Literary Eyewitnesses: The Appeal to an Eyewitness in John and Contemporaneous Literature

This essay supports the thesis that the Beloved Disciple is a purely literary character employed as a literary device of authentication recognisable during the late first and early second centuries CE. As evidence, three works are thoroughly compared with the Fourth Gospel in regard to their eyewitn...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:New Testament studies
Main Author: Litwa, M. David 1982- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Cambridge Univ. Press [2018]
In: New Testament studies
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B John / The beloved disciple / Witnesses / Literary characters / Dictys, Cretensis, Ephemeris belli Troiani / Antonius, Diogenes, De incredibilibus quae ultra Thulem insulam sunt / Philostratus, Flavius 160-245, Vita Apollonii
RelBib Classification:CD Christianity and Culture
HC New Testament
Further subjects:B Antonius Diogenes
B Fourth Gospel
B Beloved Disciple
B Dictys of Crete
B Myth
B literary conventions
B John
B Eyewitness
B History
B Philostratus
B Fiction
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Summary:This essay supports the thesis that the Beloved Disciple is a purely literary character employed as a literary device of authentication recognisable during the late first and early second centuries CE. As evidence, three works are thoroughly compared with the Fourth Gospel in regard to their eyewitness appeals: Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana (a biography), the Wonders beyond Thule by Antonius Diogenes (a historiographical novel) and the Diary of the Trojan War (a revisionary history) attributed to Dictys of Crete. All three works are roughly contemporaneous with the Fourth Gospel and offer important insights into the sophisticated use of an eyewitness as a literary character to guarantee the (spiritual and moral) truth of a narrative.
ISSN:1469-8145
Contains:Enthalten in: New Testament studies
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/S0028688518000073