1 - Prelude to the Passion

Summary

The earlier chapters of the gospel (ii–xii), dealing with the Ministry of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, Galilee, and elsewhere, do not follow, like the later chapters with which we have dealt, a continuous line of narrative. The argument, indeed, is continuous, and clearly envisaged by the author as a whole, to which each successive stage contributes. It is therefore all the more significant that the narrative is presented, in the main, by way of detached incidents, related often in a manner sufficiently reminiscent of that of the Synoptics to invite comparison. In this section of the book I shall investigate some of the narrative pericopae, asking whether traces of the tradition which we have seen reason to infer behind the Passion narrative are to be discerned here also.

We begin with three narrative pericopae which have more or less close relations with the Passion narrative, either intrinsically by virtue of their content, or through the place assigned to them in the pattern of the gospels. These are the Triumphal Entry, the Cleansing of the Temple and the Anointing at Bethany.

The Triumphal Entry (xii. 12–16)

Neither in John nor in the Synoptics has the pericopé of the Entry the normal form of a unit of narrative, with conventional opening and conclusion. There is therefore no direct evidence that it ever formed such a unit by itself, though it may, of course, have done so.