Farmer John 1-12

1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8308-7971-7
Verlag: InterVarsity Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 539 Seiten

Reihe: Reformation Commentary on Scripture

Preaching's Preacher's Guide to the Best Bible Reference The first eighteen verses of the Gospel of John make some of the most profound statements about the character and work of Christ in all of Scripture: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God' (1:1); 'all things were made through him' (1:3); 'the Word became flesh and dwelt among us' (1:14). Reformation commentators ruminated on the meaning and implications of such claims for shedding light on doctrines like the Trinity, the divinity of Christ and his incarnation, but also for grasping the saving benefits of Christ's work in justification (for those 'who believed in his name') and new birth (those born of God as his children, 1:12-13). In this volume, Craig Farmer expertly guides readers through Reformation meditation on these themes and many others as they are unpacked in the first twelve chapters of the Gospel of John, from the Prologue to Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Here you will find a rich mosaic of reflection on the Gospel of John by a variety of significant well-known and lesser-known figures among the Reformed, Lutherans, Radicals and Roman Catholics. Farmer has done justice to the depth and nuance of the work of these Reformation-era pastors and scholars by drawing from a range of genres--extensive commentary, brief annotations, impassioned sermons, official confessions, and careful doctrinal and practical treatises. Contemporary scholars will find this volume indispensable for understanding the significance of the 'spiritual Gospel' for Reformation theology and practice, and pastors will discover here a consistently fruitful source for preaching, teaching and discipleship in the 'grace and truth' that have come through Jesus Christ (1:17).

Craig S. Farmer (Ph.D., Duke University) is professor of history and humanities and Joel O. and Mabel Stephens Chair of the Bible at Milligan College, Tennessee. He is the author of The Gospel of John in the Sixteenth Century: The Johannine Exegesis of Wolfgang Musculus.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Farmer, Craig S.

Leseproben

Introduction to John 1–12

The Protestant Reformation has often been regarded in part as a revival of Paul’s theology. That is no doubt true, even though sixteenth-century Catholic theologians were understandably unwilling to concede that the Protestants had recovered the true meaning of Paul’s gospel. But it is also important to recognize the keen interest of Reformation-era theologians in the message of the Fourth Gospel. For Martin Luther, the Gospel of John occupied pride of place in the New Testament canon. And judging by the tremendous outpouring of lectures, sermons and commentaries over the course of the sixteenth century, Luther was clearly not alone in providing a privileged place to the “spiritual Gospel.” Between 1470 and 1555, at least fifty-two commentaries on John were published in a total of 280 printings.1 Some of these works were printings of patristic and medieval commentaries, but thirty-one works by “modern” authors were published.2

It is difficult to imagine that many readers will pick up this volume and read it cover to cover, starting at the beginning. Like most encyclopedic reference books, this book will likely be dipped into for exegetical information for those who study and teach and preach the Bible. Yet the Reformation commentators cited in this volume occupied a world different from our own. To help us understand their conversations, contexts and cultures we will examine several key thematic interests for early modern commentators and some charateristically Johannine Gospel passages. Finally we will survey the early modern commentators cited in this volume and the genres they used to interpret Scripture. This introductory material is not meant to be exhaustive; it is merely meant to aid the reader in recognizing key themes and methods of interpretation for the reformers. The excerpted commentary itself will give a richer and more robust entrée into their world and concerns.

Early Modern Themes of John 1–12

Logos: Sermo or verbum? Starting at the beginning of this Gospel can prove to be a daunting foray into the world of sixteenth-century exegesis. The prologue, probably an adaptation of an ancient Christian hymn, is theologically and poetically dense, and it invites theologians to engage in deep trinitarian, christological and cosmological reflection. As is well known, the prologue begins by echoing the opening words of the book of Genesis (“In the beginning”). Just as the beginning of Genesis tells its readers something about the nature of God the Father—that is, that God is a good and all-powerful Creator who speaks the worlds into existence—so the opening of John’s Gospel informs its readers about the nature of the Son, that he is “the Word,” who “was with God” and “was God,” through whom all things were created.

And what does it mean to call the Son “the Word” (Greek ho logos)? This question received a great deal of attention in the sixteenth century because Erasmus suggested a new Latin term for the Greek, namely, sermo (“speech”). Erasmus pointedly argues that the church fathers also used sermo to convey the sense of the Greek term, a translation that better conveys the notion of logos as a complete discourse, conversation or statement, as opposed to verbum, which suggests a discrete, single utterance. The implications of the word choice for trinitarian theology are significant. Sermo conveys, in a sense that verbum does not, the notion of an eternal dialogue or conversation between God the Father and God the Son. Furthermore, sermo conveys the sense that whatever and whenever the Father speaks, he speaks through the Son. Reformation theologians were divided over the new translation, some expressing ambivalence and others enthusiasm. But Reformation exegetes were united in their desire to engage one of the central concerns of Christianity since the earliest centuries: Who is Jesus in relation to God?

