The Community of the Beloved Disciple: The Life, Loves and Hates of an Individual Church in New Testament Times

by Raymond E. Brown

This study in Johannine ecclesiology reconstructs the history of one Christian community in the first century, a community whose life from its inception to its last hour is reflected in the Gospel and Epistles of John. It was a community that struggled with the world, with the Jews, and with other Christians. Eventually the struggle spread even to its own ranks. It was, in short, a community not unlike the Church of today.

This book offers a different view of the traditional Johannine eagle. In the Gospel the eagle soars above the earth, but with talons bared for the fray. In the Epistles we discover the eaglets tearing at each other for possession of the nest.

This book pulls together 25 years of the author's research into John. It explains why he calls Johannine thought "the most adventuresome theology in the New Testament."

Genres: Theology, Religion, Christianity, New Testament, Christian, Biblical Studies, Church History

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Roman Catholic priest, member of Society of Saint-Sulpice and a prominent biblical scholar, esteemed by not only his colleagues of the same confession. One of the first Roman Catholic scholars to apply historical-critical analysis to the Bible.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty brilliant.

[Rick Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

After literally decades of study of the Gospel of John, during which he amassed an encyclopedic knowledge of the scholarly work on the subject, Ray Brown gained a profound sense of the dynamics of the early Christian community from which this gospel emerged. In this engrossing study, he presents his take on the character of the original Johannine circle, its dynamics vis a vis the synagogue, and the tensions, controversies, and schisms that shaped the Johannine corpus in the form in which we know it in the New Testament. This is an excellent read, and a must for anyone who wants a thorough grasp of this gospel. It's also a remarkable window into how variety and diversity emerged in the first and second-century oikoumene.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

BROWN NOW REJECTS THE IDEA THAT JOHN THE APOSTLE WROTE THE FOURTH GOSPEL

Fr. Raymond Brown (1928-1998) was perhaps the greatest biblical scholar of the 20th century. He wrote in this 1979 book, “It has often been argued that the Johannine writings may be the most important piece in putting together the puzzle of Christian origins---the keystone to the arch of the early Church… The Fourth Gospel is startlingly different from the other Gospels in its presentation of Jesus and startlingly different from the Pastoral Epistles and the Book of Acts in its view of ecclesiastical realities… I hope to show that [Johannine Christianity] was… in mainstream confrontation with the synagogues and other churches, and that despite sectarian tendencies it still prayed for unity with other Christians.” (Pg. 6-7)

He states, “I do not think it significant that John never used the word ‘church’ (ekklesia), since the use of that word by evangelists is a Matthean peculiarity---it is missing from Mark and Luke, as well as from John. I am cautious in making deductions from John’s silence about the virginal conception of Jesus… the silence could just as easily indicate ignorance of that tradition… But when both Epistles and Gospel fail to use the term ‘apostle’ (especially in reference to the Twelve), a term used by most other authors of the NT, that silence has a good chance of being deliberate and significant. Similarly the Johannine failure to mention Jesus’ eucharistic action over the bread and cup at the Last Supper can scarcely be accidental.” (Pg. 21)

He admits, “I am inclined to change my mind… from the position that I took in the first volume of my [Anchor Bible] commentary identifying the Beloved Disciple as one of the Twelve, viz, John, son of Zebedee. I insisted there on the combination of external evidence and internal evidence which made this the strongest hypothesis. I now recognize that the external and internal evidence are probably not to be harmonized.

"By setting the Beloved Disciple over against Peter … the Fourth Gospel gives the impression that he was an outsider to the group of best-known disciples, a group that would have included John son of Zebedee, if we may judge from Acts 3:1; 4:13; 8:14. The external (late second-century) evidence identifying the Beloved Disciple as John is a further step … toward simplifying Christian origins by reduction to the Twelve Apostles. Cullman, then, may be right in his long-held theory that we cannot know the name of the Beloved Disciple [see The Johannine Circle].” (Pg. 33-34)

He observes, “the Johannine Jesus is a stranger who is not understood by his own people and is not even of this world. The Beloved Disciple, the hero of the community, is singled out as the peculiar object of Jesus’ love and is the only male disciple never to have abandoned Jesus. Implicitly, then, the Johannine Christians are those who understand Jesus best, for like him they are rejected, persecuted, and not of this world. Their Christology is more profound, and they can be sure that they have the truth because they are guided by the Paraclete.” (Pg. 89)

