Intercultural Christology in John's Gospel: A Subaltern Reading from India

By Biju Chacko

Christology with a planetary vision, blurring the boundaries and breaking the rhetoric of polarities of domination and exclusion, is the need of the hour. It is only by taking seriously these two dimensions (intercultural and subaltern) that christological articulations can be made intelligible, understandable, and relevant. Intercultural Christology in John's Gospel unravels the intercultural intersections and subaltern dimensions of John's Christology.

John's Christology, crossing the boundaries of traditional Messianic categories of Judaism, even while echoing those traditions in an intercultural milieu, and creating a hybrid space of "inter" by blurring the categories of "above" and "below," gives an impetus for developing such new expressions in any given subaltern context. Christological articulation in John has a multidimensional orientation: toward God, world, and life. Therefore, John's Christology could be termed a Christology with a planetary vision.

John's Gospel articulates its Christology through an intercultural route from a subaltern negotiating space. The Johannine Messiah is a subaltern Messiah, and the Johannine community is a subaltern community. The evangelist is not the one who collaborated with the colonizers. Therefore, the text cannot be treated as a colonial document, as some of the postcolonial readers do. Rather the evangelist resists and disrupts, even while resonating with the surrounding linguistic and conceptual milieu. Therefore, a hermeneutical framework of intercultural resonance and subaltern subversive rhetoric is a key to unlock the Gospel. Such a hermeneutical approach is a viable option in any subaltern context.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Release date: Jul 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9781506480701

Book preview

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Praise for Intercultural Christology in John’s Gospel

Decolonizing Christology through subaltern and intercultural rereading of the Fourth Gospel is a fascinating work of academic brilliance and political commitment that Biju Chacko has accomplished through this groundbreaking book. Exploring the intercultural resonance and subaltern subversive rhetoric of John’s Gospel, the book identifies this Gospel as one of resistance that emerged from a subaltern community, contesting and destabilizing the scripts and imaginations of the empire. Privileging the intercultural and subaltern context and ethos of the Johannine community, the book revisions Christ as a subaltern Messiah and proposes a planetary Christology. This book is a tutorial on christological counterimaginations and an essential resource for theological and praxeological mediations to create a world less contaminated by ideologies and practices of exploitation, domination, and exclusion.

—George Zachariah, Wesley Lecturer in Theological Studies, Trinity Methodist Theological College, Auckland, New Zealand

This is a fascinating study of key passages in the Gospel of John and the type of Messiah we find there. Biju Chacko pushes back against the claim that the Gospel is colonialist in its orientation and instead engages in a creative, subaltern reading. His approach encourages us to pay attention to biblical interpretation from the margins and rethink some of our long-standing assumptions about these foundational narratives. I recommend this book for anyone interested in the contours of the Gospel of John, messianism, and the importance of global diversity when it comes to hermeneutical approaches.

—Samuel L. Adams, Mary Jane and John F. McNair Chair of Biblical Studies and Professor of Old Testament, Union Presbyterian Seminary, Richmond, Virginia

Dr. Biju Chacko in this book interrogates the general presentation of John’s Christology in a rather straightforward colonial or anti-colonial polarity. Instead of this polarity, he explores the possibility of perceiving a paradoxical, and yet possible, intercultural and strategically subaltern positioning of John’s Christology with a planetary vision.

—Simon Samuel, Principal, New Theological College, Dehradun, India

"Interpreting Jesus through a postcolonial reading is so common in Indian christological discourse that few have taken time to seriously challenge many of its underlying assumptions and interpretative analysis. Yet, Chacko in Intercultural Christology in John’s Gospel has raised a range of crucial questions which should not be ignored. He effectively critiques and disrupts the ‘post-colonial’ reading of Jesus and, in its place, beckons us into a more nuanced, liminal space where intercultural and subaltern meet one another in fresh ways, resolving many of the historic tensions in John’s Gospel. In the process, Chacko has given us some fresh hermeneutical lenses that reflect a Johannine Christology which is both locally intelligible and globally viable."

