THE HISTORICAL JESUS AND THE JOHANNINE APOSYNAGŌGOS PASSAGES

Abstract

<p>This study will critically evaluate the dominant framework through which the Johannine <em>aposynagōgos</em> passages (John 9:22, 12:42, 16:2) are read. This dominant framework, which understands these passages as allegorically encoding the history of a putative Johannine community some forty to fifty years after Jesus’ lifetime, will be judged exegetically and historically implausible. An alternative reading of the passages will be developed, grounded in a philosophy of history derived from the critical realist epistemology developed by Bernard Lonergan and introduced into New Testament studies by Ben F. Meyer. It will be argued that these passages are historically plausible and that the Gospel author intended factuality and was plausibly knowledgeable on the matter. Consequently, it will be argued that a positive judgment of historicity can be assigned to these passages.</p>