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 Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen
m m Neuen Testament 2. Reihe
Herausgegeben von
JZirg Frey, Martin Hengel, Otfried Hofius
 Cornelis Bennema

The Power of Saving Wisdom

An Investigation of Spirit and Wisdom in Relation
to the Soteriology of the Fourth Gospel

Mohr Siebeck
CORNELIS BENNEMA,born 1964; 1995 BA in Theology at London Bible CollegelBrunel University,
London; 2001 Ph.D. in London; since 2002 Lecturer o f New Testament Studies at SAIACS
(South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies) in Bangalore, India.

Die Deutsche Btbliothek - CIP-Einhertsaufnahme

Bennema. Cornelis:
The power of saving wisdom : an investigation of spirit and wisdom in
relation to the soteriology of the fourth gospel IComelis Bennema. -
Tubingen : Mohr Siebeck, 2002.
(WissenschaAliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament : Keihe 2 ; 148)
ISBN 3-16-147746-4

O 2002 by J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), P.O. Box 2040, D-72010 Tobingen

This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by
copyright law) without the publisher's written permission. This applies particularly to reproduc-
tions, translations, microfilms and storage and processing in electronic systems.

The book was printed by Druck Partner Robelmann GmbH in Wemsbach on non-aging paper and
bound by Buchbinderei Schaumann in Darmstadt.

Printed in Germany.
 For n v Fn'end
who laid down his life for me
to give me life
(John 6.51; 15.13)
 Preface

During my second year as an undergraduate student in theology at London

Bible College, my view of the gift of the Spirit as a 'second blessing'
dissolved rapidly when I was challenged by Max Turner's lectures on the
teaching and ministry of Jesus. Nevertheless, my interest in the Spirit,
dating prior to my undergraduate studies, only intensified. Consequently, I
started to research the role of the Spirit in John's Gospel under Professor
Turner's supervision, resulting in a thesis for which I was awarded with a
Ph.D. by Brunel University (UK) in June 2001. This book is a slightly
revised version of my doctoral thesis.
My research has inevitably been more extensive than what is included
in this thesis. Attention is drawn particularly to two articles which further
substantiate or develop parts of the argument contained within it. I have
investigated the Jewish wisdom literature of the OT and the
intertestamental period (ITP)as a whole, and the results of this have been
presented in C. Bennema, 'The Strands of Wisdom Tradition in
Intertestamental Judaism: Origins, Developments and Characteristics',
TynB 52 (2001) 61-82. I have also examined the moment, nature and
significance of the gift of the Spirit in the Fourth Gospel, and its findings
will appear in C. Bennema, 'The Giving of the Spirit in John's Gospel -
A New Proposal?', EvQ 74 (forthcoming, 2002).
Two studies, which came to me at a late stage, partly overlap with my
chapter 3, which deals with John's overall soteriology (S. Hamid-Khani,
Revelation and Concealment of Christ: A Theological Inquiry into the
Elusive Language of the Fourth Gospel [WUNT II/120; Tiibingen: Mohr
Siebeck, 20001; J.G. van der Watt, Family of the King: Dynamics of
Metaphor in the Gospel according to John [BIS 47; Leiden: Brill, 2000)).
However, I arrived at my own understanding of John's soteriology,
independently - and had presented the main parts of my analysis on
John's soteriology in two papers prior to the publication of their works:
'Spirit & Salvation in the Fourth Gospel' at Aberdeen University, 17
September 1999, and 'An Introduction to and a Model of Johannine
Soteriology' at London Bible College, 26 June 2000.
Some further minor points deserve mention. First, due to space
restrictions, the footnotes do not contain an exhaustive list of references,
but 'merely' show interaction with key protagonists. Second, my spelling
of the term 'judgment' is perhaps more conventional in strictly legal
VIII Preface

contexts, but since the Fourth Gospel has forensic connotations, this
spelling is used throughout, whether or not the cotext has specifically
'forensic' overtones. Third, in this study I have preferred the phrase 'the
Father and S o n ' t o 'the Father and the S o n ' i n order to emphasize the
oneness and intimacy of their relationship, i.e., our formulation means 'the
Father-and-Son' in an even tighter relationship than would be implied by
'the Father and the Son'. Fourth, with regard to the use of models (see ch.
3 section 7), I recognize that a model is, by its very nature, an abstraction
of reality (in order to assist in understanding reality), and hence a
simplification; I hope it will not prove an over-simplification. Finally,
biblical references and quotations in English are taken from the NRSV
unless specified otherwise.
I would like to express my thanks to several people and organisations
that have contributed in the completion of this work.
First of all, I am greatly indebted to Professor Max Turner, who
supervised this work in thesis form, for his guidance, competence, patience
and support. His probing has challenged and stretched me in my
understanding both of research and of John.
I am also grateful to the community of London Bible College for having
provided a stimulating intellectual and spiritual environment, and for
having offered the opportunity to be a tutor for two years.
I would like to thank my fellow-members of the 'Greek Club' (Annette
Glaw, Desta Heliso, Andre Munzinger and Volker Rabens) for their
friendship, support and stimulating discussions.
I want to express my deep appreciation to the Laing Trust, my
homechurch 'de Ark' in Holland, Perivale Mission Church in London and
to many friends for their financial generosity over the years, which enabled
me to do my research.
I want to thank Dr Mohan Uddin, Mr David Wallington and Ms Helen
Wright for proofreading various parts of my work.
I am also very thankful to my parents for bringing me up in a Christian
home and for their unwavering support throughout my life.
I am especially grateful to Professor Dr Jorg Frey who read and
accepted this work for publication in the WUNT I1 monograph series, and
to Herr Dr Georg Siebeck and the staff of Mohr Siebeck in Tiibingen for
all their assistance.
Above all, I would like to thank God for his inspiration, guidance,
strength and joy in my research. My greatest desire is that this work will
please God and be acceptable to him.

Cornelis Bennema

December 200 1
 Table of Contents

Preface .........................................................................................................................
VII
List ojAbbreviations .................................................................................................... XI1

Chapter 1
Introduction ..................................................................................................................1
1. Rationale, Aim and Task ........................................................................................1
2 . Overview of Contemporary Johannine Scholarship ..............................................1
2.1. Salvation ........................................................................................................2
2.1.1. Salvation ............................................................................................. 2
2.1.2. Faith .................................................................................................. 10
2.1.3. Salvation and Realized Eschatology ................................................ 12
Excursus 1: A Post-Easter Hermeneutic and a Pre-Easter Reality? .... 15
2.2. W/wisdom and Salvation ............................................................................18
2.2.1. Jesus as, and in Relation to, Wisdom ................................................ 18
2.2.2. Knowledge/Wisdom .......................................................................... 23
2.3. Spirit, Salvation, W/wisdom .....................................................................25
2.4. Conclusion .............................................................................................3 2
3. Thesis ..................................................................................................................
35

Part I
The Conceptual Background to
John's Pneumatic Wisdom Soteriology

Chapter 2
Spirit. Wisdom and Salvation in Sapiential Judaism .......................................42
1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 42
2. Overview of Scholarship ......................................................................................44
3. Proverbs...............................................................................................................51
4. Sirach .................................................................................................................. 55
5. Wisdom of Solomon ............................................................................................61
6. Philo ................................................................................................................71
7. Qumran ................................................................................................................ 83
8. Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 92
Excursus 2: IIvcijpcr - A Conceptual Relation of Some of Its Senses in the LXX . 97
 Table of Contents

Part I1
John's Pneumatic Wisdom Soteriology

Chapter 3
An Introduction to and a Model of Johannine Soteriology ...........................102
1. Introduction ......................................................................................................1 0 2
2 . The Fourth Gospel - Some Pertinent Introductory Issues .................................103
3. A Thematic and Conceptual Approach to the Johannine Soteriological
Language ........................................................................................................... 110
3.1. The Identity and Mission of the Father and Son and Their Relationship .... 112
3.2. People's Perception of and Responses to Jesus .......................................... 124
3.3. People in Relationship with the Father and Son ......................................... 135
3.4. Discipleship ............................................................................................... 139
4 . The Role of Belief in Salvation ...................................................................... 142
4.1. Belief and the Cross ..................................................................................143
4.2. Belief and Signs .........................................................................................145
5. The Role of Jesus as Wisdom in Salvation .........................................................148
6 . The Role of the Spirit in Salvation .....................................................................149
7 . A Model of John's Pneumatic Wisdom Soteriology ........................................... 151
8. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 157

Chapter 4
Spirit. Wisdom and Salvation in Jesus' Ministry (Jn 1-12) .......................... 160
1. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 160
2 . The Spirit upon Jesus ......................................................................................... 160
2.1. Jesus Endowed with the Spirit ....................................................................161
2.2. Jesus Speaks the Words of God .................................................................. 164
2.3. The Significance of the Spirit upon Jesus .................................................. 165
3 . The Spirit and Salvation -The Spirit as a Life-Giving Cognitive Agent .......... 167
3.1. Entrance into Salvation -The Birth of the Spirit ..................................... 168
3.2. The Offer of Living Water ..................................................................... 181
3.3. The Spirit Gives Life ...........................................................................196
4 . Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 208

Chapter 5
Paraclete. Truth and Salvation after Jesus' Departure (Jn 13-1 7) ............213
1. Introduction ......................................................................................................-213
2 . The Concept of the Paraclete ............................................................................. 215
2.1 . The Meaning and Background of the Paraclete .........................................2 1 6
2.2. The Paraclete and Jesus ............................................................................. ,219
3 . The Paraclete and Salvation - The Soteriological Functions of the Paraclete ...22 1
 Table of Contents XI

3.1. The Paraclete as the Means of a Relationship-Friendship with the Father

and Son ......................................................................................................221
3.2. The Paraclete as 'Spirit of Tltruth' .............................................................225
3.3. The Paraclete as TeacherRevealer ..........................................................228
3.4. The Paraclete as Advocate ....................................................................... 234
3.5. The Availability of Salvation ..................................................................... 242
3.6. Conclusion ...............................................................................................2 4 3
4 . The Paraclete as a Life-Giving Cognitive Agent ................................................244
4.1. The Paraclete as a Life-Giving Cognitive Agent in Relation to the
Disciples/Believers ....................................................................................244
4.2. The Paraclete as a Life-Giving Cognitive Agent in Relation to the World . 246
5. Conclusion .........................................................................................................
247

Part I11
Conclusions and Recommendations

Chapter 6
Conclusions and Recommendations ................................................................... 250
1 . Conclusions .......................................................................................................
250
Excursus 3: An Outline of Aspects of the Sitz im Leben of the Johannine
Community ........................................................................................................251
Excursus 4: An Evaluation of the Continuity between Our Models of Salvation
in Sapiential Judaism and in the Fourth Gospel ................................................. 253
2 . Recommendations for Further Research .............................................................255

Appendices 257

Appendix 1
The Soteriological Language of the Johannine Literature: Occurrences .258

Appendix 2
The Soteriological Language of the Johannine Literature: Statistics ........262

Bibliography ...........................................................................................................264
Index of References ..................................................................................................... 282
Index of Authors ...........................................................................................................
303
Index of Subjects ..........................................................................................................
308
Index of Greek Words...................................................................................................316
 List of Abbreviations

General abbreviations and abbreviations of periodicals, series, lexicons

and publishers follow the rules of IA TG* (S.M. Schwertner, lnternationales
Abkurzungsverzeichn~fu'rTheologie und Grenzgebiete [Berlin-New York:
Walter de Gruyter, 1992~1).The following abbreviations are used in
addition to or where they differ from the I A T G ~ .

BCE Before Common Era

BIS Biblical Interpretation Series
CE Common Era
CUP Cambridge University Press
DSS Dead Sea Scrolls
ITP Intertestamental period
IVP Inter-Varsity Press
JPT Journal of Pentecostal Theology
JPT.S Journal ofPentecostal Theology Supplement Series
NIV New International Version
NRSV New Revised Standard Version
NSBT New Studies in Biblical Theology
OBS Oxford Bible Series
OUP Oxford University Press
RSV Revised Standard Version
SAP Sheffield Academic Press
SBL.SBS Society of Biblical Literature Sources for Biblical Study
TDNT G. Kittel and G. Friedrich (eds.), Theological Dictionary of
the New Testament (10 vols.; Transl. G. Bromiley; Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964-76)
TrinJ Trinity Journal
UMI University Microfilms International
WBC Word Biblical Commentary
 Chapter 1

Introduction

1. Rationale, Aim and Task

Salvation is one of the most fundamental concepts of the Christian faith.
Questions, such as 'What is salvation?', 'How does one enter into
salvation?' and 'How does one stay in salvation?', must be answered
adequately in order to understand the Christian faith. To these important
questions we add an additional one, namely, 'What is the role of the Spirit
in all this?'. We will examine the Fourth Gospel to address these questions
and look especially at the concept of W/wisdom because we have found
this concept to be significant in explaining the relationship between Spirit
and salvation.' Scholars have made significant contributions in the areas of
John's understanding of the Spirit, of salvation and of Wlwisdom, but in
general these three areas have not been related or synthesized. The task of
this study, therefore, is an investigation of the relationship between the
pneumatology and soteriology of the Fourth Gospel along the lines of
Wlwisdom, i.e., an examination of the interrelationship between the
Johannine conceptions of Spirit, salvation and Wlwisdom, in order to
elucidate John's Pneumatic Wisdom Soteriology. Before we can outline
more precisely our strategy, however, we need to examine recent
Johannine scholarship concerning the questions and issues that we have
raised.

2. Overview of Contemporary Johannine Scholarship

In this section we shall examine the scholarly contribution towards: (i) the
Johannine concept of salvation in general; (ii) Jesus as, and in relation to,
Wisdom, and the relationship between W/wisdom and salvation; (iii) the
relationship between Spirit, salvation and W/wisdom. Moreover, scholars'

' The term 'Wisdom' will be used to denote the personification of an attribute of God;
in all other cases we will use 'wisdom' (e.g., to express that which God or Wisdom
possesses, gives or mediates).
2 Chapter I :Introduction

views will be presented in accordance with and in direct proportion to their

importance and contribution to our agenda. The originality of this survey
lies in its focus on how, i.e., the extent to which, scholarship has (or has
not) provided an adequate synthesis.
2.1. Salvation
This subsection has three foci: John's concept of salvation in general, the
role of faith in salvation, and the realized dimension of salvation in Jesus'
ministry.
2.1.1. Salvation
Our agenda consists of four leading questions. How is salvation depicted in
John? What or who leads to and maintains this salvation? What is the place
of the cross in salvation? How is salvation mediated?
Cullmann argues that for John salvation is fellowship with the exalted
Lord, which is created and maintained through the sacraments because
they actualize the presence of the exalted Lord among the community of
be~ievers.~ Dodd also interprets salvation relationally, in that eternal life is
the personal (comm)union of the believer with Jesus by mutual indwelling,
reproducing the archetypal mutual indwelling of Father and
Contrary to Cullmann's view of salvation through the sacraments stands
Bultmann's concept of salvation through reve~ation.~ For Bultmann, the
starting-point is the human quest for self-understanding, which results in
the quest for God because of the human existential inclination to ~ o d . '
Salvation, then, is the reception of authentic self-understanding - the
understanding of one's own personal existence in relation to God, namely,
that a person is created by God - which results in the transition into
eschatological existences6 This salvation, i.e., this authentic self-
understanding and its consequent transference into this new mode of
eschatological existence, can only be received through faith in the
0. Cullmann, Early Chrrstrun Worship (Transl. A.S. Todd and J.B. Torrance;
London: SCM Press, 1953) 37-38, 58, 117-19. Cf. R.E. Brown, The Gospel according to
John: Introduction, Translation, and Notes (AncB 29; 2 vols.; London: Chapman, 197 1 )
1:507; R. Schnackenburg, Thc Gospel according to St John (3 vols.; London: Burns &
Oates, 1968-82) 1:525.
'C.W. Dodd, The fnterpr~.tationof the Fourth Gospel (Cambridge: CUP, 1953) 194-
97, 397-98. Cf. Schnackenburg, Gospel, 2:355-56; S.C. Barton, The Spirituality of the
Gospels (London: SPCK, 1992) 1 15- 18.
'For R. Bultmann the sacraments play no role in John, and were introduced into the
text by an ecclesiastical redactor (Theology of the New Testament [2 vols.; Transl. K.
Grobel; London: SCM Press, 1952, 19551 2:9, 58-59).
'R. Bultmann, Jesus Christ and Mythology (New York: Scribner's, 1958) 50-53.
R. Bultmann, The Gospel of John: A Commentary (Transl. G.R. Beasley-Murray;
Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 197 1) 44-60; idem, Theology, 2:20-2 1, 75-78.
 Salvation 3

revelationl~evealer.~ The locus of salvation, according to Bultmann, is the

incarnation rather than the crucifixion, since Jesus' death has no salvific
role but is merely the completion of the 'work' (of revelation) that began
with the incarnation. Hence, salvation is mediated by revelation and John
has no concept of an atoning sacrifice for sins.8 However, we may ask
whether self-understanding as the primary salvific concept arises out of the
text of the Fourth Gospel or out of Bultmann's existentialist hermeneutic.
Passages such as John 3.14-16; 14.6-7; 17.3-8 seem to indicate that a
saving understanding is primarily an authentic understanding of (the
identity and mission of) the Father and Son rather than an authentic self-
understanding. Moreover, Bultmann does not really describe how this
salvation or eschatological existence can be maintained?

' Bultmann, Gospel, 53-59.

Bultmann, Theology, 2:48, 52-55; idem, Gospel, 467-68, 472, 624. For Bultmann,
release from sin will not come through Jesus' death but through (the 'truth' mediated by)
Jesus' word (Theology, 2:55). E. Kiisemann also denies the centrality of the cross to
salvation by reducing the cross to a mere transitional stage in Jesus' return to the Father
(The Testament of Jesus: A Study of the Gospel of John in the Light of Chapter 17
[Transl. G. Krodel; London: SCM Press, 19681 10, 17- 18). The main difference between
Bultmann and Kasemann is that Bultmann, taking o&pt in 1.14a as starting-point,
interprets the cross in the light of the incarnation, and Kkemann, focusing on 66ca in
1.14b, interprets the cross in the light of Jesus' glorification and return to the Father.
Both Bultmann and Kiisemann have their disciples: Muller and Nicholson are disciples of
Kiisemann (U.B. Miiller, 'Die Bedeutung des Kreuzestodes Jesu im Johannesevangelium:
Erwagungen zur Kreuzestheologie im Neuen Testament', Kerygma und Dogma 2 1 [I 9753
49-71; G.C. Nicholson, Death as Departure: The Johannine Descent-Ascent Schema
[SBL.DS 63; Chico: Scholars Press, 19831 141-44, 163-66). whereas Loader, who will be
presented below, is Bultmann's disciple (cf. W.G. Kummel, The Theology of the New
Testament: According to Its Major Fitnesses Jesus - Paul -John [Transl. J.E. Steely;
London: SCM Press, 19741 296-98). Besides Bultmann's incarnation- and Kasemann's
glorification-hermeneutic, Bornkamm is the classical representative of a third
hermeneutical perspective, namely to interpret the Fourth Gospel from a post-Easter
perspective in which the Paraclete-sayings are the hermeneutical key (G. Bornkamm,
'Der Paraklet im Johannesevangelium' in G. Bornkamm [ed.], Geschichte und Glaube I
[Gesammelte Aufsiitze Band 111; Munchen: Kaiser, 19681 68-89 [esp. 88-89]; idem, 'Zur
Interpretation des Johannes-Evangeliums: Eine Auseinandersetzung mit Ernst Kiisemanns
Schrift "Jesu letzter Wille nach Johannes 17"' in G. Bornkamm [ed.], Geschlchte und
Glaube I [Gesammelte Aufsltze Band 111; Miinchen: Kaiser, 19681 104-21 [esp. 114,
117)). For our hermeneutic concerning the Fourth Gospel, see excursus 1, below.
At the heart of Bultmann's existential approach to revelation is the DasslWas
distinction: the Fourth Gospel only presents the Dass of the revelation but not its Was
(Theology, 2:66). Contra Bultmann, G.R. O'Day proposes to approach the concept of
revelation by the category of Wie, i.e., the 'how' or mode of revelation (Revelation in the
Fourth Gospel: Narrative Mode and Theological Claim [Philadelph~a: Fortress Press,
19861 44-46). For a critique of O'Day, see W.[R.G.] Loader, The Christology of the
Fourth Gospel: Structure and Issues (BET 23; Frankfurt: Verlag Peter Lang, 1989) 138;
4 Chapter I: Introduction