—Timothy C. Tennent, President, Professor of World Christianity, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky

This monograph brings together the intercultural context, the messianic tradition, and the subaltern negotiating space of the Fourth Gospel to foreground its christological framework. Dr. Biju Chacko suggests understanding the Gospel from the perspective of the subaltern and the colonized. He further states that the Johannine narrator employs an idiosyncratic style and a new rhetoric to articulate his hermeneutical artistry. I believe that as a thoroughly researched and carefully written monograph, it will be a helpful resource in the field of Johannine studies.

—Johnson Thomaskutty, Professor of New Testament, The United Theological College, Bangalore, India

Critically exploring the intercultural dimension of the Johannine Christology from a subaltern location of resistance, Biju Chacko fills the gap left unexplored in the study of the Fourth Gospel. The study uniquely contributes, going beyond the narrow theological interest in John’s Christology. It makes John’s resistant and discursive voice heard aloud from the hybrid cultural location of Ephesus as never before, helping us articulate a biblical paradigm relevant for Indian christological reconstruction today. I congratulate Biju for the remarkable contribution he makes through the thesis carefully crafted with compelling arguments and irrefutable pieces of evidence.

—Roji Thomas George, Professor of New Testament, South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies, Bangalore, India

Intercultural Christology in John’s Gospel

Intercultural Christology in John’s Gospel

A Subaltern Reading from India

Biju Chacko

Fortress Press

Minneapolis

INTERCULTURAL CHRISTOLOGY IN JOHN’S GOSPEL

A Subaltern Reading from India

Copyright © 2022 Fortress Press, an imprint of 1517 Media. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Email [e-mail] or write to Permissions, Fortress Press, PO Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440-1209.

This book is a revised version of the thesis submitted to the Senate of Serampore College [University] in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of theology in April 2016. The original title of the thesis was Johannine Christology as an Intercultural Christology: A Quest for Hermeneutics in a Subaltern Indian Context. The author is responsible for the title, contents, and opinions expressed here.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (NASB) are from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.

Scripture quotations marked (TLV) are from the Holy Scriptures, Tree of Life Version*.

Copyright © 2014, 2016 by the Tree of Life Bible Society. Used by permission of the Tree of Life Bible Society.

Cover image: Rowan Heuvel on Unsplash.com

Cover design: Savanah Landerholm

Print ISBN: 978-1-5064-8069-5

eBook ISBN: 978-1-5064-8070-1

While the author and 1517 Media have confirmed that all references to website addresses (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing, URLs may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

Dedicated to my loving wife, Nissy;

my children, Shawn and Sharon; and my parents,

whose prayers and encouragement are priceless

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Abbreviations

1 Introduction: The Rationale and Method

John’s Christology as an Intercultural and Subaltern Christology: The Rationale

The Religiocultural and Sociopolitical Hybridity of the World of John’s Gospel

Social Conflict and Alternative Cultural Traditions in the Late Second Temple Matrix

The Emergence of Messianism and the Longing for Liberation in Judaism

Johannine Christology as an Approximation of Conflicting and Complex Messianic Beliefs

The Poetics and Politics of the Christological Passages in John

John’s Intercultural-Subaltern Christology in Biblical Scholarship: A Bird’s-Eye View

