Raymond E. Brown, The Community of the Beloved Disciple.
Phase 1: Before the Gospel - Johannine Community Origins, p. 25-58

(Detailed summary)

Despite the diversity of reconstructions of the Johannine community, biblical scholars agree on at least two phases of its development. First, there is agreement on its beginnings, when it was made up of Jews whose faith in Jesus reflected a low theology, i.e., Jesus was given titles derived from the expectation of a messiah or prophet or servant or son of God, as kings were given titles that in no way implied divinity. Later, a high Christology emerged, in which Jesus now belonged to the sphere of divinity, bringing the community into direct conflict with the Jews, who accused it of blasphemy, and pushing it to radicalize itself with even bolder claims

1. Originating Group and a Lower Christology

   From chapter 1 of the Gospel according to John, two remarkable points distinguish this Gospel from the Synoptics concerning the account of Jesus' ministry.

   1. First, in the fourth Gospel, John the Baptist has knowledge of Jesus' pre-existence (Jn 1:15, 30). This notion of pre-existence, which never appears on Jesus' lips, is surely the product of Johannine theology.

   2. The Synoptics name Peter, Andrew, James, and John as the first disciples, but John 1:35-51 names Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathanael instead. Similarly, these disciples' understanding of Jesus' identity varies greatly. In Mark, there is no confession that he is the Son of God until the moment of his death, and in Matthew, Peter's confession (Matthew 16:16-17) is due to a special revelation from God. In John, on the other hand, a set of titles appears in the first chapter: rabbi, Messiah, the one spoken of in the Law and the Prophets, Son of God, King of Israel. Moreover, these titles are inadequate for Jesus, because the disciples will eventually see heaven and earth meet in him (Jn 1:50-51).

   What does all this say about the origins of the community?

   1. Description of the Originating Group of Johannine Christians

      The community began among Jews who considered Jesus to be the expected Messiah. On this point, there are similarities between the Synoptic Gospels and the fourth Gospel, primarily concerning the characters among the first disciples and the titles attributed to Jesus. One would search in vain for a significant difference between the beginnings of this Church and that represented by the Twelve and by Paul. Let us simply compare Jn 1:45 ("We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Book of the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote") and Lk 24:44 ("Everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled").

      The same can be said when analyzing the miracle stories ("signs"). Both in John and in the Synoptics, the types of miracle stories are similar: healings of the sick, the crippled, the blind, the multiplication of loaves, resuscitations. Of course, in his final form, the evangelist expanded these stories through dialogue with theological interpretation. But this expansion is done in continuity, not rupture. Let us compare Jn 6:51 ("The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh") and Lk 22:19 ("This is my body given for you"). Thus, the sacred material of the tradition of the original community became the source of further reflection and the expansion of its teaching towards a high Christology.

      Such continuity can be observed on other points, such as the role of the Paraclete: "He will guide you into all truth" (Jn 16:13). However, this Paraclete will not introduce anything new, but will only interpret what comes from Jesus. Of course, when the Gospel affirms the pre-existence of Jesus, it goes further than the meaning given to the title of Messiah by Andrew (Jn 1:41) and to that of Son of God by Nathanael (Jn 1:49). But this high Christology only reveals the profound meaning of these early confessions. This is why, at the end of his Gospel, the author simply repeats the traditional words: "These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (Jn 20:31).

      Continuity with the origins is also suggested by the figure of John the Baptist. Indeed, when the fourth Gospel was written, there was open conflict between Christians and the disciples of the Baptist, who rejected Jesus and considered their master to be the true Messiah, or at least his envoy; hence the evangelist's need to put these words in the mouth of John the Baptist: "I am not the Messiah" (Jn 3:28). But the fourth Gospel refuses to reject him. On the contrary, it affirms that John the Baptist was sent by God, and even puts into his mouth titles of Jesus typical of his theology, such as his pre-existence (Jn 1:15, 30). This can only be explained historically if some of the early Johannine Christians came from the Baptist movement. Having John the Baptist speak in this way as a Johannine Christian presupposes continuity with the Baptist's preaching.