T. Muller agrees with Bultmann on the prominence of the theme of

revelation in the Fourth Gospel, but he criticizes Bultmann's concept of
the content of revelation being merely that Jesus is the Revealer.
According to Miiller, the content of revelation includes knowledge of the
nature and work of the Father and son." Contra Bultmann, Muller sets out
to prove that the cross is central or integral to salvation and that Jesus'
death is an expiatory and vicarious sacrifice for sin." However, Miiller's
case is not very strong: Miiller admits, for example, that John does not
view Jesus' death as a priestlylcultic act nor does he consider it to establish
reconciliation with God; it is actually not clear, Muller says, in what sense
Jesus' death is a sacrifice and hence can only be called a 'sacrifice' in a
broad sense.I2
Forestell, whose objective is to isolate the properly Johannine theology
of salvation, agrees with Bultmann that salvation is mediated by
revelation, but, like Muller, disagrees that Bultmann has gratuitously
reduced the concept of revelation to the simple recognition by man of his
status as a creature before ~ 0 d . For
I ~ Forestell, revelation has as its object
the identity of the Father and Son and their mutual relationship, and as its
aim the communication to people of eternal life, namely, that life which
the Father has in himself, which he has given to the Son and which the Son
offers to people.'4 Salvation, then, is the possession of eternal life, i.e., the
entrance into a dynamic communion of mutual knowledge and love which
exists between the Father and ~ 0 n . This
I ~ salvation/communion is fostered
and maintained by obedience to Jesus' wordslcommandments and the
reception of the eucharist.I6 Forestell partly adopts Cullmann's concept of
the sacraments being the locus of salvation, and essentially argues for a
'two-stage* model of salvation: faith sup lemented by (the external
expression of this faith in) the sacraments." According to Forestell, the
cross is both revelatory and salvific in that it is: (i) the exaltation and

J. Ashton, Understanding the Fourrh Gospel (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991) 549 n.53,
552-53.
lo T. Miiller, Das Heilsgeschehen Im Johunnesevangelium Eine exegetische Studie,
zugleich der Versuch etner Anrworr art Rudolf Bulrmann (Zurich: Gottheif-Verlag, 1961)
13-38, 135-36. Cf. Ashton, Undersranding, Part I11 (esp. pp.5 15-53).
" Miiller, Heilsgeschehen, esp. 38-75.
Miiller, Heilsgeschehen, 56-57, 110, 114, 124 n.402. For a more convincing
defence of Jesus' death as an objective atonement for sin, see the works of Turner and
Knoppler mentioned in n.27, below.
" J.T. Forestell, The Word of the Cross: Salvation as Reveluraon in the Fourth Gospel
(Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1974) 2, 14- 18, 190.
l4 Forestell, Word, 17, 57, 1 14.
" Forestell, Word, 1 13, 1 17, 122, 196-97.
Forestell, Word, 122.
" Forestell, Word, 139-46.
 Salvation 5

glorification of Jesus; (ii) the culmination of Jesus' revelatory work in that

the cross is the supreme revelation of God's love for people; (iii) both a
symbol of the gift of eternal life and the means whereby the sources of
divine life are finally opened for people.'8 Forestell concludes that the
cross in John is evaluated in terms of revelation rather than in terms of a
vicarious and expiatory sacrifice for sin.I9 Thus, Forestell argues, with
Muller, against Bultmann, that the cross is central or integral to salvation,
but agrees with Bultmann, against Miiller, that the cross is no objective
atonement for sins."
Loader, who has also been strongly influenced by Bultmann, remains
much more Bultmannian than Forestell by arguing that Jesus' death is: (i)
not an act of vicarious or sacrificial atonement for sin (agreed by
Forestell); (ii) only revelatory but not salvific, i.e., the cross does not add
anything soteriologically (contra Forestell); (iii) not only the completion of
Jesus' work of revelation but also its climax. Jesus' death is not only das
Ende but also die Wende (turning point); it marks the start of the 'greater
event' which results in 'greater things' (see section 2.3, below) (beyond
Bultmann, Kasemann et al.).*'
Concerning the place of the cross in salvation, virtually everyone
(except Bultmann, KHsemann, Loader and a few others)22accepts that the
cross is integral or climactic to salvation.23 However, there is some
division about whether or not Jesus' death is an expiatory sacrifice for
sins. At one end of the spectrum, besides Forestell, scholars such as Dodd,
Barrett and Appold also deny a vicarious or expiatory interpretation of
Jesus' death.24At the other end of the spectrum we find, besides T. Muller,

l 8 Forestell, Word, 73, 10 1 , 1 13, 19 1-92. Cf. R.T. Fortna, The Fourth Gospel and Its
Predecessor: From Narrative Source to Present Gospel (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1989)
274-83.
l9 Forestell, Word, 165-66, 19 1 .
20 See Forestell (Word, 1-2, 75-76, 191) for a critique of Muller.
Loader, Christology, 93-135. Nevertheless, Loader observes that John knows and
makes incidental, illustrative and confessional use of traditions of vicarious atonement
(Christology, 102, 135).
" E.g., Kiimmel, U.B. Muller, Nicholson, M. de Jonge, Jesus: Stranger from Heaven
and Son of God: Jesus Christ and the Chrislians in Johannine Perspective (SBL.SBS 1 1 ;
edited and translated by J.E. Steely; Missoula: Scholars Press, 1977) 2 10.
For additional names, see T. Kniippler, Die theoiogia crucis des
Johannesevangeliums: Das Verstfindnis des Todes Jesu im Rahmen der johanneischen
Inkarnations- und Erhohungschristologie (WMANT 69; Neukirchen-Vluyn:
Neukirchener Verlag, 1994) 8- 18.
" Dodd, Inferpretation, 233; C.K. Barrett, The Gospel according to St John: An
Introduction with Commentary and Notes on the Greek Text (London: SPCK, 19789 8 81 ;
M.L.Appold, The Oneness Motif in the Fourth Gospel: Motif Ana[vsis and Exegetical
Probe into the Theology ofJohn (WUNT 1111; Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1976) 273-74.
6 Chapter I: Introduction

scholars such as Schnackenburg, Kohler, Carson, Beasley-Murray et al.,

who do believe that Jesus' death is centrallintegral to salvation as well as
an expiatory and vicarious ~acrifice.~'In between there are various
positions.26 However, the most convincing defence of the cross as an
expiatory sacrifice and objective atonement for sin has been put forward
by Turner, who critically evaluates the views of Forestell (and Bultmann),
and especially by Knoppler, who has written the most extensive and recent
monograph on John's theology of the cross.27Nevertheless, even if it were
not possible to decide decisively on the atoning nature of Jesus' death in
the Fourth Gospel, it seems, against Bultmann, Kasemann and Loader, that
the consensus of Johannine scholarship reflects at least that the cross is not

'' Schnackenburg, Gospel, 1:157-58; H. Kohler, Kreuz und Menschwerdung im

Johannesevangelium: Ein exegetisch-hernteneutischer Versuch zur johanneischen
Krewestheologie (AThANT 72; Zurich: Theologischer Verlag, 1987) 144, 199-201, 27 1-
72, passim (holding the concepts of oript and 66ta together, Kohler creates a via media
between Bultmann's incarnation-christology and Kiisemann's glorification-christology,
and argues that Jesus' death is the crucial salvific event); D.A. Carson, The Gospel
according to John (Leicester: IVP, 1991) 97, 152-53, 295, 386-87, 422, 567; G.R.
Bcasley-Murray, John (WBC 36; Milton Keynes: Word, 1991) Ixxxiv-lxxxv, 51; idem,
Gospel of L@: Theology in the Fourth Gospel (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1991) 36-58; J.T.
Williams, 'Cultic Elements in the Fourth Gospel' in E.A. Livingstone (ed.), Studia
Biblica 1978: If. Papers on the Gospels (JSNT.S 2; Shcff~reld:JSOT Press, 1980) 339-50;
G.L. Carey, 'The Lamb of God and Atonement Theories', TynB 32 (1981) 97-122; B.H.
Grigsby, 'The Cross as an Expiatory Sacrifice in the Fourth Gospel', JSNT 15 (1 982) 5 1-
80; L. Morris, 'The Atonement in John's Gospel', Criswell Theological Review 3 (1988)
49-64; J.W. Pryor, John: Evangelist of the Covenant People. The Narrative & Themes of
the Fourth Gospel (Downers Grove: IVP, 1992) 168-73; J.P. Heil, 'Jesus as the Unique
High Priest in the Gospel of John', CBQ 57 (1995) 729-45.
The main intermediate positions are: (i) the issue whether Jesus' death is an
expiatory sacrifice for sin is not addressed (J. Riedl, Das Heilswerk Jesu Nach Johannes
[Freiburg: Herder, 19731; M.M. Thompson, The Incarnate Word: Perspectives on Jesus
in the Fourth Gospel [Peabody: Wendrickson, 19881 ch. 4); (ii) agnosticism (W.K.
Nielsen, 'John's Understanding of the Death of Jesus' in J. Nissen and S. Pedersen [eds.],
New Readings in John: Literary and Theological Perspectives. Essays from the
Scandinavian Cotlference on the Fourth Gospel Arhus 1997 [JSNT.S 182; Sheffield:
SAP, 19991 232-54); (iii) the concept of Jesus' death as an atoning sacrifice is only
secondary (W. Thusing, Die Erhohung und Verherrlichung Jesu im Johannesevangelium
[Munster: Verlag Aschendorff, 19702] 31-33; A.J. Hultgren, Christ and Hls Benefits:
Christology and Redemption in the New Testament [Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 19871
149-50; Ashton, Understanding, 490-501); (iv) the idea of atonement appears only in the
latest redaction of the Gospel (M.C. de Boer, Johannine Perspectives on the Death of
Jesus [Kampen: Kok, 19961 279-80).
''M.[M.B.] Turner, 'Atonement and the Death of Jesus in John - Some Questions to
Bultmann and Forestell', EvQ 62 (1990) 99-122; idem, The Holy Spirit and Spiritual
Gifts - Then and Now (Carlisle: Paternoster, 1999 [rev. cdn]) 71-75; Knoppler,
Theologia, esp. chs. 2 and 9. Knoppler (like Kohler) does not develop a theology of
salvation but limits himself to formulating a theology of the cross.
 Salvation 7

merely centrallintegral to the Johannine concept of salvation but also

climactic and constitutiona~.~~
A more complete outline of Johannine soteriology is presented by
Carson, in which he also highlights further responsibilities demanded by
faith, such as obedience, love for one another, perseverance, witness,
prayer - in short, aspects of discipleship.29However, Carson's model is
dominated by the divine sovereignty-human responsibility tension, and
does not deal with the process of coming to salvation nor with the Spirit's
soteriological role.30 Motyer also gives brief attention to the important
issue of discipleship in order to answer the question of what leads to
salvation. He argues that not all faith leads to life, and that the Fourth
Gospel consequently presents a two-stage model of salvation: first one
comes to believe that Jesus is the Christ; then, if this faith is supplemented
by discipleship, it will lead to life.-" However, we may ask whether Motyer
does not virtually create a false dichotomy between faith and discipleship,
as if faith and discipleship are subsequent (complementary) stages leading
to life. Although other scholars have elucidated the Johannine concept of
discipleship to a greater extent, they have not (adequately) related it to the
soteriology of the Fourth ~ o s ~ e lAn . ~exception
* is Pazdan"~study, which

*"his has become evident especially through the work of Forestell (Word, 58-102)
and Kniippler.
29 See D.A. Carson, 'Predestination and Responsibility: Elements of Tension-
Theology in the Fourth Gospel against Jewish Background' (Cambridge: Ph.D.
dissertation, 1975) eh. 5; idem, Divine Sovereignry and Human Respon.~ibility: Biblical
perspectives in tension (London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 198 1) ch. 12.
"O G.R. Osbome has a similar agenda to Carson's ('Soteriology in the Gospel of John'
in C.W. Pinnock [ed.], The Grace of God, the Will of Man: A Case for Arminianism
[Michigan: Academic Books, 19891 243-60).
" S. Motyer, Your Father the Devil?: A New Approach to John and 'the Jews'
(Carlisle: Paternoster, 1997) 58-61. Cf. R.A. Culpepper, Anatomy ofthe Fourth Gospel:
A Study in Literary Design (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987) 116.
'* E.g., de Jonge, Jesus, ch. 1; F.F. Segovia. Love relationship^ in the Johannine
Tradition: AgaptVAgapan in I John and the Fourth Gospel (SBL.DS 5 8 ; Missoula:
Scholars Press, 1982); idem, "'Peace I Leave with You; My Peace I Give to You":
Discipleship in the Fourth Gospel' in F.F. Segovia (ed.), Discipleship in the New
Testament (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985) 76- 102; idem, The Farewell ofthe Word:
The Johannine Call to Abide (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991); R.F. Collins, These
Things Have Been Written: Studies on the Fourth Gospel (Louvain: Peeters Press, 1990)
ch. 2; D.F. Tolmie, Jesus' Farewell to the Disciples: John 13:l-17:26 in Norratological
Perspective (BIS 12; Leiden: Brill, 1995); D.R. Beck, The Di~cipleship Paradigm:
Readers and Anonymous Characters in the Fourth Gospel (BIS 27; Leiden: Brill, 1997);
D. Kim, 'The Church in the Gospel of John' (Cambridge: Ph.D. dissertation, 1999) 107-
24.
8 Chapter I: Introduction

presents discipleship in the Fourth Gospel as the appropriation of

salvation.33
Most scholars so far have allowed a relational aspect to salvation
(Cullmann, Dodd, Bultmann, Forestell), but a few scholars have a more
explicit relutional soteriology. Loader's objective is to identify the central
structure of Johannine christology (like Bultmann), and then, on this basis,
to integrate the wider issues of the Fourth Gospel, especially s o t e r i o ~ o ~ ~ . ~
Loader argues that the central structure of Johannine christology is the
revealer-envoy model, which is essentially that Jesus is sent by the Father,
to reveal the Father, to bring salvation, and consequently to return to the
ath her.^' Besides Bultmann's influence on Loader's formulation of John's
christology, Loader is also strongly influenced by him in the formulation
of John's soteriology. Agreeing with Bultmann's insight that the content of
Jesus' revelation is not the giving of information (kein Cl"as,nur ein blojes
Duss), Loader argues that the revealer-envoy model is modified by John
and used as a means of epiphany, encounter and invitation to a relationship
with the Son and the ath her.^^ The saving event then is the Son's coming to
reveal the Father, not by imparting information but, on the basis of his
intimacy with the Father, by calling people into a saving relationship with
himself and the Father, and so salvation comes in response to this
revelation-encounter-invitation.j7Thus, the primary focus in the modified
revealer-envoy model is life-giving encounter; the primary focus in John's
soteriology is life in relationship with the Son and the ~ather?%oader's
soteriology also includes a cognitive element: a saving relationship
includes right understanding (=belief) of who Jesus is, namely, that the
Son is the sent one, has a unique relationship of oneness with the Father,
and speaks and acts for him (cf. Bultmann's 'knowing' faith)?9 However,
the question of how this right understanding will come about remains
untouched (also by Bultmann).

33 M.M. Pazdan, Discipleship as the Appropriation oJEschatologicol Salvation in the

Fourth Gospel (University o f St. Michael's College: Ph.D. dissertation, 1982; Ann
Arbor: UMI, 1998). She argues that: (i) the basis for discipleship is belief in Jesus; (ii)
the heart of discipleship is formed by the mutual relationships of knowing, loving and
abiding between Jesus and the disciples; (iii) the tasks of discipleship, which foster these
developing relationships, are to hear and keep Jesus' word, and to seek and find him (see
Discipleship, chs. 2-4). Pazdan only investigates the nroscljw cic-construction.
Loader, Christology, 19.
'' Loader, Christology, 20-92.
Loader, Christology, 136-4 1,206,228.
" Loader, Chrisrology, 135-4 1, 147,228.
'' Loader, Christology, 206.
9' Loader, Christology, 14 1-43.
 Salvation 9

Thompson argues that (eternal) life or salvation is a share in God's own

life and received in a continuous and dynamic relationship with God,
through the mediation of God's life by ~ e s u sThompson
.~ draws attention
to John's stress on the necessity of faithfulness (as expressed by pCvo): if
eternal lifelsalvation is knowing God, namely, fellowship with God, then it
demands a continual, ongoing, mutual relationship. Eternal life is not
something that one has as a gift apart from connection with the ~ i v e r . ~ '
Although Thompson rightly draws attention to the issue of how salvation
can be maintained, the issues of how people enter into this saving
relationship with God, and how God's life is mediated through Jesus to
people are not raised.
For Harner, eternal life is to 'know' God and Christ; not simply to have
an intellectual understanding of them but actually to be in a living
relationship with them." Faith, then, is a response to divine revelation, and
allows believers to enter a new relationship of heightened spiritual
perception and ongoing life.43
Ford approaches salvation from the angle of friendship with God: from
a feminist perspective, she looks at the pathos of friendship and
investigates whether redemption can be expressed in terms of restoration
of friendship with ~ o dFord . ~sees~ a Greek and Hebraic idea of friendship
woven into the fabric of the Prologue, which sets the tone for the entire
Gospel; it is the friendship of the Father and Son who seek a symbiosis
with This symbiosis, which results in a new mode of
relationshiplexistence, is accomplished through the concept of the
incarnation and of rebirth. The Logos, functioning as friend and
embodiment of covenantal 'ton, mediates this saving fbn to his special
friends so that they attain, by way of a new birth, an intimate and filial
relationship with (and in) the ~ o d h e a dHowever,
.~~ Ford daes not work out
either how people enter into this saving relationship with God, or how this
saving TOR is mediated by Jesus to people. Neither does she hint at how
this friendship with God is maintained, unless she might use her image of
Jesus as a breast-feeding mother for the growing child as the solution to

'O M.M. Thompson, 'Eternal Life In The Gospel Of John', Ex Auditu 5 (1989) 40-42.
" Thompson, 'Life', 41,46-47.
" P.B. Harner, Relation Analysis ofthe Fourth Gospel: A Study in Reader-Response
Criticism (New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1993) 6 1-62.
43 Warner, Relation, 46.
44
J.M.Ford, Redeemer - Friend and Mother: Salvation in Antiquity and in the
Gospel of John (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997).
See Ford, Redeemer, ch. 7.
46 Ford, Redeemer, 1 1 3.
10 Chapter I : Introduction

this;47 but then, growing children surely do not need breast-feeding

forever.
Examining the metaphorical language of the Fourth Gospel, van der
Watt argues that John's metaphors are best understood within the macro
family metaphor; the metaphors of birth and life, for example, denote
respectively how one becomes a member of the family of God, and how
one exists within the divine family.48
2.1.2. Faith
Virtually everyone agrees that faith is the primary (if not sole) means of
attaining eternal lifelsalvation, but there is no consensus about what leads
to full salvific faith (i.e., is faith staged or progressive?) nor about the
relationship between faith and signs.
For Cullmann, a faith which is based exclusively on physical seeing
(and hearing) is not true faith, but must be followed by a deeper, spiritual
~nderstanding.~~ Bultmann follows a similar line, and argues that faith, as
the only way to salvation, proceeds from 'hearing'and 'seeing' and calls
for decision, but is genuine only insofar as it is a knowing faith; signs-faith
is just a first tentative step toward Jesus which has yet to prove itself as
genuine faith." For Bultmann, the cognitive element of salvation/eternal
life - knowing faith - is nothing more than the (ac)knowledge(ment)
that God is revealedlknown through the son.'' Bultmann briefly mentions
further that enuine faith needs to be continuous and needs to illustrate
discipleship. 8,
Some scholars develop a more explicitly staged model of faith. Fortna
presents two stages of faith: (i) signs-faith is genuine faith, although Jesus'
miracles as a basis for faith are ambiguous; (ii) faith-without-seeing, i.e.,
faith not dependent on signs, is a superior form of faith and can be reached

