| Summary: | This study seeks to explore, synchronically, the Story of Sin within John's Gospel, examining how the concept emerges and develops through the events and discourse of the narrative. The origin of sin, its consequences and the way in which sin is overcome provokes much discussion. Over many years, commentators on John's Gospel have concluded that sin does not usually function as a moral category within the narrative; many consider sin in John's Gospel as equivalent to unbelief. However, while the nature of belief and unbelief within the gospel has been the focus of much study, less attention has been paid to the way in which the concept of sin is portrayed within the drama of the narrative story. While the individual occurrences of the noun hamartia within the text have been examined, detailed study has not been carried out on the group of texts as a whole. From its beginnings in Jn 1 . the story of sin emerges cumulatively within the narrative to provide a clear and comprehensive depiction of sin. Exemplified through the reactions of key individuals to Jesus, the interaction produced by miracles, dialogue and discourse reveals that Jesus is the central character in the unfolding story of sin. Each of the passages, within which hamartia occurs, expose the intricate relationship between sin and the recognition of Jesus' identity. Sin may not always be directly associated with unbelief; but it remains tied to a failure to recognise who Jesus is. Within this study narrative-critical tools are brought bear on all of the occurrences of hamartia in John, examining the language of sin as it emerges and thereby tracing the developing story of sin throughout the whole gospel. The result is a more nuanced and comprehensive account of the story of sin than has been available to scholars hitherto.
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