The beloved disciple and eternal life in the Johannine literature

The companions of the Beloved Disciple thought "he would not die" (John 21:23a). Though using different words, other texts (5:24; 6:49-50; 8:51; 10:28; 11:26a) within the Fourth Gospel express a similar understanding. Most commentators hold that 21:23a should be construed in light of Christ's Second Coming (21:22, 23b). This dissertation evaluates this proposal by an evaluation of editorial tendencies, especially how realized and future eschatology interact within the contexts that involve the texts above, as it also evaluates the descriptions of Christ within these passages. The Prologue is used as the hermeneutical key to understanding the Fourth Gospel, which provides a pattern of treatment that is seen in the characterizations of John the Baptist, Abraham, Jacob, and Isaiah. These figures provide the template necessary to assess what the Fourth Gospel claims about Jesus. This study offers a possible Sitz im Leben that would account for John 21:23a in light of similar assertions found elsewhere in the Fourth Gospel.; The study then moves to a detailed inquiry of the Letters of John, using 1 John as the primary text for investigation. Though there is a connection between the Letters of John and the Fourth Gospel, it is unclear which traditions came first. By comparing similar statements found within the Letters of John and the Fourth Gospel, the conceptual matrix that informs the Sitz im Leben for the Johannine Literature becomes clearer. This study concludes that 1 John is refuting a vision of God that the so-called Secessionists claimed would transform them into the children of God, making them holy, sinless, and deathless. The refutation of this belief system is found across the Johannine Literature as it refutes the visionary experience and makes the claim that belief in Jesus as the Son of God provides eternal life to the believer. The final corrections in 1 John and the Fourth Gospel serve to reorient attention away from realized eschatology to Christ's place "on the last day." The expectation of the Beloved Disciple's eternal life (21:23a) is replaced with Peter's experience of martyrdom (21:18-19), as the Beloved Disciple's prominence and proclamation of Jesus' words and deeds are also remembered (21:24-25). Descriptions of Jesus in high Christological terms and a future eschatological view mark the final stage of the redactional process.