The Gospel of John and the Lectionary
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This is very much work in progress, and is
offered at this point (August, 2008) for anyone who wishes to take it up.
C. T. Ruddick, Jr. (now deceased) sent me some thirty years ago his attempt to
correlate the Codex Vaticanus divisions of John 1-13 to the Palestinian triennial
lectionary (John
1-13 and the Torah Sedarim of the first and second years of the Nisan and first
year of the Tishri Cycles). It seemed
cogent enough to me, and, picking up from the end of Ruddick's sequence, I then blocked out John 14.1-20.23
against the Vaticanus divisions, and it appeared to work (John
14.1-20.23 and the Triennial Lectionary - fuller details yet to be added from my
notes). In the process of working with John it became my judgement that
the written gospel had had four successive endings as further materials
were added (see next link), and furthermore, that it seemed a reasonable
hypothesis worth considering that at one stage John may have been read twice over
three years (John
1.1-20.23 as Three Year Cycle read twice against Triennial Lectionary).
I inclined to believe that John 1.1
was initially read against Gen 1 (Nisan cycle), not Gen 5, and that the gospel
ended with John 19 where Jesus hands over the Spirit at the cross, with Jesus'
death matching Moses' death, Dent 34 (Tishri cycle). The second time of
reading the gospel would then start with Gen 1 (Tishri cycle).
The second stage of John added
20-.1-23, matching Gen 1-4, and the gospel was adjusted (by adding materials?)
so that the gospel now started at Gen 5.1, as per Ruddick, but the gospel was
still read twice over three years as before.
At the third stage, with the addition
of the 'doubting Thomas' story, 20.24-31, the lectionary sequence was
disrupted. We can only speculate as to why. Two possibly
inter-related reasons might be a loosened if not lost connection to the
synagogue and/or an increasingly Gentile membership for whom the relationship
had less relevance,
This rupture was then further
exacerbated by the addition of the epilogue, John 21.