Did the Johannine Community Exist?

Abstract

This article challenges the historical existence of the ‘Johannine community’ – a hypothesized group of ancient churches sharing a distinctive theological outlook. Scholars posit such a community to explain the similarities of John to 1, 2 and 3 John as well as the epistles’ witness to a network of churches. Against this view, this article calls attention to evidence of literary contact between the four texts and the presence of dubious authorial claims in each. Taken together, these features cast John, 1 John, 2 John and 3 John as unreliable bases for historical reconstruction, whose implied audiences and situations are probably fabrications. The article proceeds to develop a new history of the Johannine texts. Those texts represent a chain of literary forgeries, in which authors of different extractions cast and recast a single invented character – an eyewitness to Jesus’ life – as the mouthpiece of different theological viewpoints.

Epicurean Critical Praxis and Philonian Metaphor in Johannine Parrhêsia

“…The historical uncertainties of the Johannine community’s existence (Méndez 2020 passim ) make ‘case studies’ of its putative resonances with other communities’ ideas difficult to find. Nonetheless, a few hints exist in history and patristic literature of the effects of Christians’ and Epicureans’ shared critical practice.…”

“… 3 Although recent arguments, like that of Méndez (2020), have questioned the understanding that a ‘Johannine community’ existed, I hold to the traditional opinion that there was such a community that valued these epistles and other documents as the basis of a shared theology and praxis. This enables a comparison of parrhêsia across the documents despite the likelihood that they were written by different authors at different times. …”

Making an Example: The Rhetorical Usefulness of Timothy in 1 Timothy

“…Contrary to Acts 1. For an application of this principle, see Méndez's (2020) challenge to the Johannine Community. 2.…”