The Use of Zeteo in the Fourth Gospel: A Debate with John Painter's The Quest for the Messiah

  • Martin Micallef University of Malta
Keywords: Seeking, historical critical method, sources, Johannine Community, quest, rejection

Abstract

This article will tune into a debate with John Painter's, The Quest for the Messiah: The History, Literature and Theology of the Johannine Community, as a monograph that deals extensively with the theme of zeteo – seeking – in the Gospel of John. In this monograph, Painter has led to certain valuable results in his efforts to establish the importance of zeteo in this Gospel by studying its quest and rejection stories. The article will reveal the degree on which Painter has understood the historical origin of zeteo against the Sitz im Leben of the Johannine Community. This exercise will sketch out some of the main lines of development in Painter's work and highlights certain directions of recent research on the Gospel of John.

References

Ashton John, Understanding the Fourth Gospel (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993).

Barrett C.K., The Gospel according to St. John: An Introduction with Commentary and Notes on the Greek Text, ed. 2 (London: SPCK 1978).

Beutler Johannes, Judaism and the Jews in the Gospel of John. Subsidia Biblica 30 (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 2006).

Bretschnieder K.G., Probabilia de evangelii et epistularum Joannis, apostoli, indole et origine (Leipzig, 1820).

Brodie Thomas L., The Quest for the Origin of John's Gospel: A Source-Oriented Approach (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993).

Brown Raymond E., The Gospel according to John. Anchor Bible 29, 29A (Garden City/New York: Doubleday, 1966-1970).

Brown Raymond E., The Community of the Beloved Disciple: The Life, Loves and Hates of an Individual Church in New Testament Times (New York/London: Paulist, 1979).

Bultmann Rudolf, The Gospel of John, trans. G.R. Beasley-Murray (Oxford: Blackwell, 1971).

Carroll Kenneth L., “The Fourth Gospel and the Exclusion of Christians,” Journal of Biblical Literature 106(1987): 639-652.

Carter Warren, John: Storyteller, Interpreter, Evangelist (Peabody: Hendrickson, 2006).

Coakley J.F., ”Jesus' Messianic Entry into Jerusalem (John 12:12-19 Par.),” Journal of Theological Studies 46(1995): 461-482.

Davies W.D., “Reflections on Aspects of the Jewish Background of the Gospel of John,” in Exploring the Gospel of John, ed. R. Alan Culpepper and C.C. Black (Louisville: Westminister John Knox, 1996): 43-64.

De Boer Martinus C., ”Narrative Criticism: Historical Criticism, and the Gospel of John,” in The Johannine Writings: A Sheffield Reader (The Biblical Seminar 32), ed. S.E. Porter and C.A. Evans (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995), 95-108.

Grayston Kenneth, “Review of Quest,” Epworth Review (May 1993): 112.

Hengel Martin, The Johannine Question (London: SCM Press, 1989).

Horbury William, ”The Benediction of the Minim and Early Jewish-Christian Controversy,” Journal of Theological Studies 33(1982): 19-61.

Kelber W.H., ”Metaphysics and Marginality in John,” in What is John? Readers and Readings of the Fourth Gospel. Society of Biblical Literature Symposium Series 3, vol. 1, ed. Fernando F. Segovia (Atlanta: Scholars, 1996), 129-154.

Kimelman Reuven, ”Birkat Ha-Minim and the Lack of Evidence for Anti-Christian Jewish Prayer in Late Antiquity,” in Jewish and Christian Self-Definition, II, ed. Ed P. Sanders et al. (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1981), 226-244.

Lieu Judith M., The Second and Third Epistles of John (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1986).

Lieu Judith M., ”The Quest for the Messiah,” Expository Times 103(1992): 345.

Martyn J. Louis., ”Glimpses into the History of the Johannine Community,” in The Gospel of John in Christian History: Essays for Interpreters (New York: Paulist, 1978), 90-121.

Martyn J. Louis, History and Theology in the Fourth Gospel, ed. 2 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1979).

Martyn J. Louis, „Source Criticism and Religionsgeschichte in the Fourth Gospel,” in The Interpretation of John, ed. John Ashton, ed. 2 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1997), 121-146.

Meeks Wayne A., ”The Man from Heaven in Johannine Sectariansim,” Journal of Biblical Literature 91(1972): 44-72.

Meeks Wayne A., ”Breaking Away: Three New Testament Pictures of Christianity’s Separation from the Jewish Communities,” in To See Ourselves as Others See Us: Christians, Jews, `Others' in Late Antiquity, ed. J. Neusner and E.S. Frerichs (Chico/Ca: Scholars Press, 1985), 93-115.

Neufeld Dietmar, ”The Quest for the Messiah,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 57(1995): 604-605.

Painter John, The Quest for the Messiah: The History, Literature and Theology of the Johannine Community, ed. 2 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1993).

Reinhartz Adele, ”The Johannine Community and its Jewish Neighbours: A Reappraisal,” in What is John? Literary and Social Reading of the Fourth Gospel, II, ed. Fernando F. Segovia (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998), 111-138.

Reinhartz Adele, ”Woman in the Johannine Community: An Exercise in Historical Investigation,” in A Feminist Companion to John, II, ed. A.-Jill Levine and M. Blickenstaff (Cleveland/OH: The Pilgrim Press, 2003), 14-32.

Renserberg David, Johannine Faith and Liberating Community (Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1988).

Segovia Fernando F., „`And They Began to Speak in Other Tongues:' Competing Paradigms in Contemporary Biblical Criticism,” in Reading From This Place, I: Social Location and Biblical Interpretation in the United States, ed. Fernando F. Segovia and Mary Ann Tolbert (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995), 1-31.

Smalley Stephen, John: Evangelist and Interpreter (Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1978).

Staley Jeffrey L., The Print's First Kiss: A Rhetorical Investigation of the Implied Reader in the Fourth Gospel. Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series 82 (Atlanta: Scholars, 1988).

Townsend John, ”The Gospel of John and the Jews: The Story of a Religious Divorce,” in Antisemitism and the Foundation of Christianity, ed. Alan Davies (New York: Paulist Press, 1979), 79-97.

Tsuchido Kiyoshi, ”Tradition and Redaction in John 12:1-43,” New Testament Studies 30(1984): 609-619.

Van der Horst Pieter, ”The Birkat Ha-Minim in Recent Research,” Expository Times 105(1994): 367-368.

Von Aberle M., „Über den Zweck des Johannesevangelium,” Theologische Quartalschrift 42(1861): 37-94.

Wansbrough Henry, „The Quest for the Messiah,” Journal of Jewish Studies 48(1996): 101-102.

Published
2020-03-30
Section
Articles