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The Beloved Disciple in the Gospel of John

The Beloved Disciple in the Gospel of John THE BELOVED DISCIPLE IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN Some Clues and Conjectures BY PAUL S. MINEAR Guilford Johannine scholars are familiar with the search for the identity of the beloved disciple and no less familiar with the multiple frustra- tions encountered in that search. The role of this disciple is too important to permit abandoning the search; the evidence is too baffling to permit a confident solution. Each hypothesis leaves us with a series of conjectures, none of which can command consensus. I suggest that there are two lessons to be learned from the fact that every search ends in impasse. First of all, our inability to grasp the intention of the Evangelist is a measure of the distance between his thought-processes and ours. We must assume that he knew what he was trying to convey by his references to this particular figure. If his intention escapes us, we must conclude that our minds move to different rhythms. We can also assume that his immediate audience understood his references to the beloved disciple better than we do. If so, the author and his first audience must have shared certain attitudes, a definite apper- ceptive mass, that created a http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Novum Testamentum Brill

The Beloved Disciple in the Gospel of John

Minear, Paul S.
Novum Testamentum , Volume 19 (2): 105 – Jan 1, 1977
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1977 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0048-1009
eISSN
1568-5365
DOI
10.1163/156853677X00084
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

THE BELOVED DISCIPLE IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN Some Clues and Conjectures BY PAUL S. MINEAR Guilford Johannine scholars are familiar with the search for the identity of the beloved disciple and no less familiar with the multiple frustra- tions encountered in that search. The role of this disciple is too important to permit abandoning the search; the evidence is too baffling to permit a confident solution. Each hypothesis leaves us with a series of conjectures, none of which can command consensus. I suggest that there are two lessons to be learned from the fact that every search ends in impasse. First of all, our inability to grasp the intention of the Evangelist is a measure of the distance between his thought-processes and ours. We must assume that he knew what he was trying to convey by his references to this particular figure. If his intention escapes us, we must conclude that our minds move to different rhythms. We can also assume that his immediate audience understood his references to the beloved disciple better than we do. If so, the author and his first audience must have shared certain attitudes, a definite apper- ceptive mass, that created a

Journal

Novum Testamentum – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 1977

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