Thursday 26 October 2017

The last day: what eschatology in the Gospel of John?


It often happens that "sophisticated" Christians contrasts the literal and "naive" belief in "the last day" and in the "Second Coming", proper of the of the Synoptic Gospels (Matt 24; Mark 13; Luke 21) with the "spiritual" message of the Gospel of John.

Typically, these "sophisticated" Christians bring up as proof text chiefly this verse:

“But a time is coming – and now is here – when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers.” (John 4:23)

At the level of theological discourse, it has become common to speak of "realized eschatology" in the Gospel of John. The seminal work for the introduction of this notion is C.H. Dodd's The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, (1953)/1968.

A synthetic account of Dodd's work is Rudolf Bultmann's Review of C.H. Dodd: The interpretation of the fourth gospel, (1954)/1963 (Harvard Divinity Bulleting, 27, pp. 9:22), unfortunately not available online.

Yet, in spite of all the talking of "realized eschatology", the question remains: is there a literal eschatology, a literal "last day" in the Gospel of John?

I believe there is:

“For this is the will of my Father – for everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him to have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:40)

“The one who rejects me and does not accept my words has a judge; the word I have spoken will judge him at the last day.” (John 12:48)

Any comments?

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