The Farewell Discourse of the Evangelist John and its Jewish Heritage

Abstract

Consideration of the Gattung of the Jewish Farewell Speeches shows that the Johannine discourse (apart from 13:1ff) belongs to this genre, which exercised its influence on other parts of the Gospel as well. Materially it is different; the standing features of the Jewish speeches are reworked completely. This is indicated by eight points of comparison. The Farewell Discourses happened to be replaced very soon by the Christian genre of the Speeches of the resurrected Lord. Still, they stand out as a remarkable theological achievement accomplished within a very short span of time.