      Some biblical scholars have noted a certain similarity between the vocabulary of the Essenes, who lived in a settlement known today as Qumran, on the shores of the Dead Sea, and the fourth Gospel: the dualism of light/darkness, truth/falsehood, the prince of light or the spirit of truth leading the sons of light against the sons of darkness, the Law as a source of living water. However, there is no conclusive evidence that the Johannine author was familiar with the literature of Qumran. It is more likely that Jews who listened to the preaching of John the Baptist, whose ministry was geographically close to Qumran, and who joined the Johannine community, conveyed ideas similar to those found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was at a later stage in the community's development, when the high theology of Jesus' pre-existence emerged, that this vocabulary was used to present him as light descended from heaven and Christians as sons of light.

   2. The Role of the Beloved Disciple

      A special bond between the disciples of John the Baptist and the early Johannine community is personified by the figure of the beloved disciple. Although this figure remains mysterious and appears only in the fourth Gospel, where he becomes the hero of the community, he is nonetheless real. And it was because it claimed to have the testimony of this disciple that the Johannine community was able to defend its particular Christology and ecclesiology in the eyes of the larger Church, which referred instead to the testimony of the Twelve and Peter. This is illustrated by the elevation of the beloved disciple over Simon Peter in the fourth Gospel. If the figure of the beloved disciple were fictional, the entire argument of the Gospel would collapse. This is also the case in the first epistle of John, which from the outset refers to this disciple as the source of the tradition of eyewitness testimony (1 Jn 1:1-3) in order to correct the abuses of those who claim to speak in the name of the Spirit (1 Jn 4:1). The author of the epistle is not an eyewitness, but his community is aware of its roots in a tradition of eyewitness testimony, which presupposes that the beloved disciple was one of those who followed the historical Jesus. This is the meaning of the "we" that we encounter both in the fourth Gospel and in the Johannine epistles.

      The portrait of the Johannine community becomes more understandable if the beloved disciple, like some of the early disciples named in John 1:35-51, was first a disciple of John the Baptist (perhaps the unnamed disciple in John 1:35-40 who was with Andrew). Thus, the beloved disciple would have had the same status in this nascent Johannine community of Jewish Christians as the Twelve had in other Christian communities. But why does this title of beloved disciple only appear in chapter 13 when Jesus speaks of "his hour"? This disciple could only receive the title "beloved" in a Christological context. This means that he experienced the same Christological growth as the whole community, and it was this growth that enabled the community to give him his identity as "beloved."

      Who is this beloved disciple? It is probably not John, one of the sons of Zebedee; in fact, they are strangely absent from the fourth Gospel, appearing only in the appendix to the Gospel (chapter 21). By contrasting him with Peter, the evangelist gives the impression that he was outside the group of best-known disciples, a group that must have included the sons of Zebedee. Of course, there is the testimony from the end of the 2nd century that identifies the beloved disciple with the apostle John. But all this testifies to a tendency already present in the New Testament to reduce Christian origins to the group of the Twelve. What can we say, nevertheless, about this beloved disciple? He was a disciple of John the Baptist who began to follow Jesus in Judea, while Jesus himself was still in the Baptist's entourage. He shared his master's life during his last stay in Jerusalem. We also know that he was known to the high priest. His relationship with Jesus was different from that of Peter, the representative of the Twelve.

2. The Admission of a Second Group and a Higher Christology

   Chapters 2 and 3 of John are not really different from what can be found in the Synoptic Gospels.

   • The account of the miracle at Cana is very similar to that of the multiplication of the loaves, just as the intervention of Jesus' mother (John 2:3-4) resembles the mother-son dialogue in Luke 2:48-49 and Mark 3:31-35.
   • The cleansing of the temple and the announcement of its future destruction are also present in the Synoptics.
   • The visit of the notable Nicodemus, who is open to Rabbi Jesus, and his questioning about entering the kingdom resembles the synoptic account of a notable man questioning Rabbi Jesus about the inheritance of eternal life (Lk 18:18).
   • The idea that John the Baptist's disciples do not understand Jesus (Jn 3:22-26) echoes the account of the Baptist's disciples asking Jesus if he is the one who is to come (Lk 7:18-23).