47
Ford, Redeemer, 124-35.
""J.G. van der Watt, Fumily of the King: Dynamics of Metaphor tn the Gospel
according to John (BIS 47; Leiden: Brill, 2000) ch. 3.
.'P Cullmann, Worship, 40-47.
50 Bultmann, Gospel, 69 n.4; 13 1 , 434-35; idem, Theology, 2:7 1-78. Cf. W. Nicol, The
SZmeia in the Fourth Gospel: Tradition and Redaction (NT.S 32; Lciden: Brill, 1972)
99- 106; Appold, Motir, 98-99; Loader, Christology, 14 1-42; J . Painter, The Quest for the
Messiah: The History. Literature and Theology of the Johannine Community (Edinburgh:
T&T Clark, 1 9 9 3 ~4) 1 1 ;Pazdan, Discipleship, 1 17.
''Bultmann, Gospel, 494-95.
''Bultmnnn, Gospel, 434, 698-99; idem, Theology, 2:73, 79; idem, 'I*rvdo~u, KTL' in
TDNT, I:712. Cf. Schnackcnburg, Gospel, 1 :566.
 Faith 11

in progressive stages.53Forestell and Kysar present independently a similar

staged model in the genesis of faith: (i) an openness to God as a
disposition to faith (Forestell) or as an embryonic faith ( ~ ~ s a r (ii) );~~
signs-faith - faith which requires signs to keep it going - which should
lead to (iii) true or mature faith about the person of Jesus and his
relationship with the Father on the basis of Jesus' word, and which does
not require signs any more.55Although these scholars in general agree that
John does not depreciate signs-faith, they do not (adequately) explain
whether John thinks signs-faith is partially salvific, nor how one can move
from one level to the next.
Koester's case, on the other hand, is that signs-faith cannot be
understood as a first step towards genuine faith; those whose initial
perception of Jesus was based on seeing regularly failed to come to true
faith, but those who manifested a genuine faith, did so after an initial
experience of hearing.s6 at her, the signs confirmed and were perceived by
a faith that had been engendered through hearing?7
Contrary to all these positions, Twelftree provides the most substantial
defence for the view that Jesus' words and signs are an equally valid basis
for faith. Twelftree entirely rejects any view of progressive stages of faith,

s3 R.T. Fortna, 'Source and Redaction in the Fourth Gospel's Portrayal of Jesus'
Signs', JBL 89 (1970) 156-66; idem, Gospel, 240-50. Cf. Brown, Gospel, 1530-31;
Schnackenburg, Gospel, 1523-24, 570-72; Collins, Things, ch. 10; Carson, Gospel, 99-
100. G. Ziener finds this view of faith, namely, a faith that is based only on God's word
as that which is really expected from disciples, already in Wis. ('Weisheitsbuch und
Johannesevangelium [II]', Bib 39 [I9581 55-57).
'* Forestell calls this disposition the gift or the drawing of God (Word, 1 1 1).
Bultmann, however, argues against a deterministic view by stating that the Father's
drawing of a person and the believer's decision of faith are simultaneous events
(Theology. 2:23). R. Kysar defines embryonic faith as the openness to the possibility of
God's reality and activity (John The Maverick Gospel [Louisville: Westminster John
Knox Press, 1993 (rev. edn)] 84).
" Forestell, Word, 70-71, 106-1 1; R. Kysar, The Fourth Evangelist and His Gospel:
An examination of contemporary scholarship (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1975) 69-73;
idem, John, 79-86. Kysar's model is most explicit, and, like Bultmann, he argues that the
basic experiences of sensory perception are a prerequisite for faith perception (John, 86-
90). Kysar goes even further by arguing that John appeared to be partly responsible for
the beginning of a gradual shift in the early church from a relational understanding of
faith towards a creedal understanding of faith (John, 92-95). However, this is perhaps
somewhat anachronistic and too speculative. Moreover, Kysar's model seems to rest on a
false dichotomy of the Johannine usage of nroscijw (nrortijw with a 871-clause over
against, e.g., nrorcijw c i with
~ the accusative [John, 93-94]).
56 C.[R.] Koester, 'Hearing, Seeing, and Believing in the Gospel of John', Bib 70
(1989) 327-48. Cf. G.E. Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament (Cambridge:
Lutterworth Press, 1993 [rev. edn]) 3 10.
" Koester, 'Hearing', 332, 348.
12 Chapter I: Introduction

and his thesis is that authentic faith can be based on either Jesus' words or
on his signs.58Faith that recognizes the true identity of Jesus, whatever the
basis of that faith - seeing the signs, hearing the words, or witnessing the
risen Lord - is sufficient for s a ~ v a t i o nThe
. ~ ~ signs alone are adequate for
salvation and a full understanding of ~ e s u sNevertheless,
.~ although signs-
faith may be authentic, would it be adequate? Can people really perceive
the true identity of Jesus and penetrate his revelation on the basis of signs
only, or do people obtain only partial or fractured images of Jesus?
Other scholars have concentrated more on the responses of people to
Jesus and his revelation rather than on the concept of faith itself, and
proposed various taxonomies or typologies of faith-responses.61
2.1.3. Salvation and Realized Eschatology
Virtually everyone agrees that John's soteriology has a realized dimension,
i.e., for John eternal lifelsalvation is a present reality (without denying a
possible future consumrnati~n),~~ but there is disagreement about when this

''
See G.H. Twelfiree, Jesus The Miracle Worker: A Historical & Theological Study
(Downers Grove: IVP, 1999) chs. 7-8. Cf. de Jonge, Jesus, ch. 5; Y . Ibuki, 'Viele
glaubten an ihn - Auseinandersetzung mit dem Glaubcn im Johannesevangelium ---',
Annual of the Japanese Biblical Institute 9 (1983) 128-83 (esp. 142); W.J. Bittner, Jesu
Zeichen im Johannessevangelium: Die Messias-Erkennmis im Johannesevangelium vor
ihrem judischen Ilintergrund (WUNT 11126; Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1987) 259-90;
Thompson, Word, ch. 3 (esp. pp.75, 80, 86); Motyer, Father, 58-59. Ibuki is actually
very sceptical about the possibility of genuine faith: he concludes, e.g., that ntorerio has
from the outset by no means a positive meaning, but denotes frequently a Scheinglaube
or even CJnglaube ('Viele', 140-4 1, 144). See also F.L. Crouch, who understands signs
(miraculous and non-mimculous) as public acts that lead to, maintain or deepen belief
(Everyone Who Sees the Son: Signs, Faith, Peirce's Semeiothics, and the Gospel of John
[Duke University: Ph.D. dissertation, 1996; Ann Arbor: UMI, 19971).
59 Twelfiree, Jesus, 232. Nevertheless, Twclflree admits that faith based on Jesus'
words is the ultimate form of faith-response to Jesus (Jesus, 23 1-32, 342-43).
60 Twelflree, Jesus, 233.
6' Brown, Gospel, 1:530-31; F.J. Moloney, 'From Cana to Cana (John 2:l-4:54) and
the Fourth Evangelist's Concept of Correct (and Incorrect) Faith' in E.A. Livingstone
(ed.), Studia Biblica 1978: 11. Papers on the Gospels (JSNT.S 2; SheMield: JSOT Press,
1980) 185-213; idem, Belief in the Word - Reading the Fourth Gospel: John 1-4
(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993); Culpepper, Anatomy, 146-48; Barton, Spirituality,
128-30; M.W.G. Stibbe, John 's Gospel (London: Routledge, 1994) 124. Nonetheless,
Culpepper could also arrange the faith-responses into a hierarchy of various stages ('The
Theology of the Gospel of John', Review and Expositor 85 [I9881 426-27).
Only Bultmann (Theology, 2:37-39, 57-58, 79), Kiisemann (Testament, 16-17) and
Fortna (Gospel, 289-91) defend an exclusively present eschatology. Due to his existential
worldview, Bultmann historizes or demythologizes eschatology and rules out future
eschatology; the incarnation is the eschatological event, and Easter, Pentecost and the
parousia are not separate but one single (chronological) event. Many scholars, however,
have reacted against, e.g., Bultmann's exclusively present eschatology and defended the
 Salvation and Realized Escha~ology 13

eternal lifelsalvation became available. That is, was eternal lifelsalvation

already available during Jesus' ministry (and if so, how) or only after
Jesus' death and r e s ~ r r e c t i o n ? ~ ~
The vast majority of scholars and commentators hold that eternal
lifelsalvation only became available after the cross (and resurrection)? To
the question whether salvation was possible during Jesus' earthly ministry,
Bultmann, for example, would answer that the believer's eschatological
existence can only be facilitated by a genuine faith-relationship with the
exalted Jesus (through the S irit), which would only be possible after
Jesus' death and resurrection! Forestell also believes that (the goods of)
salvation, namely, the communion of life with the Father and Son, was not
available to people prior to Jesus' death on the c r o ~ s However,
.~ if,
according to Forestell, the cross is merely a revelation of God's love, why
is it that salvation can only be bestowed after the cross?' Nevertheless,
some scholars do recognize and account for the apparent (partial) presence
of the availability of life/salvation within Jesus' ministry. They interpret
those statements in the Fourth Gospel that suggest such a reality either
proleptically/symbolically(of what would become available only after the

presence of future eschatology in the Fourth Gospel (e.g., D.E. Holwerda, The Holy
Spirit and Eschatology in the Gospel of John: A Critique of Rudo(f Bultmann 's Present
Eschatology [Kampen: Kok, 19591 126-33; 0. Cullmann, Salvation in History [London:
SCM Press, 19671 268-9 1; Forestell, Word, 1 19, 126-34; cf. Schnackenburg, Gospel,
1:159-60; Beasley-Murray, Gospel, 5-6).
63 Although J.C. Davis' article ('The Johannine Concept of Eternal Life as a Present
Possession', Restoration Quarterly 27 [ 19841 16 1-69) sounds promsing, he does not
address the issue whether eternal life could already be experienced during Jesus'
ministry. Neither do Thompson and Ford discuss whether a saving relationship with God
was already possible during Jesus' ministry. Thiising finds the question of whether
salvation was already available in Jesus' ministry irrelevant (although he thinks salvation
is only available after the cross) (Erhohung, 161-64).
64 Cullmann, Worship, 40, 47; Dodd, Interpretation, 372, 383, 386, 398, 437-38;
Brown, Gospel, I:cxviii, 507, 531; Riedl, Heilswerk, 35-36, 408,419,425-426 n.44, 428;
Barrett, Gospel, 68, 80, 229, 233-34, 237; Schnackenburg, Gospel, 1:523-24; 2:353;
G.M. Burge, The Anointed Community: The Holy Spirit in the Johannine Tradition
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987) 116, 149; Kohler, Kreuz, 146; Carson, Gospel, 202 (cf.
idem, Sovereignty, 178-79); Beasley-Murray, John, 50-5 1; idem, Gospel, 4, l I, 50-56;
Painter, Quest, 387-88, 4 11- 15; Knoppler, Theologia, 107-10, 159-60.
65 Bultmann, Theology, 2:42, 85; idem, Gospel, 467, 619-20, 691. Loader wrongly
gives the impression that Bultmann thought eternal life was already available before
Easter (Christology, 13-16).
66 Forestell, Word, 19, 98, 100, 1 19, 191-92.
67 Turner, 'Atonement', 115-16.
 14 Chapter I : Introduction

cross) or from a post-Easter perspective (to indicate the reality in the post-
Easter s i t ~ a t i o n ) . ~ ~
Only a few scholars argue that salvation was a reality already possible
during Jesus' earthly ministry.69T. Miiller distinguishes between the time
before and after Easter: after Easter, salvation comes on the basis of Jesus'
atoning death; before Easter, there was a unique and unrepeatable situation
in which eternal life was given in encounter and fellowship with ~esus."
Fortna holds that salvation was already available during Jesus' ministry
because salvation came with the arrival of the Messiah; salvation is
inaugurated in Jesus' public mini~try.~' However, both Miiller and Fortna
fail to explain how salvation could be available during Jesus' ministry
when they maintain that the cross was the soteriological focal point and the
climax of Jesus' mission.72Twelftree, stating that the signs are the centre
or heart of Jesus' life-giving ministry and adequate for sa~vation;~seems
to imply that salvation was already fully available during Jesus' ministry,
and hence, that the cross does not add anything s o t e r i o l ~ g i c a l l ~ ? ~
Porsch, whose main interest is Johannine pneumatology, nevertheless
developed a two-stage model of salvation, in which (i) during Jesus'
ministry partial salvation or beginning faith is offered to people in the form
of Jesus' revelatory word, but (ii) only after Jesus' glorification would this
faith be perfected/completed.75 Loader argues that the gift of life,
salvation, is centred not in events but in the person of Jesus, and hence
fully available already before the cross.76 The revealer-envoy model has,

Dodd, Interpretation, 372; Brown, Gospel, 1:cxviii; Riedl, Heilswerk, 17-23;

Barrett, Gospel, 68, 80, 229, 233-34, 237; cf. Painter, Quest, 4 12-15; de Jonge, Jesus, 16.
69 J.C. Thomas probably also implies the presence of salvation in Jesus' ministry
(Foorwashing in John 13 and the Johannine Community [JSNT.S 61; Sheffield: JSOT
Press, 199I] 105).
Miiller, Heilsgeschehen, 24-25, 32-33, 132, 138-39.
7' R.T. Fortna, 'From Christology to Soteriology: A Redaction-Critical Study of
Salvation in the Fourth Gospel', lnterp 27 (1973) 33-34, 37, 44-45; idem, Gospel, 252-
57, 286.
'* Miiller, Heilsgeschehen, 38-75; Fortna, 'Christology', 45; idem, Gospel, 282.
" Twelftree, Jesus, 199,235-36.
Although Twelftree interprets Jesus' death and resurrection as life-giving, he does
not seem to attribute any objective salvific significance to the cross. Jesus' death and
resurrection, reduced to a mere (although the largest and clearest) 'sign', are effectively
put on the same footing as the other life-giving miracles in Jesus' ministry (Jesus, 203,
224, 227, 339-43). Consequently, Twelftree seems to imply that salvation before and
after Jesus' glorification was equally available and of the same qualitative calibre.
''F. Porsch, Pneuma und Wort: Ein exegetischer Beitrag zur Pneumatulogie des
Johannesevangeliums (FTS 16; Frankfurt: Knecht, 1974) 66-72, 144. Porsch's two-stage
model of salvation is essentially derived from his two-stage model of the gift of the Spirit
(see section 2.3).
76 Loader, Christology, 129.
 Excursus 1: A Post-Easter Hermeneutic and a Pre-Easter Reality? 15

by its very structure, little place for a soteriological significance to be

attributed to Jesus' death and no need of a vicarious and sacrificial
atonement, because life is in the person of the Son and in relationship with
him, and nothing more needs to be done.?? Koottumkal's objective is to
discover the life-giving dimension of Jesus' word in the Fourth ~ o s ~ e l . ? ~
Although Koottumkal acknowledges the availability of eternal life already
during Jesus' ministry because Jesus is the source of life and his word is
salvific,19 he is not clear about how this could be possible. Turner has a
similar model to Porsch's. During Jesus' ministry partial faith was
possible, but authentic Christian faith became a reality only after Jesus'
glorification through death, resurrection and the gift of the Spirit. In Jesus'
ministry people could already have 'j3retastes'lexperiences of the life
which was only fully available afier Jesus' glorification.80Turner describes
the disciples' coming to salvation as a process, which started in Jesus'
earthly ministry and which reached its climax in the gift of the
How salvation can be (partially) available during Jesus' ministry and in
the time after, is explained by Porsch, Loader, Koottumkal and Turner in
their understanding of the role of the Spirit in salvation, which also
constitutes the main difference between them (see section 2.3, below).
Excursus 1: A Post-Easter Hermeneutic and a Pre-Easter Reality?
If Bornkamm is right that the Fourth Gospel should be interpreted from a post-Easter
pneumatological perspective (see n.8, above), then the question could be raised whether
an investigation into the availability of lifelsalvation and the work of the Spirit prior to
the cross (as this study endeavours to do) is at all relevant. If the pre-Easter reality can
only be perceived through post-Easter spectacles, then to make a differentiation between
pre- and post-Easter realities with regard to the Spirit and salvation may seem irrelevant
(if not impossible). Hence, we will make some preliminary remarks and observations in
order to clarify our herrneneutical perspective on the Fourth Gospel.
We agree, with Bornkamm et al., that the Fourth Gospel (including Jesus' earthly
ministry and the work of the Spirit prior to the cross) is written from a post-Easter
perspective (as are the Synoptics). John's post-Easter perspective was provided by the
Paraclete, especially through the Paraclete's anamnesis and guidance into all truth (see

Loader, Christology, 206-207.

" S. Koottumkal, Words of Eternal Life: An Exegetical-Theologicoi Study on the L f i -
giving Dimension of the Word of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel (Rome: Pontificia
Universitas Gregoriana, 1995). Koottumkal's thesis is hardly obtainable and I was able to
gain access only to ch. 2, the most important chapter of his thesis for our study.
T9 Kootturnkal, Words, 133-37.
80
Turner, Spirit, 60-75.
'' Turner, Spirit, 98-99. Brown had already briefly hinted that the disciples' coming to
full salvific faith was a process which started during Jesus' ministry and reached its
climax after the resurrection (Gospel, 1531). See also E. Liebert, 'That You May
Believe: The Fourth Gospel and Structural Developmental Theory', BTB 14 (1984) 67-
73.
16 Chapter I: Introduction

ch. 5). Nevertheless, the Fourth Gospel seems to indicate a difference between the work
of the Spirit before and after the cross (hence the comments in Jn 7.39 and 16.7). and
between the quality and availability of salvation before and after Easter. The Fourth
Gospel seems to have differentiated between what was possible before and after the
cross, is., the Gospel retains the difference that Jesus' hour (namely, the cross-
resurrection-ascension) had made.82The issue we shall examine in our study (from the
post-Easter stance of John and his readers) is how (and to what extent) life was already
available before the cross, and what role the Spirit had in this. It seems unlikely to us, for
example, that life only became available after the cross and that John had read this back
into the time before the cross; rather, from a post-Easter, Spirit-provided perspective
John understood much more clearly what actually had happened during Jesus' earthly
ministry. Our observation after the brief overview of Johannine scholarship so far is that
the realized dimension of salvation and the Spirit's work prior to the cross need more
investigation.
While we will investigate the work of the Spirit and the availability of life before the
cross, we will not attempt to reconstruct a 'historical' account in a strict sense. In our
view, the Fourth Gospel is a theological narration from a post-Easter perspective (as are
indeed the other Gospels) (cf. the brief treatment of the genre of the Fourth Gospel in ch.
3 section 2).83 John's aim in retelling the dialogue between Jesus and, for example,
Nicodemus or the Samaritan woman, was to persuade and convince his readers not of
certain historical facts but of their significance and theological truths. However, our
presupposition is that theological truth needs a historical anchor - the existence of the
historical Jesus, the crucifixion and resurrection are necessary historical facts for
theological truth. Whether it is necessary (in order to accept the truth claim of John 3)
that Nicodemus existed, or whether it is necessary that his conversation with Jesus took
place exactly as has been recorded is perhaps more ambivalent. Nevertheless, even if
historical facts cannot be reconstructed any more, we still require a kind of narrative
plausibility: for example, we prefer to see some historical reality behind the Nicodemus
story, in that it must be plausible that such a conversation could have taken place. In our
understanding, the Fourth Gospel moves along a spectrum of a mixture of (what we
would call) 'history' and 'fiction', in which the stories about Nicodemus and the
Samaritan woman, for example, perhaps contain more fiction than the passion narrative
in John 18-19.
Looking at some scholars who have adopted Bornkamm's hermeneutical perspective
on the Fourth Gospel, it seems that such a post-Easter perspective virtually neglects (and
probably finds irrelevant), or remains (deliberately?) agnostic (so in general re^),^ or
even (implicitly) denies (so ~ o e ~ e n - ~ o hthe
l swork
) ~ ~of the Spirit and the availability of

*' Cf. J. Frey, Die johanneische Eschatologie 11: Das johanneische Zeitverstandnis
(WUNT 110; Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1998) 250-5 1,262-63,290-92.
Cf. the designation of John's Gospel as 'fictionalized history' (M.W.G. Stibbe,
John as Storyteller: Narrative criticism and the fourth gospel [SNTS.MS 73; Cambridge:
CUP, 19921 ch. 4), 'theologized history' (D. Tovey, Narrative Art and Act in the Fourth
Gospel [JSNT.S 151; Sheffield: SAP, 19971 226-27, 255), or 'history-like narrative'
(A.T. Lincoln, Truth on Trial: The Lawsuit Motg in the Fourth Gospel [Peabody:
Hendrickson, 20001 389-90).
g4 See Frey, Eschatologie 11, passim.

'' C. Hoegen-Rohls, Der nachiisterliche Johannes: Die Abschiedsreden als

hermeneutischer Schliissel zum vierten Evangelium (WUNT 11/84; Tubingen: Mohr
Siebeck, 1996) 294-95, cf. 3 10-1I). Cf. those in n.68, above.
 Excursus I: A Post-Easter Hermeneutic and a Pre-Easter Reality? 17

life in Jesus' earthly ministry prior to the cross. For such a perspective essentially
interprets all the Spirit-passages in the Fourth Gospel as post-Easter activity, i.e., the
Fourth Gospel explains the post-Easter experience of the Spirit in the believer. This could
lead to a view that the post-Easter reality is integrated into (or read back into) the pre-
Easter e ~ e n t s . ~
If this perspective were true, our question regarding the work of the Spirit and the
availability of salvation prior to the cross would indeed be irrelevant. Howcver, there are
reasons to assume that the work of the Spirit did not merely start after the cross, but is a
continuation (though in a fuller way) of those activities the Spirit was already performing
during Jesus' earthly ministry. First, the reason that Jesus can say to his disciples in John
14.16-17 that the future Paraclete would not be a stranger to them is precisely that they
already knew the Paraclete as the Spirit being active in and through Jesus (cf. ch. 5
section 3.2). Second, rather than reading a post-Easter reality back into pre-Easter events,
we suggest that John draws out the reality of the pre-Easter events from a post-Easter
Spirit-informed perspective, which was not possible before the cross." In our
understanding, the Fourth Gospel evidences the apparent reality of Jesus' pointing the
way into the kingdom of God to Nicodemus, and of Jesus' offering life-giving water and
bread to people (unless these acts were mere symbolic gestures or proleptic promises for
later). Moreover, if Jesus performed healings and other miraculous signs during his
earthly ministry, it would be reasonable to assume that people could also have had pre-
Easter experiences of the life and Spirit that were present in Jesus and his words. Hence,
rather than reading a post-Easter Spirit-experience back into the pre-Easter story in which
the Spirit was not reallytyet active (so, e.g., Hoegen-Rohls), we shall argue that the Spirit
was already active before the cross in lives of people (see ch. 4) but that John only 'saw'
this reality retrospectively through the work of the Paraclete. Third, a hermeneutical
post-Easter perspective on John as held by Bornkamm, Hoegen-Rohls, Frey et al. seems
to necessitate an interpretation of John 20.22 as the so called 'Johannine Pentecost' since
20.22 describes the post-Easter experience of the disciples and relates to the post-Easter
work of the Spirit-Paraclete (as promised, e.g., in the farewell disc~urse).~'However, we
have argued elsewhere against a 'Johannine Pentecost' and proposed that 20.22 secures
the life-giving work of the Spirit in the disciples that had already started during Jesus'
ministry.@
In conciusion, the pre-Easter reality, as presented in the Fourth Gospel, is indeed
reconstructed from a post-Easter perspective, but the Fourth Gospel also upholds a
difference between what was possible before and after the cross, and we shall merely
attempt to reconstruct what, according to the Evangelist, 'happened' during Jesus' earthly
ministry.