The Way Forward: Methodology

The Design of the Book

2 The Intercultural Milieu of John’s Gospel

Introduction

The Sociopolitical and Religiocultural World of Palestine

The Political Scenario in Palestine during the Second Temple Period

The Sociocultural World of the Second Temple Period

The Religious World of the Second Temple Period

Early Christian Background

John and the Asian Religiocultural Traditions / Buddhism

Remapping the Provenance of John’s Gospel

The Date

The Geographical Provenance of the Gospel

Remapping Johannine Community/Readers

Summary

3 Messianic Expectations in the Second Temple Milieu and in John’s Gospel

Introduction

The Terms Messiah, Messianic, and Messianism

The Origin and Development of the Jewish Messianism

The Development of Messianic Ideas in the Old Testament

The Messianic Idea in the Law and Writings

The Messianic Idea in the Psalter

The Messianic Idea in the Writings of Classical Prophets

Messianic Ideas in the Later Prophetical Books

Messianism in the Jewish Apocalyptic and Related Literatures of Judaism

Messianism in the Qumran Scrolls

Samaritan Messianism

Rabbinic Messianic Concept

Alternative Messianic Traditions of the Late Second Temple Period

Messianic Expectations in John

Summary

4 Christological Patterns, Titles, and the Development of Christologies in John’s Gospel

Introduction

The Patterns of Johannine Christology

The Titles Used in John’s Gospel

The Development of Christologies in John’s Gospel

Summary

5 Intercultural and Subaltern Dimensions of Johannine Christology: Exegesis of Select Passages

Introduction

Passages with Explicit Mention of Christos (Χριστος)

Exegesis of Passages with Implicit Messianic Ideas

Summary

6 John’s Christology as a Springboard for Developing Intercultural and Subaltern Christology in the Indian Context

Introduction

Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Interactions in the Indian Context

The Relevance of John’s Intercultural Christology in a Subaltern Indian Context

Juxtaposing Johannine and Indian Contexts

Christologies in a Subaltern Indian Context

Toward a Viable Hermeneutics in a Subaltern Indian Context

Summary

7 Conclusion

Selected Bibliography

Foreword

Biju Chacko’s book Intercultural Christology in John’s Gospel: A Subaltern Reading from India is an upgraded version of his doctoral dissertation. He completed his doctoral studies with my supervision. He is a dynamic, genuine, and open-minded researcher who could systematically and faithfully explore the meaning of the proposed topic with the help of all available resources. I state this to highlight the fact that Biju Chacko’s book is written by using all relevant and significant resources.

Christology is a response of the people of God to the Christ event. This is true not only in the New Testament world but also in all stages of Christianity. In Ephesus, the Christians encountered a number of challenges and questions as the philosophical and intellectual thinkers and schools indeed challenged the early Christian thinking group. It is significant to note that there were many communities in the early church that had no role in the affairs of society, including the decision-making process. The Roman Empire had a framework of legitimizing exploitation and oppression by misusing power. In the context of identity formation of the early Christian communities, the Gospel of John played a decisive role in defining the identity of early Christians in relation to Christology.

The study in Intercultural Christology is very important in our context, as the imperial attitude toward power is unjustly and uncritically repeated by the leaders of our time, including the leaders of the church. Biju’s attempt is an eye-opener in terms of realizing and recognizing the location of Christology in the teachings of the church in developing a just and peaceful community of coexistence. He indeed presents a systematic and reflective analysis of the hermeneutical approaches, including the subaltern and postcolonial reading strategies.

I am sure Biju Chacko will regularly produce books and articles to enrich biblical studies in India, and his contributions will also be recognized by the global scholarly world through this book. I am delighted to present Intercultural Christology for a deeper analysis and critical study.

Rev. Prof. Dr. C. I. David Joy

Principal, Kerala United Theological Seminary, Thiruvananthapuram, India

Professor in New Testament Studies

Preface

This book is a version of my doctoral dissertation, which has been edited. Several elements of the current published version have been altered to appeal to a wider audience without compromising the core points. I have tried to analyze John’s Messiah Christology in terms of intercultural resonances and subaltern moorings. The evangelist is presenting an intercultural Christology by writing in a milieu of conflicting and complex cultural intersections and enabling such interfaces to shape the Christology of the Gospel. As a result, I suggest an intercultural resonance and subaltern-subversive rhetorical framework as a way to unlock the Gospel’s complexities. When it comes to reading the New Testament writings, especially the Gospels, I greatly prefer a wider canvas. I do not claim to have exhausted all of the insights, nor do I rule out various hermeneutical options in research.

