Fragments of 'dry bones' in John. Reception of Ez 37:1–14 in John's Gospel

Abstract

It is nothing new that John uses throughout his Gospel many allusions to Ezechiel. At least since the late 90s of the 20th century, we even have three monographs in English dedicated to John's use of Ezechiel.

This paper will focus on John's use of only one of Ezechiel's visions: The Vision of the Dry Bones (Ez 37,1-14). John alludes to this vision twice in his Gospel (J 5,25;28-29 and J 20,22). Using tools of keying and framing derived from Social Memory Theory as introduced to the biblical studies by American sociologist Barry Schwartz, this paper will demonstrate how John alludes to this Ezechiel's vision from the Social Memory Theory point of view and will show how can this approach contribute to the existing interpretations.

Keywords

• Ez 37,1–14
• vision of the dry bones
• social memory theory
• keying
• framing
• allusions
• J 5,25
• 28–29
• J 20,22