But the relation of the discourses of Jesus in the gospel of John, to the Evangelist’s own style of thinking and writing, is decisive. Here we find a similarity,[64] which, as it extends to the discourses of a third party, namely, the Baptist, cannot be explained by supposing that the disciple had formed his style on that of the master,[65] but requires us to admit that the Evangelist has lent his own style to the principal characters in his narrative. The latest commentator on John has not only acknowledged this with regard to the colouring of the expression; he even thinks that in the matter itself he can here and there detect the explanatory amplifications of the Evangelist, who, to use his own phrase, has had a hand in the composition of the longer and more difficult discourses.[66] But since the Evangelist does not plainly indicate his additions, what is to assure us that they are not throughout interwoven with the ideas of Jesus, nay, that all the discourses which he communicates are not entirely his own productions? The style furnishes no guidance, for this is everywhere the same, and is admitted to be the Evangelist’s own; neither does the sense, for in it also there is no essential difference whether the Evangelist speaks in his own name or in that of Jesus: where then is the guarantee that the discourses of Jesus are not, as the author of the Probabilia maintains, free inventions of the fourth Evangelist?
Lücke adduces some particulars, which on this supposition would be in his opinion inexplicable.[67] First, the almost verbal agreement of John with the synoptists in isolated sayings of Jesus. But as the fourth Evangelist was within the pale of the Christian community, he must have had at his command a tradition, from which, though drawing generally on his own resources, he might occasionally borrow isolated, marked expressions, nearly unmodified. Another argument of Lücke is yet more futile. If, he says, John had really had the inclination and ability to invent discourses for Jesus, he would have been more liberal in long discourses; and the alternation of brief remarks with prolonged addresses, is not to be explained on the above supposition. But this would follow only if the author of the fourth gospel appeared to be a tasteless writer, whose perception did not tell him, that to one occasion a short discourse was suitable, to another a long one, and that the alternation of diffuse harangues with concise sentences was adapted to produce the best impression. Of more weight is the observation of Paulus, that if the fourth Evangelist had given the rein to his invention in attributing discourses to Jesus, he would have obtruded more of his own views, of which he has given an abstract in his prologue; whereas the scrupulousness with which he abstains from putting his doctrine of the Logos into the mouth of Jesus, is a proof of the faithfulness with which he confined himself to the materials presented by his memory or his authorities.[68] But the doctrine of the Logos is substantially contained in the succeeding discourse of Jesus; and that the form in which it is propounded by the evangelist in his preface, does not also [[386]]reappear, is sufficiently explained by the consideration, that he must have known that form to be altogether foreign to the teaching of Jesus.
We therefore hold it to be established, that the discourses of Jesus in John’s gospel are mainly free compositions of the Evangelist; but we have admitted that he has culled several sayings of Jesus from an authentic tradition, and hence we do not extend this proposition to those passages which are countenanced by parallels in the synoptical gospels. In these compilations we have an example of the vicissitudes which befal discourses, that are preserved only in the memory of a second party. Severed from their original connexion, and broken up into smaller and smaller fragments, they present when reassembled the appearance of a mosaic, in which the connexion of the parts is a purely external one, and every transition an artificial juncture. The discourses of Jesus in John present just the opposite appearance. Their gradual transitions, only rendered occasionally obscure by the mystical depths of meaning in which they lie,—transitions in which one thought develops itself out of another, and a succeeding proposition is frequently but an explanatory amplification of the preceding,[69]—are indicative of a pliable, unresisting mass, such as is never presented to a writer by the traditional sayings of another, but such as proceeds from the stores of his own thought, which he moulds according to his will. For this reason the contributions of tradition to these stores of thought (apart from the sayings which are also found in the earlier gospels) were not so likely to have been particular, independent dicta of Jesus, as rather certain ideas which formed the basis of many of his discourses, and which were modified and developed according to the bent of a mind of Alexandrian or Greek culture. Such are the correlative ideas of πατὴρ and υἱὸς (father and son), φῶς and σκότος (light and darkness), ζωὴ and θάνατος (life and death), ἄνω and κάτω (above and beneath), σὰρξ and πνεῦμα (flesh and spirit); also some symbolical expressions, as ἄρτος τῆς ζωῆς (bread of life), ὕδωρ ζῶη (water of life). These and a few other ideas, variously combined by an ingenious author, compose the bulk of the discourses attributed to Jesus by John; a certain uniformity necessarily attending this elemental simplicity. [[387]]
[1] Schulz, über das Abendmahl, s. 321. [↑]
[2] This “secret information” is very welcome to Dr. Paulus, because it gives a useful hint “as to many occurrences in the life of Jesus, the causes of which are not obvious” (L. J. 1, b, s. 141); that is Paulus, like Bahrdt and Venturini, though less openly, is fond of using such secret and influential allies as deus ex machinâ, for the explanation of much that is miraculous in the life of Jesus (the transfiguration, residence after the resurrection, etc.). [↑]
[4] Let the reader bear in mind the kindred names Nicolaus and Nicolaitans. [↑]
[5] Prob., p. 44. Bretschneider is right, however, in declaring against Kuinöl’s method of supplying a connexion between the discourses in John, by the insertion of propositions and intermediate discourses, supposed to have been omitted. Lücke judiciously admits (1, p. 446) that if, in John, something appears to be wanting between two consecutive expressions of Jesus, we are yet to suppose that there was an immediate connexion between them in the mind of the Evangelist, and it is this connexion which it is the task of exegesis to ascertain. In truth the discourses in the fourth gospel are never entirely wanting in connexion (apart from the exceptions to be noticed in § 81), though that connexion is sometimes very latent. [↑]
[6] Bereschith R., sect 39 f. xxxviii. 2. Bammidbar R., s. 11 f. ccxi. 2. Tanchuma f. v. 2, in Schöttgen, i. s. 704. Something similar is said of Moses, from Schemoth R., ib. [↑]