Christological heresies. The Gospel of John offers prime opportunities for christological reflection. Few Reformation authors explicitly challenged or contradicted Chalcedonian Christology, that Jesus Christ our Lord is rightly confessed to be fully human and fully divine—without confusing, mixing or separating his natures, and without dividing his person. However, at times they saw ancient, heretical Christologies hidden in their opponents’ or peers’ work. These heresies can be loosely grouped into two tendencies: first, those that deny Jesus as fully human or fully divine; and second, those that improperly collapse the natures or divide the person of Christ.3

Denials of the incarnation. Heavily influenced by philosophical speculation, many ancient Christian gnostics held that the preexistent divine “Christ” came to rest on the man Jesus because of his superior excellence and wisdom. His mission was to teach gnostics (those “in the know”) the true way of salvation, hidden to those who were not sufficiently spiritual: redemption is not from sin, but from ignorance; and it is not of the body, but from the body, since material reality (the product of a lesser god, the Creator of the world, the Demiurge often identified as the God of the Old Testament) is inherently tainted and far inferior to pure spiritual reality. Through knowledge, the inner (spiritual) self of every gnostic is destined to return to the supreme God, the one whom Jesus calls Father, from whom they originally came forth.4

While Reformation-era commentators did not often encounter the elaborate metaphysical speculations characteristic of early gnosticism, they did often warn against falling into the fanciful systems of ancient gnostics like Cerinthus, Carpocrates and Valentinus. They also regularly countered contemporary threats to confessing a truly and fully human nature assumed in the Word’s incarnation, such as the doctrine of Christ’s “celestial flesh” advocated by some Radicals.5

Denials of Christ’s divinity. A much more pressing problem for most Reformation commentators was subordinationism. In the early fourth century Arius had infamously taught that “there was a time when the Son was not,” asserting that Jesus is the Father’s highest created being, not divine in the same sense that the Father is, since he certainly could not be the Father’s Son and yet the selfsame God. There are some important differences between Arius and those who subsequently were charged with Arianism by orthodox trinitarians, but these were variations on the same theme: a strict identification between the one true God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. If God is Father, then the Son and the Spirit cannot be God; if the Son and the Spirit are God, then they are either all identical with each other, or there are three Gods.6 George Huntston Williams has described this small yet vocal antitrinitarian opposition to creedal orthodoxy during the Reformation as in many respects a repristination of these foundational “anti-Nicene” convictions. Such “evangelical rationalism” was a potent mixture of critical Renaissance humanism and a radicalization of the general Protestant reform of the church’s faith and practice—something more akin to a clean institutional break with the historic church rather than a reformation from within. This led to a quite literalist reading of the biblical text in accord with the clear dictates of human reason, a meaning best assessed “behind” and apart from the dogmatic conclusions of ecclesial orthodoxy.7

Like their patristic forebears, Reformation-era commentators celebrated the Fourth Gospel’s clear, repeated emphasis on the divinity of Christ, the eternal Son and Word made flesh.8 Desiderius Erasmus, Johannes Oecolampadius and Wolfgang Musculus note that various christological heresies had arisen by John’s time, which necessitated a strong exposition of Christ’s deity. Although Oecolampadius disagrees with Erasmus’s statement that “the earlier Evangelists had scarcely touched on the divinity of the Lord Jesus,” he admits that John’s Gospel treats “certain matters more clearly than had the other Evangelists.”9 Musculus writes that John highlights the divinity of Christ at the beginning of his Gospel and then “through the whole course of the Gospel he diligently focuses on this theme.”10 The weak ears of the earliest believers could not bear to hear John’s “thunder,” argues Musculus; thus in the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, Matthew, Mark and Luke were first written in order to establish firmly the reality of Christ’s incarnation in the story of his birth, life, death and resurrection.11 In a similar vein, John Calvin suggests that John’s Gospel, while written last, now ought to be read first, for it contains the key to understanding the Synoptics. All the Gospels point to Christ, Calvin writes, but the Synoptics exhibit Christ’s body, while John exhibits his soul.12 Matthew, Mark and Luke present to us the (already) incarnate Word; however, John shows us more openly the Word himself who has become incarnate—the Word who from eternity is with God and who is God (Jn 1:1).

Divergence concerning Christ’s person. A much less extreme christological problematic that occupied Reformation commentators stems from differences in emphasis and implications among those who shared a commitment to Nicene and Chalcedonian orthodoxy. We may think of this...