Peter Ellis suggests that John's Passion Narrative fits a chiastic structure, as follows: C Jesus, king of Israel, judged by Pilate, rejected by his people — B' True high priest carries wood of his own sacrifice like Isaac ; beloved disciple present — Because many of the features on which he focuses to achieve this structure are so secondary and because the units may be adapted to suit the proposed structure, the suggested chiasmus ultimately proves less than persuasive.
It does, however, evidence some patterns that point to the narrative artistry of their designer. More persuasive is the observation by Ellis and others that irony pervades the narrative. Thus Judas who went forth into «the night» in 13now returns in darkness to arrest the light of the world; Pilate the governor questions if Jesus is a king when the readers know that he is; Pilate demands, «What is truth?
Although, on the whole, we think John essentially independent from the Synoptics, the Passion Narrative is different; John's audience probably already knows the basic passion story from other sources cf. Their prior knowledge would not render John's version of the story any less intriguing to his audience, however: stories were told repeatedly in the ancient Mediterranean, and a good story could build suspense even if one knew the final outcome.
Where theological symbolism guides his adaptations, it is generally in the service of Christology: Jesus is the Passover lamb cf. First we should address the genre ancient readers may have recognized in the Passion Narrative. Naturally, in the Gospels readers would approach it as a common part of ancient biographies, but we must also ask about the independent passion narrative or, perhaps more likely, various passion narrations that stands behind this portion of the Gospels.
Because both address the unjust death of the righteous, the passion narratives repeat some themes also appearing in martyr stories e. Those who stood against the establishment regularly invited repression. Important as comparisons with martyr stories are for analysis of the texts, the comparisons contain some limitations. Apart from the fact that both martyr stories and Gospel passion narratives involve a righteous person's unjust death, the parallels may be inadequate to place the Gospel passion stories fully in this genre, especially given the differences.
