The Gospel and Letters of John, Volume 1: Introduction, Analysis, and Reference (The Eerdmans Critical Commentary) by Urban C. von Wahlde

Author:Urban C. von Wahlde [Urban C. von Wahlde]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-12-07T01:05:00+00:00

(2) Internal Evidence

Internal evidence is of some help in limiting the range of possibilities. The first type of evidence deals with the discussion in chapter 21 of the deaths of Peter and of the BD. A second type of evidence comes from a dating of the third edition relative to i John.

One firm point of reference is that the third edition was completed after the death of the BD. In 21:20-23, the narrator tells us that the report circulated among the "brothers" that the BD would not die. This report is corrected by explaining that Jesus had not said that the BD would not die but only "If I wish him to remain...." Such a comment would be meaningful only if the BD had in fact died. Consequently, we may assume with certainty that the BD had died before the writing of the third edition but recently enough that his death was still a problem for the community.

When did the BD die? The reference to Peter's death as a martyr in 21:18- 19 presumes that Peter's death has already taken place. Peter's death is generally considered to have occurred during the persecution of Nero (A.D. 64-66). Therefore, we can date the death of the BD to sometime after A.D. 64. But it almost surely took place some considerable amount of time later.

A first step toward determining how much later the BD died is to recall that the BD claimed to be an eyewitness to the ministry of Jesus. There are three elements of the presentation of the BD, all of which point to this conclusion. First, it is stated so often that the BD is a truthful witness and one who has seen and heard that for the facts to have been otherwise could only have been seen to be deceitful and would have undermined the integrity of the founding witness of the community's tradition. Second, throughout the third edition, each time the BD appears he is compared with Peter either implicitly or explicitly. In this case, the time of their deaths is contrasted. Peter died early, and the BD lived so long that some thought he would be alive at the return of Jesus.

If the BD could refer to himself as "the Elder" in 2 John and 3 John, it would mean that his age was notably advanced. Presumably, an age of 70 would not be considered greatly advanced. Papias himself lived to that age and referred to a disciple of Jesus still alive as "John, the Elder." Therefore, the BD must have been significantly older than 70 when he died. A reasonable estimate would seem to be that this disciple died at about the age of 85 or 9o. Thus he could have been an eyewitness, but not one of the Twelve, and of sufficiently advanced age that he would refer to himself as the Elder and could have spoken with Papias, who was born about the year 60. These factors point to a death in or near the last decade of the first century.

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