The Johannine epistles contain two concepts of parrhêsia. One, which they call by name, is a boldness before God, foreign to Gentile philosophy but explored by Jewish writers. The second, which is implicit, reflects the Hellenistic philosophical traditions of frank criticism and rebuke. Johannine parrhêsia—public and oriented toward group cohesion—most closely matches that of Epicureans in its methods and goals. However, Johannine metaphorical language, though obscure, suggests Jewish roots in its preconditions for a critical community.
Buch-HansenG.2018‘The Johannine Literature in a Greek Context’, in LieuJ.de BoerM. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Johannine Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press): 138–54.
2.
DunderbergI.2016‘Sin, Sinlessness, and the Limits of a Therapeutic Community in 1 John’, in PoplutzU.FreyJ. (eds.), Erzählung Und Briefe Im Johanneischen Kreis (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck): 227–39.
3.
EdwardsR.1996The Johannine Epistles (New Testament Guides; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press).
4.
EshelE.1998‘4Q477—The Rebukes by the Overseer’, The Journal of Jewish Studies45(1): 111–22.
5.
FergusonJ.1970The Religions of the Roman Empire (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press).
GoldstoneM.S.2018The Dangerous Duty of Rebuke: Leviticus 19:17 in Early Jewish and Christian Interpretation (Leiden: Brill).
8.
GoodenoughE.R.1933‘Philo’sExposition of the Law and his De Vita Mosis’, The Harvard Theological Review26(2): 109–25.
9.
GreseW.C.1978‘De Profectibus in Virtute’, in BetzH.D. (ed.), Plutarch’s Ethical Writings and Early Christian Literature (vol. 4; Leiden: E.J. Brill): 11–31.
10.
GriffithT.1998‘A Non-Polemical Reading of 1 John: Sin, Christology, and the Limits of Johannine Christianity’, Tyndale Bulletin49(2): 253–76.
JungkuntzR.P.1962‘Christian Approval of Epicureanism’, Church History31(3): 279–93.
13.
KempJ.2010‘Flattery and Frankness in Horace and Philodemus’, Greece & Rome57(1): 65–76.
14.
KennedyK.1999‘Cynic Rhetoric: The Ethics and Tactics of Resistance’, Rhetoric Review18(1): 26–45.
15.
KonstanD., trans. 1998Philodemus: On Frank Criticism (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press). 2011‘Epicurus and the Gods’, in FishJ.SandersK.R. (eds.), Epicurus and the Epicurean Tradition (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press): 53–71.
16.
Leonhardt-BalzerJ.2018‘The Johannine Literature and Contemporary Jewish Literature’, in LieuJ.de BoerM. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Johannine Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press): 155–70.
17.
LevielsX.2001‘Juifs et grecs dans la communauté johannique’, Biblica82(1): 51–78.
18.
LieuJ.1991The Theology of the Johannine Epistles (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press).
19.
MarrowS.B.1982‘ “Parrhēsia” and the New Testament’, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly44(3): 431–46.
20.
MéndezH.2020‘Did the Johannine Community Exist?’Journal for the Study of the New Testament42(3): 350–74.
21.
MenkenM.J.J.2009‘ “Born of God” or “Begotten of God”? A Translation Problem in the Johannine Writings’, Novum Testamentum51(4): 352–68.
22.
MitchellM.1998‘ “Diotrephes Does Not Receive Us”: The Lexicographical and Social Context of 3 John 9–10’, Journal of Biblical Literature118(2): 299–320.
23.
SmithM.1975 ‘De Superstitione’, in BetzH.D. (ed.), Plutarch’s Theological Writings and Early Christian Literature (vol. 3; Leiden: E.J. Brill): 1–35.
24.
SmithD.M.1976‘The Milieu of the Johannine Miracle Source: A Proposal’, in Hamerton-KellyR. (ed.), Jews, Greeks, and Christians: Religious Cultures in Late Antiquity (Leiden: E.J. Brill): 164–80.
25.
StreckerG.1996The Johannine Letters: A commentary on 1, 2, and 3 John (edited by AttridgeHarold; trans. Linda Maloney; Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress).
26.
Van der WattJ. 2018‘Ethics in Community in the Gospel and Letters of John’, in LieuJ.de BoerM. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Johannine Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press): 361–80.
27.
WeissD.2016Pious Irreverence: Confronting God in Rabbinic Judaism (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press).
28.
YarbroughR.20081–3 John (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic).
29.
ZimmM.S.2016 ‘Constraints on Speech in Democratic Athens: 480–270 B.C.E’ (PhD Dissertation, Yale University).