John! With Hugo Méndez

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Hugo Méndez (1:00)

One thing I set out to do in this book was to really press the question, if John knows the synoptics, which I argue he did, then why does he want to change them in the way that he does? What does he add to them that's different? Something new that I do is I put together a very different theological vision of the Gospel of John, than I think has really existed in any other book that's out there right now on the market.

Dan McClellan (1:30)

Hey everybody, I'm Dan McClellan.

Dan Beecher (1:32)

And I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan (1:33)

And you're listening to the Data Over Dogma podcast, where we increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion, and we combat the spread of misinformation about the same. Again, in those pleasing baritone voices, mine are a little more so than usual.

Dan Beecher (1:52)

Your voice is a little nasally baritone today because you're...

Dan McClellan (1:55)

It's pleasant.

Dan Beecher (1:56)

Alas, you're sick.

Dan McClellan (1:57)

Yes.

Dan Beecher (1:58)

I'm just, I'm sympathizing with you.

Dan McClellan (2:00)

I brought home from DragonCon in Atlanta, I brought home a number of comic books, a number of t-shirts, and a head cold, which I'm not happy about, but...

Dan Beecher (2:10)

Apparently you're allergic to dragons. Anyway, we should introduce our guest. We have a guest this week on the show.

Dan McClellan (2:18)

Please say hello, everybody, to Hugo Méndez, who is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in case you were wondering. Thanks so much for being here, Hugo. We appreciate your time.

Hugo Méndez (2:33)

Thank you all so much for having me on.

Dan Beecher (2:35)

Yeah, we're looking forward to this conversation. The book is called The Gospel of John, A New History, and it's a fun one, especially since the Gospel of John is a fun thing to be looking into. We've definitely, you know, we saw the world of biblical scholarship can get incredibly granular and can get into some very, like, some stuff that's fascinating to scholars, but not particularly interesting to the rest of us, but.

Dan McClellan (3:08)

You can say subdued in studies if you want.

Dan Beecher (3:13)

I said nothing of the dog. But I will say that John is really interested. Like, there's a lot going on with with the with the ideas surrounding this gospel and subsequent epistles. And who knows what else is also attributed to the name John?

And so I'm looking forward to getting into this. Should we just dive right in here?

Dan McClellan (3:44)

Well, I wanted to bring something up real quick. You mentioned the epistolary of John, what is frequently referred to as the Johannine community, but you've published a handful of things in recent years. You have a problem with the notion of a Johannine community. What is your beef with the Johannine community?

Dan Beecher (4:07)

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Before we get into what is the beef, let's not define, because Dan will yell at me if I say define, but let's understand what we mean when we talk about a Johannine community and then move from there.

Dan McClellan (4:20)

Yeah, take it away.

Hugo Méndez (4:22)

Yeah, that's perfect. No. So in the New Testament, we have four books that historically were attributed to a figure named John, really five, if you add Revelation. But the four that we're really interested in as scholars, okay, there you go, yeah. The four that we're interested in as scholars today are The Gospel of John and the letters that are called First John, Second John and Third John. John is one of the big gospels. First, Second and Third John, they're tucked away in the back of your New Testament right before you hit the Book of Revelation. Take a left at Jude and you're there.