“Dematerializing” Religion: Reading John 2–4 as a Chiasm 553 the temple as negotiated in Jesus’ cleansing and the interpretation of it (esp. 2,19-22). 3. The concentric design (see p. 550) thus invites the reader to move from the demonstration of divine power (2,1-11+4,43-54) toward a new Christological definition of divine presence (2,13- 22+4,1-42) that culminates in a revision of salvation and judgment in light of the coming of God’s Son (3,1-21+3,22-36). At the core of the new faith and of the persuasive goal of John 2–4 stands thus a “dematerialized” religion that operates without traditional physical means of purification and worship and centers structurally as well as ideologically on the Son as the agent of God’s mission (3,16) and the object of God’s love (3,35). 4. Our proposal for the chiasm in John 2–4 satisfies many if not all criteria formulated for control (109). It is simple in design and the literary unit as well as its’ subunits follow obvious textual indicators and natural breaks. The parallels involve “central or dominant imagery or terminology, not peripheral or trivial language” (110) and are often proposed by scholars regardless of macro-structural designs. Our structure can explain the text as it stands without having to eliminate texts that are inconvenient for the proposal (111). At the structural center stands a text that carries prime theological significance for the literary unit. Finally, this proposal comes on the heels of a growing use of chiasm in Johannine scholarship (112) that invites to read the Gospel not (109) C. BLOMBERG, “The Structure of 2 Corinthians 1-7”, CTR 4 (1989) 3-20, here 5-7. D.E. AUNE, “Chiasm”, The Westminster Dictionary of New Testament and Early Christian Literature and Rhetoric (Louisville, KY 2003) 96. (110) BLOMBERG, “The Structure of 2 Corinthians 1-7”, 6. (111) M. STIBBE, John (Sheffield 1993) 12 can offer his chiastic proposal for John 2–4 only after eliminating the temple cleansing (2,13-25), 3,16-21 and 3,31- 36 as “later theological reflection”. (112) N.W. LUND, “The Influence of Chiasmus upon the Structure of the Gospels”, ATR 13 (1931) 42-46, esp. 44 proposed a chiasm for John’s prologue that seems to find, with some modifications, wide acceptance (see the recent commentaries by Culpepper, Keener, Köstenberger, Kruse, and Neyrey). While explicitly resisting various proposals for a chiastic arrangement, BROWN (The Gospel According to John, I, 275-276; II, 667, 728, 857-859) nevertheless organized in his commentary four texts of growing proportion in this manner: John 6,36-40; 15,7-17; 16,16-33; and the seven scenes of Jesus’ trial before Pilate in 18,28-19,16a. See also MOLONEY, The Gospel of John, 24 (John 13-17; 18-19); J. BEUTLER, “The Structure of John 6”, Critical Readings of John 6 (ed. R.A. CULPEPPER) (BIS 22; Leiden 1997) 115-127; W. BROUWER, The Literary Development of John 13-17. A Chiastic Reading (DS 182; Atlanta, GA 2000); J.C.