Abstract
Asia Minor is likely the formative center for Johannine Christianity in the decades following the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE.¹ Traditionally, scholars identify Ephesus as the locus of its developing social and religious life and relationships in this new diaspora setting.² Although the leaders of this form of the Jesus movement would have sought fellowship among Jewish people in the synagogue alongside gentiles in the region, they would have found themselves in dialogue and, soon, in conflict with these same kinspeople, not only about their belief in Jesus as Messiah but also about their developing high