Affirming the Resurrection of the Incarnate Christ: A Reading of 1 John

Abstract

It is often claimed that 1 John contains no references to Jesus' resurrection. However, for this claim to hold, a possible allusion to the resurrection in the opening verse of 1 John needs to be denied. There are three reasons given to discard this allusion. First, under the influence of the historical reconstructions that dominate the interpretation of 1 John, the opening verses of 1 John are often understood to affirm the incarnation and not the resurrection. Second, the allusion to the resurrection is rejected because of the similarity between the prologues of the Gospel of John and 1 John. Since John 1:1-18 affirms the incarnation, so too must 1 John 1:1-4. Third, the allusion to the resurrection is dismissed due to the apparent lack of other references to the resurrection in 1 John.The thesis proposes that 1 John affirms the resurrection of the incarnate Christ in the context of an intra-Jewish disagreement over Jesus' identity. The thesis presents a reading of 1 John that flows from understanding the opening verses of the book to be affirming the resurrection of the incarnate Christ. It argues that the resurrection is explicitly mentioned on three other occasions (4:2; 5:6-7, 20). Further, it also suggests that these resurrection affirmations are made in the historical context of an intra-Jewish disagreement over the identity of Jesus as the Christ, a disagreement in which the vital proof is Jesus' resurrection.The first part of the thesis outlines and reviews the reading methods used in previous research on 1 John before sketching out its adopted reading method.

Difficult texts: the author and content of the commandment in 1 John 3.23

“…Matthew Jensen suggests that the linking of faith and love 'demonstrates an ethical imperative to the message of the resurrected incarnate Christ'. 8 Such a reading is possible, but the problem comes in deciding on the relationship of the ethical imperative to belief in the name of Jesus. In discussing John 13.34 (the place in the Gospel where Jesus gives the command to love one another), John Sanford notes that the verb 'to love' is in the subjunctive mood.…”