Life from on high: The eschatology of the Gospel of John in light of its vertical dimension

This dissertation studies the language of realized eschatology as it has been applied to the Gospel of John. Much attention has been given to the "horizontal" dimension, i.e., to the intertwining of present and future statements of salvation and judgment that characterizes this Gospel. While this approach uncovers the Johannine emphasis on present possession of eternal life and the Spirit, it for the most part overlooks "spatial" or "vertical" components of apocalyptic eschatology that are salient in the GJ. As a result, traditional expositions of Johannine realized eschatology could lead to the false impression that the GJ adhered to a supposedly homogeneous early Christian kerygma in which the eschaton had partially or fully arrived.;Johannine spatiality is anchored in OT traditions appropriated through the mediation of apocalyptic eschatology and Hellenistic Jewish speculative interpretation. These two currents emphasized transcendence of death and reinterpreted Wisdom categories. Both allowed the GJ to conceptualize eternal life not simply as transcendence of death but also as oneness with God and fellow believers. When applied to the GJ, the language of realized eschatology must reflect these spatial Johannine expectations.;This dissertation proposes that the time axis in itself cannot fully represent Johannine expectations. Building upon the contributions of scholars such as Brown, Schnackenburg, Meeks, and Aune, I describe the vertical dynamics in the GJ as expressed by categories such as heaven-world, above-below and descent-ascent. This spatial outlook shapes key Johannine concepts including the kingdom of God, the second coming of Jesus, the Son of Man, and the "end." The recasting of categories in spatial language systematically shifts the focus from a present age/coming age juxtaposition to a contradistinction between the world below and the Father above. The eschatological hopes of the Johannine community are fulfilled in the heavenly realm and not in a future earthly kingdom. However, the spatial dimension does not eliminate the role of the temporal. Both dimensions combine in order to legitimize Jesus as the one sent from God. Eschatological resurrection and judgment are essential because the present possession of eternal life does not eliminate the reality of physical death.