THE HOUR COMES AND NOW IS HERE (JOHN 4,23; 5,25) THE ESCHATOLOGICAL MEANING OF THE JOHANNINE WRA
THE HOUR COMES AND NOW IS HERE (JOHN 4,23; 5,25) THE ESCHATOLOGICAL MEANING OF THE JOHANNINE WRA

Summary/Abstract: Several times, the Fourth Gospels announces and states the coming of a certain “hour”. While it is obvious that this “hour” is linked to Jesus’ Passion, this contribution argues that the link extends to the present of the believers which is understood to be part of the w[ra. By the term w[ra, the Evangelist links the Passion as a basic event in the past to the eschatological age determined by this event. This w[ra concept could account for the “hermeneutische Horizontverschmelzung” stated in the Fourth Gospel as well as for some aspects of the Gospel’s juxtaposition of realized and future eschatology: The hour has already come, it is present; yet there is also a future within the hour that is still to be waited for. The wra comprises both present and future and ties them back to the decisive initial event in the past: the Passion, the beginning of the wra.

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