   Thus, in these two chapters there is no trace of any major conflict between the early Johannine community and “the Jews.”

   It is in chapter 4, with the story of the Samaritan woman, that the fourth Gospel departs from the synoptic Gospels. Indeed, while in Matthew 10:5 Jesus forbids his disciples to enter a Samaritan city, according to Luke 9:52-55 the Samaritans were very hostile towards Jesus, and Acts 8: 1-25 informs us that it was several years after Jesus' resurrection that Samaria was reached by Christian preaching through Philip, John 4:4-42 affirms, on the contrary, that Jesus passed through Samaria and led an entire village of Samaritans to believe that he is the Savior of the world. Therefore, historically speaking, there are strong reasons to doubt that Jesus converted many Samaritans to his preaching during his ministry, and it is likely that John's account reflects a post-Easter historical situation.

   1. Description of the Second Group of Johannine Christians

      The second group to join the Johannine community consists of a large group of Samaritans (Jn 4:4-42). This conversion is not attributed to the disciples in chapter 1, and the fact that this second group gives Jesus the title “Savior of the world” distances us from the standard Old Testament expectations of chapter 1. And it is after this conversion that the evangelist emphasizes the rejection of Jesus by the Jews, who cry out, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and possessed by a demon?” (Jn 8:48).

      It would not be accurate to say that this second group consisted only of Samaritans (Jn 4:22: “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation comes from the Jews”). It would be more accurate to say that this second group consisted of anti-temple Jews (Jn 4:21: “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.”) who converted the Samaritans, while borrowing elements of Samaritan thought, including a Christology not centered on the Davidic Messiah.

      Chapters 6-8 of the Acts of the Apostles give us a description of the Hellenists of Jerusalem (Jews who spoke only Greek) to whom the Jewish leaders were very hostile because they opposed the temple in Jerusalem (Jn 7:48-50) and who became Christians. When they were expelled from Jerusalem, they went to preach Christ in Samaria. A Johannine community composed of people hostile to the temple and Samaritans would thus have become detestable to traditional Jews.

      Such a community could be located in the greater Palestinian region, including Transjordan and Syria. But can we be more precise? In fact, we can only say that this Johannine community, which is primarily a Jewish Christian community, also includes converted Galileans and Samaritans.

   2. Resultant Conflict with “the Jews”

      Let us focus on this conflict with “the Jews,” which becomes a prominent theme after chapter 4. Note the strangeness of this term in the mouth of Jesus, who is Jewish, and in the mouths of other Jews such as the parents of the man born blind who are “afraid of the Jews” (Jn 9:22). This is a case where events that took place during the time of the fourth Gospel are projected onto the time of Jesus' ministry. In fact, Johannine Christians were expelled from the synagogues and prevented from worshiping with other Jews. All this led them to no longer consider themselves Jews, despite their Jewish ancestry. And this language is found in the fourth Gospel.

      The term “the Jews” refers to both the high priests and the Pharisees, and John speaks of “the Jews” when the Synoptics speak of the Sanhedrin (compare Jn 18:28-31 and Mk 15:1). He deliberately uses the same term for the Jewish authorities at the time of Jesus as for those who frequented the synagogue at the time he wrote his Gospel. For during Jesus' ministry, the chief priests and some scribes in the Sanhedrin were hostile to Jesus and took part in his death. Later, those who expelled the Johannine Christians from the synagogues and put some of them to death (Jn 16:2) were considered the heirs of the first group, so much so that the evangelist allows himself to put into Jesus' mouth the statement that the Jews are children of the devil (Jn 8:44). It should be noted that the synagogue authorities, who defined themselves as disciples of Moses and considered Christians to be “disciples of this fellow” (Jn 9:28-29), did not use any gentler language.

