A Metanarrative of Disability in John 5
Within Johannine texts, impairment carries associated meanings to the point that the narrative figure is reduced to the impairment rather than having an independent and/or complex identity. A metanarrative of disability exists within these texts, regarding assuming that attitudes, capabilities or at...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2024
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| In: |
Journal for interdisciplinary biblical studies (JIBS)
Year: 2024, Volume: 5, Issue: 3, Pages: 41-61 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Bible. Johannesevangelium 5,1-15
/ Handicap
/ Identity
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| IxTheo Classification: | HC New Testament |
| Further subjects: | B
Impaired mobility
B Recovering agency B Metanarrative of disability B John 5:1–15 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Within Johannine texts, impairment carries associated meanings to the point that the narrative figure is reduced to the impairment rather than having an independent and/or complex identity. A metanarrative of disability exists within these texts, regarding assuming that attitudes, capabilities or attributes relate to particular impairments. This article will apply the concept of metanarrative of disability to John 5:1-15 and use David Bolt's methodology, that of focusing on a particular impairment to explore the presence and function of a related metanarrative of disability, as an interdisciplinary starting point from which to examine how the assumption of passivity and lethargy operates through references to impaired mobility. A person with impaired mobility may well function as narrative prosthesis, but their response to Jesus should not then be attributed with iniquity or even malice, as occurs when exegetes use a metanarrative of paralysis to interpret the text. By examining how the John 5:1-15 narrative overrides the individual's identity, it will be shown that agency is not necessarily completely erased by the author of the text, but more by interpretations invoking assumptions associated with a metanarrative constituted of lethargy and passivity. John 5:1-15 is, whether by design or inadvertently, a social commentary as well as a narrative about Jesus: impaired mobility, as a narrative tool, promotes Jesus's authority and identity, but it concurrently challenges the assumptions made by a metanarrative of impaired mobility, a fact sometimes overlooked by interpretations of the text which are solely focused on the identity of Jesus. |
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| ISSN: | 2633-0695 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for interdisciplinary biblical studies (JIBS)
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.17613/stc2-0j50 |
