammai’s school emphasized
the written law over tradition. In Acts 5:34, Paul is said to have studied under Gamaliel.

Gamaliel was the grandson of Hillel. It therefore makes sense to understand Paul’s statement in

Gal1:14 “I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers”, as a reference to the Jewish

oral traditions. However, Paul speaks of his strict obedience to the law (the written Torah too, cf.

Acts 5:34). Two important Jewish writing associated with the Pharisees are Midrash (Hebrew

commentaries on Hebrew Law) and Mishna (Jewish laws codified). The Pharisees embodied

both apocalyptic and nationalistic perspective. They believe in the resurrection of the dead and

final judgment, as well as in the existence of celestial spirit or powers. We find these views in

Paul’s letters.

2. The Greco-Roman Religious context

City and family deities: First century Greco-Roman society was an extremely polytheistic. Its

people worshiped different gods/goddesses such as Zeus, Jupiter, Athena, Dionysus, Poseidon,

etc. Temples are dedicated to various deities. Usually deities have status that represent them as

well as priests who offer sacrifices to them on behalf of the worshipers. Some deities such as

Athena were considered city gods. Throughout the empire, the religious and civic live of the

people revolve around the local cults of their city deities. Each city observes religious festivals in

honor of their deity. While local/city deities are worshipped in public square, different

households have their own family deities and shrines. Religion provides a wide range of human

need for the people. The people seek both protection, salvation, and blessing from their gods.

The Emperor cult/worship: Greco-Roman people also perceive their rulers/emperors as

demigods. Consequently, their citizens worship and offer sacrifices to them. For instance,

temples and altars were erected in honor of Augustus in strategic public spaces. Coins bearing

the image of Augustus were everywhere. The imperial cult is a political and religion activity.
This is because, the ancient world did not separate religion from politics. Through the imperial

worship, the subjects expressed allegiance to both their deified-human rulers and to their deified

cultural and political entities such as Roma.

Mystery Religions: Among the religious experiences popular in the Greco-Roman world is the

Mystery religion. The people join these mystery cults as supplement to their public and domestic

religious activites. The mystery cult of Dionysus, Demeter, Isis, and Cybele were among the

popular ones. Generally, the mystery religions provide access to secret knowledge, as well as

allow their initiates to share in the spiritual experiences of their deities such as experiences of

rebirth, immortality, salvation, etc. Paul acknowledged the polytheistic spirituality of the people

in Acts 8:5-6. What is more important is this difficult travel to rough terrain of the New

Testament world is perhaps the recognition that the people whom John and the other disciples of

Christ seek to evangelize were people whose everyday public and private lives were permeated

with political and religious experiences.

Christian Experience After the Death of Jesus

After Jesus's death his disciples had experiences which convinced them that he had risen from

the dead and become master of the universe and would soon return to judge the world and raise

the dead. They began to proclaim that Jesus was Lord and that people must worship him. Soon

"Christians" were preaching not only to Jews, but to Gentiles. In due course, Christians began to

produce written accounts of the life, death, and resurrection, and the teaching of Jesus. These

books came to have the name "gospels" (Greek: "good news"). The first, Mark, appeared around

70 CE Matthew and Luke appeared perhaps fifteen years later.

Toward the end of the first century several trends occurred that would have an immediate impact

on John's Gospel and Epistles.

"Christianity," which had begun as a movement within Judaism, became a separate religion. As

we shall see, John's Gospel expresses the bitterness which Jewish Christians felt after they were

expelled from the Jewish community. A major reason for the expulsion was the Christian claim

that Jesus was Divine, a claim which traditional Jews felt was incompatible with monotheism.

2. The Church itself became divided between early "Catholics" and Docetists. (i). Catholics had

the common-sense belief that Jesus was fully human. (ii). Docetists felt that Jesus was too

exalted to be human and instead was a Spirit who only appeared (dokein) to have a material body

but did not have an actual one.

c. Many scholars feel that the Gospel and Epistles of John insist on the “flesh” of Jesus to

combat Docetism.