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.

‘In his carefully argued and richly documented study of the themes of Presence and Absence in the Fourth Gospel, Josiah Hall explores the tension created by the claim that Jesus is the enfleshed presence of God, necessary for gaining an understanding of the divine, and his oft announced departure from his disciples. That Jesus is present despite or because of his absence is manifest in the work of the Spirit/Paraclete, but that too is a complex phenomenon. The contexts of ancient Israelite and Greco-Roman reflections on why and how deities use their presence and absence provides the larger context of this study. The evangelist’s rhetorical aims of drawing outsiders to belief and assuaging believers’ anxieties about the absence of Jesus shape the detailed analysis. Framed in critical dialogue with an impressive array of Johannine scholarship, Hall’s study is an impressive contribution to the world of Johannine scholarship.’

Harold W. Attridge - Sterling Professor of Divinity, emeritus, Yale University Divinity School

‘A fascinating exploration of John’s Gospel! Josiah Hall situates his study in the diverse understandings of epiphanies in the Greco-Roman world, carefully integrating insights from Jewish and non-Jewish sources that are regularly overlooked-or that haven’t been consulted before at all. The result is a vivid and thought-provoking look at John’s use of expectations about divine presence and absence to convince audiences to trust in Jesus despite his physical absence. Hall’s work propels conversations on John’s Gospel forward, providing a promising foundation for more discoveries to follow.’

Alicia D. Myers - Baylor University