Description
This study holds that the fourth evangelist adopted and combined various traditions in chapters 11 and 12 into a single, unified eschatological statement, separately and specially conceived, as a complex literary and theological hinge of Johns Gospel, a bridge between Christs ministry to the world and his ministry to his disciples. The extent and unity of this statement has been disguised by the tendency to apply to John a pericopean mentality suitable for the Synoptics but foreign to John. When John 11 and 12 are viewed as a single, eschatological statement, an analysis of its three dominant literary forms (plot structure, sign and dialogue structure, and narrative dramatic structure) can help establish that the passage of 10:40-12:50 constitutes a tightly-knit literary unity. John shapes Jesus final discourse, 12:44-50 primarily as the natural conclusion of his eschatological statement, and secondarily as a summary of chapters 1-12 because the insertion of 11 and 12 is itself designed as the climax and summary of chapters 1-12. This new interpretation gives the passage a tight and comprehensive fit with the whole of Johns Gospel.
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