Martijn Steegen, «M. Steegen: To Worship the Johannine 'Son of Man'. John 9,38 as Refocusing on the Father», Vol. 91 (2010) 534-554
Important early textual witnesses show John 9,38-39a to be absent. Because of the use of uncharacteristic vocabulary, the use of rare verb forms such as e¶fh and pistey¥w, and the unique confession of faith and worship of Jesus as “Son of Man” during his earthly life, John 9,38 has been said to stand outside Johannine theology. I argue that, although John 9,38-39a confronts the Gospel’s reader with uncharacteristic vocabulary, this does not necessarily imply that these words were added by a later hand under liturgical influence. Instead of standing outside Johannine theology, the confession of faith and the worship by the man healed from his blindness function as the first fulfilment of the proleptic prediction of the words in 4,23 kaiù gaùr oO pathùr toioy¥toyv zhtei˜ toyùv proskynoy˜ntav ayßto¥n. Then, I confront the absence of 9,38-39a with yet another text-critical problem in the larger pericope 9,35-41 — the replacement of the title yiOoùv toy˜ aßnurw¥ poy in 9,35 by yiOoùv toy˜ ueoy — and argue that these two text-critical problems cannot be separated from one another. Finally, I explore how the designation “Son of Man” functions within the framework of pistey¥w and proskyne¥w. The worship of the Johannine Jesus can hardly be seen as a goal in itself. Instead, it is an acknowledgement that the Father is made known in the person of Jesus (cf. 9,3), and hence is typically Johannine.
536 MARTIJN STEEGEN
The verb proskynew is also found further on in John 9,38.
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Finally, the verb is found one last time in John 12,20 where it tells
us that Greek gentiles went up to worship (proskynhswsin) at
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the Festival. In the Pauline Epistles, by contrast, the verb is notably
absent. There is just one instance of prostration in 1 Cor 14,25
where Paul uses the verb for the unconditional subjection after the
secrets of the unbeliever’s heart are disclosed. The verb is used
twice in two old Testament quotations in Heb 1,6; 11,21.
I n light of the above, how is one to understand the
prosekynhsen of the man born blind in John 9,38? Did the
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author of the Fourth Gospel, by making the man physically
prostrate himself in front of Jesus, only want to emphasize the
man’s faith? When confronted with the specific use of the verb
proskynew in John 4, this conclusion seems hasty. There, John
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leaves one with the impression that the physical concreteness of
the term proskynew has been expanded with a new meaning,
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because in the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman
the verb proskynew seems to be used in a wholly figurative
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sense. Instead of focussing on the physical gesture itself, the focus
is on the sphere in which this worship needs to take place.
Therefore, if we could demonstrate a theological connection
between the occurrences of the verb in both chapter four and nine,
t h e explanation of 9,38-39a as an addition would become
redundant, since the worship of the man born blind could no
longer be said to stand outside Johannine theology.
I. The Textual Phenomenon of John 9,38-39a
In several textual witnesses ( 75 a* W it b (l) sa ms ac 2 mf) the
words of John 9,38-39a are missing 6. The absence of 9,38-39a first
appeared with the publication of the Codex Veronensis (b) — an Old
Latin version of the Gospels, dated to the fourth or fifth century —
C.L. PORTER, “John IX. 38, 39a: A Liturgical Addition to the Textâ€, NTS
6
13 (1967) 389. A search for literature on this absence of 9,38-39a in some
important textual witnesses reveals that not much literature is devoted to these
verses. To our knowledge, only one other article is devoted to this specific
topic : O.T. ALLIS, “The Comment on John IX,38 in the American Revised
Version â€, PrincTR 17 (1919) 241-311.
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