Zeichman

The fourth gospel is largely known to have gone through several stages, though it appears there is little consensus for what these stages actually were. Burton Mack proposed the following

1 - Miracle Collection
Five miracles, all more or less doubly attested in Mark. At this point it functioned as an etiology for why such an odd group of folks were all of the same community.
Official's Son - 4:46-54
Lame Man - 5:1-9
Feeding of 5000 - 6:1-14
Walking on Water - 6:16-21
Blind Man - 9:1-34

2 - Conflict Interpretation
SOme miracles were interpreted in light of conflicts with Jewish factions:
Blind man and sin - 9:13-34
Lame Man and Sabbath - 5:9c-15

3 - Signs Gospel
Two More miracles were added, they were enumerated and interpreted as signs. Mack says there is an Exodus motif. Perhaps the notion of the community as distinct from Judaism comes into play here.

Wedding at Cana 2:1-11
Lazarus - 11:1-44

4 - John
The more or less complete version of John, at which point the community becomes aware of the Synoptic Tradition, becomes concerned with eternal life and Jesus' authority. Almost all biographical details come in at this point (Passion, Baptism, Temple Incident, etc.). The MIracles are now interpreted as revelations of Jesus:
THe raising of Lazarus attests to Jesus being the "ressurection and the life"
The feeding of the 5000 is interpreted as JEsus being "the bread of life"
etc.

The thing I have a hard time figuring out is the need for the "signs" level- The interpretation of miracles as "signs", from what I can detect, means that they are interpreted as faith-creating events and thus "signs" of Jesus' divine nature. However, the faith-creating motif is prominent throughout the final redaction, though in this case, they are creating faith in Jesus, rather than faith in general.

The best luck I've had finding the "signs" interpretation is this:
2:11a-b Jesus as creating faith linked with the sign of the water to wine.
4:48-50, 52-54 - The Officer reprimanded for (probably) not having faith yet. And the conclusion with the realization that Jesus was right and the creation of faith.
6:2-10, 14? - Probably the most clear example, from what I've seen. Having faith because they witnessed his signs, the disciples fretting about the food (thus lacking faith)

Does anyone have insight into this level of intepretation or from who Mack derived this idea from? He is not especially clear in his example of the signs level of interpretation, and given that his ideas about the Signs level is much different than that of Fortna, Wahlde and Robert Miller, there is a lack of available resources both online and in print.

Any and all help is appreciated

robto

I can't really answer your question, other than to say that there doesn't seem to be anything approaching a consensus about the stages of John.

A question for you, tho: I recently read Randall Helms's "Who Wrote the Gospels?" Have you read it, and if so what is your opinion of it/him?

Zeichman

I got that impression, too.


And regarding Helms' work, I haven't read it yet, but since the university's library has it, that book what my goal for the weekend is.