John’s realised eschatology as an expression of the wisdom of God

Wisdom has often been assigned as an attribute of God and links to Wisdom theology in the fourth Gospel that are well presented in scholarship by the works of Sharon Ringe, Elizabeth Johnson, Jörg Frey and Mary Coloe. Yet, John’s Gospel never uses the term Wisdom. So, what scriptural evidence can demonstrate that a Wisdom theology can be found in the fourth Gospel? What is clear in John’s Gospel is that there has been a move from an apocalyptic eschatology to one that is realised and sapiential. Hence, this article attempts to show that this change in eschatological outlook can be linked to the first century understanding of the figure of Wisdom, who had emerged as a divine figure that brought the heavenly into the earthly realm. This article uses a literary critical approach, utilising the Bible as the primary source along with key Johannine biblical scholars, to show that through the use of the attributes of Wisdom, the Johannine evangelist and the Johannine community have appropriated the key aspects of the female divine Sophia onto the notion of the divine Logos, who is in John synonymous with Jesus, the Nazarene. Using scriptural texts from both the First and Second Testaments about the notion of Wisdom and the work of key Johannine scholars, this article shows how John’s use of the concept of Logos, also ascribed to Wisdom in Wisdom 18:15, strongly parallels the attributes of divine Wisdom. This article argues that although John’s Gospel does not explicitly use the term Wisdom, the parallels between the biblical concept of divine Wisdom and divine Logos are numerous. Eternal life is a central concept in John’s Gospel and only found in the biblical Wisdom literature in association with divine Wisdom (Wis 5:5). This notion of immortality or eternal life in the book of Wisdom was the quality of life that Sophia offered the righteous (Wis 6:18; 8:17, 21) and became a central theme in the Johannine narrative, considering their experience of Jesus’ resurrection being now, rather than in the future (Jn 4:23; 5:25). The centrality of the wisdom of God was reflected in the figure of divine Wisdom, who was named in the First Testament literature as God’s incarnated envoy. However, in the Second Testament in the person of Jesus, John’s Gospel showed that the divine Logos is a manifestation of divine Wisdom’s all-powerful Word, finding a resting place in human history, imbuing its eschatology with a realised focus rather than a futuristic focus. Contribution: This article deals with the attribute of Wisdom as it is associated with the understanding of who God is. God has revealed God’s self in creation and through scripture, by the figure of divine Wisdom and the figure of the divine Logos. These two figures share many common attributes, of which one central feature is that of providing human beings with the opportunity to enter eternal life with the Divine One.