Chapter Eleven: Orthodox or Heterodox?

Defenders of the inspired text focus sharply on areas of question, places where the Bible says stuff that sounds contradictory. It's like you have this ball of clay and you ask, "What might this shape be?", and the expert will take it from your hands, turn here, twist there, and voila! There you go, this was the shape you were looking for. It has to conform because, of course, the present image and conclusions are all correct, therefore what must be assumed has to be correct as well.

What if (humor me) the Bible actually tells a different story? What if the story witnessed fallibility, disunity, and conflict among the followers of Jesus as more characteristic of the whole body? Orthodoxy would lead us to believe that the first page agrees with the last page, and everything in between is a homogenous collection of thought with the Holy Spirit guiding those who had never heard what words might have been spoken in one location to already be supplied with the same knowledge as those in another locale.

Such a view bespeaks assumptions of what the Good News is and how it must be manifested. In truth, the Book tells more about how the Gospel refuses to be contained. Does it not seem odd that the years of James at the heart of where it all started in Jerusalem has no history of the goings on of the early Jewish church? The subject of contention in Galatians would indicate that these gentiles were considered to be very unorthodox by their Jewish counterparts. As great as the differences were, they were nothing to compare to the blockbuster that would come at the end of the first century. Much is known and written later about the subject of what developed sixty years later into Gnosticism, but not much is known of the early stages of its development. That is not really accurate though, because the late writings of John the beloved contain more than most are willing to hear. Most scholars take what John said in reference to the Pre-gnostics and make it conform to the way the story turned out two hundred years later. But in this chapter, we are going to ask if the writings of John could have actually been in behalf of these people, rather than against them. And we will examine what has to be man's most difficult challenge -- the challenge of accepting others who are different from ourselves. Everyone knows Jesus prayed for unity in the writings of John. But the difficult part about unity is something (or someone) has to give in order to have it.

To understand what I mean by "Pre-gnostic", I refer readers interested in a more detailed background to C. H. Dodd's The Fourth Gospel, published by Cambridge University Press, London in 1953. He observes that there are no extant Gnostic writings that predate those of the New Testament canon. Great debate is taking place over the Gospel of Thomas' variant of the parable of the Wicked Husbandmen (saying 65), which some say originated before the Gospel of Mark, but that does not negate the view that John's writing addressed early stages in the development of what later came to be called Gnosticism. Refutations that arose from orthodox corners such as Irenaus' Against Heresies, date from 160 AD, and some think address the writings of Valentinus, circa 125 AD. What developed over the next thirty years was directly related to the attitudes and treatment of late first and early second century Christians toward these people.

Taking into account the proximity of the assigned dates of the Gospel of John, the First Epistle of John, and the Revelation, the timespan from 85 AD to 95 AD is compressed. Counter to the starting place of most who study John's writings, the key may lie in a relaxed reading of the Epistle (without aid of a commentary). The letter begins with a declaration of fellowship, "that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete(1 Jn 1:3-4)." Who was John addressing this welcome to? Was it a segment of believers in Asia Minor who possessed a peculiar appreciation of Greek wisdom? This is not an impossibility, but isn't it peculiar that no mention is made of the tremendous groundwork of Paul in Ephesus and surrounding territory? Notice also the oddity of language: The beginning...the Logos (Word) of life...life in the ages...Father...Son...light. These are signature expressions in John's writings; did he simply choose different words to convey the same things as earlier writers or did he choose those specific words for a specific audience?

"This is the Message...God is Light and in him is no darkness at all." The life of Jesus testifies to the nature of God when we see the light shine unto all who are in the house. Could the greater sin be the darkness of closing people out -- excluding them from the light because they are not the chosen? If so, perhaps the prescriptive to "Walk even as he walked", would fit. Ask the average Joe, "What is sin?" Chances are somewhere in the answer will be a version of "Don't drink, don't smoke, don't dance." This is how we have learned God -- not in terms of what the life giving Spirit means, but in terms of avoidance and disassociation. Now, let's reconsider...could it be that walking with God presents very similar behavior to Sabbath breaking and fellowship with the ungodly?

Were there to be a meeting of the minds...a summit between the clashing ancient traditions of Judaism and the message that Jesus was trying to convey, the night that Nicodemus came to Jesus could have been it.

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