THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

CHAPTER 1

The Word (1:1-14) The Gospel of John begins - with a radical reimagining of Christology and an audacious new voice. But as our coordinates completely shift from the Gospel of Mark, who is our new author? Who is his community? And what are his aims? And, most importantly of all, who is his Jesus?
reading / episode / mailbag

The Voice in the Wilderness (1:15-34) The Gospel of John begins its narrative with a figure operating on the margins of Jewish society proclaiming the Lamb of God has come! But who was John the Baptist? What did he believe? What were his practices? And how has this gospel distorted - or perhaps preserved - his identity?
reading / episode

What Seek Ye (1:35-51) A fraternity of disciples begins to coalesce around the elusive Christ - but in contrast to the Gospel of Mark, we are now interested not in their socioeconomic status, but their theological bent and personalities, including the shadowy unnamed disciple whose identity here tantalizes us again, and the prickly, irascible Nathanael, who delights Jesus with his rudeness and guilelessness - and has his mind comically blown by Christ's casual use of his powers.
reading / episode

CHAPTER 2

The Wedding at Cana (2:1-12) Things go awry at a wedding, and Jesus reluctantly saves the day - but not without a little snark at his mom, who is apparently used to his temper tantrums. What do we make of this glimpse of their family life and relationship? Is she, as so many Christian theologians assert, here domesticated into his disciple, or standing in for all womankind? Or is the Word Made Flesh just kind of an asshole?
reading / episode

The Scourging of the Temple (2:13-25) In a delirious reversal, the dramatic climax of Jesus's Marcan ministry becomes in the Gospel of John a kind of overture. What has changed? How has Jesus's occupation of the Temple precincts shifted in both its details, its politics, and its theology? And what can we clean about the Johannine project from these startling reconfigurations?
reading / episode

CHAPTER 3

Discourses with Nicodemus (3:1-21) Under cover of night, a member of the Sanhedrin approaches Jesus about his remarkable miracles and to clarify his doctrine. The result is...A LOT. How do we parse what is at once one of the single most famous, and most obscure, sections of the gospels?
reading / episode

The Teachings of the Baptist (3:22-36) As he moves through the Judaea countryside, Jesus triggers a dispute about the nature of baptism and his relationship to John (the baptizing one, not the Other One). As the evangelist works John like a puppet, what can we make of the text's multiple occlusions and slippages?
reading / episode

CHAPTER 4

The Samaritan Woman (4:1-42) At the foot of Mount Gerizim, in the heat of the day, Jesus asks a woman for water at a well - and receives more than either quite bargained for. Discussing the political and theological politics of Jesus's gesture, and the complexity (and comedy!) of the woman's reply. 
reading / episode

The Son of the Nobleman (4:43-54) Jesus returns home after his pilgrimage to Jerusalem and his diversion in Samaria - but his profile has grown while he's been gone. Just how welcome are prophets in their hometown - and doesn't this all seem weirdly familiar? 
reading / episode

CHAPTER 5

The Fountain of Bethesda (5:1-18) This week, Jesus disrupts a cruel angel's thesis - but only raises more questions about the capricious unfairness of miracles, and the sadistic unkindness of the law.
reading / episode

The Father and the Son (5:19-47) Jesus, pushed to explain his activity on the Sabbath, launches into an apologia for his status as Son of God - drawing from Mosaic account, John the Baptist's testimony, and ultimately the witness of his own actions. But why is it all slightly unsatisfying? 
reading / episode

CHAPTER 6

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand (6:1-15) It's deja vu all over again, as Jesus feeds the multitude! John seems to be cribbing from the Gospel of Mark here (itself a shocking possibility) - but his every change reveals more about his own project's divergences, and deeper community traumas.
reading / episode

The Bread of Life (6:15-40) This week, we tackle the question(s?) of cliche, pornography, and nonsense, as we try to figure out what to do about our (shudder) ~personal relationship with Jesus.~ Also a dude walks on water and tells us to eat his flesh.
reading / episode

