John 1.1-20.23 as Three Year Cycle read twice against Triennial Lectionary

Return to Index or John 1-13 and theTriennial Lectionary (by C. T.Ruddick, Jr) or The Gospel of John and the Lectionary

            I can detect four discrete endings/editions of the Fourth Gospel.
                    1) John 1-19 (probably with fewer materials in it than there are now), laid out against the lectionary so that Jn 1.1. goes with Gen 1.1 (which it clearly echoes) and at the end of Jn 19 Jesus' death matches Moses' death in Deut 34, with the Spirit being handed over at the 'lifting up', i.e., the cross (Jn 19.30).  (As David Cook, my former colleague at The Queen's College, Birmingham, used to express it, 'The resurrection narratives are an embarrassing surd in the Fourth Gospel'.  He used to set this as an essay title to students and invite them to discuss it.)
                    2) John 1.1-20.23, with materials shifted/edited/added/deleted?  so that Jn 1.1. now is up against Gen 5.1 and the three Vaticanus sections of Jn 20.1-23 match Gen 1.1-4.end.  This is the edition that is laid out below.
                    3) John 1.1-20.end, with the 'doubting Thomas' and the clear ending added (this now upsets the lectionary location of the Gospel - had it been abandoned?)
                    4) The Epilogue, Jn 21, was added.

            Now for an explanation of the layout below.  There are three great Passover stories for the Christian Easter:
                    1) The Messianic Passover Feeding of the Five Thousand,
                    2) The Last Supper as the Christian Passover Meal, and
                    3) The Resurrection Event.
            Mark places the Feeding of the 5,000 (Mk 6.30-44) against Gen 1.1-2.4a (Creation) and Exod 11.1-12.28 (Passover out of Egypt) on the Tishri cycle, and the Last Supper (Mk 14.17-26) against Gen 1.1-2.4a and Exod 11.1-12.28 on the Nisan cycle.  In Matthew's re-write, the Resurrection (Matt 28.1-7) falls to Gen 1.1-2.4a and Exod 11.1-12.28 on the Nisan cycle.
            It would appear that John makes all three narratives fall to 'Easter' and Gen 1.1-2.4a and Exod 11.1-12.28 when John is read twice over three years.
            To do this requires that in the second time through eleven sections must be omitted , i.e. the bulk of the farewell discourses, §§ 49-51, 53-60, apart from John 17.  The one 'filler' section needed may well be §52, 14.27-31, the 'Peace I leave with you' section which R. E. Brown and others have thought to be appropriate as an inclusio bracketing of the Passion (and picked up in 20.19-23).