This effort would not have been possible without the invaluable assistance of a number of significant individuals in my life. At the outset, I am grateful for God’s enabling Grace, which has sustained me and enabled me to complete this project. All glory and honor to God, who strengthened and guided me in this endeavor. Rev. Dr. C. I. David Joy, my guide and mentor, was the greatest strength from the beginning. His immeasurable contribution in terms of continuous scholarly guidance, advice, and corrections has impacted my work in a comprehensive way, bringing out the best in me. I remain indebted to him for writing the foreword and all that he has contributed to my research. I am grateful to Dr. Jesudas Athyal for his support, patience, and follow-up questions, which helped me finish my project. I also would like to record my gratitude to Dr. Simon Samuel and Dr. P. V. Joseph for their constant support and encouragement.

I am greatly indebted to United Theological College and the leadership, faculty, and library staff for providing a smooth working environment during my stay in Bangalore. I would like to thank the administration of Luther W. New Jr. Theological College, Dehradun, for granting me leave and supporting me throughout my research and stay in UTC, Bangalore. I remember with gratitude my colleagues and family at New Theological College. I acknowledge the Union Presbyterian Seminary administration, the esteemed faculty members, the library staff, and the students at the Richmond campus for the library resources, accommodation, and interactions during my stay and work in the college. A special thanks to Dr. Samuel L. Adams and his family, who took the initiative to make my stay and work comfortable at Union Seminary during the student exchange program. I also thank Dr. Frances Taylor Gench for the scholarly guidance and interactions during my stay at Union Presbyterian Seminary, Richmond. I would also like to record my gratitude to Dr. Christy, Mimi Siff, and my student friends at Union Presbyterian Seminary. I am thankful to Mr. Arunkumar Wesley for proofreading this work. I would also like to record my gratitude to the pastor and church members of the Indian Pentecostal Church at Udayanagar for their constant prayers and support. I am also indebted to the Assemblies of God Church, Naduthery (Kerala), and other churches and believers for their prayers, care, and concern.

I want to express my gratitude to my wife and children. Despite the odds, they gladly allowed me to spend the necessary time to work on this book and sacrificed their own time to help me finish. Finally, I dedicate this work to the glory of God, through whom I am called to serve. It is my wish and prayer that the almighty God bless abundantly all those who contributed their best toward my work.

Abbreviations

AB Anchor Bible

ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary

Ant. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities (Antiquities Judaicae)

ANTC Abingdon New Testament Commentaries

AOTC Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries

ATC Asia Trading Corporation

BB Bible Bhashyam

BCE before the Common Era

BECNT Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

BSS Bharat Susamachar Samiti

BTF Bangalore Theological Forum

ca. circa

CBQ Catholic Bible Quarterly

CE Common Era

cf. [Latin] confer, compare

ConBOT Coniectanea Biblica Old Testament Series

CSS Christava Sahitya Samiti [Christian Literature Society]

DBC Dalit Bible Commentaries

DJD Discoveries in the Judean Desert

DJG Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels

DSD Dead Sea Discoveries

DTJ Doon Theological Journal

EDNT Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament

e.g. exempli gratia, for example

et al. et alia, and others

etc. et cetera, and so forth

f(f). and the following one(s)

ICC International Critical Commentary

i.e. id est, that is

ISPCK Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge

IVP InterVarsity Press

IVPDNT InterVarsity Press Dictionary of the New Testament

JBL Journal of Biblical Literature

JETS Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

JJS Journal of Jewish Studies

JSJ Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman Periods

JSNT Journal for the Study of New Testament

JSNT Sup Journal for the Study of New Testament Supplement Series

JSOT Journal for the Study of Old Testament

MS(S) manuscript(s)