86
So Hoegen-Rohls, Johannes, 295, but see also Frey, Eschatologie 11, 266, 287, 298;
idem, Die johanneische Eschatologie 111: Die eschatologische Verkundigung in den
johanneischen Texten (WUNT 1 17; Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000) 486.
'' Cf. G.N. Stanton, who contends that it is often possible to show that the central
post-Easter concerns of Christian communitites have not been read back into the gospel
traditions (The Gospels and Jesus [OBS; Oxford: OUP, 19891 157).
ia Hoegen-Rohls, Johannes, 293-95 and Frey, Eschatologie 111, 176 indeed hold a
view that Jn 20.22 is the 'Johannine Pentecost'.
89 C. Bennema, 'The Giving of the Spirit in John's Gospel - A New Proposal?', EvQ
74 (forthcoming, 2002).
18 Chapter I : Introduction

2.2. F/wisdom and Salvation

The major players in scholarly discussion of Johannine soteriology -
Bultmann, Forestell, Loader - all emphasize the importance of knowledge
and understanding, i.e., they attribute a cognitive aspect to ~alvation.~'
To
explore this dimension further, we examine the study of the concept of
Wlwisdom by Johannine scholars, and how they relate it to salvation, in
order to discover to what extent this may contribute to a deeper
understanding of the precise nature of Johannine soteriology.
2.2.1. Jesus as, and in Relation to, Wisdom
Our aim is not to produce an overview of Johannine christology in general,
but to survey the concept of Jesus as, and in relation to, Wisdom. Hence,
we will focus on John's Fisdom christology, because we merely want to
explore to what extent Jesus' soteriological functions can be explained in
categories of ~ l w i s d o m . Although
~' the concept of Wisdom in the Jewish
sapiential traditions may not be the or the only conceptual background to
John's christology, many scholars have shown that the Jewish figure of
Wisdom is at least a possible and plausible background to John's
presentation of ~ e s u s Moreover,
.~~ our interest is synchronic rather than

* Other scholars we have presented so far have also looked in the direction of
Wlwisdom, as this section will reveal.
9' For surveys on the general christology of the Fourth Gospel, see, c.g., Kysar,
-
Evangelist, 107-19; Loader, Christology, 1 19; M. Scott, Sophia and the Johannine Jesus
(JSNT.S 71; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1992) 25-30; M.J.J. Menken, 'The Christology of the
Fourth Gospel: A Survey of Recent Research' in M.C. de Boer (ed.), From Jesus to John:
Essays on Jesus and New Testament Christology in Honour of Marinus de Jonge
(JSNT.S 84; Shefield: JSOT Press, 1993) 292-320; P.N. Anderson, The Christology of
the Fourth Gospel: Its Unity and Disunity in the Light of John 6 (WUNT 11/78;
Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1996) ch. 1. Both Anderson and Loader do not have a Wisdom
christology. Although Loader briefly mentions the influence of wisdom on the Johannine
Prologue, he is quick in pointing out the assumed departure of Johannine christology
from the wisdom tradition (Christology, 158, 168-69).
92 R. Harris, The Origin of the Prologue to St John 's Gospel (Cambridge: CUP, 1917);
F.-M. Braun, 'Saint Jean, la Sagesse et I'histoire' in W.C. van Unnik (ed.),
Neotestamentica et Patristica: Eine Freundesgabe, Herrn Professor D r . Oscar Cullmann
zu seinem 60. Geburtstag iiberreicht (NT.S 6; Leiden: Brill, 1962) 123-28; idem, Jean le
Thiologien (4 vols.; Paris: Gabalda, 1959-72) 4:121-42; H.R. Moeller, 'Wisdom Motifs
and John's Gospel', BETS 6 (1963) 92-100; A. Feuillet, 'The Principal Biblical Themes
in the Discourse on the Bread of Life', in A. Feuillet (ed.), Johannine Studies (Transl.
T.E. Crane; New York: Alba House, 1964) 53-128; idem, Le Prologue du quatridme
ivangile: ktude de theologie johannique (Paris: Dcsclte De Brouwer, 1968) 239-44;
Brown, Gospel, I :cxxii-cxxv, 5 19-24; R.G. Hamerton-Kelly, Pre-existence, Wisdom, and
the Son of Man: A Study of the Idea of Pre-existence in the New Testament (SNTS.MS
2 1; Cambridge: CUP, 1973) 197-2 15; E.J. Epp, 'Wisdom, Torah, Word: The Johannine
Prologue and the Purpose of the Fourth Gospel' in G.F. Hawthorne (ed.), Current Issues
 Jesus as, and in Relation to, Wisdom 19

diachronic, i.e., our aim is to discover how John's Wisdom christology

functions rather than to provide further proof for (the history of) its
conceptual background.
Our emphasis on the concept of Wisdom - rather than on 7?? or
Memra - and on the functionality of John's Wisdom christology also

in Biblical and Patristic Interpretation: Studies in Honor of Merrill C.Tenney Presented

by His Former Students (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975) 130-41; C.H. Talbert, 'The
Myth of a Descending-Ascending Redeemer in Mediterranean Antiquity', NTS 22 (1976)
42 1-22, 438-39; W. Grundmann, Der Zeuge der Wahrheit: Grundzuge der Christologie
des Johannesevangeliums (Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 1985) (the manuscript,
however, dates from before 1976); E.D. Freed, 'Theological Prelude to the Prologue of
John's Gospel', U T h 32 (1979) 257-69; H. Gese, 'The Prologue to John's Gospel' in H.
Gese (ed.), Essays on Biblical Theology (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1981) 167-222, esp.
197-222; Culpepper, 'Theology', 421-22; J. Painter, 'Christology and the History of the
Johannine Community in the Prologue of the Fourth Gospel', NTS 30 (1984) 465-68;
idem, Quest, 145-52; J. Ashton, 'The Transformation of Wisdom: A Study of the
Prologue of John's Gospel', NTS 32 (1986) 161-86; J.D.G. Dunn, Christology in the
Making: A New Testament Inquiry into the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incarnation
(London: SCM Press, 1989~)164-65, 239-45; idem, 'Let John be John: A Gospel for Its
Time' in P. Stuhlmacher (ed.), The Gospel and the Gospels (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1991) 313-20; M.E. Willett, Wisdom Christology in the Fourth Gospel (San Francisco:
Mellen Research University Press, 1992); Scott, Sophia, ch. 3; C.A. Evans, Word and
Glory: On the Exegetical and Theological Background of John's Prologue (JSNT.S 89;
Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1993); M.W.G. Stibbe, John (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1993) 23-24;
B. Witherington 111, Jesus the Sage: The Pilgrimage of Wisdom (Minneapolis: Augsburg
Fortress, 1994) 282-89, 368-80; idem, John's Wisdom: A Commentary on the Fourth
Gospel (Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 1995); P. Borgen, 'The Gospel of John and
Hellenism: Some Observations' in R.A. Culpepper and C.C. Black (eds.), Exploring the
Gospel of John: In Honor of D. Moody Smith (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press,
1996) 107-109; J.E. McKinlay, Gendering Wisdom the Host: Biblical Invitations to Eat
and Drink (JS0T.S 216; Sheffield: SAP, 1996) esp. ch. 10; M. Coloe, 'The Structure of
the Johannine Prologue and Genesis l', Australian Biblical Review 45 (1997) 40-55;
Ford, Redeemer, 115- 17; S.H. Ringe, Wisdom 's Friends: Community and Christology in
the Fourth Gospel (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1999). Others admit the
presence or influence of Jewish wisdom motifs, without necessarily or explicitly arguing
for a Jewish sapiential background: Dodd, Interpreration, 274-78 (Dodd prefers the
Hermetic literature, Philo and Rabbinic Judaism as the background of Johannine
thought); Schnackenburg, Gospel, 1:493; Forestell, Word, 30, 49, 105- 106, 116, 125-26,
142, 196, 204; Kysar, Evangelist, 118-19; T.H. Tobin, 'The Prologue of John and
Hellenistic Jewish Speculation', CBQ 52 (1990) 252-69. Before Bultmann came up with
his Gnostic Redeemer myth, he defended a wisdom background ('The History of
Religions Background of the Prologue to the Gospel of John' in J. Ashton [ed.], The
Interpretation ofJohn [Edinburgh: T&T Clark 1997'1 27-46), and even later Bultmann
admitted that '[tlhere can be no doubt ...that a connection exists between the Judaic
Wisdom myth and the Johannine Prologue' (Gospel, 22). Most of these scholars also
offer, although with variations, an explanation for why Logos is used in the Prologue,
and not Sophia. Pan of the rationale may be that Sophia and Logos became closely
related in Wis. and were used interchangeably in Philo (cf. Grundmann, Zeuge, 17-18).
20 Chapter 1:lnrroducrion

seems justified by Brown's observation that the title d k 6 y o ~may be closer

to the prophetic 313' 137,but the description of the activity of d Aciyo~is
very much like that of Hence, our survey will be dominated by
the following questions. To what extent is Jesus presented as Wisdom -
in the Prologue and in the rest of the Fourth Gospel? What is Jesus"
functional relation to Wisdom, i.e., how does Jesus act as, or similar to,
Wisdom, especially in relation to s a ~ v a t i o n ? ~ ~
Many scholars who propose the figure of Wisdom as a conceptual
background to the Johannine Jesus have limited themselves to an
investigation of the Logos hymn, but this could result in too limited a view
of John's Wisdom c h r i s t o ~ o However,
~ ~ . ~ ~ a few scholars, such as Ziener,
Braun, Moeller, Feuillet, Brown, Clark and Grundmann, have also
elucidated the presence of Wisdom christology in the rest of the Fourth
Gospel, and accentuated its functional features.96 However, what these
scholars have done is primarily to draw out the (functional) parallels
between Wisdom and Jesus, but they have not really done much more than
that.97 They have not, for example, asked why John used the figure of

93 Brown, Gospel, 1:522; cf. E. Harris, Prologue and Gospel: The Theology of rhe
Fourth Evangelist (JSNT.S 107; Sheffield: SAP, 1994) 197-98. Neverthciess, the Hebraic
conception of Word and the Targumic use of Memra might still be a possible part of the
complex conceptual background of the Logos (see, e.g., B. de Pinto, 'Word and Wisdom
in St John', Scripture 19 [ 19671 19-27).
" To what extent the Johanninc Jesus understood himself as Wisdom incarnate, see,
e.g., Brown, Gospel, 1:537-38; Witherington, Jesus, 374-75.
9' Those who merely highlight the Prologue for their understanding of Jesus as
Wisdom are, among others, R. Harris, Hamerton-Kelly, Epp, Freed, Gese, Culpepper,
Painter, Ashton, Evans, Coloe. According to Witherington, '[tlhis is a mistake, especially
if the Logos Hymn strongly shapes the way the story of Jesus is told thereafter" (Jesus,
370; cf. Dodd, Inrerprerarion, 285).
% G. Ziener, 'Wcisheitsbuch und Johannesevangelium (I)', Bib 38 (1957) 396-418;
Braun, 'Jean', 124-28; idem, Jean, 4: 12 1-27; Moeller, 'Wisdom', 92-97; Feuillet,
'Themes', 53-128; Brown, Gospel, 1:cxxiii-cxxiv; D.K. Clark, 'Signs in Wisdom and
John', CBQ 45 (1983) 201-209; Grundmann, Zeuge, ch. 1. Surprisingly, Clark, who
makes a similar case as Ziener, does not interact with him. Grundmann finds some
additional parallels to Brown between Wisdom and the Johannine Jesus in the area of
soteriology (both are portrayed as givers of life, to know WisdomlJesus results in
immortalityleternal life, and to keep Wisdom'slJesus' commandments is a necessity) and
pneumatology (both Wisdom and Jesus are empowered by the Spirit, and the reception of
the Spirit provides insight in heavenly things) (Zeuge, 18-27). McKinlay, who focuses on
the intertextual relationships of the invitations of Sophia/Jcsus to eat and drink in Prov.
9, Sir. 24 and Jn 4, has a totally different agenda from ours; her interest is in the role of
gender within these texts and its implications (Wisdom, see esp. ch. 10).
9" Grundmann's work, e.g., shows a serious discontinuity between ch. 1, where he
argues that Jewish wisdom literature (esp. Wis.) is the most important factor that
influenced the christology of the Fourth Gospel, and the rest of the chapters, where there
is merely one reference to the sapiential corpus. Although both Ziener and Clark discover
 Jesus as, and in Relation to, Wisdom 21

personified Wisdom to present Jesus, or shown where the presentation of

the Johannine Jesus dgtrers from that of Wisdom.
Other scholars go further than merely pointing to some parallels. Scott,
for example, demonstrates the reat extent to which Jesus acts as Wisdom
in the whole of John's Gospel.9' Scott is also able to explain why Sophia is
used for John's christology, namely that the concept of the Logos is used
as a vehicle to accommodate the gender switch between the female Sophia
and the male Jesus, i.e., Jesus is the incarnation of both the female and
male principles of ~ o dHowever,
. ~ ~ although Scott notices a soteriological
parallel between Sophia and Jesus - they both impart eternal
life/salvation - he does not develop it, nor does he inte rate John's
Wisdom christology with his soteriology (or pneumatology).'' Moreover,
it seems that Scott's gender-driven agenda, giving prominence to the role
of women in the Fourth Gospel (and the Johannine community), is
accomplished through a 'forced' feminine c h r i s t o ~ o ~ ~Witherington
.'~'
recognizes that John's Gospel is greatly indebted to the (Hellenistic)
Jewish wisdom tradition, and the originality of his commentary is the
attempt to read the whole of the Fourth Gospel in the light of this wisdom
tradition.'02 However, although Witherington interacts with Ziener,
Moeller, Brown, Clark and Scott, he frequently does not go beyond them.
Ringe, after identifying the Prologue as a 'Wisdom hymn', also
demonstrates that the Jewish wisdom traditions have permeated the whole
of the Fourth ~ o s ~ e l .Ringe ' ~ ~ explores the christological and
ecclesiological aspects of friendship in John against a Jewish wisdom
background, but she does not link it with John's soteriology; only Ford
sees friendship as a soteriological category (see below).

some soteriological connotations in the way Jesus' signs correspond to Wisdom's signs
in Wis. 11-19, they do not actually draw out the significance of their observations.
Willett, however, who interacts with Ziener and Clark, observes that John's Wisdom
christology is linked to the Exodus motif; the signs become acts of liberation ( Wisdom,
116-18).
" Scott, Sophia, 1 15-68.
99 Scott, ~ o p h i a170-73,244-45.
,
I00
Scott, Sophia, 134-39.
'I For Scott's agenda, see Sophia, 13-14. In his investigation of the Jewish wisdom
literature, Scott argues that Sophia is depicted as the female expression of the one God
(just as Yahweh is the traditional male expression of the one God elsewhere), and claims
that the zenith of Sophia's development is reached in Wis., where she is not pictured as
dependent upon or subordinate to but as coterminous with Yahweh (Sophia, 49-62, 81).
However, Wis. 3.10-1 1 (people despising Yahweh's Sophia) and Wis. 9.1-4 (Yahweh
created humanity by his Sophia, who sits by Yahweh's throne) seem to indicate
otherwise. Cf. Witherington for a critique on Scott (Jesus, 370 n. 102).
'02 Witherington, Wisdom, vii, passim; see also idem, Jesus, 368-80.
'03 See Ringe, Friends, eh. 4.
22 Chapter I: Introduction

Thus, only very few scholars have observed that there are wider
implications of the many parallels between John's Gospel and the Jewish
wisdom ~iterature."~Nonetheless, some scholars have tried to integrate
John's Wisdom christology with his soteriology. Talbert made a good,
though brief, start; he sees two important parallels between Wisdom and
Jesus - a pattern of ~ar&@aic-citvcgtioic and a soteriological function -
and is able to put these together under the concept of a descending-
ascending redeemer.'Os Based on John 6, Thompson is able to link John's
Wisdom christology with his soteriology via the concept of agency: (i)
Wisdom is a category of agency that allows for the closest possible unity
between the agent (Jesus as Wisdom incarnate) and sender (God); (ii)
Wisdom is envisioned as a life-giving agent; (iii) Jesus, as God's agent,
embodies God's wisdom, and hence, Jesus mediates God's life.'06 Ford
connects the Wisdom christology of the Fourth Gospel with its soteriology,
in that she perceives (i) the concept of 'friendship with God' as the
soteriological category, and (ii) Jesus as Wisdom incarnate, who came to
make people 'friends of God' through a renewal of the covenant ' r ~ n . ' ~ '
Important as this observation may be, this is virtually the only study Ford
makes of how Jesus functions as Wisdom, and then only briefly.
Willett, like Scott, notices almost the same parallels between the figure
of Wisdom and the Johannine Jesus, but is able, unlike Scott, to integrate
them with John's concept of salvation. Willett arranges the parallels
between Wisdom and Jesus under six themes - pre-existence, descent-
ascent, revelation-hiddenness, acceptance-rejection, intimacy with
disciples, glory and life - and uses the last four of these themes to sketch
John's soteriology:
Out of his intimacy with the Father, Jesus reveals the Father, just as Wisdom reveals
God out of her intimacy with God, though both are depicted as "hidden revcalers".

'M Witherington, e.g., remarks that John's pneumatology, christology and soteriology
owe something to the sapienttal corpus, but he does not pursue this (Jesus, 378-79;
Wisdom, 25-26). Cf. the conclusion of M.E. isaacs, that John's christology and
pneumatology owe something to the (Hellenistic Jewish) wisdom literature (The Concept
of Spirit: A Study of Pneuma in Hellenis~icJudaism and its Bearing an the New
testa men^ [Heythrop Monographs 1 ; Huddersfield: Charlesworth, 19761 135-38).
'05 Talbcrt, 'Myth', 421-22, 438-39. Talbert's aim is to prove that the Hellenistic-
Jewish mythology of a descending-ascending redeemer, as found in the wisdom tradition
and in Jewish angelology, served as the conceptual background for the NT presentation
of Jesus.
'06 M.M. Thompson, 'Thinking about God: Wisdom and Theology in John 6' in R.A.
Culpepper (ed.), Critical Readings of John 6 (BIS 22; Leiden: Brill, 1997) 22 1-46.
'07 Ford, Redeemer, 1 15-18. Cf. Gese ('Prologue', 205-209), who also mentions the
soteriological concept of Ton in the Prologue but who does not connect it with the
concept of friendship.
 Kno wledgelWisdom 23

The soteriological dualism of the Gospel, which divides people into two camps based
on their response to the revealer, resembles the soteriological dualism of the Wisdom
material. Those who accept Jesus form a community in which they experience
intimacy with her. Glory and life, the primary benefits which the disciples receive
from Jesus, are also the benefits which Wisdom gives to her disciples. 'O"l

Although Willett is the one who contributes most significantly towards an

integration of John's Wisdom christology and his soteriology, his model is
not complete; it may be expanded if it incorporates the Spirit and if it
explains how this intimacy with Jesus is maintained.'09
Turner is most able to integrate John's Wisdom christology with his
soteriology. He argues that Jesus, as Wisdom incarnate, provides
revelatory wisdom teaching which brings life/salvation because it contains
saving ~ i s d o m . "How
~ the content of Jesus' teaching can be salvific is
explained by Turner in terms of the Spirit being the source of this saving
revelatory wisdom (see section 2.3, below).
2.2.2. KnowledgelWisdom
The leading issue of this section is the relationship between the concept of
knowledge/wisdom and salvation. Bultmann's conception of genuine faith
is that it containslpossesses knowledge (or 'truth') of the
Revealerlrevelation ( Y L V ~ LOV KisEa constitutive element in nrort6c rv), and
that it results in life."' For Bultmann, y ~ v d o ~refers
o to the divine mode
of being, i.e., the relationship between the Father and Son, and has
primarily the sense of recognizing/understanding this unity and of
accepting the divine act of love in ~ e s u s . "However,
~ Bultmann does not
explicitly mention the locus of this knowledge nor how it can be
accessed/obtained. Moreover, Bultmann's concept of knowledge seems to
be as empty as his concept of revelation: if Jesus' revelation/word has 'no
definable content at all', except that Jesus is the ~evealer,'" then the
(content of) knowledge possessed by genuine faith is necessarily also
reduced to this fact.'14 However, Johannine passages such as 14.26, 16.13

'ol See Willett, Wisdom, ch. 2 (quotation from p. 125).

