SENSE PERCEPTION AND TESTIMONY IN THE
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN

Abstract

This thesis aims to contribute to Johannine scholarship on sense perception and
testimony. While the focus has tended to be on one or the other, this thesis shows that
sense perception and testimony are used together in John with the intention of drawing
the readers into the narrative so that they become witnesses in an emotionally engaged
way.
The first chapter outlines the focus of the thesis and presents the history of
scholarship on sense perception and testimony. In Chapter 2, we survey the Johannine
use of sense perception and testimony to show that there is a prima facie case for
regarding sense perception as important in giving testimony about God. In Chapter 3,
we argue that John is writing to believers to strengthen their faith. The next two
chapters survey possible influence on the Johannine use of sense perception in relation
to testimony within the Jewish Scripture and the rhetorical dimension of Hellenistic
culture.
The sixth to eighth chapters examine the Gospel itself. In Chapter 6, we discuss
how, for John, sense perception is theologically important in coming to a knowledge of
God. In Chapter 7, we look at testimony during Jesus’ public ministry to see how John
emphasises physical sense perception through signs and other types of testimony, such
as the incidents involving the Samaritan woman and the anointing at Bethany. In
Chapter 8, we argue that sense perception and testimony continue to work together
within the community after Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Our investigation shows that John’s use of sense perception together with
testimony is rooted in Jewish literature. John also employs a rhetorical technique which
appeals to the persuasive power of sense perception to make his narrative vivid. John does not downplay sense perception. Rather, he uses it in the context of testimony as a
means of persuasion to draw the readers, in their imagination, into the experience of the
first disciples and thus deeper into faith and witness.