on the interrelation of these motives for the writing of the Gospel meet in a common place. Furthermore, Segovia sees the Johannine community as the ideal/implied readers of the Gospel of John, which
is initiated, confirmed, or reinforced as children of God . . . who believe in Jesus and carry out his commands . . . should see itself as deeply estranged from and at odds with the world . . . are specifically warned thereby that an acceptance of the ways and values of God in the world implies and entails severe opposition from the world [as well as] a very privileged position indeed while in the world, ultimate victory over the world, and an abiding union with God in the world above . . . should expect nothing but hatred and oppression in and from the world [as well as] shall receive glory not only in the world of human beings but also in the world of God . . . are also urged thereby to carry on with their own mission in the world, regardless of dangers or consequences, in obedience to the plan of God and following the example of Jesus.83
Segovia’s view clearly shows that the Gospel of John is coincident with the multiple needs of the community.
In addition, these possible purposes have their own basis on a textual variant of John 20:31. At the textual level, this synthetic approach is closely related to a textual variant of John 20:31. Two possible translations of this verse from the Greek text could be proposed in relation to the tense of the main verb “you may believe” (πιστεύ[σ]ητε) because of different manuscript readings.84
Firstly, this verb can be parsed as the aorist tense85 of the subjunctive mood. In this case, the subject of the verb (second person plural) “you,” as the recipients of the Gospel stands for non-believers whether or not they were real historical figures. That is, the author of the Gospel wrote it for non-believers in order to make them believe in Jesus as the Christ and the Son of God through their reading of this Gospel; as a result of their belief in Jesus, they might have life in his name which they did not have before believing. In this case, the purpose of the composition of the Gospel might be missionary.
Secondly, the verb can be parsed as the present tense86 of the subjunctive mood. In this case, the subject could be interpreted as the believers who have not seen Jesus in the flesh. In this case, the purpose of the composition of the Gospel was to be for subsequent generations of believers who have not actually seen Jesus (you may continue to believe).87 In other words, John wrote it for believers in order to strengthen their faith that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God; in order to emphasize the fact that they already have life in his name, because they had already believed in Jesus so that they need to have no doubt of the facts of their faith in any circumstances. In this case, the purpose of the composition of the Gospel might be closely linked to the consolidation of the Johannine community in Christ.
According to Metzger,88 both readings have the support of early witnesses. The problem cannot be resolved on the basis of textual evidences alone but on the general suggestion of the Gospel.89 Because of the possibility of the motives (missionary, polemic/apologetic, parenetic) for the writing of the Gospel, these two possible variant readings of John 20:31 could give the possibility of the multifaceted purpose of the composition of the Gospel: the purpose of mission (missionary propaganda/apologetic), and the purpose of strengthening the faith of the Johannine Christians. On this, Carson says, “it can easily be shown that John elsewhere in his Gospel can use either tense to refer to both coming to faith and continuing in the faith.”90 On the one hand, John might write the Gospel to believers in order to consolidate their faith in the time of persecution and conflict, and in order to challenge them to evangelize the world, which was negative toward Jesus and his followers. On the other hand, to the non-believers, at least, it could be presented as an evangelistic document, which challenges them to have faith in the Johannine Jesus. Consequently, I argue that the Gospel functions as a multipurpose document.
If these two variant readings could be acceptable, in addition, how did those readers in the first century, “you” in John 20:31, understand Jesus? Lincoln sees that “you” of 20:31 “can be seen as embracing a wide variety of implied readers” in terms of different levels of understanding and knowledge of the Jesus story, of Hebrew or Aramaic terms, of Jewish customs, and of Scriptures and Synoptics.91 Lincoln’s comment exactly explains the reason why among many other titles and concepts employed to designate Jesus in the Gospel, John emphasizes Jesus as the Christ and the Son of God at the end of the Gospel to present clearly the purpose of its composition. In other words, the Johannine kingship motif is central to John’s purpose of introducing Jesus as king to first-century readers in a multicultural society.
Therefore, all the questions about the purpose of the Gospel can be explained in relation to the kingship of Jesus, because Jesus is described in terms, which indicate his kingship in the Gospel. Furthermore, the Johannine Jesus has already predicted in the Gospel that his followers will find themselves in situations where they will be treated harshly by the world (John 9:22; 12:42; 16:2). By adapting many christological titles and using them distinctively in the text, the Gospel on the one hand is simply giving maximum emphasis to the portrait of Jesus as king and its impact on its readers to encourage their faith. On the other hand, through representing Jesus as king and his kingly function, the Gospel challenges the readers to evangelize the world.
Therefore, the purposes of the Gospel could be summarised thus: The Johannine Gospel was written with multi-purposes for multi-recipients. It was written for the insiders of the community which consisted of people of many different backgrounds, in order to consolidate their faith in Jesus as king and to challenge them to live out that faith for the new world; simultaneously it was written for the outsiders of a multicultural society in order to lead them to believe in Jesus as king.
Backgrounds of the Gospel of John and Kingship
In the previous section, I discussed the different purposes of the composition of the Gospel for the multicultural readers in the Johannine community in order to explain the necessity of the identity of Jesus as king, because the kingship of Jesus gives answers to their various needs. In this section, I will survey the kingship of the Johannine Jesus in terms of multicultural backgrounds: Jewish and Graeco-Roman.
Two Pillars of the Background of the Gospel of John and the Kingship Motif
My argument is that the kingship of Jesus functions as one of the crucial characteristics of Johannine Christology, reflecting its multicultural features. In order to argue this, first, I have to say that specific terms, which conveyed royal concepts originating from the various cultures, are employed in the Gospel to designate the identity of Jesus as king. MacRae argues that many of the most striking elements of Johannine symbolism and literary technique are simply not paralleled in Jewish literature but in other more unmistakably Hellenistic types, both Jewish and non-Jewish.92 Smith also contends that although the origin of Johannine Christianity is to be understood as processes centering on Judaism and Jewish Christianity, the motifs in the Johannine literature go beyond Judaism and reflect a later stage in the development of the Johannine community.93 McGrath also concludes that “the paradox of Johannine Christology is an aspect of John’s development of traditions he inherited, utilizing motifs current in his day and age.”94 Horbury further argues that there was a strong relationship between Christianity and Judaism, emphasizing the significance