169
However, see Willett's recommendation for further research (Wisdom, 153).
110
Sce Turner, Spirir, ch. 4.
'
Bultmann, 'P'rvdoro', 1:7 13; idem, Gospel, 434-35; idem, Theology, 2:73-74, 78.
Although Bultmann has a relational concept of 'knowledge', he argues that it is built on
the y r v d o ~ t . r vof Hellenistic Gnosticism rather than derived from the Hebrew U t q , but,
unlike Gnosticism, faith and knowledge are not two distinct stages ( ' I ' L v ~ o K ~I:711-13;
',
cf. Theology, 2:74; Gospel, 367-68,380-82).
'IZBultmann, ' I ' r v d o ~ o ' , 1:711-12.
I" Bultmann, Theology, 2:63,66.
114
This seems confirmed by Bultmann's understanding of y r v d o r o primarily in terms
of perception, reception and recognition (Gospel, 55, 435,495). A related problem is that
24 Chapter I : Introduction

and 17.3 indicate a more comprehensive understanding of the identity and

mission of the Father and Son.
Other scholars could also describe salvation in terms of knowledge. For
Dodd, eternal life is or consists in the knowledge of God, which is an
apprehension of divine reality manifested in Jesus, and the awareness of a
relation of mutual indwelling of God and people."s Forestell recognizes
that true faith is a grasp of and an access to heavenly knowledge of the
Father and Son, and that eternal life, as the very life of God himself, is
realized in a communion of knowledge and of love communicated by Jesus
to the believer.'16 Barrett follows Bultmann by saying that the bestowal or
communication of knowledge (of God) results in ~ifelsalvation."~
However, in contrast to Bultmann's gnostic view of knowledge, Barrett
argues that John creates a unique fusion of the Greek understanding of
knowledge (with its emphasis on observation, objectivity and intellect) and
the Hebrew understanding of knowledge - where it is more a relational
term, in which saving knowledge is rooted in the knowledge of God in the
historical Jesus; it is therefore objective and at the same time re~ational."~
Nevertheless, questions of how and where this saving knowledge is
rooted in Jesus, and how this saving knowledge is mediated to people are
not addressed. A very few scholars have attempted to address these issues.
Barton, for example, believes that the locus of saving knowledge is the
revelation of the Father by the Son, but he does not expand upon his
view.Il9 Turner also identifies Jesus' revelatory teaching as the locus of
this saving wisdom, and he interprets saving wisdom in terms of the
authentic insight into or understanding of Jesus' revelation, especially of

Bultmann does not really explain how one acquires or comes to this
perceptionlreceptionIrecognition;Bultmann does not explain his statement that yrwjo~erv
'certainly refers to an act of cognition' (Gospel, 55 n.5). and an answer in terms of
a r o t e h (possibly Gospel, 435 n.4) would only create a vicious circle (yrwjo~wthrough
nrosc6u and nrotcdw through yrvdo~w).
Dodd, Interpreration, 169, 177-78. Cf. Schnackenburg, Gospel, 2:360. Although
Dodd's understanding of 'knowledge' is based on Bultmann's, he allows, contra
Bultmann, an interweaving of the Greek and Hebrew conceptions (Interpretation, 151-
69). Moreover, pace Bultmann, Dodd mentions that faith is the equivalent of the
knowledge of God, by virtue of equating faith with spiritual sight and knowledge of God
with vision of God (Interpretation, 165-68, 185-86; cf. Kysar, John, 91).
116
Forestell, Word, 42-43, 108, 116-17. Forestell's understanding of 'knowledge'
seems to be derived from the Jewish wisdom and apocalyptic traditions.
"'
I I8
Barrett, Gospel, 79-82, 157-58, 503.
Barrett, Gospel, 162, 504. Brown (Gospel, 1 :508) and Schnackenburg (Gospel,
1 :565-66) also emphasize the relational aspect of yrvdo~o.Kysar argues that yrvdo~wis
used exclusively in the Hebraic sense of Ut' (John, 9 1-92; cf. Ladd, Theology, 298-99).
"' Barton, Spirituality, 1 24.
 Spirit, Salvation, W/wisdom 25

his death on the cross.120According to Turner, this saving wisdom is

provided by the Spirit (see section 2.3, below).
Ford perceives Jesus as incarnate Wisdom who mediates salvation, i.e.,
restoration of friendship with God, but she uses the concept of saving 7&7
instead of saving wisd~mlknowledge.'~' Moreover, Ford does not seem to
elaborate this concept; when she goes on to present JesusfWisdom
incarnate as a breast-feeding mother, nourishing her children,'22 we might
not easily link Wisdom's nourishment with Ton.
2.3. Spirit, Salvation, W/wisdom
As indicated at the end of section 2.1.3, the main difference between
Porsch, Loader, Koottumkal and Turner lies in their understanding of the
Spirit's role in salvation. Moreover, both in the Jewish wisdom traditions
and in the Fourth Gospel, there is a close connection between the Spirit,
Wisdom (see ch. 2) and Jesus. Hence, it seems not merely legitimate but
also necessary to incorporate the concept of Spirit into our investigation.
Our agenda for this section, then, is twofold. What are the soteriological
functions of the Spirit? Has the Spirit a realized dimension, i.e., how and to
what extent was the Spirit already soteriologically active during Jesus'
earthly ministry?
Concerning the relationship between Spirit and salvation, scholars and
commentators in general do recognize that the Spirit has a salvific role in
John, but they hardly spell out this function. Moreover, on Johannine
pneumatology only five major works have been produced in the last thirty
years: those by Porsch, Ferraro, Burge, Chevallier and ~eener.".' Ferraro,
not referred to by Keener and Burge, deals with all the Spirit-passages
sequentially, i.e., in order of appearance in John (more like a commentary),
rather than thematically, and does not really integrate John's pneumatology
with his (Wisdom) christology and soteriology. Burge's aim is to elucidate

I2O Turner, Spirit,

57, 64-66,69-70,98-99.
I*' Ford, Redeemer, 1 1 3 , 1 1 8.
'** Ford, Redeemer, 124-35.
Porsch, Pneuma; G. Ferraro, Lo Spirito e Cristo nel vangelo di Giovanni (Studi
Biblici 70; Brescia: Paideia Editrice, 1984); Burge, Community; h4.-A. Chevallier,
Soufle de Dieu: Le Saint-Esprit duns le Nouveau Testament (2 vols.; Paris: Beauchesne,
1978, 1990); C.S. Keener, 'The Function of Johamine Pneumatology rn the Context of
Late First Century Judaism' (Duke University: Ph.D. dissertation, 1991; Ann Arbor:
UMI, 1992). Although the work of G. Johnston (The Spirit-Paraclete in the Gospel of
John [SNTS.MS 12; Cambridge: CUP, 19701) seems to deal with John's pneumatology
as a whole, his treatment of the Spirit in Jn 1-12, 19-20 is far from adequate (cf. Burge
[Community, 41 for an assessment of Johnston's monograph). Other dissertations on
Johannine pneumatology merely focus on one aspect of John's concept of the Spirit and
do not contribute significantly towards our objective (e.g., Holwerda, Spirit; E. Franck,
Revelation Taught: The Paraclete in the Gospel ofJohn [Lund: Gleerup, 19851).
26 Chapter I : lnrroduction

the role of the Spirit in the Johannine community according to its view
both of Jesus and of Christian experience, but he does not focus on
soteriology. One quarter of Chevallier's impressive two-volume work on
the Spirit in the NT is devoted to the Johannine literature, but Chevallier
emphasizes more the ecclesiological and missiological aspects of the role
of the Spirit-Paraclete rather than the soteri~logical.'~~ Keener focuses on
the water motif and the purification function of the Spirit, but he does not
really explain even the content of the purifying work of the Spirit, nor
what the effects and implications are for people. If he had, he would have
discovered that the purifying function of the Spirit could be explained in
terms of salvation and wisdom. Thus, the studies of Ferraro, Burge,
Chevallier and Keener do not contribute significantly to our questions.
Before we investigate Porsch's contribution, however, we need to look
first at the work of Thusing because its influence can be seen, for example,
in the works of Porsch and Loader.
Thiising's objective is to investigate the Johannine concepts of lifting up
(Erhohung) and glorification (Verherrlichung) in relation to John's
s o t e r i o ~ o ~and
~ , ' he
~ ~has also been able to integrate the Spirit into it.
Thusing presents a two-stage model of John's pneumatic soteriology: (i)
the earthly work of Jesus which culminated in his salvific death on the
cross (Erhohung); (ii) subsequently, the outworking or unfolding of die
Erh6hung in the community of believers, which is identical with the
revelatory work of the ~arac1ete.l~~ Hence, the first stage focuses on die
Aufrichtung des Heilzeichens by Jesus, and the second stage on die
Auswirkung des Heilzeichens by the ~arac1ete.I~' According to Thusing,
salvation is only available after the cross and the coming of the Spirit-
Paraclete, and John was not interested in what might have been available
before Easter; all references to the gin of life in Jesus' ministry are
proleptic and only realized aAer the coming of the spirit-~arac1ete.l~~
Furthermore, the references to the Spirit in Jesusministry are also merely
proleptic and point to the work of the Spirit as Paraclete in the second
stage of s a ~ v a t i o n .Thus,
' ~ ~ besides the practical denial of salvation during
Jesus' earthly ministry,'30 Thusing also virtually denies any work of the
Spirit in Jesus* ministry. Moreover, although Thusing mentions that the
revelatory work of Jesus' earthly life and of the Paraclete are not two

'" Chevallier, Soufle, 2:409-564.

Thusing, Erhohung, iii.
'" Thusing, Erhohung, 45-48, 201-204. For a description of the Paraclete's work, see
Erhdhung, 14 1-74.
Iz7 Thiisrng, Erhohung, 292-93.
128
Thiising, Erhohung, 16 1, 164, 32 1-25.
1 29
Thiising, Erhohung, 324-25.
This is Loader's main problem with Thusing (Chrisrology, 127-29).
 Spirit. Salvalion, W/wisdom 27

different works but a unity, in that the object of revelation is in both stages
the same (namely, the ath her),"' it still seems that Thiising distinguishes
too strongly between the earthly work of Jesus and the subsequent work of
the Paraclete.
The main task of Porsch is to investigate Johannine pneumatology in
regard to its unity, i.e., whether John presents two views of the Spirit - an
impersonal Spirit and a personal Paraclete - or a single view. He
concludes that there is a unified concept behind the Pneuma-sayin s
which emphasizes the christological focus of Johannine pneumatology.$3;
The basis for Porsch's two-stage model of salvation (see section 2.1.3,
above) is essentially his two-stage model of the gifr ofthe Spirit: (i) during
Jesus' ministry, the Spirit is 'given', i.e., proleptically present, in Jesus'
revelatory words but not yet really active; (ii) only after Jesus'
glorification, the Spirit becomes active in its life-giving effectiveness and
can be (fully) experienced as such, in that the Spirit interprets and opens
up Jesus' re~e1ation.l~~ Thus, Porsch closely relates Jesus' revelatory word
and the Spirit, and argues that there must hence also be a relationship
between Johannine soteriology and pneumatology, which Porsch
understands as follows: the 'not yet' of true faithlsalvation during Jesus'
ministry corresponds with the 'not yet' of (the work of) the Spirit during
Jesus' mini~try."~Although Porsch does not explicitly integrate John's
pneumatology with his soteriology, it is possible to deduce from his work a
two-stage model of John 's pneumatic soteriology: (i) during Jesus'
ministry, partial salvation or beginning faith is offered to people in the
form of Jesus' revelatory word in which the Spirit is proleptically/actively
present, but (ii) only after Jesus' glorification will this faith be
perfectedcompleted through the Spirit-Paraclete who interprets and opens
up Jesus' revelation.'" Although Porsch points in the right direction and

"' Thiising, Erhohung, 203.

"* Porsch, Pneuma, 3,405.
'33 Porsch, Pneuma, 65-72, 139-45,200- 12.
Porsch, Pneuma, 3,66-67.
'" Porsch's two-stage model is influenced by de la Potterie, who was first to
distinguish between two stages in the economy of revelation - the time of Jesus and the
time of the Spirit (Porsch refers to de la Potterie's unpublished thesis from 1965
[Pneuma, 1441; cf. I . de la Potterie, 'Parole ct Esprit dans S. Jean' in M. de Jonge [ed.],
L'kvangile de Jean: Sources, rkdaction, theologie [BEThL 44; Leuven: Leuven
University Press, 19771 187-92; idem. La Vbrite dans Saint Jean [2 vols.; Rome: Biblical
Institute Press, 19771 2:684-96). However, de la Potterie in turn is strongly influenced by
Porsch again (in de la Potterie's article 'Parole', e.g., Porsch is referred to in fifteen out
of eighty-six footnotes). Porsch is also influenced by Thiising, although not always
agreeing with him. Ferraro is influenced by both de la Potterie and Porsch (Spiri~o,82,
93, 1 18, 121, 301-302). The influence of de la Potterie and Porsch can also be seen in
Chevallier (SouQle, 2:427-30.450-54.502, 5 10-14).
28 Chapter I : Introducrion

influenced scholars like Loader, Kootturnkal and Turner, he leaves two

critical questions unanswered. What exactly is unlocked by the opening up
of Jesus' revelation? How is the opening up of Jesus' revelation
soteriologically significant? Moreover, Porsch does not seem to be very
clear about the role of the Spirit during Jesus' ministry: how can the Spirit
already be actively present in Jesus' words during Jesusministry but only
become active, functionally or in its life-giving effectiveness, after Jesus'
glorification?
Loader's christological and soteriological model is more nuanced than
we have presented so far. Loader's model of Johannine christology is
essentially a synthesis of two significant streams of christological thought:
the revealer-envoy model, which is the dominating one in that it is central
and foundational, and the Son of Man cluster, which is the 'greater' one in
that it bridges the hermeneutical distance between the ministry of Jesus
and the time of the author of the Fourth ~ o s ~ e lBased. ' ~ ~on his twofold
model of Johannine christology, Loader develops, through integration with
John's soteriology and pneumatology, a two-stage model of Johannine
pneumatic soteriology: (i) according to the revealer-envoy christology,
salvation was already fully available prior to the cross in the person of and
in relationship with Jesus; (ii) according to the Son of Man christology,
which focuses on the climax of Jesus' ministry (his death and return to the
Father), this life of Jesus is available after the cross through the work of
the Spirit-Paraclete mediating a deeper understanding of and access to
Jesus' reve~ation.'~~ According to Loader, John holds together two
christological traditions which reflect different salvific foci. On the one
hand, the revealer-envoy model points to the saving presence of Jesus in
his ministry and the offer of life as present in his person. On the other
hand, the Son of Man cluster points forward to the coming of the Spirit-

Loader, Christologv, 204-14, 230-31. Loader calls the nexus of Jesus' death-
resurrection-exaltation-glorification-ascension-retum to the Father as the Son of Man, the
'Son of Man cluster' or 'greater event', and this 'greater event' results in 'greater things"
- grcater/deeper understanding of (the significance of) Jesus' revelation, empowerment
for mission, building up of the community of faith - through the sending of the Spirit-
Paraclete (and of the disciples). The 'greater event' thus has a hermeneutical function -
it makes available for all the true significance of the event of revelation - and the Spirit-
Paraclete is the primary agent in this hermeneutical function in that the Spirit-Paraclete
deepens the knowledge of faith already in existence (Christology, 105, 126-35, 208).
"' Loader, Christology, 78, 84-88, 105-107, 126-32, 204- 14. Loader interacts
substantially with Thiising, and his model is similar to that of Thiising, in that the cross is
the turning-point after which the coming of the Spirit-Paracletc is possible and which in
turn results in the release of the soteriological functions of the Spirit-Paraclete. Loader's
main difference from ThGsing, however, is that of the availability of salvation already
during Jesus' ministry.
 Spirit, Salvation, CYlwisdom 29

Paraclete who will secure and assure the ongoing availability and
abundance of this gift of life in the community of believers aAer aster.'^"
Loader's two-stage model of John's pneumatic soteriology seems to be
influenced by, and a variant on, the model of ~ o r s c h . 'Moreover,
~~
concerning the cognitive aspect of salvation Loader's views seem to be
confusing: on the one hand, Jesus (and his revelation) does not impart
'information'; yet, on the other hand, Loader mentions that the work of the
Spirit-Paraclete includes the giving of 'inf~rmation'.'~~ Does Loader imply
that the cognitive aspect of salvation only comes into being after Easter?
Although he indicates what the information-giving task of the Spirit-
Paraclete entails - calling to remembrance Jesus' words, interpreting
them in the light of scripture, mediating the words of the exalted Lord to
the community, and leading the disciples into all truth concerning who
Jesus is and the meaning of his death and return to the s at her'^' - Loader
does not explain how the Spirit-Paraclete imparts this information. Finally,
Loader's model has some serious implications that need to be tested. First,
Loader does not indicate a necessity for the Spirit in the revealer-envoy
model; although the Spirit was 'present and active' through Jesus in the
earthly ministry, the Spirit seems to have no (significant) soteriological
role.'42 Second, because the soteriological work of the Spirit as Paraclete
only starts after Jesus' glorification, Loader creates a dichotomy between
the (soteriological) work of the Spirit during and after Jesus' ministry.
Third, although the Spirit-Paraclete is soteriologically necessary for people
after Easter, for the disciples the giR of the Spirit-Paraclete seems to have
been virtually a donum superadditum for empowerment for mission; they
had already received life in relationship with Jesus.
Koottumkal investigates the life-giving dimension of Jesus' word and
defines it in terms of the Spirit, using John 6.63, 68 as the paradigmatic
foundation for his model. Jesus' word is life-giving because in it the life-
giving Spirit is active, i.e., in Jesus' revelatory word one can experience

Loader, Christology, 208-14, 227. Independently of Loader, Hultgren presents a

model that also integrates John's (redempttve) christology and soteriology, and has some
similarities with Loader's model (see Chris~,4 1-44, ch. 8 [esp. pp. 146-471). However,
Hultgren does not integrate John's redemptive christology with John's pneumatology.
Moreover, Hultgren differs from Loader in that Hultgren argues that the cross is salvific
and atoning (although the latter is presupposed more) (Christ, 148-49). Finally, Hultgren
does not emphasize, as Loader does, the relational aspect of salvation but merely how
one will respond to Jesus (Chrisl, 153).
'31 See, e.g., C h r i s t o l o ~ ,128-31, where Loader develops an important part of his
soteriological model and interacts intensively with Porsch.
140
Loader, Chrisrology, cf. 136-4 1 over against 2 12.
141
Loader, Chrisrology, 227. Cf. Loader's description of the Spirit-Paraclete's
hermeneutical function in n. 136, above.
'" Loader, Christology, 129-32.
30 Chapter I: Introduction

the life-giving Spirit; without the action of the Spirit Jesus'words cannot
give life but remain offensive and scanda~ous.'~'However, although
Koottumkal is strongly influenced by de la Potterie and Porsch, he does
not go beyond them. Like Porsch, he merely answers the question of how
Jesus' words can give life, but still leaves the most important questions
unanswered, namely, why Jesus' words cannot give life and remain
unacceptable without the Spirit, and how the life-giving Spirit is active in
Jesus' word. Moreover, on the one hand, Koottumkal says that Jesus can
give life because he is the source of life and has life in himself. On the
other hand, he argues that the Spirit has the power to give life, that life is
the result of the Spirit's work, that Jesus can give life because in his word
the life-giving Spirit is active, and that there is no life-giving power
without the spirit.IMNOWwho, for Koottumkal, is the source of life: the
Spirit or Jesus? Is Jesus the source of life because he is the Son or because
he has the Spirit? Finally, Koottumkal does not seem to have preserved any
eschatological tension because he does not consider the significance of the
cross or the gift of the Spirit. Is, for Koottumkal, salvation and the Spirit's
life-giving activity already available (partially or in ail its fullness) before
the cross?
To the questions raised by the models of Porsch, Loader and
Koottumkal, Turner's model provides a possible answer: it is the concept
of saving wisdom, which is then mediated to people by the
Turner's model of John's pneumatic W/wisdom soteriology can then be
described as follows. The Spirit upon Jesus enables Jesus, as Wisdom
incarnate, to give revelatory wisdom teaching. The Spirit upon Jesus also
affects people (already in Jesus' ministry), in that the Spirit is actively
reaching out to people through Jesus' teaching. The Spirit has to unfold or
illumine to people the revelation that Jesus brings by imparting spiritual
wisdom, for only then does it bring life. The two-stage experience of the
Spirit the disciples had - during Jesus' ministry, the process of life-giving
experiences of the Spirit-and-word (through Jesus) reaching its climax in
the gift of the Spirit in 20.22, and, afier Jesus'departure, the coming of the
Spirit as Paraclete - is not paradigmatic for later generations because the
reception of the Spirit-Paraclete is the necessary and sufficient condition of
s a ~ v a t i o n . 'Thus,
~ Turner argues that already during Jesus' ministry the
Spirit was soteriologically active (with probably Koottumkal, but contra
Thiising, Loader and, in essence, also Porsch), but that this salvation was
only partial (with Porsch, but contra Thiising, Loader and probably

Koottumkal, Words, 104-20.

