The Kingship of Jesus in the Gospel of John. Sehyun Kim

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СКАЧАТЬ a complex combination, particularly the combination of Jewish and Graeco-Roman elements. It is therefore possible to describe the Gospel as a text of (post)colonialism,209 which utilizes hybridized cultures for its literary purpose. However, unlike the most obvious form of resistance in the colonial debates, namely violent resistance, the message of the Gospel rejects it. Rather, the Johannine Jesus throws himself into the colonial context to stop the violent and suppressive world, and to lead it into a new world where forgiveness, love, service, freedom and peace function as ruling apparatuses.

Since [the colonialists] do not want to give up power, “decolonization is always a violent phenomenon.” . . . In addition, violence has an effect on the colonized people both in general and as individuals. For the former, it overturns the divide and rule techniques of colonialism, and brings together regions, religious and ethnic groups in a united opposition. For the latter, violence is both cleansing and restorative; it purges feelings of inferiority and impotence, and restores self-respect.210

      The Gospel of John presents a method of decolonization, but it never accepts that violence is the way to achieve it. While the Jewish leaders attempt to bring together regions and religious and ethnic groups in a united opposition so as to maintain their ruling position, the Johannine Jesus attempts neither. He does not attempt to overturn the colonial power, rather, he allows himself to be killed by its violence in order to deliver others from the violent techniques of colonialism. Moreover, the Johannine Jesus breaks down the walls between the oppositional groups to bring them into a new world where all will live in harmony without competition, struggle, and oppression. He never intends to bring together regions and religious ethnic groups in a united opposition; rather he teaches how to live a liberating life of forgiveness, service, freedom, peace and love. The Johannine Jesus combines the center and the margin into one by his life and message. In this sense, Jesus is the Universal King.

As Fanon says “Decolonization is the veritable creation of new men,”211 the Gospel of John presents a way to “the veritable creation of new men” through the life and teaching of Jesus.

Colonialism imposed its control of the social production of wealth through military conquest and subsequent political dictatorship. However, its most important area of domination was the mental universe of the colonized, the control, through culture, of how people perceived themselves and their relation to the world.212

      If we read the Gospel of John as a literature of resistance against colonialism, we find that the Jewish leaders in the Gospel attempted to control society in order to keep their political and religious positions through collaboration with the imperial power. They sought to prevent Jesus’ resistance movement against colonialism in darkness. Their ambitions for power drove them to believe that the multitude, which followed Jesus, was stupid (John 7:49), and that they were the only elite group which could get rid of that kind of stupidity. Eventually, their political ambitions reached their climax when they sought to eliminate their opponent, Jesus.

The Jewish leaders in this Gospel were afraid that the world was breaking away from their political control as well as from their religious and spiritual domination because they saw the world following Jesus’ movement (John 12:19). Individuals from not only Jewish groups but also from many other groups follow Jesus. From this perspective, we may read of the Johannine Jesus as the decolonizer.213

      Similarities and Differences (Mimicry): The “Collaborators”

It is not easy to determine the identity of the Jewish leaders in the Gospel of John because they are regarded as both victims of institutionalized oppression and are also allied with it.214 In Jewish society, the Jewish leaders had a mixed identity as the colonized and the colonizer. The term, “collaborator” is particularly appropriate to them. They had the discrete and pure identity neither of the colonizer nor of the colonized. Jewish society at the end of the first century CE was neither a pure nation nor did it maintain a society of a pure single race. It was colonized and had lost its identity as a single independent nation. They had to try to discover an answer to the problem of how to live with the present new empire, Rome. They were seeking a satisfactory alternative. In these circumstances, the Roman Empire emphasized her benefits to the colonized. Some of the Jews accepted the new ethics of the Empire and tried to enjoy gradually its benefits. For their own sakes, they collaborated with the Empire in the colonial society. They gained high positions and became rulers for the colonizer. As a result, they were both the colonized under the power of the Empire, and the colonizer as rulers of the colonial society.

While dominant power colonizes in the name of civilization, colonization results in de-civilization, brutal oppression and the degradation of the colonizer. Moreover, it reveals the buried instincts of the colonizer of covetousness, violence, race hatred and moral relativism.215 In the process of hybridentity, “internal” colonists can absorb these negative features. In the Gospel of John, these negative features of colonization can be found in the character of the Jewish leaders. They justify the use of violence to maintain their positions. Their covetousness drives them into de-civilization. They seek to kill Jesus without any hesitation and to justify their actions; they use their own judicial process as well as that of the Romans. Moreover, they put pressure on the Roman governor, Pilate, to sentence Jesus to death. They ask for the crucifixion of Jesus instead of releasing him. An example of their moral relativism is that they want to keep the Passover and the Sabbath according to the Law (19:31), but they are willing to commit the murder of an innocent man.216 The Jewish leaders in the Gospel act like the Romans who cruelly destroy their enemies by eliminating their opponent, Jesus. Their character is typical of collaborators who cooperate with the colonial power but who suppress the colonized in the colonial society.

      Summary of the Chapter

      In this chapter, I first discussed the textual features of the Gospel of John in relation to its purposes and its readership. I pointed out that as a postcolonial text the Fourth Gospel was written in a multicultural and hybridized society, and that it is highly possible that the purpose of the composition of this Gospel was for a variety of readers who were from multi cultural environments. Then, I described the two pillars of the background of the kingship of Jesus in the Johannine Gospel: Jewish traditions and Graeco-Roman traditions. Through a survey of the two major backgrounds to the Gospel, I clarified that the kingship of the Johannine Jesus is included in the use of various christological terms. The meanings of these titles could be understood by a variety of readers from varied backgrounds could understand in common when they read the Gospel. I also pointed out the importance of the combination of the two traditions in order to understand the kingship motif of Jesus in this Gospel. In the spiral of the mixture of the meaning of the christological titles from the two backgrounds, I demonstrated a common meaning of the terms, namely the kingship of Jesus. In particular, I have argued that the Gospel as a hybridized product of this multicultural society accommodates various multicultural aspects. This Gospel was written for multicultural readers in order to present the Johannine Jesus as king, to lead them to believe in him as the true king whom they would follow for eternity and to challenge them to live according to the ruling ideology of the Johannine new world. Therefore, the Johannine Gospel encourages its readers and seeks to consolidate their faith in Jesus, and challenges them to live/spread out the Johannine ideology of the new world in/to the world.

      Secondly, I researched the methodology of this book, postcolonialism. Because the Johannine world was under colonial power, the identity of the Johannine Jesus as decolonizer could be newly identified in colonialism. Therefore, a very different manner of reading of the Gospel in relation to the Jewish background СКАЧАТЬ