NCCI National Council of Churches in India

NIB The New Interpreter’s Bible

NICNT New International Commentary of the New Testament

NIDB New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible

NIDNTT New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology

NIDOTT New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology

NIV New International Version

NJBC New Jerome Biblical Commentary

Nov T Novum Testamentum

NRSV New Revised Standard Version

NTA New Testament Abstracts

NTC New Theological College

NTS New Testament Studies

OUP Oxford University Press

PRSt Perspective in Religious Studies

RBL Review of Biblical Literature

RevExp Review and Expositor

RSV Revised Standard Version

SBL Society of Biblical Literature

SBLDS Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series

SBLMS Society of Biblical Literature Monograph Series

SJT Scottish Journal of Theology

SNTSMS Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series

SPCK Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge

T. Ash. Testament of Asher

T. Benj. Testament of Benjamin

T. Dan Testament of Dan

TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament

T. Gad Testament of Gad

T. Iss. Testament of Issachar

T. Jos. Testament of Joseph

T. Jud. Testament of Judah

T. Levi Testament of Levi

T. Naph. Testament of Naphtali

TPI Theological publications in India

T. Reu. Testament of Reuben

T. Sim Testament of Simeon

T. Zeb. Testament of Zebulun

USQR Union Seminary Quarterly Review

UTC United Theological College

VJTR Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection

v(v). verse(s)

VT Vetus Testamentum

WBC Word Biblical Commentaries

WCC World Council of Churches

WJKP Westminster John Knox Press

ZAW Zeitschrift für die alttestamentlische Wissenschaft

The following are abbreviations for designating the manuscripts of Qumran. This follows the standard system adopted in the series Discoveries in the Judean Desert.¹

CD Cairo Geniza copy of the Damascus Document

1Qap Genar Genesis Apocryphon

1QHa Hodayota or Thanksgiving Hymnsa

1QIsaa Isaiaha

1QIsab Isaiahb

1QM Milḥamah or War Scroll

1QS Serek Hayaḥad or Rule of the Community

1QSa Rule of the Congregation (appendix a to 1QS)

1QSb Rule of the Blessings (appendix b to 1QS)

4QFlor (MidrEschata) Florilegium, also Midrash on Eschatologya

4QMessAp Messianic Apocalypse

4QMess ar Messianic Text, Aramaic

4QMMT Miqṣat Maʿaśê ha‐Torah

4QpIsaa Pesher on Isaiaha

4QpPsb Pesher on Psalmsb

4QTest Testimonia

11QMelch Melchizedek

11QTa Temple Scrolla

1 For a detailed description, refer to Joseph A. Fitzmyer, A Guide to the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008), 7–162.

1

Introduction

The Rationale and Method

New Testament Christology, while reflecting an intersection of cultures and its resultant conflicts, is rooted in the Jewish Messianology.¹ Messianism in Judaism was fluid and was developed over a period of time. The fluidity is intricately connected with the experience of the Jewish people under different colonial rules that made their stamp on the land of Palestine and its people. It is argued that first-century CE Palestine, even Jerusalem, at the time of Jesus was a cultural crossroads, where Roman, Jewish, Hellenistic, and other Mediterranean influences, such as Egyptian and Persian, converged.² Any writing produced in such a matrix of conflicting and complex cultures and subcultures would not go uncontaminated by these influences. The Gospel according to John is no exception, and this helps readers assume a confluence of horizons and the resultant conflicts in John’s Christological reflections.

John’s Christology as an Intercultural and Subaltern Christology: The Rationale

Christology in John’s Gospel seems to be a reflection of the sociopolitical issues as a result of the complex and conflicting intersection of different cultures and subcultures in an imperial setup. John seems to have accommodated and disrupted the Messianic beliefs of the late Second Temple period to create his own voice in the making of his Christology. If so, is it possible to treat John’s Christology as intercultural and subaltern? What are the intercultural and subaltern dimensions of Johannine Christological affirmations? In this book, I examine the creative Christological articulations in John’s Gospel as well as its intercultural-subaltern elements to see if John’s model could be employed as a springboard for developing an intercultural and subaltern Christology for India—or, for that matter, any subaltern context.

