2006/01/19 by Harold W. Attridge · 5 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Archaeology and Historical Studies #Art #Biblical Studies and Interpretation #Christianity #Christology #Early Christianity #Eschatology #Gospel #Historical and Linguistic Studies #Law #Literature #Orthodoxy #Philosophy #Political science #Scholarship #Theology
paper · doi:10.1017/chol9780521812399.008
published in Cambridge University Press eBooks, 125-143 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 2006/01/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
Johannine Christianity constitutes an alternative to other forms of Christianity in the late first or early second century. The Johannine community of the first century bequeathed to the universal churches its distinctive literary corpus and estimation of Jesus, which came to dominate the development of later Christian orthodoxy. Other representatives of Johannine Christianity, nurturing alternative strands of tradition, influenced various second-century movements, characterised by their opponents and much modern scholarship as 'Gnostic'. Apocryphon of John and Acts of John are the two second-century texts obliquely continue the Johannine literary tradition. The written record nonetheless maintains distinctive features in theology and practice, particularly in three areas, Christology, eschatology and ethics. In each area the distinctive Johannine position intensifies elements present in other forms of Christianity. In the final analysis the gospel's most distinctive features are the literary techniques through which it makes its claims.