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Wilbert Howard was a noted expositor of the Fourth Gospel, and in this book he proved a sure guide for students and general readers through the mazes of historical and internal criticism as these affected the interpretation of this Gospel. His untimely passing robbed the Biblical world of a sure expositor and careful investigator. C. K. Barrett added sections of his own to take proper account of following work, through 1961, on the problem of the Fourth Gospel.
Daniel DeForest London argues that the Fourth Gospel offers a potentially transformative response to the question of suffering and the human compulsion to blame. Based on his reading of John 9 (the man born blind), London argues that the Gospel does not offer a theodicy, but rather a theodical spirituality, an experience of praying the question of suffering and remaining open to a divine response. London shows how the Johannine Jesus’s response poses three sets of symbols in dichotomy (day/night, vision/blindness, sheep/wolf), each subverted by another, core symbol (light, judge, shepherd). By interpreting these symbols in light of mimetic theory, he argues that Jesus’s response reveals the scapegoat mechanism in which an innocent victim is blamed by violent victimizers. However, rather than blaming the victimizers, Jesus continues to engage with the characters who appear to be villains: the light of the world transforms night and day into one continuous day; the Good Shepherd welcomes sheep and wolf into his beloved flock. In this way, readers are invited to bring to the Johannine Jesus their own violence, resentment, and wolfish rage regarding the question of suffering and to experience the theodical spirituality of the Fourth Gospel.
The book examines six long narratives of the Fourth Gospel, arguing that they are best understood as 'symbolic narrative'. They display a unique cohesion of symbol and narrative: the narrative unfolds the symbol and the symbol draws out the narrative. This process occurs as the character struggles to understand the symbolic meaning. The structure develops in five Stages: the establishing of a 'sign', image or feast (Stage 1); misunderstood in materialistic terms (Stage 2); the struggle to understand the symbolic meaning (Stage 3); the acceptance or rejection of that meaning (Stage 4); a confession of faith or statement of rejection (Stage 5). The symbolic narratives reveal how material reality becomes symbolic of the divine. Just as the flesh of Jesus is the symbol of divine glory, so material reality now has the potential for symbolizing God. Flesh has no independent existence; its value lies in its symbolic role. This parallels the cohesion between form and meaning. Just as the flesh is given value in symbolizing the divine, so narrative form is of value in disclosing theological meaning. The implied reader is drawn into the drama of the symbolic narratives to make the authentic response of faith.
Readers of the Fourth Gospel have always been moved to the use of superlatives in its exposition. The most fascinating of the Gospels, in so many ways, has been the subject of enquiry by many of the best minds in biblical scholarship in the past decades, and this is amply illustrated in the pages of Novum Testamentum. This selection of essays on John presents a tapestry of critical insights into the origins and composition of the Gospel from the hands of many of the world's leading Johannine scholars writing since the Second World War. A number of these articles have been seminal for a generation of scholarship in the field. Taken together they constitute a treasury of insights and a representative grounding in the critical study of the Gospel since Bultmann.
This is the first comprehensive study of St John's Gospel for nearly forty years. The author provides new and coherent answers to its two most important questions: the position of the Gospel in the history of Christian thought, and its central or governing idea. In the course of the book, helooks at the Gospel from a variety of viewpoints: historical, literary, and theological. The discussion is balanced and comprehensive and brings into play questions of origins, content, and readership. Detailed exegetical arguments that advance scholarly debate, and intricate questions ofspecialized concern, are for the most part dealt with conveniently in five major excursuses. All non-English sources are translated.
One of the most interesting questions facing New Testament scholarsHow did Christianity emerge from Judaism?is often addressed in general and indirect terms. John Ashton argues that in the case of the Fourth Gospel, an answer is to be found in the religious experience of the Evangelist himself, who turned from being a practicing Jew to professing a new revelation centered on Christ as the intermediary between God and humanity.
Throughout Christian history, the Gospel of John's distinctive way of presenting the life, works, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus have earned it labels such as "the spiritual Gospel" and "the maverick Gospel." It has been seen as the most theological of the four canonical Gospels. In this volume Richard Bauckham, a leading biblical scholar and a bestselling author in the academy, illuminates main theological themes of the Gospel of John. Bauckham provides insightful analysis of key texts, covering topics such as divine and human community, God's glory, the cross and the resurrection, and the sacraments. This work will serve as an ideal supplemental text for professors and students in a course on John or the four Gospels. It will also be of interest to New Testament scholars and theologians.
This study examines John's portrayal of Jesus as the fulfillment and replacement of the Temple. It also shows how a traditional conception of typology can be helpful for understanding the nature of the relationship between Jesus and the Temple. Interpreters often associate John 1:14, 1:51, 2:18-22, and 4:20-24 with Jesus' replacement of the Temple. Based on these texts, one can already begin to see that he fulfills and replaces the Temple in that he is the new locus of God's presence, glory, revelation, and abundant provision for his people. In particular, John 2:18-22 clearly associates Jesus' role as the Temple with his death and resurrection. According to Isaiah, part of God's decisive action on behalf of his people, and for revealing himself to the nations, is the lifting up of the Temple above all other temples. In John, this expectation finds its fulfillment in Jesus. John's language of lifting up and glorification marks Jesus' death, resurrection, and exaltation as climactic events through which God lifts up and glorifies Jesus, the true Temple. Jesus' death, resurrection, and exaltation are also the means by which God provides for his people. Jesus offers his flesh and blood for the life of the world and sends the Spirit to enrich believers with the benefits of his sacrificial death. In doing so, he simultaneously fulfills prophecies and patterns associated with the Passover, Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of Dedication, and the Temple.
The Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels is unique among reference books on the Bible, the first volume of its kind since James Hastings published his Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels in 1909. In the more than eight decades since Hastings, our understanding of Jesus, the Evangelists and their world has grown remarkably. New interpretive methods illumined the text, the ever-changing profile of modern culture has put new questions to the Gospels, and our understanding of the Judaism of Jesus's day has advanced in ways that could not have been predicted in Hastings's day. But for many readers of the Gospels the new outlook on the Gospels remains hidden within technical journals and academic monographs. The Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels bridges the gap between scholars and those pastors, teachers, students and lay people desiring in-depth treatment of select topics in an accessible and summary format. The topics range from cross-sectional themes (such as faith, law, Sabbath) to methods of interpretation (such as form criticism, redaction criticism, sociological approaches), from key events (such as the birth, temptation and death of Jesus) to each of the four Gospels as a whole. Some articles - such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, rabbinic traditions and revolutionary movements at the time of Jesus - provide significant background information to the Gospels. Others reflect recent and less familiar issues in Jesus and Gospel studies, such as divine man, ancient rhetoric and the chreiai. Contemporary concerns of general interest are discusses in articles covering such topics as healing, the demonic and the historical reliability of the Gospels. And for those entrusted with communicating the message of the Gospels, there is an extensive article on preaching from the Gospels. The Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels presents the fruit of evangelical New Testament scholarship at the end of the twentieth century - committed to the authority of Scripture, utilising the best of critical methods, and maintaining dialog with contemporary scholarship and challenges facing the church.