Mark Jennings, «The Fourth Gospel’s Reversal of Mark in John 13,31‒14,3», Vol. 94 (2013) 210-236
I argue that the author/s of the Fourth Gospel knew Mark, based on the reversal of certain Markan themes found in John. No attempt is made here to suggest the kind of literary dependence which is the basis of the Synoptic problem. Rather, my thesis is that the author/s of John may have used Mark from memory, writing deliberately to reverse the apocalyptic tendencies found in the Second Gospel. Isolated incidents of this possible reversal demonstrate little, but this paper proposes that the cumulative force of many such reversals supports the thesis of John's possible knowledge of Mark.
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THE FOURTH GOSPEL’S REVERSAL OF MARK IN JOHN 13,31‒14,3
John was familiar with Mark but did not compose his gospel with
Mark in front of him. Neither does the possibility that John utilised
other sources negate this possibility 61.
4. Assessment and implications
It is now appropriate to assess the similarities we have noted,
considering the possibility of John’s use of Mark. We will also con-
sider what Johannine adaptations or reversals may tell us about the
emphases of the fourth evangelist.
As we have noted, John in 13,34 is staking a claim to a “newâ€
commandment. This may suggest that John is deliberately not draw-
ing on other material here, but making a unique contribution. We
have also noted that the commandments have marked similarities.
Of particular significance is the centrality of love. Mark has two
commandments — love for God and love for others. Conversely,
John has one — love for others based on the love of Jesus.
If we assume John had knowledge of Mark, we could account
for this by stating that John may have reworked Mark, reinterpret-
ing it for his own purposes. Such a reworking is not impossible, as
for the Johannine community it is Jesus himself who is the foun-
dation of ethics and not the Hebrew Bible. Also, as we have noted,
the Johannine version may be an improvement of the tradition
found in Mark, giving the command a concrete reality in the love
Jesus shows for his disciples. If John is making use of Mark here,
it is understandable that he would represent this as a new command-
ment, pointing to the commencement (at Jesus’ glorification) of the
new order, but also indicating that this saying of Jesus goes a step
further than that represented by Mark.
Secondly, we must consider the question: is it possible John has
picked up from memory the Markan saying relating to Jesus “going
before†his followers, transformed the language and reversed the em-
Dodd’s observation, “All this looks less like conflation of sources than
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the kind of variation which arises without deliberation within an oral tradi-
tionâ€, does not exclude the thesis that John may have written from a memory
of Mark, using what suited and transforming what did not, but not depending
on the text of Mark in the same way as Luke and Matt (C.H. DODD, Historical
Tradition in the Fourth Gospel [Cambridge 1963] 55).
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