Rhetorical and Postcolonial Readings of John 4 and 8: its Hermeneutical Application in Korea

AbstractThis article explores rhetorical and postcolonial readings of John 4 and 8. These Johannine chapters contain rhetorical characteristics and the rhetorical technique of “comparison” that is implicitly indicated in John 4:3-9 and 8:48-58. These approaches suggest that the Johannine author deliberately employed them in order to present Jesus as Christ/Messiah who embraced nations—Jews, Samaritans, and all Gentile nations, just as Abraham is seen as the father of all nations. Rhetorical and postcolonial readings further highlight Jesus’s messianic act of passing through Samaria, which challenged and decolonized the Jews’ (pre)dominant claim of their religious and ethnic superiority over Samaritans under the colonization of the Roman Empire and the hegemony of Roman imperialism. Furthermore, the highlight is reread and re-evaluated for Koreans in the Korean peninsula, which is in a difficult political and diplomatic position that requires reconciliation and reunification between the two Koreas. All these hermeneutical attempts and outcomes encourage and motivate one to go beyond religious and ritual readings of the Gospel of John and place more emphasis on political and ideological readings of Jesus’s interactions with Samaritans and Jews in the gospel.