From: clayton stirling bartholomew (c.s.bartholomew@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Wed Oct 25 2000 - 02:06:17 EDT
Dan Parker Wrote
> I have found no exceptions to Smart's rule.
You are staring one in the face. Do I understand this correctly? Are you
saying that according to this rule by Dr. Smart, Thomas must be addressing
two different persons in John 20:28, Jesus and God the Father? If this is
the case then John 20:28 is your exception. If I have missed your point here
just stop reading, and hit delete.
The thematic structure of John's Gospel from start to finish is against your
reading of John 20:28. All through the gospel, from the prolog to the major
dramatic peak at the end of chapter 8, to the confession of Thomas in John
20:28 this one issue is being stressed over and over again.
When we look at the high level thematic discourse structure of John it just
leaves little room for doubt about what is being said in John 20:28. This is
a macro structural issue in the Gospel, and no about of quibbling and nit
picking about grammatical minutia, or inventing new rules will make this
macro structural issue go away.
I can say this with a fair amount of confidence since every commentary on
John in my library clearly supports this view, including: Marcus Dods,
H. Alford, H.A.W. Meyer, B.F. Westcott, D.A. Carson and L. Morris. It is
somewhat humorous that the three mega scholars H. Alford, H.A.W. Meyer, and
B.F. Westcott were the most dogmatic about this, according to them there is
not contest here. They consider Thomas' confession in John 20:28 a major
structural component in John's thematic development.
I thought that James D. G. Dunn might take a different view, since he has
written extensively on the *development* of NT Christology so I thought he
might be the odd man out on this but it didn't work out that way. J. D. G.
Dunn was in enthusiastic agreement with all of the works mentioned above.
So here is your exception.
Clay
--
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062
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