He says of the three Johannine epistles, “I am going to assume that all three Epistles were written by one man… The fact that the same doctrinal and moral issues are being combatted in I and II John and that both II and III John are concerned with the acceptance of traveling teachers interlocks the Epistles and makes it likely that all three have come from the same phase of Johannine history. As for the author, it is reasonably certain that he was not the Beloved Disciple. ‘The presbyter’ would be an unexpected self-designation for the Beloved Disciple; and one can scarcely imagine members of the Johannine community ignoring their founding figure to the extent to which the secessionists ignore the author of I John.” (Pg. 94-95)

He acknowledges, “All our evidence points to the fact that a wide acceptance of the Fourth Gospel came earlier among heterodox rather than among orthodox Christians… On the other hand, it is difficult to prove clear use of the Fourth Gospel in the early church writings deemed to be orthodox…

"This curious history of the Fourth Gospel would become quite intelligible if we posit that the larger part of the Johannine community, the secessionists, took the Gospel with them in their intellectual itinerary toward docetism, gnosticism, and Montanism, while the author’s adherents carried the Gospel with them as they were amalgamated into the Great Church.” (Pg. 147-149)

Brown’s books are always illuminating, and this one is no exception. It will be “must reading” for anyone studying the Fourth Gospel, or other “Johannine” writings.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brown's focus on the author(s) of the Gospel of John and the epistles of John provides some great insights, but as with the other work I've read of his, on Antioch and Rome, his conservatism on some levels mixes with conjecture to the extent that I found the work a bit hard to believe in spots. The basic aim of the book is to trace the development of the Johannine community, which Brown takes as being independent of other Christian groups in its early phases.

The earliest Johannine Christians were Jews with a lot of respect for Jesus but who were to an extent outside the realm of typical Jewish believers. Then, folded into them were the Samaritans, who brought along into belief a higher Christology. These developments in turn eventually led to their dismissal from the Jewish synagogues, which is when the Fourth Gospel was written, after this dismissal. Brown does some close readings of John to show how that most likely was the case, which I enjoyed being reminded of. For Brown, the author and person the community looks to is someone known as the Beloved Disciple. How or why John ends up being affiliated with the Beloved Disciple, I'm not sure, but for the community itself it is this disciple who is most important, a disciple who in Brown's theory, is not John.

With the group dismissed from the synagogue, it begins to turn its criticism to “outsiders” (as in the first epistle). These are people who retain relationships with the synagogue, whether as Jews or as hidden Christians, but more schism is on the horizon.

With time, this Gospel is interpreted in different ways by members of the community, and there is a split in the community, with one group moving steadily toward docetism and the other eventually being subsumed by the larger Christian community/church. This is the origin of the epistles for Brown, with one man writing against the group that is moving toward docetism. Because the community was not strongly authoritarian but rather followed the lead of the Holy Spirit, the irony of the epistles is that the author has to try to balance this lead of the Spirit with a certain dallying on authority. He does that by claiming only his group is following the lead of that Spirit. Eventually, with Ignatius, the idea becomes that one follows the leaders who are spirit led.

At least one author has called into question the idea that so many Christian groups existed in the first century, and while I think he might be a bit too conservative in stating that there really was just the one church—I do think some schisms did happen—Brown seems to be positing so many groups in the first century that one wonders who a church even came to be. I don't really buy that there was a Johannine community that was distinct from Paul and from the Twelve, headed by Peter or that some unnamed individual who goes undiscussed in the other gospels was a close affiliator with Jesus and only shows up in the Fourth Gospel.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to read a book that covers (the possible) reconstruction of the Johannine community that gave us the Gospel of John and 1-3 John, then Raymond Brown's book is for you. The charts at the end were worth the price of this book alone. Father Brown's logic and reconstruction was excellent and he makes the case that the arguments in 1-3 John and in the Gospel of John are reflections of the conflicts faced by the Johannine community when these texts were constructed. It is an excellent book covering a challenging topic.

