Journal: Bulletin for Biblical Research
Volume: BBR 08:1 (NA 1998)
Article: Jesus as Rabbi in the Fourth Gospel
Author: Andreas J. Köstenberger

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BBR 8:1 (1998) p. 97

Jesus as Rabbi in the Fourth Gospel

Andreas J. Köstenberger

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Studies of John’s portrayal of Jesus usually focus on the Fourth Gospel’s high Christology. The presentation of Jesus as rabbi tends to be attributed to the Synoptics. This trend prevails all the more since John is customarily viewed as less concerned about the historical aspects of Jesus’ life than the Synoptic writers. The present study, while not contending that rabbi is the primary or exclusive designation of Jesus in John’s Gospel, sets out to correct these stereotypes. It is argued that the Fourth Gospel shows that Jesus was perceived by his contemporaries primarily as a rabbi.

Key Words: Fourth Gospel, Gospel of John, Jesus, historical Jesus, Johannine theology, Jewish background, Judaism, rabbi, teacher

From Rudolf Bultmann to C. H. Dodd to the Jesus Seminar, Johannine scholarship has emphasized the Greek background of the Fourth Gospel. In doing so, Mandaean gnosticism, hermetic literature, and cynicism have been postulated as likely paradigms into which the Johannine Jesus may be fitted.1 These contentions, however, run aground the now almost universal recognition that Jesus must foremost of all be understood in terms of his Jewish cultural context,2 a conclusion aided decisively by the terminological and theological

BBR 8:1 (1998) p. 98

affinity between the Fourth Gospel and the Qumran writings.3 But usually it is the Synoptic Gospels that are used to elucidate this view.4 The Johannine Jesus, on the other hand, is often understood in terms of the Fourth Gospel’s emphasis on Christ’s deity, especially as portrayed in the Prologue. Works such as Marianne Thompson’s The Humanity of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel, however, have countered the arguments of Käsemann and others that John portrays Jesus in docetic terms, that is, as a divine rather than an earthly human figure.5

In this debate, with its matrices of Jewish/Greek and human/ divine, one important aspect of John’s presentation of Jesus has been neglected in recent discussion: the evangelist’s portrayal of Jesus as a Jewish rabbi. This may in part be due to the influence of M. Hengel, who, in his significant work The Charismatic Leader and His Followers, flatly states that “Jesus was not a ‘rabbi.’”6 While acknowledging that “Jesus was doubtless addre...

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