Glory and Glorification in the Gospel of John

Johnson Pang analyses John 17:20–23 in order to define glory and explain how its granting enables unity and witness. Acknowledging that the glory given by Jesus to the disciples has received little attention in Johannine scholarship, Pang also examines and synthesizes how the Fourth Gospel uniquely characterizes the life and death of Jesus with the language of glory and glorification, in order to interpret John 17:22 in light of the entire gospel.

Pang examines how John first introduces and defines Jesus's doxa in the prologue to the gospel, providing a hermeneutical lens to interpret further occurrences of doxa in the ensuing narrative. He then surveys the occurrences of doxa in Jesus's public ministry and traces how the Fourth Gospel presents and develops Jesus's doxa in the narrative. Pang also examines the use of the verb doxazo and argues that John uses the the term largely (but not exclusively) to refer to Jesus' death and resurrection, and that John presents this as glory-revealing in itself, rather than simply as a waypoint towards glory. Pang further examines the passages connecting discipleship with glorification, and finally proposes a specific definition of doxa given to the disciples in John 17:22; arguing that this granting of glory is what enables their unity and mission, ontologically and functionally, and reinforces the disciples' social identity as a group vis-à-vis the world.