Race in John's Gospel: Toward an Ethnos-Conscious Approach

by Andrew Benko

Overview

Directly or indirectly, race makes many appearances in the Fourth Gospel. What is the meaning of all this attention to ethnic labels? Race in John's Gospel investigates how John reflects the racialized ideas current in its milieu, challenging some and adapting others. Ultimately, John dismisses race as valid grounds for prejudice or discrimination, devaluing the very criteria on which race is based. The cumulative effect of this rhetoric is to undermine the category itself, exposing earthly race as irrelevant and illusory. However, John's anthropology is layered, and looks beyond this unimportant earthly level. Above it, John constructs a heavenly level of racial identity, based on one's descent from either God or the devil.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781978706187
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	04/08/2019
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.39(w) x 9.01(h) x 1.06(d)

About the Author

Andrew Benko taught as an adjunct professor of biblical studies at Texas Christian University. He is an Episcopal priest.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction and Theory



Part I: “This World”: Historical-Geographical Race



Chapter 2: Galileans

Chapter 3: Samaritans

Chapter 4: Judeans and Romans



Part II: “From Above”: Cosmological Race



Chapter 5: Cosmological Race in Antiquity

Chapter 6: Cosmological Race in John



Conclusion

Epilogue: The Children Of The Children Of God

Appendix: A Comparison of Cosmological Races

Editorial Reviews

Benko’s book not only calls for fresh insight into the ethnic/racial social world of the Fourth Gospel, it also represents a significant step forward in the interpretation of the Fourth Gospel regarding racialization. It is a study that makes use of ancient Greek sources, socio-historical studies, literary and rhetorical criticisms, and critical race theory. With sharpness and challenging inquiry, Benko opens up a new outlook on ethnicity and race on the Gospel of John and on the socio-historical world of that time. For sure, Benko has written a timely book, which brings to bear how Johannine racialized rhetoric is not without implications in the construction and representation of the Other.

Francisco Lozada Jr.

As race has come to dominate American political rhetoric, so the study of how race and ethnicity operate in our cultural and religious classics has become a more urgent task. Benko’s sustained and disciplined analysis of the rhetoric of Galileans, Samaritans, Judeans, Israelites, Romans, and “Greeks” within their context in the ancient Mediterranean world and as they are deployed in the Gospel of John uncovers the pervasiveness and power of racialized discourses. With uncompromising clarity, Benko displays how the evangelist harnesses the discourses of earthly racial identity to reframe race as cosmological lineage as children of God or children of the devil. An important contribution to the conversation about race and religion, Race in John’s Gospel raises important theological and ethical questions about the Gospel of John and its ancient and modern interpreters, and with it Benko sets a challenging agenda for future biblical and theological work.

Cynthia Briggs Kittredge

I recommend this book. Those interested in teasing out racial thinking in early Christian texts will find the theoretical chapter informative and well researched. Johannine scholars who have struggled with Johannine anti-Judaism will be challenged by B.’s larger questions and by his careful textual analysis. The prose is clear and the exegesis judicious.. . B. is to be commended for challenging scholars to confront an uncomfortable issue and for providing said scholars with a range of interpretive tools that can help them with this important task.

Catholic Biblical Quarterly

This interesting and thought-provoking study of John’s gospel is set against the backdrop of the conflicts over racism now coursing through society in the United States.

The Bible Today

This timely study examines how the concept of race works in the Gospel of John, arguing that the author strategically undermines earthly understandings of race and instead promotes a heavenly racial structure. Thus Benko suggests that a racializing discourse fully implicates the theological claims of this gospel. Race John's Gospel offers a thorough and thoughtful study of racial thinking in antiquity that can serve current conversations on this critical topic.

Caroline Johnson Hodge

Benko’s book not only calls for fresh insight into the ethnic/racial social world of the Fourth Gospel, it also represents a significant step forward in the interpretation of the Fourth Gospel regarding racialization. It is a study that makes use of ancient Greek sources, socio-historical studies, literary and rhetorical criticisms, and critical race theory. With sharpness and challenging inquiry, Benko opens up a new outlook on ethnicity and race on the Gospel of John and on the socio-historical world of that time. For sure, Benko has written a timely book, which brings to bear how Johannine racialized rhetoric is not without implications in the construction and representation of the Other.

Francisco Lozada