The Raising of Lazarus

[mattrose]

I am in a class with Ben Witherington this week and he just made his pitch for the Lazarus as the author

He made a very strong case. But I am going to have to think about it more.

Any questions you want me to ask him?

[steve]

Early in this thread, the matter was raised of similarity of terminology in John and Revelation. In particular, the use of the word "logos" for Christ, which is found in both books. Allyn asked if there were any more verbal parallels. I am just cutting and pasting the following from my teaching notes on Revelation (which means the same material is in my Revelation lectures):

3. There are many concepts and expressions that are common to Revelation and to John's other writings:
a. the "Logos" as a term for Christ (used only in John 1:1/ Rev.19:13)
b. "the Lamb" as a term for Christ (used only in John 1:29, 36/ Rev.5:6, etc.)
c. "water of life" promised to "him that thirsts" (mentioned only in John 7:37f/ Rev.22:17)
d. one that "overcomes" (only in John 16:33/ I John 2:14; 5:4-5/ Rev.2:7, etc.)
e. "true"—Gr. alethinos (appears 9X in John; 4X in I John; 10X in Revelation; only 5X elsewhere)
f. "first resurrection" (concept found only in John 5:24-29/ Rev. 20:5)
g. "keep...from" [Gr. ek tereo ] (expression found only in John 17:15/ Rev.3:10)
h. Satan "cast out" (concept found only in John 12:31/ Rev.12: 9, 13)
i. modified quotation of Zechariah 12:10 (John 19:37/ Rev. 1:7)

The author of Revelation identifies himself five times as "John." If the author of the Fourth Gospel is not named "John," then he seems to have been strongly influenced by John the Revelator in his language (the alternative is that Jesus, in giving the Revelation to John, was strongly influenced by the favorite expressions of the writer of the Fourth Gospel). I personally accept the apostolic authorship of all of the Johanine literature.

[mattrose]

he seems to have been strongly influenced by John the Revelator in his language

I personally accept the apostolic authorship of all of the Johanine literature.

Dr. Witherington also believes that all the NT Writings identified with the name John are connected. He believes they all are products of an early Christian community which included Lazarus (whom he believes was the 'beloved disciple') and John of Patmos. He believes Lazarus is the main author of the 4th Gospel and the 3 letters usually attributed to John (since the linguistic correspondance b/w the gospel and the letters is strong). He believes John of Patmos was a different man from the same community.

His case for Lazarus as the 'beloved disciple' is, in my opinion, quite strong.

First, it must be agreed by all that the Gospel's author is not named. Witherington stresses that the gospels were read to congregations. Any listener would have connected 11:3 "Lord, the one you love is sick" with the subsequent references to the disciple "whom Jesus loved." Dr. Witherington believes the power of this theory is in how much it can explain the unique features of the 4th Gospel. Lazarus, after all, was from Judea and so spends much more time discussing Jesus' ministry in Judea (only 2 Galilean miracle stories, 5 in Judea). His story of Jesus includes 7 miracles, climaxing with the story of his own resurrection. Since Jesus commissioned him (from the cross) to take care of Mary, Lazarus had the rest of Mary's life to glean further stories about Jesus from her (that's where he gets the two non-Judean miracle stories, since Mary was in Cana). The reason Peter was wondering if the beloved disciple wouldn't die is because Lazarus had already died once and rumors were spreading that he couldn't die again.

So this is a mostly INTERNAL argument for authorship, whereas the case for John of Zebedee is mostly external (Papias). But Witherington said he has found at least 2 ancient sources that speculate that Lazarus may be the author. And he said that the Papias quote simply says that John of Patmos wrote revelation and was 'connected' to the author of the 4th gospel. Later, Irenaeous may have been pressured into naming an Apostolic source b/c of his dealings with the gnostics. Since the literature of the 'beloved community' was associated with the name John (b/c of John of Patmos), they picked John of Zebedee. But other ancient sources indicate that John of Zebedee was martyred not long after his brother.

Obviously I am just quickly typing up some of Dr. Witherington's arguments. He's pretty passionate about this issue and was glad to see the 2 most recent commentaries on the 4th Gospel state that the author must have been Judean rather than Galilean, one of them even stating that it was probably Lazarus.

It should also be noted that this is not your typical 'liberal' argument challenging traditional authorship. If Lazarus is the source, he is a direct eye-witness to Jesus' ministry.

[dean198]

I am in a class with Ben Witherington this week and he just made his pitch for the Lazarus as the author

He made a very strong case. But I am going to have to think about it more.

Any questions you want me to ask him?

Lazarus fails on a number of points: firstly, church history says it was 'John'. I don't believe they just could have totally got it wrong - Papias, Polycarp, Irenaeus etc. Secondly, the reference to the Beloved Disciple isn't a conundrum to be solved - the readers would have known full well who he was who penned the Gospel in Ephesus at the direction of the elders. Lastly, the author of Revelation calls himself 'John', and again church history was clear that the author of John was the seer who saw the visions at Patmos.

[dean198]

Dr. Witherington also believes that all the NT Writings identified with the name John are connected. He believes they all are products of an early Christian community which included Lazarus (whom he believes was the 'beloved disciple') and John of Patmos. He believes Lazarus is the main author of the 4th Gospel and the 3 letters usually attributed to John (since the linguistic correspondance b/w the gospel and the letters is strong). He believes John of Patmos was a different man from the same community.

This view seeks to bring together the evidence, but it has against it the Ephesian tradition, which relates that "John the disciple of the Lord" wrote the Gospel because he was a follower of Jesus. For the Asian tradition, the writer and the source are one and the same. John is the Beloved Disciple according to Irenaeus and Polycrates.

First, it must be agreed by all that the Gospel's author is not named. Witherington stresses that the gospels were read to congregations. Any listener would have connected 11:3 "Lord, the one you love is sick" with the subsequent references to the disciple "whom Jesus loved."

I think this is a mistaken preposition, because it assumes that the audience didn't already know who the BD was, and had to rely upon internal clues. Even on this hypothesis, it fails in that Lazarus is never called a disciple, and because Jesus is said to love him in the context where Jesus is also said to love the two Marys.

But Witherington said he has found at least 2 ancient sources that speculate that Lazarus may be the author. And he said that the Papias quote simply says that John of Patmos wrote revelation and was 'connected' to the author of the 4th gospel.

I'd really like to know what these two sources are. Any chance you could provide a reference so I can track them down?

[Jill]

.

[dean198]

But Witherington said he has found at least 2 ancient sources that speculate that Lazarus may be the author.

If you can ask him anything, I'd really like to know what these sources are. I'm guessing one of them was so-called 'Secret Mark', a gospel now widely considered to be a mid-twentieth century forgery.

[mattrose]

You can read a pretty lengthy blog treatment of his case at this link

http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/200 ... ciple.html

[Mellontes]

http://www.thedisciplewhomjesusloved.co ... /Index.cfm

http://www.bereanbiblechurch.org/transc ... _loved.pdf

[dean198]

Thanks for the links you guys. There's some good information I extracted from them.