Recognizing the stranger : recognition scenes in the Gospel of John / / by Kasper Bro Larsen.

• Superior document: Biblical interpretation series,
• Author: Larsen, Kasper Bro.
• Year of Publication: 2008
• Language: English
• Series: Biblical interpretation series ; v. 93.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (279 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Recognizing the Stranger is the first monographic study of recognition scenes and motifs in the Gospel of John. The recognition type-scene ( anagnōrisis ) was a common feature in ancient drama and narrative, highly valued by Aristotle as a touching moment of truth, e.g., in Oedipus’ tragic self-discovery and Odysseus’ happy homecoming. The book offers a reconstruction of the conventions of the genre and argues that it is one of the most recurrent and significant literary forms in the Gospel. When portraying Jesus as the divine stranger from heaven, the Gospel employs and transforms the formal and ideological structures of the type-scene in order to show how Jesus’ true identity can be recognized behind the half-mask of his human appearance.

Table of Contents

Introduction -- Odysseus' scar and Jesus' wound marks -- Previous studies in Johannine recognition -- The present study : aim, method, and outline -- Anagnorisis in a theoretical and historical perspective -- Anagnorisis in Aristotle's poetics -- The embarrassments of recognition -- Anagnorisis and the cognitive dimension of John's Gospel -- The semiotics of recognition -- The dual appearance of the observed -- How to display the recognition Mark : showing, telling, and whispering -- Aspects of recognition : identification and social recognition -- Anagnorisis as a type-scene in ancient literature -- The meeting -- The move of cognitive resistance -- The move of displaying the token -- The moment of recognition -- Attendant reactions and physical (re-)union -- Anagnorisis and arrival (John 1-4) -- Anagnorisis within the matrix of John's narrative -- Prologue and prejudice : prefatory whisperings -- The prologue's web of identity relations -- The logos changes its guise -- Recognizing a stranger : comparing Jesus with Odysseus -- Establishing Jesus' presence in the story-world (1:19-51) -- John the Baptist : recognizing the wrong man (1:19-28) -- Jesus and John the Baptist : from baptismal scene to recognition scene (1:29-34) -- Jesus and the disciples : call narratives in the form of recognition scenes (1:35-51) -- Semeia as Semata : tokens of Jesus' divine doxa -- Jesus and the Samaritan woman (4:4-42) : betrothal and recognition -- Recognition in conflict (John 5-19) -- John 5:1-18 : a recognition parody -- "I am" : a recognition formula -- John 9 : blindness and insight -- The recognition scenes of the hour -- The exposure of Judas as traitor (13:18-30) -- Jesus' arrest : from discovery to self-disclosure (18:1-12) -- Peter's denial (18:15-18, 25-27) -- Jesus judged by Pilate : by what law? (18:28-19:16a) -- Death as arrival : God's recognition of Jesus -- Recognition and departure (John 20-21) -- John 20-21 : bridging the horizons -- The race to the empty tomb : acknowledging the absent one (20:10-) -- Mary Magdalene and the Gardener-Rabbi (20:11-18) -- The disciples : recognizers on a mission (20:19-25) -- Jesus and recognizing Thomas (20:26-29) -- John 21:1-14 : community with the absent Jesus -- The reader as Anagnostes.