John 11: a Theology for Eternal Life Through the Language of Sleep Open Access

Abstract

John 11 is widely determined by scholarship to be an eschatological climax of John’s gospel, revealing both the power and intentions of Christ to bring about life in the present and the future. In crafting this narrative, John uses the word sleep as interchangeable with death. This prompts further exploration of the language of sleep for its implications on the central eschatological message of John 11. By employing a literary-narrative analysis of John’s gospel, this thesis will explore important thematic elements of the gospel, such as eternal life, death, and divine presence, trace the usage of θάνατος across the gospel in connection with these themes, and briefly investigate intertextual and canonical sources, so that John 11’s themes and revelations can be placed within the biblical narrative as a whole. In conclusion, this research will synthesize the findings that the sleep metaphor functions alongside John’s prominent gospel theme of eternal life, especially as it relates to his repeated denial of spiritual death, and it ultimately serves to demonstrate that in light of the eternal life offered by Christ to the one who believes and dwells with him, death’s spiritual power is finite.

Table of Contents

Introduction - 1

Eternal Life in John’s Gospel - 3

Introduction to John 11 - 5

Eternal Life Leading into John 11 - 8

Sleep in the Gospel of John - 13

Introduction - 13

Death (θάνατος) in John’s Gospel - 14

The Significance of Christ’s Presence for the Defeat of Death - 18

Conclusion on “Sleep” in John’s Gospel - 21

The Hope of Resurrection and Sleep throughout Israel’s Story - 22

Hope in the Biblical Story: Resurrection - 22

Sleep as Language for Resurrection Hope Throughout Israel’s History - 25

Sleep in Second Temple Literature - 28

Reading John 11 with Hope for the End - 29

Living Between the Now and Not-Yet - 32

Conclusion - 34

Bibliography - 36

About this Master's Thesis

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School	Candler School of Theology
Department	Divinity
Degree	M.Div.
Submission	Master's Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Religion, Biblical Studies
Keyword	John Death Sleep
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Dr. Susan Hylen, Emory University
Committee Members	Dr. Elizabeth Arnold, Emory University

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