Prof. Dr. Dr. Jan Gabriël van der Watt

Wissenschaftlicher Werdegang

• 1986 Promotion (D.D.) an der University of Pretoria;
• 1999 Promotion (D.Lit.) an der University of Pretoria
• 1986-2009 Professor für Neues Testament an der University of Pretoria seit 2009 Professor in Nijmegen.

• 1991-92 Alexander von Humboldt-Stipendiat;
• 2004 Beeson International visiting Professor am Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmington, Kentucky (USA);
• 2005 Mercator International Professor an der Friedrich-Wilhelm Universität, Bonn.

Forschungsschwerpunkte

• Johanneische Literatur
• frühchristliche Ethik
• Spiritualität und das Neue Testament
• Bibelexegese in Afrika

Wichtige Publikationen

• Christ is your hope. The letter to the Colossians - a semantic discourse analysis, Pretoria 1988
• Family of the King. Dynamics of metaphor in the Gospel according to John, Leiden 2000
• Introduction to the Gospel and Letters of John, London 2007
• Hg. v. Salvation in the New Testament. Perspectives on soteriology, Leiden 2005
• Hg.: Identity, ethics and ethos in the New Testament, Berlin 2006
• Hg. mit J. Frey, R. Zimmermann: Imagery in the Gospel of John, Tübingen 2006
• Hg. mit R. Zimmermann: Moral language of the New Testament, Tübingen 2010

Forschungsprojekt an der LMU

ETHICS IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN?

Until recently widespread consensus existed that the Gospel of John does not provide ethical guidance. This position is challenged in this project by rethinking the analytical categories used for analyzing the text of the Gospel regarding the presence of ethical material. The underlying ethical dynamics of the Johannine texts are explored by analyzing the action lines within the narrative, observing deviating behaviour, considering the ethical impact of the of the multiple metaphors used, describing the interrelatedness of worldview, identity, values, principles, prescriptions and actual deeds. An ethical picture emerges of a community which lived according to Jewish moral ethos and the example of Jesus and ‘melted’ into the ordinary moral patterns of the societies in which they lived except when obvious clashes with the Jesus’ example occurred.