Koottumkal, Words, 1 10, 1 12, 1 18-20, 126, 13 1-33.
145
See Turner, Spirit, chs. 4-5.
I4'See Turner. Spirit, chs. 4-6.
 Spirit, Salvation, W/wisdom 31

~oottumkal).'~'However, Turner seems to focus more on the cognitive

aspect of salvation at the expense of its relational aspect.'48 Moreover,
although Turner is the only scholar who describes the interrelation between
Spirit, W/wisdom and salvation in John, his material on John is merely
preparatory because the main purpose of his book is to explore the
significance of the gift of the Spirit in the whole of the NT and for
today.I4'
Hamid-Khani's comprehensive study examines the enigmatic language
of the Fourth Gospel within John's theological framework, especially in
the context of Jesus as the Christ according to Israel's Scriptures (the
OT)."' From Hamid-Khani's investigation, a model of John 3 pneumatic
soteriology can be derived. Jesus, as the Christ, is the embodiment of
God's self-manifestation and the climax of God's salvific re~elation.'~'
However, the perception of this reality is beyond the capacity of natural
people to comprehend; spiritual perception of Jesus' identity and
comprehension of God's salvific revelation in Jesus is only available for
those who are born of God by faith. To believers who have 'abiding faith'
the Spirit illuminates the truth, i.e., the Spirit reveals to those who have
entered into a relationship with God the true significance of the revelation
given in ~ h r i s t . ' ~Hamid-Khani's
* study is an excellent introduction into
the function of John's elusive language, but concerning his soteriological
model some questions can be raised. First, if spiritual perception and
understanding is exclusively for believers, then the faith needed to enter
into a relationship with God seems to have been robbed largely of its
cognitive dimension. The implication of this is also that the Spirit seems to
have no illuminative role in bringing unbelievers to salvation. According
to Hamid-Khani, faith should include the belief in Jesus' divine origin and

'41 In Turner's most recent work on the Spirit (Spirit, 1999), Porsch is hardly
mentioned, but Turner interacts much more with Porsch in one of his earliest articles
('The Concept of Receiving the Spirit in John's Gospel', VoxEv 10 [I9773 24-42),
although he does not explicitly show awareness of Porsch's two-stage model.
'48 Only twice Turner mentions explicitly the relational aspect of salvation and the
Spirit (Spirit, 88, 154). Although Turner does more justice to the relational aspect of the
Spirit and salvation in a forthcoming article, its main thrust is the .rpirit~raliryof the
Johannine community, is., the experience of the Father and Son by the Spirit in the
Johannine community (M.lM.B.1 Turner, 'The Churches of the Johannine Letters as
Communities of "Trinitarian" Koinbnia' in W. Ma and R.P. Menzies [eds.], Spirit and
Spirituality: Essays in Honor of Russell P. Spittler [forthcoming, 20021).
'49 Cf. Turner, Spirit, xi-xiii.
S. Hamid-Khani, Revelation and Concealment of Christ: A Theological Inquiry
info the Elusive Language of the Fourth Gospel (WUNT 111120; Tiibingen: Mohr
Siebeck, 2000).
Is' See Hamid-Khani, Revelation, eh. 4.
See Hamid-Khani, Revelation, ch. 6.
32 Chapter I : Introduction

in his death as salvifically e f f i c a c i ~ u s .However,

'~~ if people naturally are
unable to comprehend this reality, will it then not be natural to assume that
people need to be aided by the Spirit's illumination in order to come to this
faith? Second, Hamid-Khani does not explain precisely how the Spirit
illuminates the truth to the believer, except in terms of unveiling the truth
and true significance of Jesus' revelation. Third, Hamid-Khani seems to
attribute the illuminative role of the Spirit only to the period after Easter,
and hence diminishes the work of the Spirit during Jesus' earthly
ministry. Is4
2.4. Conclusion
Concerning the Johannine concept of salvation in general, the question of
what or who leads to and maintains salvation has been answered
unsatisfactorily so far and needs further research. Moreover, we have not
been able to find a satisfactory answer to the issue of the development of
faith - staged, progressive? - and its relation to the signs. Finally,
concerning the realized dimension of salvation, virtually everyone agrees
that salvation is available after the cross, but what is neglected in general
is the possibility of salvation during Jesus' ministry, and how this might
have been possible.'55 Porsch, Loader and Turner have attempted to do
more justice to the note of realized eschatology, even within Jesus' earthly
ministry, although Porsch and Turner, pace Loader, yet maintain that the
centre of gravity lies beyond Jesus' glorification. Interestingly, Porsch and
Turner try to solve the tension between salvation before and after the cross
via John's pneumatology, whereas Loader attempts to solve it via John's
christology. In conclusion, what is missing is a more coherent and
complete model of Johannine soteriology that integrates the various
activities/aspects of coming into and remaining in salvation. Only then will

"'Hamid-Khani, Revelation, 373.

Hamid-Khani, Revelation, 333-37, 360. This is of course also implied by Hamid-
' ~ 4

Khani: if the disciples are only born of God in 20.22, and if the Spirit's illumination is
only for these kind of people, then this illumination of the truth is only available after
Easter.
'sI For our rationale behind the investigation of a realized dimension of salvation
during Jesus' earthly ministry, see excursus 1, above. Moreover, if the soteriological
functions of the Spirit came into being only after the cross (so Thiising, Loader and,
essentially, also Porsch), then we need to account for the discontinuity between the work
of the Spirit before (if any) and after the cross. Furthermore, there is also then a
discontinuity between the functions of the Spirit in relation to Jesus before the cross in
John's Gospel and the soteriological function of the Spirit in relation to Wisdom in
Judaism (see ch. 2). However, if during Jesus' ministry salvation was already available
and if the Spirit was already performing a soteriological function, then this might deepen
our understanding of John's soteriology and the Spirit's role in it.
 Conclusion 33

we be able to identify, and consequently examine, those activities in which

the Spirit is involved.
A related problem is the relative neglect of the cognitive element of
salvation; most scholars either tend to emphasize only the relational aspect
of John's soteriology (e.g., Thompson, Willett, Ford), or they do not seem
to give much place to the cognitive aspect. Only a few try to combine the
relational and cognitive aspects of Johannine soteriology. Bultmann is the
first who offers a 'model' of Johannine soteriology that combines
relational and cognitive aspects; for him salvation is authentic human
existence in relationship with the Son and the Father through 'knowing'
faith. Loader's soteriology, based on his christological model and
integrated with John's pneumatology, is strongly influenced by Bultmann
and Porsch. Nevertheless, for both Bultmann and Loader the cognitive
aspect of salvation seems rather vacuous, being defined primarily as re-
cognition/identification (of Jesus as the Revealer sent by God). Although
some others (e.g., Dodd, Barren and Forestell) also recognize, besides the
relational aspect, the concept of saving knowledge, they do not shed more
light on it. Turner gives the most complete and coherent model of the
cognitive aspect of John's soteriology, but he pays lesser attention to the
relational aspect. Thus, we observe that although some scholars have
identified a cognitive element of salvation, they have, with the exception
of Turner, not fully explored it, and even Turner has not sufficiently shown
how the cognitive aspect relates to the relational aspect and how they can
be integrated into a model of Johannine soteriology.
We make two further comments about this cognitive aspect. First,
although Bultmann and Dodd touched on the significant issue of saving
knowledge, their interests were etymological whereas ours is primarily
conceptual; rather than studying the etymology of Y L V ~ U K W , our strategy
will be to investigate the concept of salvific knowledge, which lies, we
think, in the concept of wisdom in sapiential Judaism. Second, when we
investigate the cognitive aspect of salvation, the focus will be on the
'objective' element, i.e., on the concept of saving knowledge/wisdom as
the content of salvation, rather than on the 'subjective' response or
psychological dimension of the human mind.
Another general problem is that scholars have studied aspects of
Johannine theology - soteriology, christology and pneumatology - too
much in isolation. None who wrote theses on John's soteriology - T.
Miiller, Riedl, Forestell, Kohler and Knoppler - attributes any significant
soteriological function to the spirit.Is6 Of those who focused on John's

Although Forestell, e.g., says that 'the Spirit is that divine power ...which produces
faith in the believer, and by which the gift of eternal life is bestowed' (Word, 135), he
does not explain this at all.
34 Chapter I: Introduction

Wisdom christology, the two most significant contributors - Scott and

Willett - have not looked at John's pneumatology and insufficiently at
John's soteriology. Moreover, most of those who concentrate on John's
pneumatology - Ferraro, Burge, Chevallier and Keener - do not shed
much light on the Spirit's soteriological function. The main exceptions are
Porsch, Loader, Turner and Hamid-Khani, who are the main contributors
to the issue of the soteriological functions of the Spirit in the Fourth
~os~el.'~'
Both Porsch and Loader present a two-stage model of John's pneumatic
soteriology - Porsch on pneumatological grounds, Loader on
christological. The seminal work of Porsch (but also that of Loader) has
been seriously neglected. Although Porsch's thesis was published in 1974,
no-one has sufficiently and satisfactorily dealt with his work. Keener does
not interact with Porsch, and although Burge, for example, does engage
with Porsch, he has totally missed Porsch's two-stage model, which forms
not only the backbone of his thesis but also the foundation for his
innovative interpretation of 20.22."~Neither has anyone seriously engaged
with Loader, who is profoundly influenced by both Bultmann and Porsch.
Nevertheless, the questions raised by Porsch's and Loader's models of
John's pneumatic soteriology are possibly answered by Turner's concept
of Wlwisdom. Turner has not only recognized the centrality of Wlwisdom
to the Johannine concept of salvation but has also been able to integrate the
Spirit into it. However, he did not attempt to research the background for
this Johannine constellation of ideas, and hence one of the tasks of this
study will be to investigate whether, and to what extent, Judaism prepared
for such a view. Moreover, Turner's nexus of salvation-Wlwisdom-Spirit
is merely presented as a sketch, and needs to be elucidated more
substantially. Turner was not aware, for example, of all the contributions
Johannine scholarship has made (such as those of Loader and Koottumkal),
and has, in our view, interacted insufficiently with Porsch. Finally, Turner
does not show how his theory fits into the larger picture of John's
understanding of salvation, i.e., how the cognitive and relational aspects of
Johannine soteriology are held together.
Hamid-Khani's recent work is impressive and since an entire chapter is
devoted to the soteriological role of the Spirit, this study needs to be taken
seriously into consideration. However, Hamid-Khani has not interacted

Is' Another exception is van der Watt, who demonstrates how the family imagery
integrates traditional loci like christology, soteriology, pneumatology, ethics (Family, see
esp. p.411 figure 45). The contributions of Thiising and Koottumkal are essentially
subsumed within the works of Porsch and Loader.
'51 For an assessment of Porsch's interpretation of 20.22, see Bennema, 'Giving',
section IV.5.
 Thesis 35

with the soteriological models put forward by Porsch, Loader and Turner,
and shows minimal or no engagement with the works of Ferraro, Burge,
Chevallier and Keener. Neither has he explored a possible wisdom
background to John, which could have assisted him to be more specific
about the Spirit's soteriological role in relation to Jesus.
In conclusion, Johannine scholarship has not adequately explored the
soteriological functions of the Spirit (in relation to Wlwisdom) in the
Fourth Gospel. Hence, a fuller investigation of how faith, signs, saving
knowledgelwisdom, salvation, Spirit and Jesus as Wisdom, are co-
ordinated, both before and aAer the glorification of Jesus, is needed. Only
Turner has put forward a coherent and potentially inviting theory about
this nexus of Spirit-salvation-Wlwisdom. However, because of its limited
scope, we need to test its strengths and weaknesses. Moreover, there is also
a need to engage much more thoroughly with the significant contributions
of the other major players - especially with those of Bultmann, Porsch
and Loader.

3. Thesis
Scope of the study. We shall limit our study of the Johannine and Jewish
sapiential literature to the extent that we are able to formulate an adequate
synthesis of the Johannine concepts of Spirit, salvation and Wlwisdom.
Although the centre of gravity of our study is the Fourth Gospel, we will
also take the Johannine letters (esp. 1 John) into account, since they are in
continuity with the Fourth Gospel (at least in their theology), but we shall
not attempt a critical account of these letters. We shall not engage either in
formulating a hypothesis of a possible Sitz im Leben of a possible
Johannine community or in giving information about its spirituality.'59
Aim, objectives, task. The main aim of this study is to investigate the
soteriological role of the Spirit in the Fourth Gospel. The more specific
objectives are to elucidate John's understanding about: (i) the nature of
salvation; (ii) how salvation is mediated to and appropriated by people;
(iii) how salvation is sustained; (iv) how the Spirit performs soteriological
functions; (v) how the concept of Wlwisdom relates to Jesus, the Spirit and
salvation. Moreover, we shall also examine to what extent sapiential

'" We agree with Hamid-Khani that there is no compelling reason to make a sharp
distinction between the time o f Jesus' ministry and that of a Johannine community,
between the pre-70 CE and the post-70 CE situation, from the perspective o f being
receptive to revelation and from the perspective of opposition (whether the latter from
the religious leaders in Jesus' time or from a post-70 CE priestly religious party)
(Revelation, 160).
36 Chapter I: Introduction

Judaism prepared for such an understanding. Our task, then, is to

investigate the nexus of Spirit-salvation-Wlwisdom, both in Judaism and in
John. We are primarily interested how the readers of the text (rather than
the original disciples) are expected to enter into and remain in salvation
(although the portrayal of the original disciples in the Gospel is of utmost
importance). The envisaged intended reader is a first-century reader of the
Fourth Gospel with knowledge of Judaism (cf. ch. 3 section 2).lW
Strategy. The strategy for achieving the objectives of this study is
threefold. First, we shall investigate the interrelationship between the
concepts of Spirit, 'salvation' and Wlwisdom in sapiential Judaism (ch.
2).'" Second, we will develop a model of John's Pneumatic Wisdom
Soteriology (i) that incorporates all the activities of bringing people into
and keeping them in salvation, and (ii) that holds together both relational
and cognitive aspects (ch. 3). We will also attempt to provide a plausible
rationale for why John used the Jewish concept of Wlwisdom to present his
pneumatic soteriology. Third, we will elucidate those activities of this
model that involve the Spirit and Wlwisdom (chs. 4-5).Ib2
Some scholars favour Jewish apocalypticism or mysticism as a
background to the Fourth ~ o s ~ e lOn .'~
the~ one hand, we must avoid
setting up the Jewish apocalyptic tradition over against the wisdom
tradition; they are both offshoots of the prophetic tradition and have
mutually influenced one another.IM On the other hand, the Fourth Gospel

This formulation of the Gospel's intended reader docs not exhaust its readership;
any reader today with knowledge of Judaism can fit into this category.
'' I had already done much of the work on John before turning to the question of
wisdom background. I then revised aspects of the Johannine material. Thus, the study of
John and of sapiential Judaism were virtually parallel studies, and hence the chapter on
John's possible conceptual background could have been either before or after the
Johannine chapters. However, we chose this order because John was a 'child of his time'
and his Gospel was not written in a vacuum, but reflects and criticizes the worldview of
his contemporaries.
16' An additional objective - the elucidation of John's understanding of the moment,
nature and soteriological significance of the giving of the Spirit(-Paracletc) as depicted in
Jn 19-20 - is realized elsewhere (see Bennema, 'Giving').
Ib3 E.g., W.A. Meeks, The Prophet-King: Moses Traditions and the Johannine
Christology (NT.S 14; Leiden: Brill, 1967); Ashton, Understanding, ch. 10 (although see
idem, 'Transformation'); C. Rowland, 'Apocalyptic, Mysticism, and the New Testament'
in H. Cancik, H. Lichtenberger and P. Schsifer (eds.), Geschichte - Tradition -
Refrexion: Festschrift f i r Martin Hengel sum 70. Geburtstag. Band I Judentunr
(Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1996) 422-28; J.J. Kanagaraj, 'Mysticism' in the Gospel of
John: An Inquiry into its Background (JSNT.S 158; Sheffield: SAP, 1998); cf. Motyer,
Father, 45-46.
See C. Bennema, 'The Strands of Wisdom Tradition in Intertestamental Judaism:
Origins, Developments and Characteristics', TynB 52 (2001) 65-66, passim; cf. J.G.
Gammie, 'Spatial and Ethical Dualism in Jewish Wisdom and Apocalyptic Literature',
 Thesis 37

does not really describe people undertaking heavenly ascents or receiving

apocalyptic visions (which are then interpreted by an angelus interpres [or
the Spirit]). Thus, although Jewish apocalypticismlmysticism may be
another possible background to the Fourth Gospel, we contend that the
Jewish wisdom traditions are more suitable for elucidating the relationship
between John's pneumatology and s o t e r i o l ~ ~ ~ . ' ~ ~
Definitions. Within this study, we shall sometimes use terminology in
slightly specialized ways in order to make appropriate distinctions.
'Sensory perception' describes the activity of becoming aware of
something through the senses. 'Cognitive perception' is the conscious
mental activity or process of acquiring knowledgelinformation and
understanding through thought, experience and sensory perception in order
to determine the meaning and significance of what is perceived.
'Understanding' is the processed information as the net result of cognitive
perception. Hence, without distinguishing too sharply between the two,
cognitive perce tion is the activity that precedes and results in
understanding.lJAlthough we do not differentiate in meaning between the
verbs 'to have faith' and 'to believe' and between their respective nouns
'faith' and 'belief - both verbs and both nouns have cognitive (in terms
of intellectual assent) and relational (in terms of personal allegiance)
aspects - we prefer the category 'to believe' and 'belief since John
himself prefers the verb niotc6o, whereas the noun n i o r ~never
~ occurs in
the Johannine literature (except for 1 Jn 5.4). With the phrase 'the Spirit as
the power of Wlwisdom' we denote a function of the Spirit, namely the
Spirit's ability to do something or to act in a particular way in relation to
Wlwisdom to affect people, but the phrase carries no connotations of
ontology or control. Finally, we use the term 'agent' to refer to someone
who produces or causes an effect, and the word 'affective' to relate to
moods, feelings, will, attitudes and motivations.
Formulation of the thesis. Our focal theory concerning the
soteriological function of the Spirit is twofold. First, the Spirit creates a
saving relationship between the believer and God, i.e., brings a person into
such a relationship with the Father and Son, through the mediation of
saving wisdom which is itself present in Jesus' revelatory teaching.
Second, the Spirit sustains this saving relationship between the believer,
Father and Son, through further mediation of wisdom that enables the
believer to manifest discipleship (as an ongoing belief-response).

JBL 93 (1974) 356-85; J.J. Collins, 'Wisdom, Apocalypticism, and Generic

Compatibility' in L.G.Perdue et al. (eds.), In Search of Wisdom: Essays in Memory of
John G. Gammie (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1993) 165-85.
'61 We will further account for having selected this background in ch. 2 section 1 .
In ch. 3 we will demonstrate that these definitions are based on Johannine words.
Other documents randomly have
different content
 Embley, Feb. 7 [1851].… I suppose you know how the two churches
have been convulsing themselves in England in a manner discreditable to
themselves and ridiculous to others. The Anglican Ch. screamed and
struggled as if they were taking away something of hers, the Catholic Ch.
sang and shouted as if she had conquered England—neither the one nor
the other has happened. Only a good many people (in our Church) found
out they were Catholics and went to Rome, and a good many other
people found out they were Protestants, which they never knew before,
and left the Puseyite pen, which has now lost half its sheep. At Oxford the
Puseyite volcano is extinct.… You know what a row there will be this
Session in Parliament about it. The most moderate wish for a Concordat,
but even these say that we must strip the R.C. Bishops of their new titles.
Many think the present Gov. will go out upon it, because they won't do
enough to satisfy the awakened prejudices of dear John Bull. I used to
think it was a mere selfish quarrel between red stockings and lawn
sleeves; but not a bit of it; it's a real popular feeling. One would think that
all our religion was political by the way we talk, and so I believe it is. From
the rising of the sun until the going down of the same, you hear our
clergy talking of nothing but Bishops versus Vicars General—never a word
of different plans of education, prisons, penitentiaries, and so on. One
would think we were born ready made as to education, but that Art made
a Church.

I feel little zeal in pulling down one Church or building up another, in

making Bishops or unmaking them. If they would make us, our Faith
would spring up of itself, and then we shouldn't want either Anglican Ch.
or R.C. Church to make it for us. But, bless my soul, people are just as
ignorant now of any law in the human mind as they were in Socrates'
time. We have learnt the physical laws since then; but mental laws—why,
people don't even acknowledge their existence. They talk of grace and
divine influence,—why, if it's an arbitrary gift from God, how unkind of
Him not to give it before! And if it comes by certain laws, why don't we
find them out? But people in England think it quite profane to talk of
finding them out, and they pray “That it may please Thee to have mercy
upon all men,” when I should knock you down if you were to say to me
“That it should please you to have mercy upon your boy.” I never had any
training; and training to be called “training,” (as we train the fingers to
 play[57] scales and shakes)—I doubt whether anybody ever gets from
other people, because they don't know how to give it according to any
certain laws. I wish everybody would write as far as they can A Short
Account of God's Dealings with them, like the old Puritans, and then
perhaps we should find out at last what are God's ways in His goings on
and what are not.

Arthur Stanley (afterwards the Dean) once asked her to use her
influence in preventing a friend of his and of hers from taking the
step, supposed to be imminent, of joining the Roman Communion.
In a long reply which Miss Nightingale wrote with great care (Nov.
26, 1852), she promised to do what she could, but explained that
this might not be much. She herself remained in the Anglican
Communion “because she was born there,” and because the Roman
Church offered some things which she personally did not want. She
feared their friend might consider that such arguments as she could
urge against the Roman Church applied equally against the Anglican.
And, on the other hand, she had never concealed her opinion that
the Roman Communion offered advantages to women which the
Church of England (at that time) did not. “The Catholic orders,” she
wrote, “offered me work, training for that work, sympathy and help
in it, such as I had in vain sought in the Church of England. The
Church of England has for men bishoprics, archbishoprics, and a
little work (good men make a great deal for themselves). For women
she has—what? I had no taste for theological discoveries. I would
have given her my head, my heart, my hand. She would not have
them. She did not know what to do with them. She told me to go
back and do crochet in my mother's drawing-room; or, if I were tired
of that, to marry and look well at the head of my husband's table.
You may go to the Sunday School, if you like it, she said. But she
gave me no training even for that. She gave me neither work to do
for her, nor education for it.”
 The latter part of the second letter to Miss Clarke shows Miss
Nightingale's interest in speculations about the basis of moral law;
but so far as the rivalry of Churches was concerned, it was by works
that she tried them. “In all the dens of disgrace and disease,” she
wrote in one of her note-books (1849), “the only clergy who deserve
the name of pastors are the Roman Catholic. The rest, of all
denominations—Church of England, Church of Scotland, Dissenters—
are only theology or tea mongers.” “It will never do,” she once said
to a friend, “unless we have a Church of which the terms of
membership shall be works, not doctrines.”[33]

She was interested, however, in doctrines also. If she was resolved

to dedicate her life to the Service of Man, she was no less convinced
that such service could only be rendered, at the best and highest, in
the light, and with the sanction, of Service to God. Herein may be
found an underlying unity and harmony through the many and
diverse interests of her life. We shall see that she who opened new
careers and standards of practical benevolence in the modern world,
spent also years of thought upon the less manageable task, if not of
providing the world with a new religion, at any rate of giving to old
doctrines a new application, and, as she hoped, a more acceptable
sanction.

