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.
543
TO WORSHIP JOHANNINE “ SON MAN â€
THE OF
If we suppose, in agreement with Metzger (and Porter), that the
absence of 9,38-39a cannot be explained as the result of an
unintentional omission, then, in our view, two options were
available to the fourth-century scribe to solve this theological
p r o b l e m : he could either change the expression yı o v toy
Ωù ˜
anurwpoy into yıov toy ueoy in 9,35; or he could omit the
ß ¥ Ωù ˜ ˜
worship of the healed man in 9,38 and seek coherence in Jesus’
teaching between verses 37-41, leaving out the introductory words
of verse 39a. In the former option, the relation between the
expression yıov toy ueoy and the confession of faith is tightened
Ωù ˜ ˜
since it occurs elsewhere in the Gospel (cf. 1,49-50; 11,27; 20,31).
In the latter option, the attention is no longer focussed upon the
action of coming to belief, but — in relation to 9,39-41 — upon the
task of the Son of Man: eıv krıma egw eßv ton kosmon toyton
ß ¥ ßù ı ù ¥ ˜
hluon, ına oi mh bpepontev blepwsin kaı oΩ blepontev
® ™ Ω ù ¥ ¥ ùı ¥
tyφloù genwntai (9,39).
ı¥
This combined understanding of the different readings in 9,35
and 9,38-39a seems convincing if one bears the external evidence
in mind, since the major manuscripts lacking the confession of
faith and the worship of the man born blind in 9,38 ( 75 a* W) do
in fact read yıov toy anurwpoy. Moreover, this combined under-
Ωù ˜ß ¥
standing of the variant readings enables us to move beyond the ex-
planation of the absence of 9,38-39a as a liturgical addition in
some important textual witnesses. Furthermore, it is not incon-
ceivable that the text-critical problem of 9,38-39a demonstrates
how the early Christian readers of the Fourth Gospel struggled
with the relation between Christ’s human and divine natures, an is-
sue which the author of the Fourth Gospel had not intended to
grapple with.
III. Johannine Worship: More Than Ordinary Homage
Up to now we have argued that the difficulties regarding the
variant readings in 9,35 and 9,38-39a are situated in the area of
tension between Jesus’ designation as yıov toy anurwpoy and
Ωù ˜ß ¥
the verbs pisteyw and proskynew. Since the majority of
¥ ¥
JTS 36 (1985) 56; B.E. REYNOLDS, The Apocalyptic Son of Man in the Gospel
of John (WUNT II/249; Tübingen 2008) 175-189.
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