The liturgical context as ecclesial hermeneutical key of the gospel according to John

Abstract

The author proposes to consider the liturgical context in which the Johannine pericopes are proclaimed and commented as a hermeneutical key necessary for updating the biblical text. He gives the example of the pericopes of the Samaritan woman, the man born blind, the raising of Lazarus, the paralytic at the pool of Bethzatha, and the son of an Officer from Capernaum, and analyzes its liturgical use in the present Roman liturgy and in the Ambrosian, Hispanic and Byzantine liturgies. The author shows how these pericopes acquire different connotations in the context of the other Johannine pericopes of time of Lent and Easter. It concludes that the liturgical context does not negate the exegetical approach to biblical texts, but sustains and complements it.