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

308 THE DIFFERING APPROACH TO A THEOLOGICAL HERITAGE
basic intention of these motifs in the Prologue: The light came into the
darkness, and the darkness could not overcome the light (1:5b, 10a).
Instead, the light continues to shine and illuminates every human being
(1:5a, 9b). 62 John the Baptist also witnesses to this light by which “all”
shall come to believe (1:7).
The Gospel of John takes up these light-metaphorical motifs of the
Prologue and develops them in various narrative contexts (cf., e.g.,
3:19–21; 5:35; 8:12; 9:4–5; 11:9–10; 12:35–36, 46). The orientation
toward universal salvation becomes particularly visible when Jesus calls
himself the “light of the world” (8:12). As mentioned above, it is possible
to see 8:12, against the background of the Johannine scriptural
hermeneutic, as a rendition of various traditions of the Old Testament
and early Judaism. One of these traditions is the predication of the
Suffering Servant of God as “light of the nations” (Isa 42:6c), who is to
bring justice and salvation until the end of the world (42:1d, 4b; 49:6;
52:13 LXX; 60:3; etc.). 63 Thus, the Gospel of John takes up this fundamental
theological trait of universal salvation from Deutero-Isaiah and
develops it.
Furthermore the self-predication of Jesus as the “light of the world” corresponds
to the professions of John the Baptist and the Samaritans ( John
1:29; 4:42). 64 In these contexts people who had previously been faced
62. Grammatically and in terms of content, it remains open whether John 1:9c
refers to Jesus or to “all men”; on the debate, see Theobald, Die Fleischwerdung des
Logos, 191–92, esp. 232–33; and Otfried Hofius, “Struktur und Gedankengang des
Logos-Hymnus in Joh 1:1–18,” in Johannesstudien: Untersuchungen zur Theologie des vierten
Evangeliums (ed. O. Hofius and H.-C. Kammler; WUNT 88; Tübingen: Mohr
Siebeck, 1996), 1–23, esp. 8–9. On the one hand, elsewhere the Gospel of John refers
only to the coming of Jesus into the world (6:14; 9:39; 11:27; 16:28; 16:27–28; in
3:19 and 12:46, even in a light-metaphorical context; correctly Wengst,
Johannesevangelium, 1:56). On the other hand, if “coming into the world” refers to “all
men,” it corresponds to the universal statements of John 1:29; 3:16–17; 4:42; 8:12;
etc.
63. Cf. e.g., Frey, “Heiden—Griechen—Gotteskinder,” 228–68, esp. 256–58;
Hartwig Thyen, “Ich bin das Licht der Welt: Das Ich- und Ich-Bin-Sagen Jesu im
Johannesevangelium,” JAC 35 (1992): 19–42, 38; Hartmut Gese, “Der
Johannesprolog,” in Zur biblischen Theologie (BEvT: ThAbh 78; Munich, 1977),
152–201, esp. 192–93.
64. These titles, seen in the dramaturgic flow of the Fourth Gospel, are confessions
by John the Baptist (1:29) and the Samaritans (4:42). However, the Johannine letters
at the same time prove them to be confessions of the Johannine community (cf. 1
John 2:2; 4:14). Furthermore, in the Hellenistic background of the honorary title
“savior,” the epiphany of the savior could also be described by light metaphors. Cf.
Franz Jung, SWTHR: Studien zur Rezeption eines hellenistischen Ehrentitels im Neuen Testament
(NTAbh 39; Münster: Aschendorff, 2002), 140–42.