"It is the spirit that gives life" : a stoic understanding of pneuma in John's Gospel / Gitte Buch-Hansen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Buch-Hansen, Gitte.

Series:

Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche

Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und Kunde der alteren Kirche ; Bd. 173

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Philo, of Alexandria.

Philo.

Bible. John--Theology.

Bible.

Spirit--Biblical teaching.

Spirit.

Stoics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (520 p.)

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : W. de Gruyter, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Since Origen and Chrysostom, John's Gospel has been valued as the most spiritual among the New Testament writings. Although Origen recognizes the Stoic character of John's statement that "God is pneuma" (4:24), an examination of the gospel in light of Stoic physics has not yet been carried out. Combining her insight into Stoic physics and ancient physiology, the author situates her thesis in the major discussions of modern Johannine scholarship - e.g. the role of the Baptist and the function of the Johannine signs - and demonstrates new solutions to well-known problems. The Stoic study of the Fourth Gospel reveals a coherent narrative tied together by the spirit. The problem with which John's Gospel wrestles is not the identity of Jesus, but the transition from the Son of God to the next generation of divinely begotten children: how did it come about? A reading carried out from a Stoic perspective points to the translation of the risen body of Jesus into spirit as the decisive event. The provision of the spirit is a precondition of the divine generation of believers. Both events are explained by Stoic theory which allows of a transformation of fleshly elements into pneuma and of multiple fatherhood. In fact, in his Commentary on John, Origen described Jesus' ascension as an event of anastoixeiôsis, which is the Stoic term for the transformation of heavily elements into lighter and pneumatic ones.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. History of Research. Cosmos in the Fourth Gospel

Chapter 2. Cosmology in Stoicism. The Discourse of Physics

Chapter 3. Philo's Divine Generation. The Safer Way to Truth

Chapter 4. The First Pneumatic Event. The Descent of the Spirit as Jesus' Divine Generation

Chapter 5. John's Call from the Wilderness for a Better Guidance of the Way to the Lord

Chapter 6. Regeneration as Hermeneutical Competence. The Johannine Signs and the Meta-Story of Pneumatic Transformations

Chapter 7. The Penultimate Pneumatic Event. "It Is the Spirit That Gives Life" (6:63). Jesus' Ascent and Translation into the Father

Chapter 8. The Ultimate Pneumatic event. Worshippers in Spirit and Truth. The Quest for the Father - The Quest of the Father

Backmatter

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612673153

9781282673151

1282673157

9783110225983

3110225980

OCLC:

648711626

Access Restriction:

Open Access Unrestricted online access