Constructing Temple Spaces in the Gospel of John: Purity, Participation, and God's Covenantal Presence

This study examines the complexity of temple imagery and how it structures spaces in early Judaism and John’s Gospel by integrating modern metaphor and spatial theory with traditional exegesis. After identifying varied conceptions of ‘templised’ space in the Jewish Scriptures and the works of Josephus, Philo, and Qumran, it demonstrates how John 1–4 and 13–15 map temple imagery and abiding language on multiple spaces of divine encounter. In relation to the temple, John engages purity concerns to indicate covenantal participation with God, in and through the embodied person of Jesus, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.