The use of Moses traditions in the Gospel of John: a contribution to John's use of the Old Testament

摘要

This thesis investigates the ways in which Moses traditions are used in the Gospel ofudJohn. The term "Moses traditions" is meant to refer to the stories connected with theudperson of Moses in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Later developmentsudof these traditions are taken into account, if they are relevant to John's use of Mosesudtraditions.udThe study addresses three areas of concern: First, the literary context and narrativeudsignificance of each instance of a use of a Moses tradition in John's Gospel isudinvestigated. Secondly, the probability of the suggested links to the Old TestamentudVorlagen is assessed. It is argued that in many cases the identification of a suggestedudlink cannot be strictly separated from the interpretation of the link. Thirdly, theudtheological significance of each suggested link is presented. It is argued that the mostudsignificant theological inference from the use of Moses traditions in John is theudsociological function of the christological use of Moses traditions. Although Mosesudtraditions are used to illuminate the person of Jesus, the function of that use is time andudagain to define the identity of Christian believers in relation to mainstream Judaism.udThe introductory chapter presents a short survey of scholarly work on John's use ofudthe OT. It also tackles the details involved in detecting and interpreting OT allusions inuda NT text. Finally, it discusses the explicit use of the name "Moses" in John's Gospeludand establishes the thesis of the sociological function of the use of Moses traditions.udChapter Two discusses the use of Sinai traditions in John 1 and 2. It is argued thatudEx 33-34 provides the crucial OT background to Jn 1: 14-18, and that Ex 19-24udilluminates several details of John 1: 19-2: 11.udChapter Three follows the use of Passover traditions throughout the whole Gospel.udIt is argued that Passover traditions serve mainly to illuminate aspects of Jesus' death.udChapter Four presents the use of wilderness traditions in John 3 and 6-8. Audmultifaceted picture emerges that includes a variety of ways in which wildernessudtraditions are evoked. Also, an excursus is added that discusses the question of howudJohn's use of the OT affects the theological value of the OT revelation.udChapter Five tackles several instances in which the prophet like Moses is evoked orudin which Moses and Jesus are compared as persons. Chapter Six summarizes the mainudresults of the study.