Reception and Legacy

Whatever the verdicts of criticism on the mechanics of its composition, the Johannine corpus has shaped Orthodox theology and worship more deeply than almost any other portion of Scripture: the Prologue at the heart of the Paschal Liturgy and the Nicene faith, the Logos- and light-theology of the Fathers, the “God is love” of Orthodox spirituality, and the heavenly Liturgy of the Apocalypse. This file surveys the afterlife of John’s writings in the Church’s exegesis, dogma, and worship.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle and Evangelist)

The Prologue at the Heart of the Faith

No passage of Scripture has had a greater dogmatic afterlife than the Johannine Prologue. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… and the Word became flesh” (John 1:1, 14) is the scriptural foundation of the Church’s confession of the eternal, consubstantial Son made truly man. The Council of Nicaea (325) and its sequel at Constantinople (381) rendered the Prologue into creed: “true God of true God, begotten not made, of one essence with the Father, by whom all things were made” is John 1:1–3 in conciliar form (see The Nicene Creed and The Logos and the Prologue). Athanasius and the Cappadocians drew on the Prologue against Arius; the Christological councils drew on “the Word became flesh” against Docetism and against any division of the one Christ. The whole edifice of conciliar Christology stands, in large part, on these verses, and so on the witness of the Theologian (see Christology).

The Patristic Commentators

The Fourth Gospel drew the greatest exegetes of the Church. John Chrysostom’s Homilies on the Gospel of John (88 homilies) are among the fullest patristic expositions of any biblical book, reading the Gospel verse by verse with pastoral and dogmatic care (trans. NPNF I/14). Cyril of Alexandria’s vast Commentary on the Gospel of John made the Gospel the ground of his Christology against Nestorius, drawing from “the Word became flesh” the unity of the one incarnate Lord. Augustine’s Tractates on the Gospel of John did the same work in the Latin West. For the Apocalypse, Andrew of Caesarea’s seventh-century Commentary became the standard Greek exposition and did much to secure the book’s place in the East (see The Eastern Reception of the Apocalypse). Through these commentators the Johannine writings were woven into the Church’s theology at every level (on the patristic tradition, see The Church Fathers).

John in the Paschal Liturgy

The supreme honor the Church pays to John’s Gospel is liturgical. The Gospel reading appointed for the Paschal Divine Liturgy — the Liturgy of the Resurrection, the summit of the entire year — is the Prologue, John 1:1–17, often proclaimed in many tongues to figure the universality of the Gospel. The Church greets the risen Christ not with the empty tomb but with “In the beginning was the Word,” reading the Resurrection in the light of the eternal divinity of the One who rose. Through the bright season from Pascha to Pentecost the Gospel of John is read continuously at the Liturgy, so that the Church’s celebration of the Resurrection and the gift of the Spirit is accompanied throughout by the Fourth Gospel. No other Gospel holds this place. The choice expresses the Church’s sense that John, the Theologian, is the Evangelist of the divine glory revealed in the risen and ascended Lord (see Veneration and the Feasts).

The Johannine Cast of Orthodox Spirituality

Beyond dogma and liturgy, the Johannine theology gave Orthodox spirituality its inner temper. The theme of light — “the true light, which gives light to everyone” (John 1:9), “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5) — runs through the whole mystical tradition to the hesychasts’ vision of the uncreated light on Tabor and in prayer. The theme of indwelling and abiding — “abide in me, and I in you” (John 15:4), “we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23) — grounds the theology of theosis, the real participation of the human person in the divine life. The theme of love as the knowledge of God — “whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7; see God Is Love) — shapes the entire ascetic understanding of the goal of the spiritual life. And the Johannine union of theology and purity stands behind the very title “the Theologian,” reserved to John, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Symeon the New Theologian (see The Theologian Among the Three). When Symeon the New Theologian witnessed to the vision of the divine light granted to the purified, he was drawing the Johannine theology to its experiential conclusion (see St. Symeon the New Theologian).

The Heavenly Liturgy of the Apocalypse

The Apocalypse, despite its difficult reception and its absence from the lectionary, left a deep mark on Orthodox worship and imagination. Its vision of the heavenly throne, the ceaseless “Holy, holy, holy” (Revelation 4:8), the elders and the living creatures, the incense that is the prayers of the saints (Revelation 5:8; 8:3–4), the Lamb upon the throne, and the New Jerusalem furnished the Church with its picture of worship as participation in the unending liturgy of heaven. The censing, the thrice-holy hymn, the “Worthy is the Lamb,” and the iconography of the heavenly court all draw from this well. The Orthodox church building, with its sanctuary as heaven and its iconostasis as the boundary of the visible and invisible, is in a real sense an icon of the Apocalypse’s vision — the earthly assembly joined to the worship around the throne.

The One Figure of the Theologian

The legacy of John is finally the legacy of a single integrated witness. The Gospel that gave the Church its Christology, the Epistles that gave it “God is love,” and the Apocalypse that gave it the vision of the heavenly Liturgy are received by the tradition as the threefold testimony of one apostle — the disciple who reclined on the Lord’s breast, who was given the Theotokos from the Cross, who reposed at Ephesus the last of the Twelve. Through his Gospel read at Pascha and at every funeral, his theology sung in the Church’s hymns, and his image at Christ’s left hand in every Deisis, John the Theologian remains not a figure of the past but a permanent presence in the Church’s worship and a permanent shape in its mind. The disciple of love became the theologian par excellence, and his writings became, in the Church’s life, the very grammar of its knowledge and love of God.

See Also

References

  • The Gospel according to John 1:1–17; 14:23; 15:4; the First Epistle of John 1:5; 4:7; the Revelation of John 4:8; 5:8; 8:3–4 (cited by chapter and verse).
  • John Chrysostom. Homilies on the Gospel of St. John. Trans. NPNF Series I, Vol. 14.
  • Cyril of Alexandria. Commentary on the Gospel of John. Trans. in Library of the Fathers / Ancient Christian Texts. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2013–15.
  • Andrew of Caesarea. Commentary on the Apocalypse. Trans. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou. Washington: CUA Press, 2011.
  • Lossky, Vladimir. The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church. London: James Clarke, 1957.
  • The Pentecostarion (the Paschal Gospel cycle). Trans. Holy Transfiguration Monastery. Boston, 1990.