If you love Christian history, then this book is a must read. His appendix where he covers the role of women in the Fourth Gospel was excellent. I must say, that after reading Father Brown's reconstruction of some of the textual variations and the higher cristology of John, I loved it when he shared views that differed from his own at the end of his book. One of the differing views was by a French scholar, Marie-Emile Boismard, and I must say, the couple of pages of Boismard made me wish I could read French. Brown's assessment of Boismard was wonderful and I must say that Boismard fits what we know about the Old Testament, that these texts were adapted over time and redacted (in Boismard's view, 2-3 editions with a redactor at the end). This makes total sense, knowing what we know about ancient texts, especially Jewish texts (see Who Wrote the Bible? by Friedman).

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Father Raymond E. Brown was the foremost scholar of Johannine literature--and possibly all New Testament literature--in the 20th century. I took up The Community of the Beloved Disciple for a graduate-level New Testament course, and though it should be accessible to any serious student of the Bible, the highly academic presentation could prove to be somewhat dry. Also, as Father Brown himself writes in the preface, he hopes for most readers this book "will not constitute their maiden voyage into troubled Johannine waters." In other words, it would be best to pick up first a commentary on John that works for you, and later, if you're ever dying to know what modern critical scholars argue about when examining the New Testament, this book would make a good read. In general, I am fairly skeptical of modern critical methods, but for this book Father Brown skillfully uses these techniques to draw rational conclusions that don't contradict Roman Catholic magesterial teaching.

Personally, I did find the book fascinating, even if I occasionally glazed over while ploughing through extensive references to other scholarly works. Father Brown has given me new eyes for the Johannine writings and new insights into how orthodox Christian doctrine, particularly on Christ and the Church, was formed. Spoiler alert (not really): It was a messy, messy business!

[Mike Harnish · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this is a very well written book, and it has a great deal of useful information, I felt that it professes too much emphasis on only the Gospel of John. I have always been taught that each of the four gospels was written with a different audience in mind and therefore that one had to use each of them to learn what they ALL teach. I believe that the author is attempting to present John's Gospel over the others, and therefore not learning the teachings of the whole New Testament. I feel that this is not the case, but I couldn't shake that feeling. The authors arguments have made me realize the validity of his points and I did learn much more of the New Testament than before.

[Chris Jaffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very informative from a scholar who is deeply knowledgeable about his subject matter - but it's almost impossible to read. To be fair, he notes at the outset that this book isn't for a newbie just starting to explore this material for the first time. OK, but even taking that into account, it's hard to plow through. I often had to re-read what I'd just read - and often the re-reading didn't help one bit.

I came to this book after reading several of Bart Ehrman's books on the New Testament, where he repeatedly noted how informative this was on the Gospel According to John. It is knowledgeable, but entire pages go by where I don't know what he's talking about. One of the best parts in it, is a two-page timeline/overview of the community that produced this gospel and how it likely broke apart.

Brown argues that it started out as a group in a Jewish synagogue. Enough of the terminology used in the gospel has a Jewish background, not a Samaritan or Gentile one. He also believes that the Beloved Disciple refers not to the apostle John, but a man unnamed in this gospel who was present for Christ's ministry and was actually part of this community's synagogue (hence the title of Brown's book). In fact, Brown thinks that the Beloved Disciple was one of two guys who first saw Jesus when he approached John the Baptist.

More Jews joined the group - ones with an anti-Temple bias who believed Christ had made some converts among the Samaritans.

Eventually, the Johnnite community became increasingly strident in their belief that Jesus was the Messiah. This led to confrontation with the rest of the synagogue - resulting in their expulsion. At this point, they doubled down. They'd gone this far with their belief, so they weren't going to back down. This is a reason why the Gospel of John often refers to "the Jews" as the ones responsible for Christ's problems, not just a group of Jews. Here is where they write their gospel.

Their Jesus is different from the other Gospels. Among other things, Jesus pre-existed here. He always existed, well before his birth, an idea you don't see at all in the other gospels. In John, the apostles call him the Messiah and Son of God within days of meeting Jesus, which doesn't happen elsewhere. Christ's statements on his miracles is totally unlike what he says in the other gospels. The Beloved Disciple keeps one-upping St. Peter in this gospel.

