Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 52:1 (NA 2001)
Article: The Implied Ethics Of The Fourth Gospel: A Reinterpretation Of The Decalogue
Author: Jey J. Kanagaraj

TynBul 52:1 (2001) p. 33

The Implied Ethics Of The Fourth Gospel:
A Reinterpretation Of The Decalogue

Jey J. Kanagaraj

Summary

Despite the lack of explicit and detailed ethical teachings in the Fourth Gospel, it seems that the Jewish ethics embodied in the Decalogue undergird John’s presentation of the Gospel. The words ‘keep my commandments’, used by Jesus in the Fourth Gospel, give us the key for understanding the implied ethics of the Fourth Gospel. An analysis of John’s Gospel shows that its author reflects the Decalogue in various parts of the Gospel. We have evidence that John reinterprets the commandments positively and redemptively by focussing on Jesus as the one who fulfils the commandments and who enables those who believe in him to fulfil them. Such an interpretation of Yahweh’s commandments, which can be identified as Jesus’ commandments in the Gospel, cannot simply be dismissed as accidental but rather reflects a conscious reinterpretation of the Law.

I. Introduction

John’s Gospel has been an enigma to the ethicists who seek to find moral teachings in it. Donald Guthrie, who includes a section on personal ethics in John’s Gospel in his New Testament Theology, affirms at the outset that this Gospel is not strong on explicit ethical teaching, because, for him, it has more to say about believing than doing.1 J.T. Sanders, who affirms that Johannine Christianity is interested only in whether one believes, envisages the ‘weakness and moral bankruptcy of the Johannine ethics’ in today’s context in which Christian groups that are interested only in one’s own salvation still exist.2 For E.E.

TynBul 52:1 (2001) p. 34

James, John’s main concern is the doctrine of salvation and not ethics.3 W. Marxsen observes that ethics in the Gospel of John in terms of specific instructions and admonitions are completely absent except one single ethical term ‘love’.4 Richard B. Hays, who does recognise the moral vision of the Johannine Church and the ethical implications of its eschatology, claims that the love command plays a central role in the ethical teaching of Johannine literature, even while he points out that for readers seeking ethical themes, the Gospel of John is a puzzling text.5 The list could go on.

The relatively negative view of many such scholars on Johannine ethics is due to the absence of any explicit moral teachings such as Matthew, for example, has in the Sermon on the...