      What are we to think of John's accusation that “the Jews” killed Christians while imagining that they were worshipping God (Jn 16:2)? We know that in the first century certain Christians were put to death: Stephen (Acts 7:58-60), James, son of Zebedee (Acts 12:2-3), and James, the brother of the Lord (Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 20:9). In the second century, Justin, who was born in Palestine, tells us that the Jews could not kill directly, but only through denunciation to the Roman authorities. Indeed, since Judaism was a religion tolerated by the Romans, they were exempt from public worship. So, as long as Christians remained Jews, the Romans had no legal reason to bother them. But the situation changed with their expulsion from the synagogue, where they were now subject to the cult of the emperor, and if they failed to submit, they suffered the legal consequences. According to what we learn from the Martyrdom of Polycarp (circa 155), the Jews were very zealous in this task. This gives us the background to John's accusation against “the Jews.”

   3. The Higher Christology

      We stated earlier that the arrival of the Samaritans in the Johannine community was the catalyst for a high theology. It is time to be more specific. It was through the notion of the Messiah that this theology, different from that of the first members of the community (see Jn 1:35-51), became established. When the Samaritan woman says, “Could he be the Messiah?”, what Messiah is she talking about? It is certainly not the traditional Messiah of the Davidic line. For the whole Samaritan theology was directed against the claims of the Davidic dynasty and against Jerusalem, the city of David. Rather, the Samaritans were waiting for a Taheb (one who returns, a restorer), a teacher and a revealer. This is confirmed by Jn 4:25: “The woman said to him, ‘I know that a Messiah is coming—the one called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things.’” Samaritan theology was centered on the figure of Moses, so much so that he was often thought to be the one who would return: it was believed that after seeing God, he would return to the people to reveal what God had told him. In the Johannine context, the figure of Moses was replaced by that of Jesus, who saw God and came to earth to speak of what he had heard above. It is in this sense that the arrival of the Samaritans was the catalyst for a high theology.

      It is this high theology that runs through the entire fourth Gospel. Thus, the Word, who existed in the presence of God before creation, became flesh in Jesus (Jn 1:1, 14), he was the light of the world (Jn 1:9-10; 8:12; 9:5), he revealed God, for he alone came from heaven and saw the face of God and heard his voice (Jn 3:13; 5:37), he is one with the Father (10:30), so that to see him is to see the Father (Jn 14:9), and he can speak as the “I am.”

      This theology is the highest in the entire New Testament. There is nothing equivalent even in Paul. Even a passage such as 1 Cor 8:6 (“For us there is but one God, the Father, from whom everything comes and to whom we belong, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom everything exists and through whom we exist”) does not speak of a pre-existence. Similarly, Philippians 2:6-7 ("who, being in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited. But he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, becoming like men, and, recognized in his appearance as a man") does not refer to an incarnation, but emphasizes the fact that, being the image of God like Adam, he did not rebel like Adam because he was a servant. Finally, Col 1:15-16 (“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for in him everything was created, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, Thrones and Sovereignties, Authorities and Powers. Everything was created through him and for him”) simply means that Jesus is the first of all creation. Thus, we do not find in these epistles any equivalent to a divine Word pre-existing before all creation and to a phrase such as Jn 8:58: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I Am.”

      We can now understand why the Johannine community was accused of blasphemy and why the Jews could no longer tolerate them: "From that moment on, the Jewish authorities sought all the more to put him to death, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal to God “ (Jn 5:18). While the Shemoneh Esreh proclaims, ”You sustain the living and revive the dead... You bring the dead back to life," the fourth Gospel puts these words in Jesus' mouth: “Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will” (Jn 5:21). For the Jews, the Johannine Christians proclaimed a second God, thereby violating their fundamental creed: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord” (Dt 6:4). Such blasphemy deserves death: “The Jews answered him, ‘We are not stoning you for any good work, but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, are making yourself God’” (Jn 10:33).

