005_Tam_co_570-588 13/02/15 12:48 Pagina 588 588 JOSAPHAT C. TAM copyists, was then discussed. Subsequently, from a narrative perspec- tive, I highlighted the thematic linkages of 2,23-25 to 1,35 – 2,22. John 2,23-25 should better be seen as an anticlimactic concluding remark. Such an analysis, in return, helps us to understand why it seemed appropriate to the earliest readers/copyists of the Gospel to have ascribed 2,23-25 to the previous context. With the result of the present investigation, it is hoped that the role of 2,23-25 in John 1–2 can be clarified by the interpretive insights embedded in the oldest available textual witnesses. These papyri and codices still speak today. New College, University of Edinburgh Josaphat C. TAM Mound Place, Edinburgh EH1 2LX Scotland, UK SUMMARY This paper revisits the role of John 2,23-25 in its literary and manu- script context. Contrary to many Johannine commentators who take it as an introduction to the Nicodemus pericope, 2,23-25 should be linked more to the preceding context, not the following. This view is supported by ev- idence from the sense-unit delimitations observed in the Greek papyri and codices dated within ca. 300 years from the New Testament era. Viewed from a narrative perspective, 2,23-25 should be seen as an anticlimactic concluding remark connected to 1,35 – 2,22.