Abstract:
Over the years, John’s Gospel is often considered a standing unique testimony rather distinct from the Synoptics. Modern Johannine scholarship engagement brings several issues (authorship, prologue, recipient, structure, genre and date, among others) in John’s Gospel to lime light; but the focus of this study is ?p?s??a????? - ‘put out of Synagogue’. Meanwhile, this concept is not found in the Synoptics. The crisis between the Jews and the Jewish Christian has been a hot debate in Johannine scholarship; having to do with the construction of John’s community and the credibility of Jesus’ life and ministry presented in the account. A reading of John’s Gospel with the consciousness of His original recipients might make a critical mind view ?p?s??a????? as an interpolation or embellishment. John’s style of narrative has brought different questions and opinions from different scholars to play. Notable among which is the ‘two-level reading’ by L. Martyn in 1968 which has created a landmark. The study explores the opinion of scholars as it concerns the usage of ?p?s??a????? by John via interaction with their works. The study observes that are several attempts to often compare and contrast these sections in which ?p?s??a????? surfaced in John’s Gospel. Therefore, this study is significant in the sense that it undertakes a critical study of the texts in order to come about a reconstruction and synthesis of ?p?s??a?????. In other words, the study seeks to critically engage the texts with the aim of ascertaining the nature of ?p?s??a????? within its various contextual periscopes and exerting its relevance to believers in the contemporary time.
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