I have enjoyed the discussion in the comments to the post below about John's Gospel, a discussion which has ranged over a number of questions concerning the history John tells and the theology expressed through that telling. Is John's theological history more theology than history?
I want to offer an observation or two here but am not specifically relating these observations to any observations in the comments below as I do not have time this week - much travelling about to take place - to fully engage in a fascinating conversation (and a respectful one too - thank you commenters).
Observation 1
John's Gospel, whatever we make of the cleansing of the temple (is John's "early" cleansing a shift in time or a second cleansing to the Synoptics' late cleansing?) or the day of Jesus' crucifixion (which differs by a day from the Synoptics' version) or any other anomaly we seeby comparing John with the Synoptics, is a historical account in at least this way: John's narrative outline is the Synoptics' outline in respect of the big events: baptism, miracles/signs and teaching/discourses, entry into Jerusalem at the end of his life, debate and dispute, a last supper with disciples, betrayal, arrest, trial, crucifixion, burial and resurrection. That is, when John talks about the Word being made flesh (1:14), he is talking about the Word being made Jesus of Nazareth in the same way as the Synoptics. This man called Jesus and no other man called by any other name, and this man Jesus has things happen to him and is involved in events as all the gospels recount. John's Gospel is historical in the same way as the Synoptics regarding most of the significant events of Jesus' life. Whatever spiritual or heavenly insights we glean from John such as about Jesus as the apocalyptic revealer-agent of God, descended to us and ascending back to the Father (see end of John 1, John 3), with all the mystical overtones involved in such passages, everything in John's Gospel is about the man Jesus, just as the Synoptics are.
Observation 2
John's Gospel can be historical (per observation 1 above) without implication that the way it tells history satisfies expectations we may have for consistency. If the cleansing of the temple according to John is placed chronologically differently to the Synoptics, that is awkward to explain because it means there is an inconsistency between the Johannine and Synoptical histories of Jesus. We don't like inconsistencies between histories. But what if there is an explanation other than that "there must have been two cleansings, one told by John, one told by the Synoptics"? What if, in a different world and in a different time, that way of telling history, driven by wish to make a theological point or three, was accepted as "okay"? And, if that is so, it may undermine our regard for John as history and not exactly uplift the mana of John as theology. But is the "our" here as important as understanding the "he": John wrote the gospel not us!
That is enough for now. I am off on a roadie to Waitangi. Next week, see my report on events there. Might it be a theological history of what happened in a deeply historical place, over which there is much arguing as to the meaning and significance thereunto :).