The Undoing of Eve: A Biblical-Theological Critique of John's Portrait of the Female Image of God

This dissertation offers a fresh exploration of the Gospel of John through a biblical theological lens, tracing the dynamic motif of the female imago Dei and its development within the Johannine narrative. By merging literary analysis with a close examination of the biblical portrayal of femininity, the study sheds light on how the Fourth Evangelist reimagines the female image of God within the context of a new creation, presenting a vision that may reshape the complementarian-egalitarian debate within today’s Christian communities. Applying the “worldview-story” biblical-theological approach, the researcher asserts that John’s positive depiction of femininity suggests a restoration of woman’s pre-fall dominion with the male imago Dei in Genesis 1:26–28. An overview of John’s use of Genesis and received Eve tradition in early Judeo-Christian society is presented alongside a comparison of Eve’s pursuit of unauthorized wisdom to the Johannine women’s interactions with the Divine Logos. This approach reveals the similarities between John’s concept of the Logos and Jewish sapiential literature’s exploration of Lady Wisdom as the creative agent of God. The study culminates in a comparison of Eve to six Johannine women: the mother of Jesus, the Samaritan Woman, Mary and Martha of Bethany, Mary Magdalene, and the unnamed adulteress of the pericope adulterae (PA). Other highlights of the study include a discussion of the complex transmission history of the PA, John’s presentation of the tension between purity and impurity, and the implications of mortality and immortality in the light of Christ’s advent.