397 - John 1 & John 2

John 1
John 2
By Ernst Haenchen
Philadelphia, Fortress, 1984. 308 pp. and 366 pp. $34.95 each.

This "Hermeneia" commentary on the Gospel of John in two volumes will cause some confusion with the imprint on its spines, not to speak of its posthumously assembled contents. Professor Ulrich Busse, working closely with the scholar's widow, is its German editor and Robert Funk of the University of Montana is the American editor-translator. Haenchen retired from the University of Münster as Professor of Systematic Theology in 1946, but continued to offer courses there on New Testament topics, an interest whetted by his isolation in Switzerland in 1944-48, during the early part of which he had only a Greek New Testament available. There he did the initial research for his commentaries on Acts (1956) and Mark( 1966). Emmanuel Hirsch is his point of departure in Johannine studies, not Bultmann, but he does not let Hirsch lead him astray. A biographical essay by Busse is an illuminating addition. Available commentary on 7:14-8:59, 2:12-50 and 14-16 was non-existent and so is improvised from essays on Haenchen in segments of eight and one-half, five, and ten pages respectively. All in all, there is less in the two volumes than meets the eye, although the extended bibliographies-the best of Malatesta, Moda, and Thyen-must be commended.

Haenchen speaks unmistakably in his own voice in introductory essays on sources, composition, style, and author. Noting briefly the source theories of G.H.C. MacGregor and several of Germans, he opts for the fairly simple one of a single source whose theological message differed from the evangelist. Not even the resemblance of John's passion narrative to Luke's makes Haenchen wish to propose an additional source. John's basic source was committed to miracles as motives of faith. John corrected this, with as little change as possible, suggesting the right kind of faith by transforming a "tradition of legitimizing [beweisenden] miracles into the doctrine of allusive [hinweisenden] signs."

All theories of reordering John's text are illegitimate, Haenchen thinks. Conjectured modifications should be saved for cases of extreme

398 - John 1 & John 2

necessity. John's editing efforts seem to be incomplete at the time the Gospel was released, accounting for the full development of some pericopes and the partial or total non-development of others. "The Evangelist was not a master storyteller nor an overpowering poet but one satisfied to make the tradition that came to him serve his proclamation by as few intrusions as possible." The prologue was probably a Christian hymn modified; the various signs of the first twelve chapters-more precisely, up to 13:31 (Haenchen accepts Dodd's twofold division of the book)-point to the cross, not to Jewish practice. Discourses precede the passion narrative (since there were no signs to comment on) so as not to efface the drama. The passion narrative is designed not to excite sympathy but to extol the victor who has pursued God's concern of love for the creature until the last breath. Jesus is in the world on behalf of the Father but neither "the Jews" nor the disciples see the Father in him; his earthly life is not the time for recognition. The original source and the Evangelist contribute about equal parts to the Gospel while a later redactor does quite a lot but not as much as they-chiefly regarding futurist eschatology and sacraments. As to current theories of two levels of the writers intention, or the Evangelists life-setting, Haenchen has nothing to say except that none of those concerned with producing John was a Gnostic.

This commentary was not needed for its work on individual verses, which is often bettered by others available. But, for the sustained essays of one theologian (Haenchen) on another (the Evangelist), it is well worth while. Here is a book that deserts the search for layers and sources, multiple biblical and classical allusions, in favor of hymning the sheer joyousness with which the fourth Evangelist wrote. This was a person who took familiar materials and traced for the reader the way to the door of salvation.

Gerard S. Sloyan
Temple University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania