to appeal to the inhabitants and used methods of Hellenistic religious propaganda. The appropriation of such apologetic-propagandistic forms was essential if Christianity was to succeed in the face of competition from other religions” (Droge, “Apologetics,” 302–7, esp. 302).
64. See Cassidy, John’s Gospel.
65. The implicit expression of the persecution (9:22; 12:42; 16:2; cf. Domitian’s claim being “Lord and God” in John 20:28; Jesus’ death on the cross as a Roman execution; Peter’s martyrdom in 21:18–19) might show that the Johannine community had been struggling not only with the Synagogue but also with the Roman power (see chapter 3 of this book).
66. Meeks, “Man from Heaven,” 44–72; Meeks, “‘Am I a Jew?’,” 163–86; see also Fuglseth, Johannine Sectarianism; Segovia, “Love and Hatred,” 258–72; Culpepper, Johannine School, 287; Brown, Gospel, lxx–lxxv; Kysar, Fourth Evangelist, 149–65; Wind, “Destination and Purpose,” 31–32.
67. See chapter 6 of this book.
68. See Beutler, “Faith and Confession,” 19–32. The Fourth Gospel shows various examples of figures who confess Jesus as their object of faith: Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, the man born blind, Peter, the beloved disciple, Thomas and the disciples, Mary Magdalene, and Joseph of Arimathea and the Crypto-Christians.
69. McKnight, “Reader-Response,” 239.
70. See also Burridge, “About People,” 113–45, esp. 144. On a fairly wide and rapid dissemination and circulation of the texts in the first century, see Thompson, “Holy Internet,” 49–70; Alexander, “Ancient Book,” 71–105; Bauckham, “John for Readers,” 147–71; Barton, “Can We Identify?” 173–94.
71. Nissen, “Community and Ethics,” 197.
72. On the rejection of the sectarian nature of the community, see Cullmann, Johannine Circle; Brown, Community.
73. On this, see chapter 5 of this book.
74. See Rensberger, Johannine Faith. Rensberger argues that John is a kind of liberation theologian. However, it does not mean that the Gospel of John is written only for the poor. It was also written for the rich, for example, the positive roles of Joseph and Nicodemus in the burial of Jesus (van Bruggen, Jesus). On this matter, see also chapter 6 of this book.
75. Lincoln, Gospel, 88.
76. Okure, Johannine Approach, 11–12.
77. Segovia proposes the five possible functions of the plot of the Gospel of John, which shows comprehensively the synthetic purpose of the Gospel (a very strong didactic function; a very strong polemical function; a very prominent admonitory function; a clear consolatory function; a very important exhortatory function). See Segovia, “Journey(s),” 47–49.
78. Carson, Gospel, 89; See also Beasley-Murray, John, lxxxviii–xc; Barrett, Gospel, 26; de Jonge, Jesus, 1–3.
79. Okure, Johannine Approach, 14.
80. Fiorenza, “Miracles, Mission and Apologetics,” 3; see also Alexander, “Acts of the Apostles,” 15–44, esp. 17–18, 39–40.
81. Brown, Introduction, 151–52.
82. Meeks also says that “the history of the Johannine mission and apologetics must have been far more complex” (Meeks, “Divine Agent,” 60).
83. Segovia, “Journey(s),” 47–49.
84. The witnesses for the first reading (πιστευητε; present subjunctive: “you may continue to believe”) given in NA27 include P66vid אּ* B Θ 0250. 892s. l 221 1; and for the second reading (πιστεύσητε; aorist subjunctive: “you may begin or to come to believe”), אּ2 A C D L W ψ 0100 F1.13 33, etc. (see Bruce, Gospel, 395; Metzger, Textual Commentary, 256; de Jonge, Jesus, 1–7; Okure, Johannine Approach, 9; Beutler, “Faith and Confession,” 19–20).
85. In Greek, the aorist form always expresses the perfect aspect of the verb, which describes the action as a complete event, without commenting on whether or not it is a process. Therefore, in ἵνα-clauses (purpose), aorist subjunctive means the action as a complete event in the future. It is, therefore, that πιστεύσητε can be translated as “you, who have not believed yet, may begin to believe.”
86. In Greek, the present form always expresses the imperfect aspect, which describes the action as a process. Therefore, in ἵνα-clauses (purpose), present subjunctive means the action as a process from the past. It is, therefore, that πιστεύητε can be translated as “you, who have believed, may continuously believe.”
87. Bryne, “Faith of the Beloved Disciples” 93. De Jonge also comments that the subjunctive sentence in the Johannine literature “reflects catechetical instruction within the Johannine communities rather than missionary practice” (de Jonge, Jesus, 2). See also Brown, Gospel, 1056; Schnackenburg, Gospel, 3:337–38; Fee, “On the Text,” 193–206.
88. Metzger, Textual Commentary, 256.
89. Kysar, Fourth Evangelist, 147–65; Kysar, John, 18–26.
90. Carson, Gospel, 662.
91. Lincoln, Gospel, 88. Culpepper also argues, “a distinctive group of readers . . . is in view, but it is not necessarily a homogeneous group,” through surveying all the data of five areas (persons, places, languages, Judaism, and events) to which the narrator refers (see Culpepper, Anatomy, 211–23).
92. MacRae, “Fourth Gospel,” 14–15.
93. Smith,