Brown argues that you can find traces of 7 groups being addressed here: three groups of non-believers and four different types of believers. First, is the world, that often hates Jesus and his followers. Second, are the Jews. Not all references to them are hostile, though all references to scribes and chief priests are hostile. Third are followers of John the Baptist who didn't join the Jesus movement. Now for the believers. Fourth are the Christian Jews in synagogues who didn't have the guts enough to break with the Johnnite community did. They are called out as cowards (John 9:22-23 and 9:33-38). Fifth are the Jewish Christians who lack enough faith in him. For example, they don't trust about the eucharist (John 6:66). John redeems Mary, but not Jesus's brothers. Is this an intended swipe at James Christ, leader of the Jerusalem bunch? Are Christ's real brothers then the Beloved Disciple's community? Sixth, are the apostlistic churches - y'know, mainline Christian churches. They are better than the previous group, but don't go far enough on things like Christ's pre-existence. Finally, is the Johnnite group.

Was the Jonnite group an actual sect that broke with mainline Christians? Nah. They condemn the second, fourth, and fifth groups in their gospel- but not the sixth group (the mainline group). It was more an internal debate between Christians. They were willing to work with them - but only if they excepted Christ's pre-existence.

Then came the community after the gospel was written. In short, Brown argues that they fell into two camps, who both used the gospel, but interpreted it differently. One group merged with mainline Christianity while the others drifted into gnosticism and the like. In short, the gospel minimized Christ's earthly teaching and earthly presence while maximizing his eternal divinity. So these groups put their emphasis there. Some fell into docetism - believing that there was no true earthly reality to Jesus's earthly presence. Others went into monopythsitism, that he must have only one true nature (earthly or divine), not two. These guys, perhaps a majority of the Johnnite community, fell into stuff like gnosticism. It's worth noting that our first references to this gospel came not from orthodox Christians, but from proto-gnostics in the late 2nd century.

But others were more moderate. They weren't going to deny Christ's earthly existence. And they were willing to cut a deal with mainline Christians, provided that Christ's eternal existence was accepted. And we see some church leaders begin to accept this idea by the early 2nd century. But the late 2nd century, around 180, they were quoting the Gospel According to John (as its reputation as being written by the apostle made it easier to accept).

So there is a lot to chomp on here. In terms of information, this book is a four or maybe even five. In terms of readability, maybe a two. At best.

[Christopher Stein · Rating 5 out of 5]

An academic work on the community behind the Johannine Gospel and Letters. Brown does a nice job of showing how the challenges that the Johannine Community faced are portrayed within the Gospel of John. Also, shows how the community is largely responsible for a high Christology acceptance by the Church and, in return, the Johannine Community's acceptance of Office and Structure as it became one with the Great Church.

[Monica Mitri · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant book. It was my first exposure to the Johannine community and what a ride it was! I look forward to reading more of his books and more on the Johannine community.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I would like to study the history of the Johannine community (which ultimately involves questions of church and sect) by using a fruitful approach that has been opened up in Johannine scholarship of the last ten years. This is based on the suggestion that the Gospel must be read on several levels, so that it tells us the story both of Jesus and of the community that believed in him. Let me discuss that suggestion in general and then some of the cautions that must be kept in mind when one accepts such an approach. Wellhausen and Bultmann were pioneers in insisting that the Gospels tell us primarily about the church situation in which they were written, and only secondarily about the situation of Jesus which prima facie they describe. I would prefer to rephrase that insight as follows. Primarily, the Gospels tell us how an evangelist conceived of and presented Jesus to a Christian community in the last third of the first century, a presentation that indirectly gives us an insight into that community’s life at the time when the Gospel was written. Secondarily, through source analysis, the Gospels reveal something about the pre-Gospel history of the evangelist’s Christological views; indirectly, they also reveal something about the community’s history earlier in the century, especially if the sources the evangelist used had already been part of the community’s heritage. Thirdly, the Gospels offer limited means for reconstructing the ministry and message of the historical Jesus.” (17) So Brown begins this great study of the Gospel of John.

