Abstract:
The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic situation persuades a reader of the
Fourth Gospel to interpret the Scripture in new lights. In the contemporary context, the gospel
of John has the potential to attune the attention of the reader towards the existential struggles
of the people with myriad interpretative possibilities. The Jews often twinned sinfulness and
sickness together, and in that light, they considered Jesus as a social sinner and his followers
as a diseased community. The Johannine narrator realigns the struggles of the Sitz im Leben
Kirche dynamically within the Sitz im Leben Jesu to present his defensive rhetoric. The Johannine
community was composed of those who suffered quarantine, social isolation, sicknesses,
resource deficiencies and continuous cleansing processes in the socio-religious and politicocultural
setting of their life. Jesus as the creator of the universe and the giver of life provides
them hope in the midst of suffering and liberates them from the clutches of dehumanisation
and marginalisation. A realignment of the Sitz im Leben COVID-19 within the framework of
the Sitz im Leben Jesu/Sitz im Leben Kirche would guide us during the difficult times.
CONTRIBUTION : This article contributes to the reader a wider hermeneutical framework and a
new way forward in interpreting the Fourth Gospel by taking into consideration the ongoing
struggle of humanity across the globe during the COVID-19 pandemic situation. As a narrative,
contextual and theological interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, the current article fits well
within the scope of HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies.