   4. Corollaries for Johannine Theology

      Because of the conflict with their Jewish brothers, the Johannine Christians had to choose between the glory that comes from God and the glory that comes from men (Jn 12:45), and so they had to make a radical choice: to cut off their Jewish roots. Until then, Christian preaching had focused on a new covenant, which was simply a renewal of the old covenant. And for several years, the Christian mission focused solely on the Jews (see Matthew 10:5-6). The Acts of the Apostles tells us that it was very late in the day that the mission opened up to the Samaritans, and that was through the Hellenists (Acts 8:5; 11:19-20). But in the Gospel according to John, the tone has completely changed: “He came to his own, and his own did not receive him” (Jn 1:11). And now, the Jews are no longer the children of God, but those of the devil (Jn 8:44, 47), and they will die in their sin for refusing to believe in Jesus (Jn 9:41; 8:24). Those who welcomed this revelation became the new Israel (Jn 1:13, 47). Thus, the mere birth of the flesh, which the Jews claim as their membership in the people of God, is useless, for only a birth from above through faith in Jesus enables one to become a child of God. This is what Nicodemus does not understand.

      From then on, the entire Jewish cultic system, which had lost all its meaning, was replaced in the Johannine community. This begins with the very gift of the Law at Sinai, when “the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the dwelling” (Ex 40:34). Now it is God himself who has dwelt among us in Jesus and through him has shown his gracious love and profound faithfulness (Jn 1:17). Similarly, the Temple in Jerusalem was replaced by the body of Jesus, the true temple (Jn 2:19-21). Then all the Jewish feasts lost their meaning, whether it was the Sabbath, Passover, Tabernacles, or Dedication. Like God, Jesus works on the Sabbath (Jn 5:17). The Feast of Tabernacles is useless for asking for rain, because from Jesus “rivers of living water will flow” (Jn 7:37-38). Finally, the celebration of the consecration of the Temple at the Dedication is replaced by the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world (Jn 10:36). In short, Johannine Christianity became a new religion, separate from Judaism. Through this break, it considered its gains to be greater than what it left behind. And on the other side of the fence, this break reinforced the Jews in their choice to expel them.

      One of the corollaries of this high theology concerns eschatology, i.e., the last things. Let us remember that the early Christian sermons displayed a strong sense of the imminent end of time: Jesus would return again to fulfill all that had been foretold in the Law and the Prophets (Acts 3:21); and at that time he would exercise judgment and reward those who believed in him (Luke 12:8-9). But the fourth Gospel is dominated by the idea of a realized Christology: what was expected of this second coming of Jesus has already been accomplished, for Jesus is already exercising judgment (Jn 3:13), so that whoever believes in him is not condemned, and whoever does not believe has already been condemned. Similarly, while the synoptic Gospels consider eternal life to be a gift received at the final judgment (Mark 10:30; Matthew 18:8-9), for John, those who believe already possess eternal life (John 5:24). For Luke (Luke 6:35; 20:36), being a child of God is a reward in the life to come, but for John this gift is granted here and now (Jn 1:12); in fact, in the fourth Gospel, Christians no longer need to wait to see God, for they see him now in Jesus (Jn 14:7-10).

   5. Continuity with the Earlier Stage

      With the emergence of high Christology and its corollaries, are we witnessing a break in the Johannine community with its past? The answer is no. Rather, we are witnessing a reinterpretation of tradition. In fact, the evangelist keeps together the elements of low theology with those of high theology, just as he keeps together those of final eschatology with those of realized eschatology, the emphasis on individualism with the emphasis on community, a sacramental understanding of reality with a lack of interest in the institution of individual sacraments. For he thinks synthetically, not dialectically, with new perceptions reinterpreting old ones.

