The Sublimity of the Language of Jesus in the Gospel of John: a Comparison with De sublimitate

This article employs Longinus' concept of the sublime to interpret and explain aspects of the sublime in the characterisation of Jesus' language as found in the Fourth Gospel. It begins by observing that two things- the elusiveness of Jesus' language and Jesus' presentation as being above `earthly' speakers (John 3:31, 34) - suggest that Jesus' language is sublime in the rhetorical sense that we find in Longinus' De sublimitate. To test this hypothesis, the second part of the article examines eight key characteristics of the sublime in Longinus' treatise and compares them with how the language of the Johannine Jesus is depicted. In general, the article shows how John employs these characteristics and argues that John's adaptation of the notion of the sublime is essential to his Christology and soteriology.