Witnesses to What was άπ' άρχής: 1 John's Contribution to our Knowledge of Tradition in the Fourth Gospel

Abstract

The Fourth Evangelist is a highly original and creative interpreter of tradition. It follows that a secure means of isolating traditional material in the Gospel text can increase our chances of understanding the Evangelist's thinking. This article pro poses that 1 John can fulfil this function. An examination of the epistle text reveals that its author is a tradition bearer who seeks to reassure his community in the wake of a crisis by citing known tradition and interpreting it to meet their needs. In these respects, Gospel and epistle prove remarkably alike. The Evangelist's text also exhibits the hallmarks of the tradition bearer. Moreover, there are statements in the Gospel which correspond recognizably with the specific content of the material which 1 John identifies as original tradition. Thus, the reason why the two texts come into remarkable agreement at certain points is because the epistle writer has appealed to items in the traditon άπ' άρχής which the Evangelist, writing in another context, had also known and reproduced. On this basis, it may be assumed that where 1 John appeals to what is known, and where substantially the same material occurs in the Gospel, then at those points the Evangelist has reflected source material in his text. The article concludes with some comments on the potential value of using the epistle to identify the tradition known to the Fourth Evangelist.