John’s Gospel, like any other writings of the New Testament, was produced in a hybrid milieu under Roman imperial rule. In the imperial world, there is an interlacing of sociopolitical and religious/theological without strictly delimiting these. Therefore, John’s Gospel could be seen, as Carter would argue, as a document engaging with somatic, communal and political dimensions.³ Substantial research has documented the incarnational Christology in John and has used it to build contextual Christologies as part of an enculturation method. But often such studies have limited their research to the prologue and especially to its classic statement in John 1:14. The social implications of Johannine Christology thus remain underexplored. Scholarly studies, however, have paid attention to the different possible backgrounds of John’s Gospel, allowing either a Hellenistic or a Jewish cultural milieu, with its varied corollaries, to play the main role in shaping Christological affirmations. Though these studies have contributed a lot in informing us of the various background details, a substantial study on the issue of sociopolitical and religiocultural hybridity and the way in which John accommodates and disrupts the Messianic beliefs of the late Second Temple period to create his own voice has not been attempted. Even though in John’s Gospel, there is a potential interface of the words, codes, and symbols of the Roman imperial cult and the biblical, intertestamental, and postbiblical literature, at times, the evangelist has disrupted the meaning to create his own voice. Thus, John’s voice at times affiliates with and other times disrupts both the Roman colonial and Jewish nationalistic and collaborative voices. These conflicting and complex cultural intersections and the subaltern dimensions of John’s Christology need further investigation.

The Religiocultural and Sociopolitical Hybridity of the World of John’s Gospel

There is no consensus among Johannine scholars with regard to the precise social milieu of John’s Gospel. Among scholars, there are three theories, with modifications in their details, regarding the origin of this Gospel. They are the Jewish setting with a predominantly Palestinian or Hellenistic background, the Gentile Christian context outside Palestine, and the Gnostic and Mandaean environment. However, the complexity of the social setting behind the Gospel is an indication of the hybridity and cross-fertilization of religious ideas and concepts of first-century CE Palestine. Hybridization takes many forms: linguistic, political, and cultural.⁴ The language in which John’s Gospel has been written seems to be that of a community in transition, whose current language (Koine Greek) was not everyone’s mother tongue. Therefore, they developed their own unique version of the language. The author was skilled in using this hybrid language that gave voice to the intercultural or bilingual reality of the community.⁵

An Ephesian context, as many of the scholars would suggest Ephesus as the place of composition of this Gospel, positions the Gospel and its audience in the Roman imperial world.⁶ At the same time, the Johannine Jesus followers were also part of the Jewish synagogue community. The historical context of the Gospel attests to a lot of sociopolitical unrest and resistance, which at times broke out as war against the Romans. The destruction of the Jerusalem temple could not annihilate several other facets of Judaism, such as the apocalyptic and merkabah mystical traditions.⁷ The milieu of John’s Gospel was flooded with sociopolitical and religiocultural hybridity, syncretistic and mysterious religious sects, and resistant literature using various nuances of rhetoric that mimic and mock the dominant ideologies. The interpretation of John’s Gospel needs to take this into serious consideration.

Social Conflict and Alternative Cultural Traditions in the Late Second Temple Matrix

A glance into the social conflicts and the alternative cultural traditions in the late Second Temple matrix would be helpful in understanding the hybridity of the wider milieu of John’s Gospel. The social structure of ancient Judaea reflects a fundamental division between the rulers and the ruled. In the sixth century BCE, under the Persian imperial administration, the ancient Judean people had been ruled by a temple-state.⁸ Persian imperial policy favored the revival and consolidation of subjects’ legal and cultural traditions. Thus, the temple-state exerted its authority over the people through the Torah as its constitution, and its interpretations provided the social permissions or taboos. The cultural heritage of the temple-state contained traditions that challenged the power and privilege of the rulers as well as the traditions that legitimated their dominant position. Any careful reader of the Old Testament could envisage a tension between the official ideology of kingship and popular kingship.⁹ David himself was originally acclaimed as a popular king, but he transformed his kingship into an established monarchy. The tradition of popular kingship continued in the northern tribes who broke away from the Davidic dynasty after the death of Solomon. It is argued that the popular kingship continued as a counter to the mythologized idea of imperial kingship.¹⁰

