In the Lap of Jesus: The Hermeneutics of Sex and Eros in John's Portrayal of the Beloved Disciple

Abstract

I n t h e B I B l e , t h e G o s p e l A c c o r d I n G to John depicts Jesus during dinner in intimate repose with a disciple who appears as the special object of his love: “One of his disciples was reclining in the lap [ἐν τῷ κόλπῳ] of Jesus, the one whom Jesus loved” (13:23). Peter prompts this disciple to inquire about the identity of the betrayer whom Jesus has recently foretold: “That one, then, leaning back this way on the chest [ἐπὶ τὸ στῆθος] of Jesus says to him, ‘Lord, who is it?’” (13:25). Near the end of the gospel these details resurface when the narrator identifies “the disciple whom Jesus loved” with a retrospective reference to him as the one “who also leaned back at the dinner on the chest [ἐπὶ τὸ στῆθος] of Jesus” (21:20). What do these narrative details mean? What should reclining in the lap of Jesus be taken to imply? For answers scholars refer to well-known and muchrecycled comparanda from the Septuagint (the earliest Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures) and early Christian literature. In the Septuagint a depiction of a mother or nurse holding a child in the lap or bosom suggests breastfeeding. In Luke 16:22 and 16:23, Lazarus reclines in the lap of “father” Abraham, which suggests parental cradling, fatherly warmth, and benevolence. Elsewhere in the Septuagint a man holds his precious