Truth on Trial: The Lawsuit Motif in the Fourth Gospel

by Lincoln, Andrew T.

• ISBN13: 9781565632820
• ISBN10: 1565632826
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-11-01
• Publisher: Hendrickson Pub

Summary

Religious truth has always been in dispute, but there are certain times and places in which the debate has been more intense. One such period was the first century C.E., when the rapid spread of Christianity with its claims about Jesus produced considerable ferment. The Gospel of John, written late in that century, presents that dispute with greater clarity than any other document of the time. John presents a Jesus who claims not only to tell the truth but also to "be" the truth. And yet, as the Roman magistrate asks Jesus in John's gospel, what is truth?

Two millennia later in the Western world, pluralism and postmodernism radically challenge traditional notions of truth. Is there any truth beyond the formal logic of merely analytical propositions? And if there is, do humans have any way of knowing it? Many who have a postmodern perspective deny that either rationality or imagination can give us access to the truth. Instead they adopt a thoroughgoing incredulity toward metanarratives. Truth is again on trial.

In "Truth on Trial: The Lawsuit Motif in John's

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	xi
Introduction	1	(1)
Trials of Truth: Then and Now	1	(3)
The Trial Motif in Scholarship on the Fourth Gospel	4	(2)
Taking Another Look	6	(6)
The Lawsuit and the Narrative of the Fourth Gospel	12	(24)
Orientation to the Narrative	13	(8)
Overall Shape of the Narrative Discourse	14	(3)
Discerning the Plot and the Characterization	17	(2)
Irony and a Two-Storey Story	19	(2)
The Trial Motif in the Narrative	21	(15)
The Lawsuit and the Overall Shape of the Narrative Discourse	21	(8)
The Lawsuit, Plot, and Characterization	29	(4)
The Lawsuit, Irony, and a Two-Storey Story	33	(3)
The Lawsuit, Jewish Scripture, and the Fourth Gospel	36	(21)
Appeals to the Law	37	(1)
The Lawsuits of Isaiah 40--55	38	(5)
Yahweh and the Nations	39	(2)
Yahweh and Israel	41	(2)
Further Influences from Isaiah 40--55	43	(2)
The Fourth Gospel's Reworking of Deutero-Isaiah's Lawsuits	45	(6)
The Lawsuit and Other Scriptural Links	51	(3)
Scripture in the Lawsuit	54	(3)
Some Key Stages in the Trial Proceedings	57	(82)
The Testimony of John the Baptist (1:6--8, 15; 1:19--34; 3:25--30)	58	(7)
The Testimony from Above and the Judgment of the Light (3:11--21; 3:31--36)	65	(8)
Jesus as the Just Judge and the Testimonies to Jesus (5:19--47)	73	(9)
The Truth of Jesus' Testimony and Judgment (8:12--59)	82	(14)
The Interrogation of the Man Born Blind (9:1--41)	96	(9)
Jesus and the Judgment of the World (12:37--50)	105	(5)
The Preparation of the Disciples for Testifying and the Role of the Paraclete (15:26--16:15; cf. also 14:16, 17, 26)	110	(13)
The Trial before Pilate (18:28--19:16a)	123	(16)
The Lawsuit and Literary Issues Revisited	139	(44)
Story, Discourse and Persuasion	139	(6)
Narrative Opening	145	(4)
Narrative Middle	149	(3)
Narrative Closure	152	(7)
Plot and Characterization Revisited	159	(10)
The Lawsuit and Genre	169	(2)
The Lawsuit and the Reader	171	(12)
The Lawsuit and the Theology of the Fourth Gospel	183	(80)
The God of the Trial	185	(8)
The Witness of Jesus	193	(14)
The Trial's Outcome---Life or Condemnation?	207	(15)
The Truth at Issue	222	(9)
The Opposition and Its Case	231	(11)
The Witness of Jesus' Followers and the Spirit as Another Advocate	242	(13)
The Cosmic Setting of the Trial	255	(8)
The Fourth Gospel's Lawsuit in Historical and Social Perspective	263	(70)
A Community under Trial	265	(42)
Historical Enquiry and the Twelfth Benediction	266	(12)
Excommunication and Its Social Consequences	278	(7)
Social Honor, Shaming, and the Lawsuit	285	(17)
Trials and a Roman Context?	302	(5)
The Reworking of Gospel Traditions	307	(19)
The Functions of the Lawsuit in Its Historical and Social Setting	326	(7)
The Lawsuit Metaphor in Contemporary Focus	333	(21)
The Endurance of the Metaphor	333	(7)
Ricoeur and the Hermeneutics of Testimony	340	(14)
Appropriating the Fourth Gospel's Lawsuit: Four Objections	354	(64)
Accepting Testimony and Exercising Critical Judgment	354	(15)
The Truth of the Narrative of the Trial of Truth	369	(28)
The Trial Motif and Anti-Judaism	397	(7)
The Trial Metanarrative, Violence, and Exclusion	404	(14)
Appropriating the Fourth Gospel's Lawsuit: Four Reflections	418	(81)
Christ and the Truth about God	419	(12)
Christ and the Truth about Justice and Life	431	(23)
Christian Witness and Advocacy	454	(30)
Faithful Witness and the Dialogue with Judaism	484	(15)
Bibliography	499	(14)
Index of Modern Authors	513	(4)
Index of Ancient Sources	517