The Gospel of the Narrative ‘We’: The Hypertextual Relationship of the Fourth Gospel to the Acts of the Apostles

Description

The work analyses the current state of research on the problem of the relationship of the Fourth Gospel to the Synoptic Gospels. It proves that the Fourth Gospel, which was written c. AD 140–150, is a result of systematic, sequential, hypertextual reworking of the Acts of the Apostles with the use of the Synoptic Gospels, more than ten other early Christian writings, Jewish sacred Scriptures, and Josephus’ works. The work also demonstrates that the character of the ‘disciple whom Jesus loved’ functions in the Fourth Gospel as a narrative embodiment of all generations of the Pauline, post-Pauline, and post-Lukan Gentile Christian Church. These features of the Fourth Gospel imply that it was intended to crown and at the same time close the canon of the New Testament writings. Acknowledgments Contents Introduction 1. The problem of literary dependence of the Fourth Gospel on the Synoptic Gospels 2. The Acts of the Apostles as a structuring hypotext of the Fourth Gospel 3. The Fourth Gospel as a hypertextual reworking of the Acts of the Apostles, of the Synoptic Gospels, and of other early Christian works 4. The identity of the ‘disciple whom Jesus loved’ General conclusions Bibliography Index of ancient sources