Divine Presence and Absence in the Gospel of John

Scholars have long recognized John's dual focus on Jesus's relationship to God's presence and his impending physical absence. Yet attention to Jesus's absence is often restricted to the Farewell Discourse. Josiah D. Hall here provides an innovative reading of John's Gospel, arguing that tension between Jesus's presence and absence develops throughout the narrative and is integral to the Gospel's plot. Drawing on sources from across the ancient Mediterranean basin, Hall contends that John leverages conceptions of how deities would manifest their presence to clarify that Jesus is the enfleshed divine presence. Likewise, John depicts Jesus's absence by drawing on motifs of divine departure, especially those which understand a deity's absence as judgment. Attending closely to the paradoxical import of Jesus's presence and absence in John, Hall provides insights on classic Johannine riddles, including John's perspectives on the temple, the characters he labels as 'the Jews', and the Spirit-Paraclete's relationship to Jesus.