      All this explains the passages that seem contradictory in the fourth Gospel, such as those that present him as equal to God and others as subordinate to God (compare Jn 5:19, 30 and Jn 5:26). Similarly, in John 10:30 we read: “I and the Father are one,” and then in John 14:28: “the Father is greater than I.” The very presence of what seems contradictory shows that the Johannine community did not deny its past and does not present Jesus as a rival to God. But, of course, we are still far from the Christology of Nicaea. Another indication of Christological continuity is given to us by the fact that John preserved the old terminology, while giving it a new meaning. This is the case with the verb “to send,” which is constantly applied in Scripture to the prophets: the evangelist applies it to Jesus, but the one who is sent is the pre-existing Son sent into the world.

      The evangelist carries out the same process of reinterpretation in the old scenes of a low Christology. This is the case, for example, in the synoptic scene of Jesus' baptism, which reveals that he is the Son of God through the descent of the Holy Spirit upon him. John has already made this revelation to us in his Prologue. Nevertheless, he feels the need to indirectly preserve the elements of this scene through the voice of John the Baptist (Jn 1:33), while integrating the idea of pre-existence (Jn 1:30): from then on, baptism no longer corresponds to the beginning of Jesus' ministry, but is simply a stage in the sending of the pre-existent Word. Another example comes from the post-Easter appearance narratives. In the Synoptics, these narratives represent his victory after his rejection and condemnation. In John, Jesus is already victorious at the crucifixion, which becomes an “elevation”; the appearance narratives have been preserved, but their importance is no longer the same.

3. The Gentiles and a More Universalist Outlook

   Let us summarize what we have said so far: at the very beginning, the Johannine community consisted of Jewish Christians, including disciples of John the Baptist; later, a group of Jewish Christians with anti-temple tendencies joined the community along with Samaritans whom they had converted. But that's not all, because we have evidence that pagans also joined the community; for example, in John 1:41, the author has to explain what the word “Messiah” means, which would be unnecessary for someone of Jewish origin. It is to this arrival of pagans that chapter 12 refers. First, in John 12:20-23, we learn that some Greeks want to see Jesus. For Jesus, this is a sign that his ministry is coming to an end, that he has achieved his goal. At this point, the evangelist quotes Isaiah 6:10 on the hardening of the hearts of “this people,” a passage used by Christians to explain the Jews' failure to accept Jesus and the reason why they turned to the Gentiles (see Acts 28:25-28). And since John refers at this point to expulsion from the synagogue, we can assume that it was when the Johannine Christians of Jewish descent were rejected by Judaism and no longer considered themselves Jews that they opened the door of the community to the Gentiles.

   It may be surprising that this integration of pagans took place without any real conflict or struggle. But in its evolution, the community had already moved significantly away from Judaism by accepting the Samaritans and promoting worship in spirit and truth rather than in Jerusalem or on Mount Gerizim (Jn 4: 21-24), and by recognizing that entry into the Kingdom is not based on physical birth but on being born of God (Jn 3:3, 5). The community's new vision is clearly expressed in Jn 11:52 when John completes Caiaphas's sentence prophesying that Jesus must die for the nation by writing: “and not only for her, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.” Thus, the entry of the Gentiles into the community took place peacefully and smoothly. The only real struggles were with people “from outside,” which implied a clear segregation between ‘them’ and “us.”

   Since tradition places the composition of the fourth Gospel in Ephesus, in Asia Minor, several biblical scholars see the announcement of a departure from Palestine in John 7:35: “Where then is he going that we may not find him? Is he going to those scattered among the Greeks? Is he going to teach the Greeks?” In fact, this ironic passage is typical of John, where irony is often used to insert an element of truth. And what concerns Jesus would apply more accurately to the Johannine community. When we read through the fourth Gospel, we can better understand certain parallels between Johannine terminology and thought and various elements of Hellenistic and pagan literature. This does not mean that John borrowed from pagan literature, but simply that he sought to make Jesus intelligible to another culture. He is universalist when he uses different symbols to present Jesus and convince men and women from different backgrounds to understand that Jesus transcends ideologies.