“Dematerializing” Religion: Reading John 2–4 as a Chiasm 535 prologue to the first literary unit in John 2–4 (40). As Julian puts it, “divisions between literary units are not impenetrable brick walls”(41). b) The End of the Narrative Unit: The Healing of the Official’s Son There exists a bewildering diversity of proposals about the end of the first literary unit after the prologue: PROPONENT UNIT HEADING Staley (1986) 1,19–3,36 The First Ministry Tour Beasley-Murray (1999) 2,1–4,42 The Revelation of the New Order in Jesus Kysar (1986) 2,1–5,48 Signs and Speeches Keener (2005) 1,19–6,71 Witness in Judea, Samaria, and Galilee (a) Staley takes the focus on John the Baptist in 1,19-42 and 3,25- 36 as “the beginning and ending points of a concentric pattern”(42), followed by parallels of Jesus’ journeys into Galilee (1,43-51) and into Judean territory (3,22-24). The proposal is driven by his thesis of a symmetric sequence of episodes analogous to the prologue. Thus, as John’s witness in 1,6-8 and 1,15 frames the journey of the Light (1,9- 11) and of the Logos (1,14), so also in 1,19–3,26. While the analogies to the Baptist are at hand, all other correspondences seem forced (43) and the separation of 1,19-2,1 at 1,43 interrupts the various callings that are united by the ‘day’ scheme. (b) Beasley-Murray finds a structural pattern in John 2-12 according to which one or two signs are followed by related discourses. As Dodd before him, Beasley-Murray regards the cleansing of the temple as a sign that, together with the changing of water into wine, is followed by the discourses with Nicodemus and the Samaritan (“The (40) BROWN, The Gospel According to John, I, cxliii, 106. F.J. MOLONEY (ed.), An Introduction to the Gospel of John (AB; New York 2003) 301. (41) P. JULIAN, Jesus and Nicodemus. A Literary and Narrative Exegesis of Jn. 2,23-3,36 (EUS 771; Frankfurt a.M. 2000) 262. A.J. KÖSTENBERGER, John (BECNT; Grand Rapids, MI 2004) 56, 166 affirms the inclusio of John 2-4 but maintains also a seven-day scheme in 1,19-2,12. (42) J.L. STALEY, “The Structure of John’s Prologue: Its Implications for the Gospel’s Narrative Structure”, CBQ 48 (1986) 241-263, here 250. (43) The focus in 1,9-11 is not on a journey motif (only in v.9) but on the ironic rejection of the light which hardly corresponds to Philip’s calling and Nathanael’s witness in 1,43-51. The rich Christological and soteriological statement of 1,14 is also no match to the author’s geographical interest in 3,22-24. To attach a journey- motif to 1,9-11 and 1,14 is hiding more of the text’s content than revealing it.