Biblica_1_Layout 1 20/01/12 11:44 Pagina 596 596 ALICIA D. MYERS ment to John’s Gospel; there is more at stake in understanding who Jesus is than in understanding Alexander. For a Gospel that places so much emphasis on sight, the fact that the audience did not have the opportunity to see Jesus could have been a stumbling block. The au- thor tackles this challenge head on by highlighting the failure of those around Jesus to understand him. Although the characters within the Gospel “see” Jesus, they do not hear the paradigmatic prologue or the frequent narrative asides that offer retrospective explanations for Jesus’ words. As R.A. CULPEPPER notes, the characters are left blind, though they may claim to see (9,39-41), while John’s audience is given true sight 37. Through his own adaptation of prosopopoiia, the Fourth evangelist crafts speeches for Jesus that conform to his iden- tity as the logos of God. And while Jesus’ discourses confound other characters in the text, they contribute to the credibility, liveliness, and emotional power of the narrative as a part of the evangelist’s larger plan to convince his listeners that by means of this Jesus, they too have, or can, become children of God. United Theological Seminary Alicia D. MYERS 4501 Denlinger Road Dayton, OH 45426 - USA SUMMARY This article explores the conflict of John 8 within the larger context of the Gospel and in the light of the ancient rhetorical practice of prosopopoiia: the creation of speech for characters. These speeches add to the credibility of a narrative by being “appropriate” for both the person speaking and the situation in which the speech is given. Although perhaps not prosopopoiia in the traditional sense of speeches from Greek histories, this essay argues that the Gospel nevertheless includes prosopopoetics by creating appropri- ate, albeit unnerving, words for Jesus that elevate the audience and add to the persuasiveness of the work. 37 CULPEPPER, Anatomy, 106.