Se hur Jesus höll av dem : En narrativ, semantisk och queer studie av användningen av φιλέω och ἀγαπάω, i relation till Lasarus och den älskade lärjungen, i Johannesevangeliet.

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines whether the language and narrative structure of the Gospel of John allow for an identification of Lazarus of Bethany and the figure referred to as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” The study is hypothesis-testing and focuses on the Johannine use of the Greek verbs ἀγαπάω and φιλέω, both of which are used to describe Jesus’ relationship with Lazarus and the beloved disciple. By analysing how these verbs function within the Gospel’s relational language, the thesis investigates how intimacy, hierarchy, and identity are constructed through narrative and rhetorical strategies. The study combines narrative criticism, rhetorical criticism, lexical analysis, and queer hermeneutics. Particular attention is given to characterisation, focalisation, bodily proximity, repetition, emotional intensification, and strategic silence within the text. Queer theory is employed, not to impose modern identity categories onto the Gospel, but to critically examine how normative assumptions have shaped traditional interpretations of intimacy and relationality in Johannine scholarship. The analysis demonstrates that Lazarus and the beloved disciple occupy strikingly similar narrative positions within the Gospel. Both figures are associated with exceptional intimacy with Jesus, are placed at pivotal moments in the narrative, and are framed through emotionally charged language and scenes of bodily proximity. Furthermore, the semantic overlap between ἀγαπάω and φιλέω suggests that the Gospel’s love terminology functions less as a distinction between different forms of love and more as a rhetorical intensification of relational proximity. The thesis argues that the Gospel of John does not explicitly identify Lazarus and the beloved disciple as the same person, but that its narrative and linguistic strategies leave open the possibility of such a reading. In doing so, the study contributes to Johannine scholarship by integrating queer hermeneutics with close textual analysis and by highlighting how language, narrative structure, and rhetorical strategy interact in the construction of intimacy and identity within the Gospel.