Journal: Conspectus
Volume: CONSPECTUS 32:1 (Oct 2021)
Article: Spiritual Birth, Living Water, And New Creation: Mapping Life-Giving Metaphors In The Fourth Gospel
Author: Cornelia van Deventer

Conspectus 32:1 (October 2021) p. 144

Spiritual Birth, Living Water, And New Creation: Mapping Life-Giving Metaphors In The Fourth Gospel

Cornelia van Deventer

and

Bill Domeris

South African Theological Seminary

About The Authors

Dr. Cornelia van Deventer obtained her PhD in New Testament from Stellenbosch University in 2018. Her dissertation explored a drama-critical reading of John’s prologue and crucifixion scenes. Her research interests lie in the literary dimensions of the Fourth Gospel, including its rhetorical effect(s) in the lives of its hearers. Cornelia serves as a senior lecturer and the coordinator of Faculty Research at the South African Theological Seminary. She has also recently taken over as editor of Conspectus. [email protected]

Dr. Bill Domeris is a Senior Academic at South Africa Theological Seminary and a Research Fellow from the University of the Free State. He wrote his doctorate under the supervision of the late Professor Kingsley Barrett, on the Holy One of God (John 6:69). His studies range across the testaments, from Deuteronomy, through Amos and Jeremiah, to the Gospels including, of course, the Gospel of John. His present research interests include re-reading the Beatitudes in the light of their intertexts and the Shame-Honour reversals of the marginalized in the Psalms. [email protected]

This article: https://www.sats.ac.za/spiritual-birth-living-water-creation

Abstract

The Gospel of John contains various memorable metaphors, drawing on the lived realities of its audience to encapsulate the depths of its Christology and central message. Seamlessly interwoven into the fabric of the gospel is the metaphor of (life-giving) water, offered by Jesus and ultimately provided by him. A related metaphor is that of new birth, signifying the changed allegiance and ethos of those who come to believe. Finally, the new creation imagery with its Edenic setting and Jesus breathing Spirit-life into his disciples illustrates something of the effect of an encounter with the life-giving God. Drawing on Cognitive Metaphor Theory, this paper demonstrates that imagery of birth, water, and new life can work together to create a metanarrative. The analysis follows the ramifications of this imagery in its literary context, its rhetorical function in the narrative, and the way in which the metaphors of birth, water, and life potentially work together to produce a larger picture that ministers to those who carry the realities of giving, nurturing, and sustaining life in their bodies. From the prologue and its birth-giving God, through the birth from above promised to Nicodemus, the living water promised ...