ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter of this study I have discussed the implications of the hermeneutical concept of the Struggle for Language for the interpretation of the hymn underlying the prologue to John's Gospel. In the course of the diseussion we have seen that the evangelist inserted an annotated hymn into the prologue of his gospel in order to embed his own work in the framework of the Johannine tradition. The following ease-study is going to foeus on the original work of the evangelist by analysing the ereation of language in the Nicodemus-dialogue, John 3:1-21. This passage shows how the evangelist, i.e. the author of the main body of the gospel,347 uses different traditions and motifs of religious language in order to find a way to express the kerygma. The previous ease-study has dealt with the hymn underlying the prologue to John's Gospel, whieh represents a stage of the development of John' s Gospel previous to the work of the evangelist and thus an earlier step in the evolution of Johannine theology. So this study eonsiders the work of the evangelist and the way he transformed his material in order to express his theology and how Johannine theology was further developed, built upon the earlier Johannine tradition and influeneed by thought of the eontemporary environment.
