Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 28:1 (Mar 1985)
Article: Contextual And Genre Implications For The Historicity Of John 11:41b-42
Author: W. Bingham Hunter

---

JETS 28:1 (March 1985) p. 53

Contextual And Genre Implications For The
Historicity Of John 11:41b-42

W. Bingham Hunter*

I. Introduction

Two assumptions commonly made by scholars engaged in gospel research and criticism are that the sayings of Jesus in the fourth gospel are generally historically suspect and that even greater uncertainty attaches to the authenticity of Jesus’ prayers in John. As a case in point this paper considers John 11:41b–42, the prayer offered immediately before Lazarus’ resurrection:

Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said [prayed] this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me (NIV).

Objections to the view that Jesus actually uttered this prayer when John says he did come from different quarters. Representative examples may be summarized in three categories.

1. Source and redactional hypotheses. The major source and redactional studies by R. Bultmann, R. Fortna, W. Nicol, R. Schnackenburg, H. Teepie, S. Temple and W. Wilkens all conclude that the prayer in 11:41b–42 was not part of the original core or narrative source that is said to lie behind the miracle stories in John.1 The thanksgiving has been variously assigned—in whole or in part—to a discourse source, an evangelist or redactor, none of which preserves eyewitness testimony concerning what may have actually happened. The prayer is viewed as a redundant statement inserted into the narrative for editorial purposes. B. Lin-dars, for example, says that “the prayer is unnecessary, and indeed for that very reason has been put in the form of a thanksgiving.2 Viewed like this the words

*Bingham Hunter is associate professor of New Testament at Talbot Theological Seminary in La Mirada, California.

JETS 28:1 (March 1985) p. 54

are often not even held to reflect or echo authentic tradition about Jesus. They certainly do not attain to whatever degree of historical veracity may be assigned the posited narrative source. The upshot of such views is obvious: The prayer is a literary fabrication that has been put into Jesus’ mouth, a mouth that never uttered it.

2. Theological presuppositions and conclusions. These objections take two forms: (1) Anyone familiar with the theological agenda of the fourth evangelist notes several characteristically Johannine concepts and expressions in 11:41–42. Because of these, some conclu...

visitor : : uid: ()