THE ORGANIZATION OF JOHN 13-17

The detailed analysis of the last half of John’s Gospel begins with consideration of the first major section within it. It is so prolonged and different in tone from the other chapters that one might agree with those such as Marshall who consider it a major “book” in itself if it did not fit in so well with the overall structure of whole Gospel of John. Lightfoot, for example, notes that these chapters contain no place or time notations such as are present in the rest of the Gospel. Tenney similarly points out that this section (at least beginning with 13:31) is the only one in the Gospel not marked by intrusive comments from the author. In addition, these chapters reflect a pronounced change in vocabulary from the earlier portion of the book and a concern with principles rather than events. “Joy” appears exactly seven times in these chapters.

Many commentators have had trouble seeing a logical flow to these chapters and have therefore resorted to various major rearrangements to “improve” the text. Others see no problem with following the logic of the present text if read with its literary structure in mind. Thus, Webster detects the parallel arrangement below, comprising chs. 13-16:

    A. Jesus and the Disciples (13:1-14:31)

        1. Jesus' example in foot washing (13:1-20)

            2. Judas' departure (13:21-32)

                3. Dialogue on Jesus' departure (13:33-14:31)

    A'. Jesus and the World (chs. 15-16)

        1. Jesus' love shown in metaphor of vine and branches (15:1-16)

            2. The world's hatred (15:17-27)

                3. Dialogue on Jesus' departure (16:1-33)

By contrast, Borchert pictures chs. 13-17 as a seven-part symmetrical organization with 15:1-25 as its “bulls-eye.”

    A. The Foot Washing (ch. 13)

        B. Loneliness and Anxiety (14:1-14)

            C. The Holy Spirit (14:25-31)

                D. The Vine and the Branches (15:1-25)

            C'. The Holy Spirit (15:26-16:15)

        B'. Anxiety and Loneliness (16:16-33)

    A'. The Prayer (ch. 17)

Raymond Brown points out the possibility that this section can be cast as a symmetrical six-part chiasm:

    1. Introduction (13:31-38)

        2. Themes original to the Last Supper context (ch. 14)

            3. Mutual love of Jesus and the disciples (15:1-17)

            3'. World’s hatred of the disciples (15:18-16:4a)

        2'. Themes original to the Last Supper context (16:4b-33)

    '. Conclusion (ch. 17)

Brown himself is not convinced of the above proposal, mainly due to the poor correlation between the units labeled 1 and 1' although he discusses at length the parallels between units 2 and 2'. This noted deficiency can be easily corrected, however, by merely starting the first unit at the beginning of ch. 13, as do most other commentators. The resulting structure shares obvious similarities with the chiasms of both Borchert and Brown.

                                            Figure 1: Proposed Structure of John 13-17

    1. Betrayal and denial among the apostles (ch. 13)

        2. Christ will be physically gone but not absent (ch. 14)

            3. Mutual love between Christ and the disciples (15:1-17)

            3'. World’s hatred of the apostles (15:18-27)

        2'. Christ will be physically gone but not absent (ch. 16)

    1'. The apostles are preserved by the Father (ch. 17)

(a) The commandment to love is stressed in the first half of this structure (13:34; 14:15,21,32; 15:12,17) whereas the world's enmity toward Jesus and His followers characterizes the final half (15:18-25; 16:2-3; 17:14). (Borchert)

(b) Units 3 and 3' contain between them 7 uses of “bear fruit,” 10 occurrences of “love,” and 7x “abide in me/my love).”

(c) Six times in this section, Jesus instructs his followers to pray to God through Jesus' name (14:13,14; 15:16; 16:23,24,26).

(d) Talbert and Welch have analyzed John 13 as two separate chiasms: 13:1-35 and 36-31. In addition, they treat chapters 15-17 as a separate chiasm centered on 16:16-22.

(e) The coming of the Holy Spirit is announced in units 2 (14:16,26) and 2' (16:7-8).

Unit 1 contains predictions of Judas' betrayal, admonitions given to Peter, and two similar commands by Jesus to his followers (wash one another's feet and love one another).