CHAPTER IV

DISAPPOINTMENT
(1846–1847)

There are Private Martyrs as well as burnt or drowned ones. Society of

course does not know them; and Family cannot, because our position to
one another in our families is, and must be, like that of the Moon to the
 Earth. The Moon revolves round her, moves with her, never leaves her. Yet
the Earth never sees but one side of her; the other side remains for ever
unknown.—Florence Nightingale (in a Note-book of 1847–49).

A poet of our time has counted “Disappointment's dry and bitter

root” among the ingredients of “the right mother-milk to the tough
hearts that pioneer their kind.” If it indeed be so, Florence
Nightingale was well nurtured. The spiritual experiences and
speculations, recorded in the last chapter, worked round to a
justification, as we have seen, of her chosen plan of life. Religion
thus brought no consolation for the failure of her scheme to escape
in December 1845. “My misery and vacuity afterwards,” she wrote in
an autobiographical retrospect, “were indescribable.” “All my plans
have been wrecked,” she wrote at the time, “and my hopes
destroyed, and yet without any visible, any material change.” She
faced the new year and its life on the old lines in a mood of
depression which, with some happier intervals, was to grow deeper
and more intense during the next few years.

She did not, however, abandon her ideal. We shall see in

subsequent chapters that neither foreign travel distracted her from
it, nor did opportunities for another kind of life allure her from the
chosen path. The way was dark before her; the goal might never be
reached, she often thought, in this present sphere; but she felt
increasingly that only in a life of nursing or other service to the
afflicted could her being find its end and scope. “The longer I live,”
she wrote in her diary (June 22, 1846), “the more I feel as if all my
being was gradually drawing to one point, and if I could be
permitted to return and accomplish that in another being, if I may
not in this, I should need no other heaven. I could give up the hope
of meeting and living with those I have loved (and nobody knows
how I love) and been separated from here, if it would please God to
give me, with a nearer consciousness of His Presence, the task of
doing this in the real life.”

Meanwhile she pursued her inquiries. Now that the fruits of

Florence Nightingale's pioneer work have been gathered, and that
nursing is one of the recognized occupations for gentlewomen, it is
not altogether easy to realize the difficulties which stood in her way.
The objections were moral and social, rooted to large measure in
conventional ideas. Gentlewomen, it was felt, would be exposed, if
not to danger and temptations, at least to undesirable and unfitting
conditions. “It was as if I had wanted to be a kitchen-maid,” she said
in later years. Nothing is more tenacious than a social prejudice. But
the prejudice was in part founded on very intelligible reasons, and in
part was justified by the level of the nursing profession at the time.
These are considerations to which full weight must be allowed, both
in justice to those who opposed Miss Nightingale's plans, and in
order to understand her own courage and persistence. The idea was
widely prevalent at the time that for certain cases in hospital practice
a modest woman was, from the nature of things, unsuited to act as
a nurse. Mr. Nightingale, who desired to do what was right by his
daughter, made many inquiries, and consulted many friends. There
is a letter to him from a Brighton doctor arguing against the
prevalent belief, and maintaining stoutly that “women of a proper
age and character are not unfit for such cases. Age, habit, and office
give the mind a different turn.” But the whole of this letter shows a
degree of broad-mindedness with regard to the education and
sphere of women which was in advance of the average opinion at
the time. And in any case, whether women were fit or unfit by
nature, it was certain that many, perhaps most, of the women
actually engaged in nursing were unfit by character, and that a
refined gentlewoman, who joined the profession, might thus find
herself in unpleasant surroundings. We shall have to consider this
matter more fully in a subsequent chapter. Here it will suffice to say
that though there were better-managed hospitals and worse-
managed, yet there was a strong body of evidence to show that
hospital nurses had opportunities, which they freely used, for putting
the bottle to their lips “when so disposed,” and that other evils were
more or less prevalent also.[34] Reports from Paris and its famous
schools of medicine and surgery were no better. One who had been
through it said that life at the “Maternité” was very coarse. In the
clinique obstétricale at the École de Médecin, “the élèves have the
reputation of being pretty generally the students' mistresses.” The
difficulties in the way of a refined woman, who sought to obtain
access to the best training, were very great. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell,
a pioneer among woman-doctors in America, told Miss Nightingale of
a young girl who had planned, as the only feasible way of studying
surgery in Paris, to don male attire. “Pantaloons will be accepted as
a token she is in earnest, while a petticoat is always a flag for
intrigue. She has a deep voice, and I think will pass muster
exceedingly well among a set of young students, but I shall be quite
sorry for her to sacrifice a mass of beautiful dark auburn hair! What
a strange age we live in! What singular sacrifices and extraordinary
actions are required of us in the service of truth! An age of reform is
a stirring, exciting one, but it is not the most beautiful.” The more
she heard of the worst, the more was Florence Nightingale resolved
to make things better; but the more her parents heard, the greater
and the more natural was their repugnance. Somebody must do the
rough pioneer work of the world; but one can understand how the
parents of an attractive daughter, for whom their own life at home
seemed to them to open many possibilities of comfortable
happiness, came to desire that in this case the somebody should be
somebody else.

Miss Nightingale herself was so much impressed by the difficulties

and dangers in the way of women nurses, that she was inclined at
first to the idea that the admission of gentlewomen into the calling
could best be secured, either in special hospitals connected with
some religious institution, or in general hospitals under cover of
some religious bond. “I think,” wrote Monckton Milnes to his wife,
“that Florence always much distrusted the Sisterhood matter,”[35]
and such was the case. Her inner thought was that no vow was
needed other than the nurse's own fitness for the calling and
devotion to it. But she was engaged in the crusade of a pioneer, and
had to consider what was practically expedient and immediately
feasible, as well as what was theoretically reasonable. Dr. Blackwell
was of the same opinion. She did not like religious orders in
themselves; they only “become beautiful,” she said, “as an
expedient, a temporary condition, an antidote to present evils.” Miss
Nightingale was therefore intensely interested in the Institution for
Deaconesses, with its hospital, school, and penitentiary, which a
Protestant minister, Pastor Theodor Fliedner, had established some
years before at Kaiserswerth. Her family were great friends with the
Bunsens, and the Baron had sent Florence one of Pastor Fliedner's
Annual Reports.[36] Her interest in it was twofold. It was the kind of
institution to which Protestant mothers might not object to send
their daughters. It was also in some sort a school of nursing where,
whatever wider scope might afterwards be attainable, gentlewomen
could serve an apprenticeship to the calling. “Flo,” wrote her sister to
a friend in 1848, “is exceedingly full of the Hospital Institutions of
Germany, which she thinks so much better than ours. Do you know
anything of the great establishment at Kaiserswerth, where the
schools, the reform place for the wicked, and a great hospital are all
under the guidance of the Deaconesses?” Two years before (June
1846) Florence herself had written to Miss Hilary Bonham Carter,
begging her to ask Mrs. Jameson about “the German lady she knew,
who, not being a Catholic, could not take upon herself the vows of a
Sister of Charity, but who obtained permission from the physician of
the hospital of her town to attend the sick there, and perform all the
duties which the Sœurs do at Dublin and the Hôtel Dieu, and who
had been there fifteen years when Mrs. Jameson knew her. I do not
want to know her name, if it is a secret; but only if she has extended
it further into anything like a Protestant Sisterhood, if she had any
plans of that sort which should embrace women of an educated
class, and not, as in England, merely women who would be servants
if they were not nurses. How she disposed of the difficulties of
surgeons making love to her, and of living with the women of
indifferent character who generally make the nurses of hospitals, as
it appears she was quite a young woman when she began, and
these are the difficulties which vows remove which one sees nothing
else can.” Perhaps it was as a result of these inquiries that Florence
Nightingale became acquainted, through Baron von Bunsen, with the
institution at Kaiserswerth; though, as appears from a letter given
below, Madame Mohl had also sent her some information about it. It
is certain that by the autumn of 1846 she was in possession of its
Reports, and that the place had become the home of her heart.
During these years she was also quietly pursuing studies on medical
and sanitary subjects.

II
 With such thoughts in her mind, the routine of home life became
more than ever empty and distasteful. Here are two typical extracts
from her diary of 1846:—

Lea Hurst, July 7. What is my business in this world and what have I
done this last fortnight? I have read the Daughter at Home[64] [37] to
Father and two chapters of Mackintosh; a volume of Sybil to Mama. Learnt
seven tunes by heart. Written various letters. Ridden with Papa. Paid eight
visits. Done company. And that is all.

Embley, Oct. 7. What have I done the last three months? O happy, happy
six weeks at the Hurst, where (from July 15 to Sept. 1) I had found my
business in this world. My heart was filled. My soul was at home. I wanted
no other heaven. May God be thanked as He never yet has been thanked
for that glimpse of what it is to live. Now for the last five weeks my
business has been much harder. They don't know how weary this way of
life is to me—this table d'hôte of people.… When I want Erfrischung I read
a little of the Jahresberichte über die Diakonissen-Anstalt in Kaiserswerth.
There is my home; there are my brothers and sisters all at work. There
my heart is, and there I trust one day will be my body; whether in this
state or in the next, in Germany or in England, I do not care.

The “happy six weeks at Lea Hurst” were a time, as appears from
the letter to Miss Nicholson already given (p. 53), when she found
opportunity to do much sick-visiting. “One's days pass away,” she
added in the same letter, “like a shadow, and leave not a trace
behind. How we spend hours that are sacred in things that are
profane, which we choose to call necessities, and then say ‘We
cannot’ to our Father's business.” At Embley the opportunities for
work among the poor were less favourable. The distances were
greater. Florence interested herself, so far as she was able, in the
school at Wellow; and amongst her papers of 1846 there is an able
discussion of the defects of elementary education as she had there
observed them. But the distractions were many. There was a
constant round of company at home; and, as has been said before,
the migrations of the family between London, Lea Hurst, and Embley
were fatal to concentration of effort.

III

The year 1847 was one of much social movement in Miss

Nightingale's life. In the spring she was in London “doing the
exhibitions and hearing Jenny Lind; but it really requires a new
language to define her.” Then she went with her parents to the
meeting of the British Association at Oxford, where Adams and
Leverrier, the twin discoverers of Neptune, were the lions of the day.
She wrote many lively accounts of the meeting to her friends, from
which a passage or two may be given:—

Here we are in the midst of loveliness and learning; for never anything
so beautiful as this place is looking now, my dearest, have I seen abroad
or at home, with its flowering acacias in the midst of its streets of palaces.
I saunter about the churchyards and gardens by myself before breakfast,
and wish I were a College man. I wish you could see the Astronomical
Section—Leverrier and Adams sitting on either side of the President, like a
pair of turtle-doves cooing at their joint star and holding it between
them.… We work hard. Chapel at 8, to that glorious service at New
College; such an anthem yesterday morning! and that quiet cloister where
no one goes. I brought home a white rose to-day to dry in remembrance.
Sections from 11 to 3. Then Colleges or Blenheim till dinner time. Then
lecture at 8 in the Radcliffe Library. And philosophical tea and muffins at
somebody's afterwards. The Fowlers, Hamilton Grays, Barlows and selves
are the muffins; Wheatstone, Hallam, Chevalier, Monckton Milnes and
some of the great guns occasionally are the philosophy.…

and so forth, and so forth; with particulars of “church every two

hours” on Sunday, and of a luncheon with Buckland and his famous
menagerie at Christ Church, when Florence petted a little bear, and
her father drew her away, but Mr. Milnes mesmerised it. “And one
thing more,” she adds; “Mr. Hallam's discovery that Gladstone is the
Beast 666 (in the Revelations) came to him one day by inspiration in
the Athenæum, after he had tried Pusey and Newman, and found
that they wouldn't do.”

Miss Nightingale paid many visits during the same year with her
father. They went, for instance, to Lord Sherborne, whose daughter,
Mrs. Plunkett, became a great friend of hers; and they spent a
couple of days with Lord Lovelace. Lady Lovelace, Byron's daughter,
conceived a great admiration for Florence Nightingale, which found
expression in the verses already quoted. It was in this year that Miss
Clarke married her old admirer, M. Mohl. Florence's letter of
congratulation was not without significance upon the state of her
own feelings, as will be seen in a later chapter:—

Embley, October 13 [1847]. Dearest Friend—To think that you are now a
two months' wife, and I have never written to tell you that your piece of
news gave me more joy than I ever felt in all my life, except once, no, not
even excepting that once, because that was a game of Blind-man's-Buff,—
and in your case you knew even as you were known. I had the news on a
Sunday from dear Ju, and it was indeed a Sunday joy and I kept it holy,
though not like the city, which was to be in cotton to be looked at only on
Sundays. As has often been said, we must all take Sappho's leap, one way
or other, before we attain to her repose—though some take it to death,
and some to marriage, and some again to a new life even in this world.

Which of them to the better part, God only knows. Popular prejudice
gives it in favour of marriage. Should we not look upon marriage, less as
an absolute blessing, than as a remove into another and higher class of
this great school-room—a promotion—for it is a promotion, which creates
new duties, before which the coward sometimes shrinks, and gives new
lessons, of more advanced knowledge, with more advanced powers to
meet them, and a much clearer power of vision to read them. In your new
development of life, I take, dearest friend, a right fervent interest, and
bless you with a right heartfelt and earnest love.

We are only just returned to Embley, after having passed through

London, on our way from Derbyshire. News have I none, excepting
financial, for no one could talk of anything in London excepting the horrid
quantity of failures in the City, by which all England has suffered more or
less. Why didn't I write before? Because I thought you would rather be let
alone at first and that you were on your travels.

And now for my confessions. I utterly abjure, I entirely renounce and

abhor, all that I may have said about M. Robert Mohl, not because he is
now your brother-in-law, but because I was so moved and touched by the
letters which he wrote after your marriage to Mama; so anxious they were
to know more about you, so absorbed in the subject, so eager to prove to
us that his brother was such a man, he was quite sure to make you
happy.

And I have not said half enough either upon that score, not anything
that I feel; how “to marry” is no impersonal[67] verb, upon which I am to
congratulate you, but depends entirely upon the Accusative Case which it
governs, upon which I do wish you heartfelt and trusting joy. In single life
the stage of the Present and the Outward World is so filled with
phantoms, the phantoms, not unreal tho' intangible, of Vague Remorse,
Tears, dwelling on the threshold of every thing we undertake alone,
Dissatisfaction with what is, and Restless Yearnings for what is not,
cravings after a world of wonders (which is, but is like the chariot and
horses of fire, which Elisha's frightened servant could not see, till his eyes
were opened)—the stage of actual life gets so filled with these that we are
almost pushed off the boards and are conscious of only just holding on to
the foot lights by our chins, yet even in that very inconvenient position
love still precedes joy, as in St. Paul's list, for love laying to sleep these
phantoms (by assuring us of a love so great that we may lay aside all care
for our own happiness, not because it is of no consequence to us,
whether we are happy or not, as Carlyle says, but because it is of so much
consequence to another) gives that leisure frame to our mind, which
opens it at once to joy.
 But how impertinently I ramble on—“You see a penitent before you,”
don't say “I see an impudent scoundrel before me”—But when thou seest,
and what's more, when thou readest, forgive.—You will not let another
year pass without our seeing you. M. Mohl gives us hopes, in his letter to
Ju, that you won't, that you will come to England next year for many
months, then, dearest friend, we will have a long talk out. If not, we really
must come to Paris—and then I shall see you, and see the Deaconesses
too, whom you so kindly wrote to me about, but of whom I have never
heard half enough.…

The Bracebridges are at home—she rejoiced as much as we did over

your event—Parthe is going at the end of November to do Officiating
Verger to a friend of ours on a like event.—Her prospects are likewise so
satisfactory, that I can rejoice and sympathize under any form she may
choose to marry in. Otherwise I think that the day will come, when it will
surprise us as much, to see people dressing up for a marriage, as it would
to see them put on a fine coat for the Sacrament. Why should the
Sacrament or Oath of Marriage be less sacred than any other?

The letter goes on to speak of a visit recently paid to Mrs. Archer

Clive, well known in her day as the authoress of Poems by V. and of
Paul Ferroll, a sensational novel of some force,—a lady whose
powers of heart and mind were housed in an infirm body. Miss
Nightingale admired her talents and her character, and valued her
friendship.

But new friendships and varied interests did not bring satisfaction
to Miss Nightingale. She was still constantly bent on pursuing a
vocation of her own. Her parents caught eagerly at an opportunity
which offered itself at the end of this year (1847), for giving, as they
hoped, a new turn to her thoughts.

CHAPTER V
 A WINTER IN ROME; AND AFTER
(1847–1849)

Six months of Rome and happiness.—Florence Nightingale (1848).

It was an event of some importance in the Nightingale family when

Florence set out with Mr. and Mrs. Bracebridge, in the autumn of
1847, to spend the winter at Rome. The attraction to her was the
society of Mrs. Bracebridge, the friend of whom she spoke as “her
Ithuriel.” Moreover the mental unrest from which Florence constantly
suffered at home was beginning to tell upon her health. “All that I
want to do in life,” she wrote to her cousin Hilary, in explaining the
motive of the tour, “depends upon my health, which, I am told, a
winter in Rome will establish for ever.” She took the foreign tour as a
tonic to enable her the better to fulfil her vocation. By her parents
and her sister the tour was regarded as a tonic which might divert
her from it. They hoped that foreign travel would distract her
thoughts, and dispel what they perhaps considered morbid fancies.
She would enjoy pleasant companionship. She would see famous
and beautiful things. She might return converted to the more
comfortable belief that her duty lay in accepting life as she found it.
The point of view comes out clearly enough in a letter from her
sister to Miss Bonham Carter:—

Embley, October [1847]. It is a very great pleasure to think of her with

such a companion, one who, she says, lives always with the best part of
her; one who has all the sense and discretion and the warm-hearted
sympathy and the quick enjoyment and the taste and the affection which
will most give her happiness; who will value her and take care of her, and
do[70] her all the good mentally and bodily one can fancy. Yes, dear, God
is very good to provide such a pleasant time, and it will rest her mind, I
think, entirely from wearing thoughts that all men have at home when
their duties weigh much on their consciences, while she will feel she is
 wasting nothing; for Mrs. Bracebridge has not been at all well and Flo will
feel herself a comfort and a help to her, I hope, for I know she is a great
one.… Though it is but for so short a time, yet it seems to me a great
event, the solemn first launching her into life, and my heart is very full of
many feelings, but yet the joy is greatest by an incalculable deal, for one
does not see how harm can come to her. Yet when one loves a great deal,
one cannot but be a little anxious.… It is so pretty to see Papa wandering
over the big map of Rome remembering every corner, and Mama over
Piranesi, and both over all the fair things that dwell there as tho' they had
just left them.

And Florence herself did find comfort and pleasure in the tour; but
it was destined not to divert, but to strengthen, her purpose, as also
to lay a train of circumstances which was to lead her to the Crimea.