Brown has a certain exegetical style. The reader can see the precise logical breakdown of his arguments. He is a scholar of the highest order, and asks a number of questions throughout. Of particular interest to me is Brown’s treatment of just who were the people of the community of the Beloved Disciple, and to what purpose is the book addressed. “What has happened in the Fourth Gospel is that the vocabulary of the evangelist’s time has been read back into the ministry of Jesus. The Johannine Christians were expelled from the synagogues and told that they could no longer worship with other Jews; and so they no longer considered themselves Jews despite the fact that many were of Jewish ancestry. The Jesus who speaks of ‘the Jews’ (13:33) and of what is written in ‘their Law’ (15:25) is speaking the language of the Johannine Christian for whom the Law is no longer his own but is the hallmark of another religion.” (41) Brown argues that within the text we can see the migration from Judaism to Christianity. “Virtually all scholars acknowledge the existence of the Crypto-Christians in the Johannine ecclesiastical spectrum, but now I argue for the existence of a group that has had less recognition. I think that there were also Jewish Christians who had left the synagogues (or had been expelled), who were publicly known as Christians, who formed churches, and yet toward whom John had a hostile attitude at the end of the century.” (74)

As the Gospel of John was incorporated into the New Testament canon, its theology became the orthodox interpretation of Christianity. Understanding the people that wrote this book can only inform those who wish to understand modern Christianity more fully. Unfortunately, there are more questions than answers. Brown’s questions, however, are good questions. His speculative answers are reasonable as well.

See my other reviews here!

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

From a reservoir of scholarship, Brown posits a history of the Johannine Community from being a group within Judaism, to expulsion, expansion, and to surviving internal schism over the first and into the second century. This church (one of many Christian churches in those earliest days) had a unique Christology, namely that God was made flesh in Jesus. Following from that is the belief that the Spirit (Jesus, God) is alive in the world, as it has always been. We know it more definitively from the ministry of Jesus. The christologies of the other Christian churches did not have quite this same understanding.
The Christology of the Johannine Community was accepted into the Canon of the Christian Church when the larger church accepted the Gospel and Epistles of John, probably in the second century. From this Johannine Community comes the realization that the essential message of Christianity is love: God's love, and our obligations to one another implied in that belief. Everything else is accidental, including governance. Faithfulness requires governance and sustenance. But life comes, not from the institution, but from God. The tension that this sets up, which was embraced by early Christianity, continues to be a corrective to authoritarianism in the Roman Church today.
Christianity was messy from the beginning. Very like it still is.
This is a slight book, very readable, and sheds light on some of that early history.

[Sagely · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Raymond Brown narrates a constructed history of the Johannine family of congregations. While the details of his story are by no means certain and, of course, subject to ongoing debate, the story he tells is easy to follow, powerfully told, and solidly grounded in exegesis of the Johannine literature.

My congregation is in the midst of a wide conflict in our denomination. Congregations are pitting themselves against other congregations, and many in my church want to join in on the action.

Reading through 2 & 3 Jn last Fall convinced me that we're not the first family of churches to enter into this kind of conflict. I felt strongly led that God could guide us, in part, through the example of Jn's churches as they navigated their conflict. This became a Lenten journey for our congregation on Sunday mornings.

CoBD has been a constant resource in this series. Especially in Phase Three, where Brown analyzes the forces at work in the Johannine churches when the epistles were written, I've found parallels to many of the differences of Scriptural interpretation and of standards of behavior that fuel conflict in our denomination. Taking guidance from the epistolary author's response has been painful but helpful.

A great book.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

And the author consistently refers to John the Baptist as JBap, which I found quite annoying. I mean, I know “John the Baptist” takes a lot of space on the page, but geeze. JBap sounds like an awful sub-genre of pop music.

More here:

https://thescienceofdao.substack.com/...

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Educational, comprehensive, insightful as always with Raymond E. Brown. Recommended for anyone interested in the New Testament, especially the background of the Gospel of John and the epistles I, II and III John.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is not strictly a review of the book (which is most excellent) but some thoughts prompted by my reading of it:

http://thatjeffcarterwashere.blogspot...

[Laura Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admit I have never been a great fan of the two-levels hypothesis to explain John (Duke heresy, I know). But the end discussion on 2nd century reception and how John came to us as an orthodox text is outstanding.