Bibelwelt

I have been working intensively on the Gospel of John since 2020. In this post, you will find a list of my posts on the question of whether the Fourth Gospel is profoundly anti-Jewish despite its Jewish character. I don’t think so: As a Jew, the evangelist John argues with Jews who think differently about whether Jesus is the Messiah who will bring about freedom, justice, and peace. (mehr …)

How to Read the Gospel of John from a Liberation Theology Perspective

A Political Interpretation of the Gospel of John, Critically Recounted.

According to Lance Byron Richey, Jesus as the Son of God in John’s Gospel is set against all political-theological claims of Roman Imperial Ideology. Unfortunately, Richey does not conceive of Jesus’ Messianic kingship from the Jewish Torah as the process of liberating Israel and overcoming the Roman world order.

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Christ and Caesar

Caiaphas plays an important role in the Christian passion story as the high priest who hands Jesus over to the Roman governor Pilate for crucifixion. Adele Reinhartz analyzes how his character has been portrayed through the centuries, mostly as the abhorrent distorted image of a Jew. I ask whether Ton Veerkamp’s interpretation of the Gospel of John does him justice.

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Doing Justice to Caiaphas the High Priest

In her book “Cast Out of the Covenant” Adele Reinhartz understands the Gospel of John as a missionary writing for Gentiles, whom Jesus calls as children of God into the covenant with God, from which the Jews are cast out. With reference to Ton Veerkamp, I disagree: Originally, John struggled for Israel’s liberation from the enslaving Roman world order!

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Jesus the Messiah: Liberation for All Israel

Has the Fourth Gospel a profoundly anti-Jewish character? Or can its implicit author—by putting myself in his place—convince the Canadian professor Reinhartz to take him seriously as a Jewish Messianic fighter for Israel’s liberation from the Roman world order?

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The Beloved Disciple Befriending Adele Reinhartz

Review of the book “The Word in the World. The Cosmological Tale in the Fourth Gospel” by Adele Reinhartz.

Reinhartz’ reading of John’s Gospel corresponds to its Gentile Christian, otherworldly understanding, common since the 2nd century. But was not John firmly rooted in the Scriptures of the Jews and proclaiming a Messiah who overcomes the Roman world order through solidarity?

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Otherworldly Word or Overcoming the World Order?

Actually, instead of “Die Welt anders” Ton Veerkamp had wanted to call his book “Voice only.” Because according to the Bible, “God” is not a supreme being, but the voice that in the Torah of Israel authoritatively brings forward a basic order of freedom and equality. I strongly recommend his challenging book for reading. (mehr …)

Ton Veerkamp: „The World Different“

A Political Reading of the Gospel of John about Jesus Messiah of all Israel.

The English translation of Ton Veerkamp’s interpretation is here combined with a colometrical English translation of the Gospel of John also based on publications by Ton Veerkamp and on the “Complete Jewish Bible” (Copyright Dr. David H. Stern. Used with Permission from Messianic Jewish Publishers, www.messianicjewish.net). (mehr …)

Solidarity against the World Order

John Hull argues with Jesus: „I always live in the dark. But for you, people who live in the dark are the evil incarnate. Me too, I want to feel as a child of light, if this light means God’s love! You need not heal me, but would you accept me as your disciple even if I remain being blind?“

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Blind Disciple of Jesus

Similar to Eliseus seeing his teacher Elias when being taken up to heaven, Mary Magdalen sees her teacher Jesus on his way to the Father in heaven. Does Jesus originally give a double portion of his spirit to her, like Elias did to Eliseus? Does Jesus intend to appoint her to be his successor leading and teaching the congregation?

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Mary Magdalen and Jesus, ascending

Response from Experience at the workshop with Jane Schaberg about „The Illegitimacy of Jesus“ as part of the seminar „Gegenwärtige feministische Entwürfe als Herausforderung an Exegese, Predigt und Seelsorge“, on Octobre 23, 2009, 2:30 p. m. (Wissenschaftlich-Theologisches Seminar Universität Heidelberg).

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The Making Of “Mary, Purest Maid”

A pastor‘s plea for the virginal innocence of a sexually abused girl (*)

This essay takes as a starting point the hypothesis: Mary, the mother of Jesus, may have been abused. Nevertheless – that is the thesis which is crucial for Helmut Schütz – in God’s eyes she is his „pure maid“, and Jesus is the Son of God.

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„Mary, Purest Maid“

The expression ‘mishmash’ has been used rather effectively to suggest that something disgusting and even dangerous is taking place in British classrooms. But those who use these metaphors of disgusting food seldom offer calm and detailed explanations of exactly what it is they are warning the public about. (mehr …)

Mishmash