Interpreting Gospel Narratives by Timothy Wiarda

Author:Timothy Wiarda [Wiarda, Timothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Theology
Amazon: B003F2QOJG
Goodreads: 19486138
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Published: 2010-04-01T06:00:00+00:00

IV. Intra-Gospel Allusions (John 21:15–17)

One of the central tasks of Gospel interpretation is determining how a Gospel’s individual episodes interrelate to form a larger literary whole. Although plot connections and shared themes constitute the most important unifying features in a Gospel, devices such as repetition, echo, and analogy also play a role in tying one episode to another. Where episodes appear to be linked by these latter forms of intra-Gospel allusion, scholars often interpret one scene in light of another. But this requires a delicate touch. As they explore whole-Gospel patterns, interpreters must also remain sensitive to what each individual episode has to say on its own terms.29 It is therefore important to consider how the exegetical attention we give to intra-Gospel allusions might affect our perception of the intra-scenic function of narrative details.

The interpretation of Jesus’ conversation with Peter in John 21:15–17 provides an example of how exegetical proposals emphasizing intra-Gospel allusions must be evaluated in light of a surface-level reading of an episode’s immediate context and internal details. This conversation takes place on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias in the period following Jesus’ resurrection.30 Three times Jesus asks Peter if he loves him. Each time Peter replies that he does, and in response to each of these affirmations Jesus tells Peter to feed his sheep. A majority of commentators discern an allusion to Peter’s denials in the threefold structure of this dialogue: just as Peter has denied Jesus three times (18:15–18,25–27), so now Jesus asks him to affirm his love three times. The Jesus-Peter dialogue is then interpreted in light of this perceived connection; it is seen to constitute Peter’s rehabilitation or restoration to pastoral leadership.

This particular allusion-based interpretation remains largely within the bounds of concrete reading, because the allusive force of the threefold questioning is usually assumed to be an element that operates within the story itself—something that Jesus intends and Peter recognizes. Nevertheless, I believe this interpretation does pull readers away from a full appreciation of the immediate concrete scene. First, it leads some interpreters away from the specific time setting indicated by the evangelist, Jesus’ third post-resurrection appearance to his disciples (21:14). Because a third appearance seems a little late for a confrontation over the issue of Peter’s denials, a number of scholars discount this setting and picture the conversation taking place at the time of Jesus’ first post-resurrection encounter with Peter instead.31

Second, connecting this dialogue with Peter’s denials, which are depicted three chapters earlier, draws the reader’s attention away from plot connections that lie closer at hand. The narrator has taken the trouble to link this Jesus-Peter dialogue to the immediately preceding fishing and breakfast scenes (21:1–14) by introducing it with the words, “therefore, when they had eaten breakfast.” This explicit temporal link invites us to look for something in the depiction of the catch of fish and ensuing meal that may have prompted Jesus’ words to Peter. When we do look, we indeed find something. This earlier scene opens with a picture of seven of Jesus’ disciples going fishing.

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