Thanks, Martin, of course the Gospel of John is also "the Spiritual Gospel" (see the fine monograph by Maurice Wiles, and also mine, The Christology of the Fourth Gospel), but it also includes numerous grounded and mundane features, which constitute a fact. Bethany in John 1:28 also has some textual problems, as some texts reference the baptismal site of the Baptist as "Bethabara" confirmed also by the personal research conducted by Origen and attested by the Madaba map. On the early temple incident, if Jesus indeed ministered alongside the Baptist in his early ministry, a prophetic confrontation is not hard to imagine. Further, multiple trips to Jerusalem are far more believable than the single, culminative presentation by Mark. The elements of your surrealist reading of the text are also contestable at every turn--not compelling in the slightest. Nonetheless, thanks for sharing; the Johannine narrative is both spiritual and mundane; the latter has often been overlooked because of the former.
Thanks, Martin, of course the Gospel of John is also "the Spiritual Gospel" (see the fine monograph by Maurice Wiles, and also mine, The Christology of the Fourth Gospel), but it also includes numerous grounded and mundane features, which constitute a fact. Bethany in John 1:28 also has some textual problems, as some texts reference the baptismal site of the Baptist as "Bethabara" confirmed also by the personal research conducted by Origen and attested by the Madaba map. On the early temple incident, if Jesus indeed ministered alongside the Baptist in his early ministry, a prophetic confrontation is not hard to imagine. Further, multiple trips to Jerusalem are far more believable than the single, culminative presentation by Mark. The elements of your surrealist reading of the text are also contestable at every turn--not compelling in the slightest. Nonetheless, thanks for sharing; the Johannine narrative is both spiritual and mundane; the latter has often been overlooked because of the former.