Florence and her companions reached Paris on October 27, took

ship at Marseilles for Civita Vecchia, and stayed in Rome—in the Via
S. Bastinello (No. 8)—from the beginning of November till March 29,
1848. Florence entered heartily into all the pursuits and occupations
of elegant tourists in Rome. She studied the ruins; explored the
catacombs; copied inscriptions; visited the churches and galleries;
spent a morning in Gibson's studio and another in Overbeck's;
collected plants in the Colosseum; rode in the Campagna, and
bought brooches, mosaics, and Roman pearls. Her father had drawn
out a programme of famous sights and pretty walks and drives; and
the methodical Florence duly ticked them off on the list. She read
her own thoughts and aspirations into many of the works of art. She
greatly admired the Apollo Belvedere, seeing in it the type of
triumphant Free Will. “We can never lose the recollection of our poor
selves while we still do things with difficulty, while we are still
uncertain whether we shall succeed or not. The triumph of success
may be great and delightful, but the divine life—eternal life—is when
to will is to do, when the will is the same thing as the act, and
therefore the act is unconscious.” Of the Jupiter of the Capitol,
again, she says: “Jupiter is that perfect grace in power where the
divine Will, pure from exertion, speaks, and It is done.” But what
chiefly interested her, what really impressed her mind and stimulated
her imagination, was the genius of Michael Angelo:—

(To her Sister.) December 17 [1847]. Oh, my dearest, I have had such a
day—my red Dominical, my Golden Letter, the 15th of December is its
name, and of all my days in Rome this has been the most happy and
glorious. Think of a day alone in the Sistine Chapel with Σ [Selina,
Mrs. Bracebridge], quite alone, without custode, without visitors, looking
up into that heaven of angels and prophets.… I did not think that I was
looking at pictures, but straight into Heaven itself, and that the faults of
the representation and the blackening of the colours were the dimness of
my own earthly vision, which would only allow me to see obscurely,
indistinctly, what was there in all its glory to be known even as I was
known, if mortal eyes and understandings were cleared from the mists
which we have wilfully thrown around them. There is Daniel, opening his
windows and praying to the God of his Fathers three times a day in
defiance of fear. You see that young and noble head like an eagle's,
disdaining danger, those glorious eyes undazzled by all the honours of
Babylon. Then comes Isaiah, but he is so divine that there is nothing but
his own 53rd chapter will describe him. He is the Isaiah, the “grosse
Unbekannte” of the Comfort ye, Comfort ye my people. I was rather
startled at first by finding him so young, which was not my idea of him at
all, while the others are old. But M. Angelo knew him better; it is the
perpetual youth of inspiration, the vigour and freshness, ever new, ever
living, of that eternal spring of thought which is typed under that youthful
face. Genius has no age, while mind (Zechariah) has no youth. Next to
Isaiah comes the Delphic Sibyl, the most beautiful, the most inspired of all
the Sibyls here; but the distinction which M. Angelo has drawn even
between her and the Prophets is so interesting. There is a security of
 inspiration about Isaiah; he is listening and he is speaking; “that which we
hear we declare unto you.” There is an anxiety, an effort to hear even,
about the Delphian; she is not quite sure; there is an uncertainty, a
wistfulness in her eyes; she expects to be rewarded rather in another
stage than this for her struggle to gain the prize of her high calling, to
reach[72] to the Unknown that Isaiah knows already. There is no
uncertainty as to her feeling of being called to hear the voice, but she
fears that her earthly ears are heavy and gross, and corrupt the meaning
of the heavenly words. I cannot tell you how affecting this anxious look of
her far-reaching eyes is to the poor mortals standing on the pavement
below, while the Prophets ride secure on the storm of Inspiration.… I feel
these things to be part of the word of God, of the ladder to Heaven. The
word of God is all by which He reveals His thought, all by which He makes
a manifestation of Himself to men. It is not to be narrowed and confined
to one book, or one nation; and no one can have seen the Sistine without
feeling that he has been very near to God, that he will understand some
of His words better for ever after; and that Michael Angelo, one of the
greatest of the sons of men, when one looks at the dome of St. Peter's on
the one hand and the prophets and martyrs on the other, has received as
much of the breath of God, and has done as much to communicate it to
men, as any Seer of old. He has performed that wonderful miracle of
giving form to the breath of God, wonderful whether it is done by words,
colours, or hard stones.…

The thoughts and emotions which have been suggested by the

contemplation of the vault of the Sistine Chapel are countless. None
are more enthusiastic than those which it inspired in Florence
Nightingale, and few have been so discriminating. It is at once the
privilege and a mark of consummate works of art to be capable of as
many meanings as they may find of competent spectators. Each
man brings to the study of them the insight of which he is capable;
and each, perchance, finds in them some image of himself or of his
own experience. “There are few moments, most probably,” Florence
Nightingale went on to say, “which we shall carry with us through
the gate of Death, few recollections which will stand the Eternal
Light.” She felt as she came out of the Sistine Chapel that her first
sight of Michael Angelo's stupendous work would be one of those
few for her. We may surmise that the wistful uncertainty which she
found in the face of the Delphic Sibyl had especially appealed to her
in its truth to life as she had experienced it; conscious as she was of
a call from God, conscious also as she could not but have been of
great powers, and yet doubtful whether on this side of the gate of
Death it would be given to her to interpret the Divine voice aright.
She retained to the end of her life the same reverential feeling for
Michael Angelo. She had photographs and engravings of the Sistine
ceiling hanging in her rooms, and she sent some framed and
inscribed photographs of the symbolical figures on the Medici tombs
to hang at Embley on the little private staircase, where her father fell
and died. Those at her home were bequeathed specifically in her
Will.

The afternoon of the day on which the revelation of the Sistine

Chapel came to her was spent by Florence and her friend in walking
up the Monte Mario, to enjoy the famous view from the Villa Mellini,
not then, as now, included within a fort:—

“We spent an exquisite half-hour,” she wrote, “mooning, or rather

sunning about; the whole Campagna and city lying at our feet, the sea on
one side like a golden laver below the declining sun, the windings of the
Tiber and the hills of Lucretilis on the other, with Frascati, Tivoli, Tusculum
on their cypress sides, for in that clear atmosphere you could see the very
cypresses of Maecenas' villa at Tivoli; with long stripes of violet and
pomegranate coloured light sweeping over the plain like waves; one stone
pine upon the edge of our Mellini hill; and Rome, the fallen Babylon, like a
dead city beneath, no sound of multitudes ascending, but the only life
these great crimson lights and shadows (for here the shadow of a red
light is violet) like the carnation-coloured wings of angels, themselves
 invisible, flapping over the plain and leaving this place behind them. We
rushed down as fast as we could for the sun was setting, and we reached
St. Peter's just as the doors were going to close. We had the great Church
all to ourselves, the tomb of St. Peter wreathed with lights. It felt like the
times when a Christian knight watched by his arms before some great
enterprise at the Holy Sepulchre; and one shadowy white angel we could
see through the windows over the great door; and do you know he quite
made us startle as he stood there in the gloaming. Of course it was the
marble statue on the facade; and there were workmen still laughing and
talking at the extreme end, and their sounds, as they were repeated
under the long vaults, were like the gibbering of devils, and their
lanthorns, as they wavered along close to the ground, were like corpse-
lights. I thought of St. Anthony and holy knights and their temptations.
And at last the Sacristan took us out of that vast solemn dome through a
tomb! and we glided into the silvery moonlight, and walked home over
Ponte St. Angelo, where I made a little[74] invocation to St. Michael to
help me to thank; for why the Protestants should shut themselves out, in
solitary pride, from the Communion of Saints in heaven and in earth, I
never could understand. And so ended this glorious day.”

The obsession of Rome, which sooner or later comes upon every

intelligent visitor to the Eternal City, dated in the case of Florence
Nightingale from this golden-letter day. She surmounted the sense of
confusion which sometimes oppresses the traveller. “I do not feel,”
she wrote, “though Pagan in the morning, Jew in the afternoon, and
Christian in the evening, anything but a unity of interest in all these
representations. To know God we must study Him as much in the
Pagan and Jewish dispensations as in the Christian (though that is
the last and most perfect manifestation), and this gives unity to the
whole—one continuous thread of interest to all these pearls.”

II
 The politics of modern Italy interested her no less than the ruins
of ancient Rome or the monuments of mediæval art. She had met
many Italian refugees, both at Geneva and in the salon of Madame
Mohl in Paris, and was a whole-hearted enthusiast in the cause of
Italian freedom. Her present visit to Rome synchronized with that
curious and short-lived episode in the struggle during which Pio
Nono was playing “the ineffectual tragedy of Liberal Catholicism.” All
Rome seemed seized with sympathy for the cities beyond the Papal
states, which were fighting for liberty, and within the states
themselves Pio Nono's offerings of mild benevolence sufficed to call
forth “floods of ecstatic, demonstrative Italian humanity, torchlight
processions, and crowds kneeling at his feet.”[38] Miss Nightingale
saw the Roman nobles, Prince Corsini, Prince Gaetano, and others,
presiding at “patriotic altars,” which had been set up in the public
squares for the receipt of gifts in money and in jewellery. She heard
the famous Father Gavazzi preach the crusade in the Colosseum.
She cheered as the Tricolor of Italy was hoisted on the Capitol. “I
certainly was born,” she wrote to her cousin Hilary, “to be a tag-rag-
and-bob-tail, for when I hear of a popular demonstration, I am
nothing better than a ragamuffin.” She heard the rumble of a distant
drum, and rushed up for Mr. Bracebridge, and he and she broke their
own windows because they were not illuminated; stayed to see the
torchlight procession of patriots singing the hymn to Pio Nono, and
were rewarded by the crowd crying “God save the Queen,” as they
passed the English “milord” and his companion. “Very touching,” she
said; “though royalty was the very last thing I was thinking of”; for
at this time, as she often avowed in her letters, her sympathies were
Republican. “When this memorable year began with all its
revolutions,” she wrote later to Madame Mohl, after disillusion had
come (June 27), “I thought that it was the Kingdom of Heaven
coming under the fate of a Republic. But alas! things have shown
that more of us must slowly ripen to angels here, before the régime
of the angels, i.e. the Kingdom of Heaven, will begin.” But for the
moment everything seemed radiant. She recorded with pleasure in
February that a deputation of Romans had gone up to the Pope to
express their “complete confidence in him.” In her note-books she
collected particulars of his life and character; and when in March he
granted what can only be called a sort of a Constitution, she wrote
to Madame Mohl: “My dear Santo Padre seems doing very well. He
has given up his Temporal Power. No man took it from him; he laid it
down of himself. I think that he will reign in history as the only
prince who ever did, and that his character is nearer Christ's than
any I ever heard of.” History will hardly confirm this saying; but if
Miss Nightingale's words seem ill-balanced in the light of subsequent
events, let it be remembered that, as Mr. Trevelyan says, “the cult of
Pio Nono was for some months the religion of Italy, and of Liberals
and exiles all over the world. Even Garibaldi in Monte Video, and
Mazzini in London, shared the enthusiasm of the hour.” A year later,
when the Roman Republic had been declared and the Pope had fled,
and the French troops besieged Rome on his behalf, Miss Nightingale
had only pity for Pio Nono; her anger she reserved for the French
“cannibals,” for the one Republic that was devouring another. “I must
exhale my rage and indignation,” she wrote in a diary (June 30,
1849), “before I have lost all notions of absolute right and wrong. It
makes my heart bleed that the French nation, the nation above all
others capable of an ideal, of aspiring after the abstract right, should
have lent itself to such a brutal crime against its own brother—one
may say its own offspring, for the Roman Republic sprang from the
French; it is purest cannibalism; this breaks my heart. When I think
of that afternoon at Villa Mellini (now occupied by a French general),
of Rome, bathed in her crimson and purple shadows, lying at our
feet, and St. Michael spreading his wings over all—the Angel of
Regeneration as we thought him then—my eyes fill with tears. But
he will be the Angel of Regeneration yet.” The French, she said,
might reduce the city and occupy it; but the heroic defence of the
Republic “will have raised the Romans in the moral scale, and in
their own esteem.” They would never sink back to what they had
been. Sooner or later, Rome would be free. She was especially
indignant at the talk which she heard on all sides in cultivated
society at home about the “vandalism” of the Romans in exposing
their precious monuments of art to assault. She loved those
monuments, as we have seen; but if the defence of Rome against
the French required it, she would have been ready to see them all
levelled to the ground. “They must carry out their defence to the
last,” she cried. “I should like to see them fight the streets, inch by
inch, till the last man dies at his barricade, till St. Peter's is level with
the ground, till the Vatican is blown into the air. Then would this be
the last of such brutal, not house-breakings, but city-breakings;
then, and not till then, would Europe do justice to France as a thief
and a murderer, and a similar crime be rendered impossible for all
ages. If I were in Rome, I should be the first to fire the Sistine,
turning my head aside, and Michael Angelo would cry, ‘Well done,’ as
he saw his work destroyed.” It was not only in relation to the
restraints of conventional domesticity that Florence Nightingale was
a rebel.

III

During her own stay in Rome, however, there was something

which interested her more than Roman politics or Roman
monuments. It was the philanthropic work of a Convent School.
Every visitor to Rome knows the Trinità de' Monti. The flight of steps
between the church and the Piazza di Spagna is celebrated alike for
its own beauty and for the flower-girls and women in peasant-
costume who frequent it. The church itself contains many fine works
of art, and the choral service is one of the attractions of
ecclesiastical Rome. The neighbourhood is rich in artistic and literary
associations. Florence Nightingale had sympathetic eyes and ears for
all these things; but what attracted her most was the convent
attached to the church, with its school for girls, and (in another part
of the city) its orphanage. She was broad-minded, as we have seen
in an earlier chapter, in relation to church creeds. It was by works,
not faith, or at any rate by faith issuing in works, that she weighed
the churches. It was characteristic of the thoroughness of her
mental character that during this sojourn in Rome she made a
methodical study of Roman doctrine and ritual. Among her papers
and note-books belonging to this time, there are careful analyses of
the theory of Indulgence, of the Real Presence, of the Rosary, and
so forth. She made, too, a careful collation of the Latin Breviary with
the English Prayer-Book. She summed up her comparative study of
the churches in this generalization: “The great merit of the Catholic
Church: its assertion of the truth that God still inspires mankind as
much as ever. Its great fault: its limiting this inspiration to itself. The
great merit of Protestantism: its proclamation of freedom of
conscience within the limits of the Scriptures. Its great fault: its
erection of the Bible into a master of the soul.” Her deep sense of
the self-responsibility of every human soul kept her free from any
inclination to Roman doctrine; but she was profoundly impressed by
the practical beneficence of Roman sisterhoods. An example of such
beneficence she found in the school and orphanage of the Dames du
Sacré Cœur. She had picked up a poor girl called Felicetta Sensi, and
procured her admission as a free boarder, paying for her care and
education for many years. She formed a warm attachment to the
Lady Superior, the Madre Sta. Colomba. She studied the
organization, rules, and methods of the large school, and for ten
days she went into Retreat in the Convent.[39] Her intercourse with
the Madre Sta. Colomba, of whose talk and spiritual experiences she
made full and detailed notes, made a very deep impression on her
mind. She studied rules and organization, but, as in all her studies,
she was seeking a motive, as well as, and indeed more than, a
method. Many years later, a friend wrote to her: “It seems to me
that the greatest want among nurses is devotion. I use the word in a
very wide sense, meaning that state of mind in which the current of
desire is flowing towards one high end. This does not presuppose
knowledge, but it very soon attains it.”[40] This was a profound
conviction of her own, often expressed, as we shall hear, in her
Addresses and Letters of Exhortation in later years. What she set
herself to study at the Trinità de' Monti was the secret of devotion.
She made notes of the Lady Superior's exhortations; of the spiritual
exercises which were enjoined upon novices; of the forms and
discipline of self-examination. She sought to extract the secret, and
to apply it to the inculcation of the highest kind of service to man as
the service of God. For many years the thought in her mind was to
be the foundation of some distinctive order or sisterhood; and
though in the end she came to be glad that she had not done this,
she never abandoned the high ideal which was behind her thought.
Nor, though in some ways and in some cases she came to be
disillusioned about nursing sisterhoods, did she ever cease to speak
with admiration of what she had seen and learnt in some of them.
She thought more often, and with more affectionate remembrance,
about the spirit of the best Catholic sisterhoods than of
Kaiserswerth, or indeed of anything else in her professional
experience.

In such studies upon the Trinità de' Monti in the winter of 1847–
48, she was taken, as she said in a note of self-examination, out of
all interests that fostered her “vanity”; it was her “happiest New
Year.” “The most entire and unbroken freedom from dreaming I ever
had,” she wrote at a later time. “Oh, how happy I was!” And so
again, looking back after twenty years, she wrote: “I never enjoyed
any time in my life so much as my time at Rome.”[41]

IV

Another incident of Miss Nightingale's sojourn in Rome was

destined, though she knew it not at the time, to have a far-reaching
influence upon her career. Among the English visitors who spent the
winter of 1847–48 in Rome were Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Herbert.
Mr. Herbert had already been Secretary at War under Peel, a post to
which he was afterwards to return under Aberdeen. The resignation
of Peel's Cabinet in 1846 released Mr. Herbert from official work.
Later in the year he married a lady with whom he had been long
acquainted, Elizabeth à Court, daughter of General Charles Ashe à
Court; and in the following year he and his wife set out for a long
Continental tour. Mr. and Mrs. Bracebridge were friends of the
Herberts, and thus Florence Nightingale made their acquaintance in
Rome. In her retrospect she specially recalled the beginning there of
her friendship with Sidney Herbert “under the dear Bracebridges'
wing.” Compatriots who meet in this way in any foreign resort are
apt to see a good deal of each other, and from this winter dates the
beginning of a friendship which was to be a governing factor in the
life of Florence Nightingale. Sidney Herbert, when they met in
galleries or at soirées, or rode together in the Campagna, must have
been struck by Miss Nightingale's marked abilities, and for
Mrs. Herbert she formed an affectionate attachment. She noted “the
great kindness, the desire of love, the magnanimous generosity” of
her new friend. Mr. and Mrs. Herbert saw much of Archdeacon
Manning (the future cardinal), who was also spending the winter in
Rome, and Miss Nightingale was on friendly terms with him.[42] This
also was an acquaintance which had some influence on her future
career. Sidney Herbert, aided by the ready sympathy of his wife, was
devoting much thought, now liberated from official duties, to
schemes of benevolence among the poor on his estates. “He felt
strongly the disadvantage at which the poor were placed in being
compelled after illness, and perhaps after undergoing painful
operations, to return in the earliest stage of convalescence, without
rest or change, to their accustomed labour.”[43] He was full of a
scheme for a Convalescent Home and Cottage Hospital (such as is
now no rarity, but was then almost unknown), and it can be
imagined with what zest Miss Nightingale shared his thoughts. One
of the first things which she records in her diary after return from
the Continent is “an expedition with Mrs. Sidney Herbert to set up
her Convalescent Home at Charmouth”; but this was only a passing
incident, and return to the habitual home life, after the distraction of
foreign travel, left her no more contented than before.

On her return to London in the early summer of 1848 she sent her
friends occasionally the talk of the town:—

(To Madame Mohl.) July 26 [1848]. In London there have been the
usual amount of Charity Balls, Charity Concerts, Charity Bazaars, whereby
people bamboozle their consciences and shut their eyes. Nevertheless
there does not seem the slightest prospect of a revolution here. Why,
 would be hard to say, as England is surely the country where luxury has
reached its height and poverty its depth. Perhaps it is our Poor Law,
perhaps the strength of our Middle Class, perhaps a greater degree of
sympathy between the rich and poor, which is the conservative principle.
Lord Ashley had a Chartist deputation with him the other day, who stayed
to tea and talked with him for five hours. “That a man should ride in a
carriage and have twenty thousand a year is contrary to the laws of
Nature,” said their leader, and slapped his leg. “I could show you, if you
would go with me to-night,” said Lord Ashley, “people who would say to
you,[81] that a man should go in broadcloth and wear a shirt-pin (pointing
to the Chartist's shirt) is contrary to the laws of Nature.” The Chartist was
silent. “And it was the only thing I said,” says Lord Ashley, “after arguing
with them for five hours which made the least impression.”

Her acquaintance with Lord Ashley (afterwards Lord Shaftesbury)

brought her in touch with Ragged School work. But society grew
more and more distasteful to Miss Nightingale. She explained the
reasons in a letter to her “Aunt Hannah.” Why could she not smile
and be gay, while yet biding her time and not forsaking her ultimate
ideals? It was, she said, because she “hated God to hear her laugh,
as if she had not repented of her sin.” There is something obviously
morbid in such words, and they might be multiplied indefinitely, if
there were good reason for doing so, from her letters, diaries, and
note-books. The sins of which she most often convicted herself were
“hypocrisy” and “vanity.” She prayed to be delivered from “the desire
of producing an effect.” That was the “vanity”; and it was
“hypocrisy,” because she was playing a part, responding to friends'
conception of her, though all the while her heart was really set on
other things, and her true life was being lived elsewhere. The
morbidness was a symptom of a mind at war with its surroundings.
Then again the kind “Aunt” reminded her, in the spirit of George
Herbert, that anything and everything may be done “to the glory of
God.” But Miss Nightingale at this time was deep in the study of
political economy; and “can it be to the glory of God,” she asked,
“when there is so much misery among the poor, which we might be
curing instead of living in luxury?”

In the autumn of 1848 an opportunity occurred which promised

the realization of the dearest wish of her heart, but once more she
was doomed to disappointment. Her mother and sister had been
advised to go to Carlsbad for the cure. M. and Madame Mohl were to
be at Frankfurt, and they were all to meet in that city. Frankfurt is
near to Kaiserswerth, and Florence was to be allowed to go there.
But at the very moment disturbances broke out in Frankfurt, and the
whole plan was abandoned. “I am not going to consign to paper for
your benefit,” she wrote to Madame Mohl (October 1848), “all the
cursings and swearings which relieved my disappointed feelings; for
oh! what a plan of plans I had made out for myself! All that I most
wanted to do at Kaiserswerth, Brussels, and Co., lay for the first time
within reach of my mouth, and the ripe plum has dropped.” Florence
accompanied her mother to the cure at Malvern instead, where, with
many prayers for humility under the will of God, she lived for several
weeks upon the dry and bitter fruit of disappointment. During the
winter of 1848–49 Miss Nightingale saw something of M. Guizot and
his family. The Minister had escaped to London after the fall of Louis
Philippe, and was living in a modest house in Brompton. He found in
Miss Nightingale “a brave and sympathetic soul, for whom great
thoughts and great devotions had a serious attraction.”[44]

During the next year she found some congenial work in London.
She inspected hospitals. She worked in Ragged Schools. She spoke
of her “little thieves at Westminster” as her “greatest joy in London.”
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