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Bell & Howell Information and Learning: Foreign text omitted . . .
THE EPISODE in John 3:22-30 regularly gets short shrift from commentators.1 That is especially true of the Baptizer's striking remark in v. 30 that is praised, at best, but is never interpreted.2 Nor has anyone taken notice of how foreign to Mediterranean culture that remark really is; hence no one, to our knowledge, has ever felt the need to find suitable ancient, non-biblical parallels that might be brought to bear on its interpretation. In the discussion that follows, however, we shall examine relevant parallel material that is, indeed, illuminating. Yet we do not do this as just another history-of-religions investigation. Instead, we bring to the task models from comparative anthropology that enable us to assess John 3:30 in its proper cultural and social context.
It has also been true that this passage is rarely compared with other materials in the Fourth Gospel that might offer clarification of it. Monographs and commentaries typically investigate the links between John and Jesus in John 1, and indicate the continuation of these in John 3:22-30. Yet we shall argue, beyond this, that at least in 11:45-52 we find an important but unnoticed contrast to 3:22-30. Whereas John the Baptist did not suffer envy at Jesus' success, the Jerusalem elite did so. The interpretive key to that contrast, we argue, lies in the sociology of perception ("limited good") and the anthropology of envy.
Our thesis is that in the episode of 3:22-39, John's disciples are on the verge of envying Jesus and his disciples. Like most people in antiquity, they appear to share the view that all goods are limited in quantity and are already fully distributed. There is only so much land, gold, fame, or praise existing in the world. Thus, if someone seems to be gaining any of these, inevitably others must be losing-- possibly I am, or one of my friends is. In other words, the world is a zero-sum game: for some to increase, others must decrease. The Baptizer himself steps apart from the game, but not so his disciples. For them, Jesus' success appears to be a gain that implies their loss. It is this cultural concept of "limited good," and relevant ancient...