John the Baptist and the pre-existence of Jesus in the Gospel of John : the Social rhetoric of pre-existence pronouncements in John 1:15, 27, 30 : research article

The pre-existence of Jesus of Nazareth in the narrative of the Gospel of John is argued and represented variously in the course of the narrative, inter alia with reference to the phrase that Jesus was 'before John' o|ti prw'tα∼ mou h|n (1:15, 30). While the pre-existence of Jesus is to be accepted as an inherent part of the Johannine portrayal of Jesus, this particular phrase does not unambiguously support such an interpretation. This essay argues that the phrase should be understood in the context of the Johannine polemics against followers of John the Baptist as a rhetorical tool in the service of ranking the two figures, thus in the first instance as a narrational element and not as theological statement. Understanding the phrase in this light allows its use as data source for a construction of the historical location and social history of the Johannine 'trajectory' or tradition in the midst of the complex religious innovations and tradition-making that characterised the Graeco-Roman world of the first century C.E.