The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

ENNO E. POPKES 301
However, it offers hardly any aids for understanding the parts of the
Gospel of John that deal with conflicts between Johannine Christians and
Jewish opponents. I discuss this fundamental difference in the next passage,
which will also show the importance of a religious-historical comparison
with the writings from Qumran for understanding the Gospel of
Thomas and the Gospel of John.
4. ABOUT THE DIFFERING APPROACHES
TO A THEOLOGICAL HERITAGE
4.1. The Relationship of John and Thomas to Qumran
In the previous paragraphs I discussed indicators that argue for the conclusion
that the groups behind the Gospel of Thomas and that of John had
contact with each other or were rivals. Against this background I can
explain a marked difference between these early Christian writings: they
address the Old Testament and early Jewish roots of Christianity in a
completely different way. Since the discoveries at the Dead Sea have considerably
enriched our knowledge of the early Jewish intellectual world
at the outset of early Christianity, we need to study them to ascertain
how far religious-historical comparisons with the Qumran texts are relevant
for interpretating the Johannine writings or the Gospel of Thomas.
4.2. On the Religious-Historical Comparison Between the Texts
from Qumran and the Gospel of John
The writings from Qumran are a milestone for the religious-historical
placement of the Gospel of John. A multitude of pronounced links in language
and motifs have caused many scholars to assume the possibility of
a direct or indirect contact between the Qumran and the Johannine
communities. 44 The decisive relevance of the writings from Qumran for
44. On the scholarly debate and on the outline of points of comparison in terms
and motifs, see, e.g., James H. Charlesworth, “A Critical Comparison of the Dualism
in 1QS III:13–IV:26 and the ‘Dualism’ Contained in the Gospel of John,” in John and
Qumran (ed. J. H. Charlesworth; London: Chapman, 1972), 76–106; idem,
“Reinterpreting John: How the Dead Sea Scrolls Have Revolutionized Our
Understanding of the Gospel of John,” BRev 9 (1993): 18–25, 54; idem, “The Dead
Sea Scrolls and the Gospel according to John,” in Exploring the Gospel of John: In Honor
of D. Moody Smith (ed. R. A. Culpepper and C. C. Black; Louisville: Westminster John