Narrative and history

My aim in this chapter is to explore the journey from narrative history through narrative source to narrative gospel. As with the corresponding chapter in part I (chapter 4), my headings to each section reflect this tradition history. In this section I shall be looking at the issue of narrative and history in John 18–19, and in doing so I shall be asking the same two questions which I asked about John in general in chapter 4: (1) In what sense can we speak of history at the heart of John 18–19? (2) In what sense was this history already narrative in form? In the second section I will want to take the reader on the journey from history to source. Having argued in this first section that John is narrating valuable historical data in John 18–19, I shall show in the second section how this history was very early on redescribed in the form of a primitive passion narrative, the general character of which can be discerned by distinguishing between tradition and redaction. The reader will have already spotted that I detect two main narrative sources behind John's gospel: a catena of miracle stories from Galilee and, most significantly, a primitive gospel narrative based on the reminiscences of Lazarus, the disciple whom Jesus loved. The question left unanswered in my hypothetical reconstruction is this: where does the passion fit into this picture?