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Truth in the Gospel of St John

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2024

Jordan Vink O.P.
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To the people St John addresses, the question ‘What is truth?’ (xviii, 38) was not simply a matter of intellectual curiosity or scepticism. The gospel offers an answer to the deepest needs of a sophisticated society, in search of ‘life', ‘light’ and ‘truth'. Although we are pressed by questions of a similar kind, yet John's answers are not immediately understandable to us. The problem what the meaning is of the concept ‘truth’ in the fourth gospel is best approached along three separate ways: in what contexts does it appear in the gospel, what were the connotations attached to it in the contemporary world, and how far is all this relevant to us?

As for the first point, it is most helpful to return to the context of Pilate's question; because the account of our Lord's trial before the Roman procurator has a far greater importance in the evangelist's mind than just that of a chronicle of certain juridical facts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Life of the Spirit , Volume 14 , Issue 167 , May 1960 , pp. 484 - 489
Copyright
Copyright © 1960 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 Eschatological—concerning the last things; the eschatological judge is the judge at the last judgment.

2 That the expression refers to judgment is now confirmed by the first extra-biblical parallel: in the Manual of Discipline of the Community of Qumran (iQ S 8, 6). There however the final judgment belongs to the future, whereas in St John ‘now is the judgment of this world’ (xii, 31).

3 It is clear however that Bultmann's description of this aspect (Kittel. Theol. Wört.z.N.T. B.P, p. 246), detaching it apparently from any doctrinal context (mysteriöse oder rationale Beiehrutig), is preconditioned by his opinions on faith and revelation.

4 cf. J. Dupont: Essais sur la Christologie de S Jean. Bruges 1951, p. 214.

5 I. de la Potterie: L' arrière-fond du thème johannique de vérité. In: Studia Evangelica … Int. Congr… . ed. Aland, Cross e.a. Berlin 1959, p. 277-294.

6 cf. however iii, 11; viii, 38; v, 19; iii, 32.

7 This question predetermines the one of vocabulary, e.g. in Dodd: The Fourth Gospel, Cambridge 1956, p. 176: This sense can hardly be supposed to come through to Greek readers of the words kharis kai aletheia (grace and truth)… . Thus, while the mould of the expression is determined by Hebrew usage, the actual sense of the words must be determined by Greek usage. Cf. also p. 174.

8 J. A. T. Robinson: Destination and Purpose of St John's Gospel. New Test. Studies 6, 1960, 117-131.