I JOHN: INTRODUCTION TO THE LITERARY STRUCTURE

The following analysis is a summary of a chapter in my unpublished book The Structure of Scripture. I will send a copy of the entire chapter to anyone requesting it at elmerphd21@hotmail.com.

Of all the books in the Bible, this short letter presents perhaps the most challenges in terms of structural analysis. “Attempts to trace a consecutive argument throughout I John have never succeeded,” states F. F. Bruce. That situation has led scholars to search for a more literary, rather than logical, structure to better follow the author’s flow of thought. As Grayston has wryly observed, in spite of various complicating factors, “even the most pessimistic critics attempt an analysis.”

Structural analysis usually begins by identifying the smaller literary units that make up the work. Even at this initial stage we are faced with apparent chaos in the scholarly literature. Raymond Brown charts some twenty-five different proposals for dividing up this small letter, and many more attempts at division could be added to this list.  The difficulty in finding larger literary blocks devoted to single themes has caused some commentators to resort to rearrangement of the text and others, such as Marshall, to merely identify a number of smaller literary divisions in the book without speculating on the possible relationships between them.

The epistle appears to be based on the three tests or attributes of a true Christian: belief in Jesus as the Son of God, love for fellow believers, and obedience to God's commandments. Commentators such as R. Law recognize that the same few themes in I John are repeated several times throughout the text and therefore a series of cycles is the only way to properly represent its organization. Similarly, Grayston notes, “The repetitions which every reader notices are deliberate. Nothing is acceptable until it has been said, and repeated, and confirmed.” 

Culpepper’s perceptive summary after reviewing various structural proposals for organizing these three themes bears quoting:

“ [I]t is obvious that the text is sufficiently open, ambivalent, obscure, or complex to allow for various constructions or readings...Each structure, therefore, represents a ‘reading strategy,’ a means of approaching the text and constructing meaning from its openness and ambiguity.”

Yet another such “reading strategy” is described below.

A New Structural Approach

If clusters of words associated with each of the three above themes are assembled and natural division lines drawn where gaps are found, seventeen sections to the epistle result, a number of symbolic significance to the Apostle John in his Gospel account. Parenthetically, the root agape defining the “Love” sections appears a total of 51 (17 x 3) times.

The intervening literary units not falling into of the three themes can be categorized as either: summaries of the three major themes (3:19-24; 5:1-5), words of reassurance (2:12-14; 2:29-3:3; 5:13-20) or commands (2:15-17; 2:28; 5:21). These “miscellaneous” sections may be also recognized as separate pericopes by telltale literary techniques (such as 2:12-14 with its repeated “I am writing you...” and patterned sequence of addresses, and 3:19-24 with its use of “by this we...know” as an inclusio). The two summary sections possess definite affinities to one another with their same order of themes (first belief, then love and lastly obedience) and shared phraseology: “by this we know that” (in a retrospective sense) and “we keep his commandments.” R. E. Brown notes for the first of these summaries what is equally true for the second – that in them the “close interconnection of [the three key] Johannine motifs is illustrated.” 

Pattern of Cycles

The first major unit of the epistle is 1:1-4, a single sentence in Greek which functions as an introduction to the whole work. The remaining sixteen identified units possess no obvious overall symmetry but may be combined into larger units, or cycles, which do exhibit the sort of order found elsewhere in the biblical literature. Two such possible schemes are pictured below. Common to both schemes are important themes appearing in both the Introduction and the Conclusion: the eternal Son has actually appeared in history (1:2; 5:20) and statements of John's purpose in writing “so that you might have fellowship with us” (1:3) and “so that you might know that you have eternal life” (5:13). 

Figure 1: Structural Scheme 1

I. Doctrinal Introduction (1:1-4)

II. Cycle 1 (1:5-3:10)

A. Obedience (1:5-2:6)

B. Love (2:7-11)

C. Reassurance (2:12-14)

D. Command (2:15-17)

B'. Belief (2:18-27)

D'. Command (2:28)

C'. Reassurance (2:29-3:3)

A'. Obedience (3:4-10a)

II'. Cycle 2 (3:10b-5:5)

A. Love (3:10b-18)

B. Summary (3:19-24)

C. Belief (4:1-6)

A'. Love (4:7-21)

B'. Summary (5:1-5)

I'. Doctrinal Conclusion (5:6-21)

A. Belief (5:6-12)

B. Reassurance (5:13-20)

C. Command (5:21)

There are a great number of arguments in favor of such an arrangement. Unfortunately, there are an equal number of convincing reasons for supporting the alternative structure shown in Fig. 2.

Figure 2: Structural Scheme 2

I. Doctrinal Introduction (1:1-4)

II. Cycle 1 (1:5-3:24)

A. Obedience (1:5-2:6)

B. Love (2:7-11)

C. Reassurance (2:12-14)

D. Command (2:15-17)

E. Belief (2:18-27)

D'. Command (2:28)

C'. Reassurance (2:29-3:3)

A'. Obedience (3:4-10a)

B'. Love (3:10b-18)

Summary (3:19-24)

II'. Cycle 2 (4:1-5:5)

A. Belief (4:1-6)

B. Love (4:7-14)

A'. Belief (4:15)

B'. Love (4:16-21)

Summary (5:1-5)

I'. Doctrinal Conclusion

A. Belief (5:6-12)

B. Reassurance (5:13-20)

C. Command (5:21)

Conclusions Drawn from the Structure

Whichever arrangement of sections one prefers, the theme of most emphasis is the same. The two summary statements in the epistle (3:19-24 and 5:1-5) give first place of honor to the importance of proper doctrine or understanding the true nature of Jesus. In both schemes 1 and 2, the doctrinal theme  forms the center of a chiastic structure for Cycle 1 and is the sole theme of the final Section I'. This same theme is either at the center or beginning of Cycle 2 according to Scheme 1 or 2, respectively.

Contra Painter, according to the arrangements portrayed in figs. 1 and 2 there is a progression whereby the first cycle after the Prologue (which importantly has a strictly doctrinal theme) contains sections dealing with doctrine, love and obedience; the next cycle drops the theme of obedience; and the concluding unit speaks almost solely of doctrine. A final demonstration of the prominence of the theme of “belief” is that the sevenoccurrences of this word in this epistle (3:23; 4:1,16; 5:1,5,10,13) all appear either at or near the start or end of sections identified in schemes 1 and 2. Thus, in this epistle John follows Paul's well known pattern of emphasizing the (at least temporal) priority of Christian belief over living an obedient Christian life. This last point is also illustrated in I John 3:23, where the present tense of “we should love” can be contrasted with the aorist of “we should believe,” which emphasizes the believer’s one-time confession of faith in Christ.