550 Lars Kierspel Mlakuzhyil respects the formal parallels between Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus and John the Baptist’s dispute about purification and observes their similar theme of “life.” Kinzer’s structure simply places all of chapter 3 at the center without any further distinctions. Our study of John 3 identified important parallels and distinctions that justify a bipartite center as follows: A Miracle in Cana (2,1-12) B New Temple: Not in Jerusalem (2,13-22) C Salvation: God loves the world and gave his Son/eternal life/see ‘kingdom of God’ (3,1-21) C’ Judgment: God loves the Son and gave him pavnta/ life/‘see life’ (3,22-36) B New Temple: Not in Gerizim (4,1-42) A Miracle in Cana (4,43-54) III. Theological Harvest of Literary Structure 1. The uniting thread in John 2–4 is an emphasis on the novelty of Jesus when compared with existing Jewish and Gentile forms of religion. Dodd masterfully brought out the larger “fundamental truth” in John 2–4, namely “that Christ has come to inaugurate a new order in religion” (103). Dodd finds this indicated by the (old) water that turns into (new) wine, the new temple as foretold afterwards (2,14-19), the new birth spoken of before Nicodemus, and the new worship explained to the Samaritan woman (104). The Gospel offers a narrative version of Paul’s proposition that “the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Cor 5,17) (105). 2. Yet the contrast between old and new is too general and captures, at best, only a part of the Gospel’s theological effort. I suggest that the repeated characteristic of the new faith throughout each component in John 2–4 is the contrast between physical and spiritual. The physical temple is replaced with a person (2,13- 22+4,1-42). The physical birth is replaced with a spiritual one (3,1- 21). The physical baptism is submitted under the one through the Holy Spirit (3,22-36). In one word, at the center of the new religion introduced by Jesus stands a “dematerialization” of religion that (103) DODD, Interpretation, 303. (104) Ibid., 297. See also LINDARS, The Gospel of John, 70; BROWN, The Gospel and Epistles of John, 16; BRUCE, The Gospel of John, 43-44; BEASLEY-MURRAY, John, xci, 31. (105) So CARSON, The Gospel According to John, 166.