the-bible-and-the-dead-sea-scrolls

126 A STUDY IN SHARED SYMBOLISM AND LANGUAGE
17. Hence, John 15–17 was probably added by someone (perhaps the
Evangelist himself) in a “second edition” of the Gospel.
The clinching argument in favor of this hypothesis is the recognition
that chapters 15 through 17 appeal for unity. John 15 uses the image of
the vine and urges the reader to remain grafted onto the true vine, which
is Jesus. John 17 is Jesus’ appeal to God that his disciples be one: “I do
not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through
their word, that they may all be one” (17:20). These words make best
sense in light of the sociological rift in the community. The Fourth
Evangelist (or a later editor) has Jesus appeal to the members of the
Johannine community, probably calling on all of them to avoid a schism,
or to heal the schism.
We should note, as Bultmann demonstrated long ago, that the
Prologue, John 1:1–18, is probably a hymn once chanted in the community
and now added to the Gospel for the purpose of clarifying Jesus’ origins
(eschatology becomes protology) and that Jesus had clearly come in
the flesh (1:14). Bultmann noted that the most striking parallels to the
Logos-hymn are found in the Odes of Solomon. 91 After the discovery of the
Dead Sea Scrolls and the recovery of the Greek version of Ode 11, Michel
Testuz concluded that the Odes were composed by an Essene. 92 Jacob
Licht, among others, acknowledged the strong links between the Odes
and Qumran. 93 Jean Carmignac and I suggested, with different nuances
and insights, that the author was a “Christian” who may once have been
an Essene. 94 Conceivably, this author completed his compositions
within, or in the environs of, the Johannine School. 95 No other early
work except the Odes refers so frequently to Jesus as “the Word.” And this
terminology is best known to us from John 1:1–18; but the attempts to
prove that the Odes depend on the Fourth Gospel have not proved
persuasive to most experts. As Smith reported, “The many affinities with
the Odes of Solomon, which partly overlap with those of Qumran, are
not easily explained as the result of the Odist’s use of the Johannine
91. Bultmann, The Gospel of John, 13–18.
92. Michel Testuz, ed., Papyrus Bodmer X–XII (Cologne: Bibliotheca Bodmeriana, 1959).
93. Jacob J. Licht, “Solomon, Odes of,” EncJud 15 (1971): 114–15.
94. Jean Carmignac, “Un qumrânien converti au christianisme: L’auteur des Odes
de Salomon,” in Qumran-Probleme: Vorträge des leipziger Symposions über Qumran-Probleme
vom 9. bis 14. Oktober 1961 (ed. H. Bardtke; Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften
zu Berlin, Schriften der Sektion für Altertumswissehschaft 42; Berlin: Akademie-
Verlag, 1963), 75–108; James H. Charlesworth, “Les Odes de Salomon et les manuscrits
de la Mer Morte,” RB 77 (1970): 522–49.
95. See James H. Charlesworth, “Qumran, John and the Odes of Solomon,” in John
and the Dead Sea Scrolls (ed. J. H. Charlesworth et al.; Crossroad Christian Origins
Library; New York: Crossroad, 1991), 107–36.