Unit 2 A pervasive theme in these verses is that of coming and going, according to Morris. This unit takes the form of a modified chiasm:

    a. “Do not let your hearts be troubled” about my going, but believe (14:1-7)

            b. Unity of Christ and God: Love and keep my commands (14:8-14)

                c. The Advocate (14:15-17)

            b'. Unity of Christ and God: Love and keep my commandments (14:18-24)

                c'. The Advocate (14:25-26)

    a'. “Do not let your hearts be troubled” about my going, but believe (14:27-31)

(a) Treatment of the first fourteen verses as a discrete unit is in agreement with Borchert's analysis, contra Beasley-Murray and others.

(b) This unit is characterized by the key words: Father (23x), love (10x), know (8x), believe (7x), and world (5x).

(c) The Trinity is expressed in this unit in the following manner: a and a' – Jesus, b and b' – Jesus and the Father, c and c' – Holy Spirit.

(d) Unit b centers around a question by Philip while b' deals with a question by Judas.

Unit 3 has as an inclusio (set of bookends) and major theme the admonition to “bear fruit” (15:2,4,5,8,16). The key word “abide” appears here eleven times.

Unit 3' is unified by the single theme of the world's hatred of Jesus and his followers. The word “hate” appears exactly seven times in this unit.

Unit 2' is permeated by two verbal devices: (a) seven occurrences of the phrase “I have said these things to you” (or equivalents) and (b) repetition of the announcement “The hour is coming” at the start, middle and end of the chapter. In addition is the repeated word “joy” (vv. 20, 21, 23, 24).

Unit 1' constitutes the most obvious literary unity in this first section in the second half of John's Gospel in that it is a prayer to the Father. The phrase “that they may be” is a seven-fold litany that serves to unite this passage. (Morris)   Borchert asserts, “Few passages of Scripture come so close to revealing the heart of God's special agent as these magnificent twenty-six verses.” Similar phrases in verses 5 and 24 act as an inclusio for this section: “glory...before the world existed” / “before the foundation of the world.” The same is true of vv. 7-8 coupled with 25-26, both stating that believers know that Jesus was sent by the Father. Many internal literary structures have been proposed for this prayer and are listed by Borchert. The mutual indwelling of Jesus and his disciples is the theme of 17:6,9-10,12,24. (Fletcher-Lewis)

Indication of the mirror-image parallelism of chapters 13-17 is seen in the following similar themes and language:

Units 1 and 1'

Both begin with “hour had/has come” (13:1; 17:1)

Christ leaving the world to join the Father (13:1,3; 17:11,13)

Close relationship between Jesus and the disciples (13:1b,12-20; ch. 17)

Condemnation of Judas (13:10b-11,18,21-30; 17:12)

“That the scripture might be fulfilled” (13:19; 17:12)

References to Satan (13:27; 17:15)

References to Judas (13:27; 17:12)

Mutual glorification of Father and Son ends 1 and starts 1' (13:31-32; 17:1-10)

Disciples love for one another is like Jesus’ love for them (13:34-35; 17:20-26)

Five occurrences of the verb “glorify” in each unit

Units 2 and 2'

Jesus going to the Father (14:1-11; 16:4b-7,28-30)

“heart(s)” (14:1,27; 16:6,22)

“Where are you going?” (14:5; 16:5)

Unity of Jesus with the Father (14:7-11; 16:15)

Asking anything in Jesus’ name (14:12-14; 16:15,23-27)

Disciples see (14:15-31) or don’t see (16:16-22) Jesus

The sending of the Counselor (14:16-17,25-26; 16:7-15)

“The Spirit of truth” (14:17; 15:26; 16:13)

“A little while” (14:19; 7x in 16:16-19)

“in that day” (14:20; 16:23,26)

The Father loves those who love the Son (14:21,23; 16:27)

“I have said this/these to you” (14:25; 16:6,25,33)

Peace is given (14:27; 16:23)

“Rejoice” (14:28; 16:20)

“The ruler of the world” (14:30; 16:11)

Units 3 and 3'

The exact break-point within ch. 17 is somewhat in doubt, but a number of commentators see it to occur as pictured in Fig. 1, after verse 17.

Contrast between love (15:1-17) and hate (15:18-16:4a)

“Keep word/commandment” (15:7-10,20b)

Servant-master relationship (15:15,20)

“I chose you” (15:16,19)

Others have noted similarities in structure between this section and the farewell discourses of major OT figures. (Kostenberger)