Jesus’ Friends in John 15 and the Hellenistic Royal Court

Abstract

The present contribution utilizes the reference to disciples as Jesus’ friends in Jesus’ Farewell Talk to the Apostles in John 15 as evidence of the contemporary understanding of the Hellenistic royal in essentially non-Greek circles of the Greco-Roman East. It also argues that this passage may help to explain the very nature of the Hellenistic royal friends (philoi) as compared to other possible types of relation to monarchs (servants – douloi, companions – hetairoi) in the earlier Hellenistic Age.