Gospel and Epistle

Brown suggests that the structure of John’s gospel sets the pattern for the first epistle. His outline of the gospel is:

A. Prologue, 1:1-18.

B. Book of Signs, 1:19-12:50.

C. Book of Glory, 13:1-20:29.

D. Epilogue, ch. 21.

And the first epistle:

A. Prologue, 1:1-4.

B. Part 1, 1:5-3:10 (God is light, and we must walk in light).

C. Part 2, 3:11-5:12 (We must love one another as God loved us).

D. Conclusion, 5:13-21.

On the epistle, he notes that both parts begin with a statement concerning the “gospel” (Brown’s rendering of aggelia , 1:5, 3:11).

This analysis brings up fruitful parallels between the gospel and the letter. The similarities of the prologues are obvious: beginning, word, testimony, seen, life, Father are all shared words. Grammatically, “short clauses in parataxis; explanatory parenthetical interruptions” characterize both; the thought moves “from a divine manifestation to our share in the result.”

The conclusions to the two works are also similar, since in both John declares his reasons for writing, namely, that his readers might have life in the name of the Son of God (1 John 5:13; John 20:31).

Part 1 of the epistle shares a number of themes with the Book of Signs: Both deal with light/darkness (1 John 1:5-7; 2:10-11; John 3:19-21), and both involve a separation within the community of the followers of Jesus. Part 2 of the epistle begins with an exhortation to love one another, a commandment found in John 13:34. Jesus’ love for His disciples is shown in His self-gift (John 13:1; 1 John 3:14, 16), John follows Jesus in speaking of the gift of the Spirit (John 14:17; 16:7-14; 1 John 4:3-6), and both include a reference to blood and water as witnesses (1 John 5:6-8; John 19:34-35).

This certainly has something to recommend it. The most striking links are at the beginning and end – the prologues and the references to water, blood and witness. And the suggestion that John uses “gospel” to describe the message that “God is light” and to describe the demand that we should “love one another” is striking.

But the organization doesn’t persuade. First, Brown’s summary of Part 1 under the heading of “light” is misguided. John focuses on light imagery only in the first two chapters; after 2:10 the word is never used again in the epistle and neither is “darkness.” Second, more generally, the parallels between the so-called “Book of Signs” and Part 1 of the epistle are rather thin. Finally, as noted in the previous post, 1 John 3:11ff has a number of parallels with John 8, but on Brown’s organization of the epistle and gospel, these should not be parallel.