Hansjörg Schmidt, «How to Read the First Epistle of John Non-Polemically», Vol. 85 (2004) 24-41
When reading 1 John most contemporary interpretors stress its polemical character and use the opponents as a key for the whole text. In contrast to them, this article proposes a non-polemical reading which treats the opponents only as a minor feature of 1 John and denies the possibility of mirror-reading the epistle. The article shows the merits, but also the inconsistencies of already existing non-polemical readings of 1 John. It describes the relationship between 1 John and John as an intertextual reading-process and views the opponents as literary contrasting figures. They form a part of an apocalyptic scenario and are related to the main ethical theme of 1 John. The pragmatic function of the excursus-like opponent texts(1 John 2,18-27; 4,1-6) is to strengthen and reassure the reader by demonstrating that he or she is immune to the opponent’s denial of the christological confession. On this basis, the ethical parenesis takes place, the urgency of which is stressed by the apocalyptic motifs. As a result, the reader tries to avoid an ethical transgression by which he or she would become like the christological opponents, who thus function as a counter-concept to the community.
How to Read the First Epistle of John Non-Polemically 37
A key verse for the relationship of love and faith is 1 John 3,23,
which links love and faith within a double commandment. The
following structure of 1 John outlines this commandment: beginning
with a relatively short passage about faith (4,1-6), longer passages
about love follow (starting with 4,7 and again 4,11) (50). Whereas the
reader ’s position on faith is clear and he or she is charged to discern
and judge others (4,1), in the ethical field he or she now has to become
active. It is thus God’s commandment not only to believe, but also to
love in order to demonstrate that one is really ejk tou' qeou'
(4,2.4.6.7) (51). Thus 3,23 both structures the following sections of
1 John and sums up the relationship of love and faith.
This thesis about the relationship of love and faith is reinforced by
an intertextual reading. In general, the themes of love and faith are
distinctly handled by the two basic texts of the Johannine system:
whereas John makes the reader encounter Jesus and introduces him or
her to christological issues, 1 John consists mainly of ethical
parenesis. Thus, the two texts and the two themes with them form the
two poles of the intertextual reading circle already mentioned. The
key verse for this relationship is John 13,35 — which is not developed
further in John (though the reader finds some basic ideas in John 15
about Christ’s exemplary love and the imitatio Christi is recom-
mended in 15,10.12). In the narration, it is located at a point where
Jesus is in community with his disciples and it is clear that the reader
will remain (long after the schism of 6,60-71). It constitutes an
external prolepsis (52). To fulfil the distinctive marks of a follower of
(50) Especially 1 John 4,15; 5,1.5.20 return to the christological issue, but this
is seen as a new recurrence of the basis at a moment of eschatological distress.
The other christological (or more precisely soteriological) confessions concern
atonement and sin and thus constitute a part of the ethical parenesis itself (1,7.9;
2,1.2; 3,5.16; 4,9.14). This is also the case for 5,6-8, which stresses Christ’s
atonement and his ethical exemplariness. For this interpretation of 5,6-8, see
SCHMID, Gegner, 202-204.
(51) Although it is my intention here to separate the two fields of love and
faith, it must be conceded that the two are not only firmly linked, but also mixed
in 3,16; 4,11 (Christ/God as ethical models) and 4,16 (belief in love). The new
accent of a non-polemical reading is to interpret 1 John as a general ethical
exhortation, not as a “situation†ethics of a sect-like community in crisis, in which
latter case ethics would be a community-strengthening response to the opponents
(see e.g. BROWN, Epistles, 92 speaking about “close love within a community over
against those outsideâ€).
(52) R.A. CULPEPPER, Anatomy of the Fourth Gospel. A Study in Literary
Design (Philadelphia 1983) 63 and F.J. MOLONEY, “The Function of John 13–17
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