Scattered, Oppressed, Empowered: Resemanticization of Χρῖσμα in 1 John 2:20

Abstract

This article focuses on arguably the central element of a Christian’s identity as it is seen in John’s letters (and the rest of Johannine corpus—the Fourth Gospel and Revelation). While there are many ways of describing this Christ-centred reality (new birth, adoption, election, baptism, etc.), here an attempt is made to show how characteristically Johannine use of the noun χρῖσμα (and some OT precedents of resemanticization) can help the reader identify with Christ himself and with scattered, uprooted Christian communities. The main argument is that this identification is primarily metonymical (based on unity of purpose/mission), rather than metaphorical (based on the perceived similarity of circumstances). John’s χρῖσμα is an essential element of the disciples’ view of themselves as a community of “sent ones.” Such identification may help marginalized and disoriented migrants see their experience of being scattered and displaced against a possible background of God’s larger purpose in the world.

In his approach, John seems to be following several OT trajectories of the semantic shift. As the word χριστός in LXX was given sematic extensions, so that it included individuals who originally did not seem to possess the necessary status, so in John’s Epistles χρῖσμα, taken far beyond its literal meaning, serves as a group marker. Those whom John identifies as recipients of χρῖσμα are viewed as individuals strongly rooted both in the past and—eschatologically—in the future.