Why Does Jesus Sound So Different in John’s Gospel? image

Why Does Jesus Sound So Different in John’s Gospel?

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Anyone who has ever read the Gospels will have wondered how to square Jesus's language and style in John with his language and style in the Synoptics. Did Jesus talk — to his disciples, his opponents and his Father — like he does in John, or like he does in Mark? There are obvious points of overlap, not least the shared miracle stories, the passion and resurrection narratives, the emphatic speech ("truly, truly"), and the so-called "Johannine thunderbolt" of Matthew 11:25-30. And there are numerous contextual factors that account for some of the change of style. The Synoptics have a different focus to John when it comes to geography (Sea of Galilee vs Jerusalem), timing (all year round vs major festivals), mood (support vs opposition) and audience (generic crowds vs specific individuals), all of which would naturally affect the choice of words and the structure of conversations. But even so, there remains a marked difference between the way the Synoptic Jesus talks ("the kingdom of heaven is like ...", "once there was a man who ...", "blessed are the ...", "what man among you will ...") and the way the Johannine Jesus talks ("this is eternal life ...", "I am the ...", "I in you and you in me ...", "you shall know the truth", and so forth).

The standard way of explaining that phenomenon has been to distinguish between the ipsissima vox (very voice) and the ipsissima verba (exact words) of Jesus. The Gospels do not give us the exact words of Jesus. Apart from anything else, they are written in Greek and Jesus was speaking in Aramaic. But they do give us the very voice of Jesus, represented (or re-presented) accurately but differently by the four evangelists. Here are a few ways of thinking about it I have found helpful.

First, Bishop Lesslie Newbigin: “The prayer [of John 17] is not a free invention of the evangelist; nor is it a tape recording of the words of Jesus. It is a representation of what Jesus was doing when he prayed in the presence of his disciples during the supper, a re-presentation which rests upon the authority of the Beloved Disciple guided by the Holy Spirit.”

Second, the Victorian poet Robert Browning (emphasis added):

Since much that at the first, in deed and word,
Lay simply and sufficiently exposed,
Had grown (or else my soul was grown to match,
Fed through such years, familiar with such light,
Guarded and guided still to see and speak)
Of new significance and fresh result;
What first were guessed as points, I now knew stars,
And named them in the Gospel I have writ.

Third, explaining Browning’s meaning to a contemporary audience, the Johannine scholar John Ashton: “To account for the Fourth Gospel we have to accord its author a quite exceptional vision. For the object of that vision Browning chose the word stars. The evangelist’s word was glory.”

And finally David Ford, from whose commentary I drew all these references: “In other words, it is testimony distilled and enriched by the Spirit, who ... ‘will guide you into all the truth ... and ... will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you’” (emphasis added).

Testimony distilled and enriched by the Spirit. Beautiful.

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