The Emergence of Messianism and the Longing for Liberation in Judaism

The origin of the Messiah in Judaism, though debated, has political roots and is related to the institution and decline of monarchy in Israel. According to Buber, the inability of monarchs to live up to their anointing is one reason for the birth of Messianism, or believing in the anointed one who will fulfil his anointing.¹¹ Beuken argues for the origin of the Messiah in the preexilic period in the figure of Yahweh’s anointed and as a product of prophetic consciousness.¹² For Horsley, it mimicked the imperial ideologies of the surrounding world and was at times a counter to such imperial ideologies.¹³ Israel was a tribal federation led by charismatic prophets and governed by appointed judges under a direct theocracy. The constant demand of the people to have a king and be like other nations sprouted in the context of the continuous attacks of the Philistines, who plundered their resources and brought devastation on their economy, which was based on agricultural produce. Kingship, as Legrand avers, was a political acculturation whereby Israel became like the Syro-Phoenician state.¹⁴ Therefore, it is argued that the institution of monarchy in Israel was a sociopolitical approximation of the kingship ideologies of neighboring countries. This was given a divine legitimation, and thus the second king, David, is described as the anointed one of the God of Jacob (2 Sam 23).

The rule of God mediated dynastically rather than charismatically, on the other hand, is unlikely to satisfy the criteria of direct theocracy. The expectation of the Messiah was not simply as a religious redeemer of souls but as a theopolitical Messiah of the people and the country. While Assyrian hegemony put an end to the royal ideologies behind the state structure throughout Syria, in Israel, the image of the king acquired new depths; it was transformed into the image of the Messiah.¹⁵ Common people produced several concrete figures and movements in the active pursuit of their own liberation. Legrand has rightly pointed out that Messianism was an example of political acculturation, and this finds its supreme expression in Isaiah.¹⁶

The concept of the Messiah and Messianic figures took alternate shapes in the late Second Temple period as a result of sociopolitical complexities and cultural intersection in the imperial world. It is noteworthy that in many of the apocalyptic writings where the Messianic idea is at the forefront, the figure of the Messiah is not even mentioned.¹⁷ During the Persian period, the hope of a leader in David’s line had receded due to the cessation of monarchy, the rise in significance and power of the priests, the decline of prophecy, and the political situation under the Persians. Thus, the prominent concept of the Davidic Messiah of the Old Testament was reshaped into alternative traditions of the Messiah. In some literature, even a double Messianism was proposed, whereby Davidic Messianic hope existed in parallel with other forms of Messianic traditions.

In summary, there is ample evidence of conflicting and complex Messianic traditions. These conflicts and complexities are due to historical experiences of imperial subjugation of people on the one hand and various modes of resistance resulting from a longing for liberation on the other. This continued even to the time of the writing of the New Testament. Thus, it is important to consider such a wide matrix of conflicting and complex cultures and subcultures as a result of subjugation and resistance in understanding and appreciating the Christology of John’s Gospel. In such a context, John approximates many conflicting and complex Messianic beliefs in his Christology.

Johannine Christology as an Approximation of Conflicting and Complex Messianic Beliefs

John’s Gospel bears marks of similarities with the concept of Messianism from the sociopolitical and literary-cultural world of first-century CE Palestine. Regarding biblical literature, John shares a lot with Messianism in Isaiah and Ezekiel. Regarding the intertestamental period, John shares similarities with the apocalyptic Son of Man in Daniel and Enochic literature. According to Jewish tradition, the role of the Messiah is to reestablish territorial unity. This territorial unity is fulfilled in John’s Gospel through Jesus’s dialogue with the Samaritan woman, the Galileans, and the Jerusalem crowds (4:16–26; 6:14–59; 7:40–43). Another element in the Jewish Messianic expectation is that the Messiah should live forever (12:34). Now, there is a contradiction with this when Jesus, who is proclaimed to be the true Messiah of Jewish expectation by the community of John, died on the cross. John brings a solution to this by his method of approximation of Jewish Messianic expectation and early Christian faith in the Paraclete Christology (14–16), where the Paraclete becomes the extension and continued presence of Jesus. Thus, it is clear that John approximated the Messianic beliefs of his milieu and presented his interpretation of Jesus in solidarity with human culture. If so, this has many social implications in our context for building up an alternate Christology.

