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Towards a Symbolic Reading of the Fourth Gospel*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Xavier Leon-Dufour
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Extract

To speak of the symbolic in exegesis means running into a veritable mine field. Everywhere, you are in danger of finding ‘booby traps’ liable to explode the most solid systematic constructions instantly. However, I would like to venture with you into the field of John's symbolism, since I think that it has been insufficiently explored and appreciated in the classical commentaries. If this seems a bit grandiose, I would like to attenuate my apparent pretension. I would first like to present you with a global approach to the subject and then I would like to investigate with you a few concrete examples: the sign of the temple, a saying addressed to Nicodemus and the ‘bread of life’. We shall try to see what a so-called ‘symbolic reading’ of these passages can contribute to their understanding.

Type
Articles
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , July 1981 , pp. 439 - 456
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

NOTES

[1] Lalande, , Vocabulaire technique et critique de la philosophie (Paris, 1947 3), p. 1058.Google Scholar

[2] Schnackenburg, R., Das Johannesevangelium, vol. 1 (Freiburg/Basel/Wien, 1965), p. 193.Google Scholar

[3] Léon-Dufour, X., ‘Autour du sèmeion johannique’, in Die Kirche des Anfangs (Leipzig: Festschrift für H. Schürmann, 1978), pp. 363–78.Google Scholar

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[5] 7. 38–39; 11. 50–52; 12. 16; 12. 32–33.

[6] Léon-Dufour, X., ‘Le Signe du Temple selon saint Jean’, in Mélanges Jules Lebreton, tome I, (Paris, 1951), pp. 155–75.Google Scholar

[7] Schnackenburg, R., Das Johannesevangelium, vol. I (Freiburg/Basel/Wien, 1965), p. 365.Google Scholar

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[10] de la Potterie, I., ‘“Naître de l'eau et naître de l'esprit”. Le Texte baptismal de Jn. 3. 5’, in Sciences ecclésiastiques, 14 (1962), 417–43.Google Scholar

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[12] Commentaires de Jean Calvin sur le Nouveau Testament, tome II. Evangile selon saint Jean, Labor et Fides (Genève, 1968), pp. 75–6. The Latin edition said: ‘Non est insolens copulam exegetice sumi, quum scilicet posterius membrum explicatio est prioris’ (In Joannem, Corpus Reformationum, vol. 75 [Brunsvigae, 1892], p. 56).Google Scholar

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