A Hard Saying (6:41-71) The followers of Christ lose quite a few disciples after Jesus's hard pro-cannibalism position goes public.
reading / episode

CHAPTER 7

In Secret (7:1-24) After fighting with and lying to his brothers, Jesus travels in disguise to the Temple for the festival to eavesdrop on how people are talking about him. But when his paranoia erupts into an explosive rant, the crowd is left once more to wonder about his soundness of mind and threat to public safety. 
reading / episode

Seek and Ye Shall Not Find (7:25-53) Jesus's speech at the Temple during Sukkoth aggravates the crowd, the authorities...and most of our commenters. Plus: friend of the pod Nicodemus!
reading / episode

CHAPTER 8

Writing in the Sand (8:1-11) A woman caught committing adultery is brought before Jesus and a terrible trap is laid. But what are its parameters, and what is the strange history of this passage that seems to belong to no Gospel at all? And how does Jesus's enigmatic response sidestep or reify the terms of their unkindness? 
reading / episode

The Light of the World (8:12-30) This week, Jesus is intractable, opaque, and refuses to be reasonable. What can we learn from him?
reading / episode

Before Abraham Was I Am (8:31-59) Speaking to tentative disciples, Jesus launches into a rant - you are either with him, or the "sons of the devil." What do we do with this speech, its troubled textual texture, and its virulently antisemitic history? Plus: a chat with community member Alex Koppel for a Jewish perspective on the experience of reading the Gospel of John!
reading / chat with Alex Koppel / episode / mailbag

CHAPTER 9: The Seeing and the Blind This week, the Gospel of John's interest in the right to articulate oneself has one of its most striking episodes as Jesus heals a young man's blindness - a young man who quickly asserts himself as one of the text's most singular, fascinating, and compelling characters. What can we learn about queer self-articulation, a disability-inclusive ethic, and Johannine hamartiology from this fascinating, complex reading? 
reading / episode

CHAPTER 10

The Good Shepherd (10:1-18) So Jesus is the shepherd AND the gate? And who are the robbers? And the hirelings? And the wolf? A simple (and famous) metaphor spins wildly and unexpectedly out of control as the Word once again tries to cram itself into time and space!
reading / episode / mailbag

The Porch of Solomon (10:19-42) Happy Hanukkah! To celebrate, Jesus has committed the height of blasphemy!
reading / episode / mailbag

CHAPTER 11

Lazarus (11:1-46) The Book of Signs reaches its spectacular climax as Jesus faces his ultimate decision: will he lay down his life for love? 
reading / episode / mailbag

The Prophecy of Caiaphas (11:47-57) The Book of Signs comes crashing down as the Book of Glory begins. The High Priest Caiaphas stands at the end of an age and foresees more than he knows - what do we make of the text's sudden swell of pity and canny recognition of realpolitik? How do we encounter fairly one of history's most maligned villains? 
reading / episode

CHAPTER 12

Anointing at Bethany (12:1-11) Jesus is anointed with oil at Bethany - but unlike the Gospel of Mark, we actually know a lot more about who does what, why, and what Judas is so mad about. What does this do to the story? To our understanding of Jesus? And to our reading of this Gospel? 
reading / episode

The Hour is Come (12:12-32) Jesus enters Jerusalem to grand (and explicitly political acclaim). But as Greek tourists flock, authorities grumble, and God himself fulminates, Jesus remains characteristically placid. What do we make of this stillness at the heart of a growing thunder? 
reading / episode

Children of the Light (12:34-50) The Book of Signs concludes with a strange appendix - summarizing several of Jesus's key sayings, but also incorporating a series of odd theological and textual zig-zags. What happened to the text here? And what, if anything, can we glean from its structural eccentricities? 
reading / episode

CHAPTER 13

Washing Their Feet (13:1-20) Jesus gets naked and washes a bunch of dudes' feet. It's pretty hot. 
reading / episode / mailbag