The Poetics and Politics of the Christological Passages in John

A reader of John’s Gospel would come to the conclusion that the standard Jewish Messianic expectations and symbolism are not sufficient to express the Johannine community’s understanding of Jesus.¹⁸ Messianic categories are used as the starting points for discussion. In each instance, Jesus’s heavenly status is affirmed either directly or through the use of symbolism that applies to God’s activity. This created disputes with opponents who claimed that Jesus equates himself with God and thus blasphemes (5:18; 6:41–42; 8:12; 10:11; 11:25). Johannine Jesus declares oneness with the Father (10:30; cf. 10:38; 14:10), and at the same time, there are also statements of subordination (14:28). Sean Freyne argues that at this point in John’s Gospel, the Jewish Messianic hope of earthly restoration is transformed into mystical interpretation that echoes various Hellenistic philosophical speculations about union with God to which a true philosopher can attain through contemplation.¹⁹

John’s Christological claims are developed through interpretative politics. Jesus’s Messianic claims result in controversy and are rejected on the basis of Pharisaic scriptural interpretation (7:47–52). The Johannine narrator parodies Pharisaic views with ironies to discredit their claims that they are the true interpreters of Jewish tradition. Moses (5:41), Abraham (8:39–41), and Isaiah (12:41) are all summoned in this interpretative politics. There are also characters in the narrative representing an intermediate position. The Galilean crowd wants to take Jesus by force and make him king (6:14). The brothers of Jesus want him to go to Jerusalem and show himself to the world (7:4). But these positions are not acceptable to the author of the Gospel. Jesus escapes from the Galilean crowd and does not consent to his brothers’ request. Yet Jesus goes to Jerusalem and makes an open declaration (8:12) and at the end accepts from Pilate the epithet king of Jews, redefining kingship as the revealer of truth (18:33–38).

By approximating the Messianic beliefs of the Second Temple period and shaping the Christology in the hybrid world at the Roman Empire’s provincial capital of Ephesus, John seems to reflect such intercultural dimensions. A glance into the Johannine community would be helpful in assessing the intercultural and subaltern dimensions of the Gospel. Considering the various characters in the narrative world of John, it could be argued that John’s Gospel is written to a multiethnic community. The members of the community belong to mixed economic classes. Howard-Brook observes that the Johannine community was a relatively prosperous group,²⁰ though he notes the presence of the poor (12:8; 9:40; 18:5, 18). Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea—representing the economic and religious elite—moved toward participation in the Johannine community in a way that relinquished the privilege and protection their positions afforded.²¹ The bias of the Gospel toward the marginalized is visible in the narratives of the Samaritan woman and the illness of the official’s son (4:1–42, 46–54), the paralytic man (5:1–18), and the man born blind (9:1–41). The community faced marginalization and the threat of death as a consequence of their discipleship and witness (cf. 12:10, 11). The opposition could also be understood as an economic and social struggle internal to the Jewish population of Palestine (2:13–22).²² Orchard explains the situation of the community, stating, It is clear that the experience of the community was characterised by severe hostility from its surrounding environment, rejection by its spiritual parent and physical threat, possibly death.²³ Carter is thus locating Johannine Jesus believers as participating citizens of two worlds: a synagogue community and the Roman Empire.²⁴ The picture that could be derived from the Gospel is a community struggling between Roman imperial power and Jewish cultural nationalists.

There are ample evidences of a tendency of accommodating and disrupting in John’s Gospel. For example, the treatment of John the Baptist in the Gospel disrupts the cultural context by refuting the claims of the Baptist sect. At the same time, the evangelist accommodated the sectarian community by giving John the Baptist a place of honor. Brown explains that John has portrayed Jesus in Qumran dress to win over the sectarians of John the Baptist.²⁵ The Qumran community shares conceptual similarities with the Johannine literature, though in John, there is a reshaping of these ideas. Johannine literature reclaims the images of God as life, light, and love, and the same is