Abstract

In this final part of a two-part essay an attempt is made to identify the most plausible historical context and the socio-religious matrix in which the Johannine Signs Gospel took shape. The essay argues that the document is the product of a Jesuanic-Baptist group of southern origin, whose distinctive memory of Jesus as a baptizer and miracle-worker in Judaea was subsequently expanded, through contact with the Gospel of Mark and its Galilean tradition, into a full-blown missionary gospel with one single purpose: to demonstrate that Jesus is the awaited royal and prophetic Messiah who, as shown by his powerful signs, is able to rebuild the Temple and restore the nation after the catastrophe of 70 C.E.