A New Commandment (13:21-38) Jesus's last supper brings an unbelievable amount of drama as bread-games are played, accusations are leveraged, at least one person gets possessed, Jesus and his boyfriend get up to some PDA, and poor dim Peter has his heart broken. 
reading / episode / mailbag

CHAPTER 14: The Comforter Jesus's farewell symposium enters an intense question period that skirts questions at the heart of the nature of God as the Johannine community imagines it.
reading / episode

CHAPTER 15: The Vine Join us as we peer into Farewell Discourse 2: Electric Boogaloo!
reading / episode

CHAPTER 16: I Have Overcome the World Trinities abound this week, as we get our THIRD of Jesus's "final" speeches - and learn all the more about his third silent partner in the divine conspiracy. 
reading / episode

CHAPTER 17: I in Them This week: Jesus prays! It's super weird!
reading / episode

CHAPTER 18

In the Garden (18:1-11) A much-truncated version of Jesus's "agony" in the garden raises more questions than answers - especially as it floods us with several details not in the synoptic gospels. 
reading / episode

The Cock Crew (18:12-27) A wonderfully effective sequence of the gospel as our author cuts and counter-cuts between integrity kept and integrity lost - and a glimpse of our narrator himself, peering through the shadows. 
reading / episode

What is Truth? (18:28-40) Truth speaks to power, as the Johannine Jesus encounters the historical Pilate.
reading / episode

CHAPTER 19

No King But Caesar (19:1-16) Jesus stands before Pilate. But who is on trial? And who is condemned?
reading / episode

The Crucifixion (19:16-42) Jesus is lifted up. Everything else falls away. 
reading / episode

CHAPTER 20

The Gardener (20:1-18) Jesus is back! Isn't he? He seems a little different, somehow. How? Figuring out the footrace, the personnel at the tomb, and the strange choreography of who sees what when and who believes what when - and why Jesus's first act after defeating death is a very hilarious prank. 
reading / episode

Peace Be Unto You (20:19-31) This week: Thomas gets knuckle-deep in Jesus's new orifice. 
reading / episode

CHAPTER 21: Amen The Gospel of John ends with a strange, sad epilogue and palinode for Peter. What is the status and provenance of this chapter? Is it a fitting end, or a strange appendix?
reading / episode

THE LETTERS OF JOHN

In the Beginning (1 John 1) We begin our dive into the first letter of John - but who is this actually by? When? What is its relationship to the Gospel bearing the same name - and what has changed?
reading / episode

A New Commandment (1 John 2:1-17) The letter continues to indicate its strong ties to the Johannine community's literature - but with increasing anxiety about schismatic strains of belief and practice, and with some seams showing in the text itself. How does faith express itself? Who wrote this, and what do they exhort us to believe?
reading / episode

Antichrist (1 John 2:17-29) You shall not say of the Antichrist, "here it is!" or "there it is!" The Antichrist is here, now - among you.
reading / episode

Love in Deed (1 John 3) A strange dog's breakfast of theological mad libs slowly pulls into focus as we consider the sectarian schism that preoccupies our poor elder. 
reading / episode

God is Love (1 John 4) A bracingly exclusionary passage jangles uncomfortably against one of the most breathlessly beautiful in all the New Testament. How do we (can we?) reconcile the letter's divisive claims against the schismatics with its message of universal love and community care?
reading / episode

Three Are One (1 John 5) The thorniest and most infamous moment of the letters of John arrives! What theology is here being articulated? What is the history of this moment? And can we make sense of any of it? PLUS: A TERRIBLE EXPLOSION! 
reading / episode / mailbag

To the Elect Lady (2 John) Our illustrious "Presbyter John" sends off a brief missive to an "Elect  Lady" to deal with some pest control. But who is she? Who is he? And  what is this little note's role in salvation history?
reading / episode

Greet the Friends By Name (3 John) The third epistle of John is both the shortest book of the New Testament AND the only one that doesn't mention Jesus! What is the value of this brief, ephemeral letter?
reading / episode