PART III - ARGUMENT AND STRUCTURE

Summary

Having now defined the principal concepts with which the Fourth Evangelist works, I propose to follow the argument of the gospel chapter by chapter.

The book naturally divides itself at the end of ch. xii. The division corresponds to that which is made in all the gospels before the beginning of the Passion-narrative. But here it is made more formal. The gospel is divided at this point virtually into two books. What follows in chs. xiii–xx–or xxi, if we include the appendix–may properly be called The Book of die Passion. The earlier chapters correspond to the account of the Ministry in the other gospels. The way in which John regards it may be gathered from the opening words of the epilogue which he has supplied in xii. 37–ōτōσα0ταδ αOτōO σημεtαπεπōiηKóτō.… We may fitly call it The Book of Signs. This book begins with ch. ii. Ch. i forms a proem. I shall therefore examine the gospel under these three heads: A. The Proem; B. The Book of Signs; C. The Book of the Passion.

The purpose of this present discussion is to trace the argument which runs through the whole gospel, and to see how it is reflected in the structure of the book. At this point it is necessary to note that according to many recent critics any such enterprise is precarious at best, and probably futile, since (as they contend) the text of the work as it has come down to us does not represent its order as designed by the author.