In this book, Stan Harstine examines three passages in the Gospel of John in order to illustrate how diachronic and synchronic methodological approaches produce distinct results. Using Leitwörter from the gospel's opening verses to shape an interpretive lens, Harstine identifies these passages as crucial transition points in the plot of the Gospel.
How do Israel’s Scriptures inform the account of Jesus’s cruciform death in the Gospel of John? What does it mean for John’s portrayal of Jesus’s death to be “according to the Scriptures”? The Use of the Jewish Scriptures in the Johannine Passion Narrative: That the Scripture May Be Perfected argues that they are the focal element of the Johannine portrayal, and without them, John’s Passion Narrative simply makes no sense. Whether through the evangelist’s appeal to the fulfilment of Scripture (with such fulfilment accompanying the very moment of Jesus’s death) or whether through allusions to the narratives of Creation or Passover, Israel’s Scriptures provide the Passion Narrative’s veritable heartbeat. This book also considers the impact of John’s scriptural usage on the very concept of Scripture itself, contending that Scripture is brought to perfection by Jesus’s actions and to a new standing or status in this regard. David M. Allen examines how the use of Scripture in the Passion account impacts the Fourth Gospel’s own self-understanding, arguing that its capacity to pronounce on Scripture’s fulfilment attests to the Gospel’s own self-avowed, scriptural credentials.
Few scholarly constructs have proven as influential or as durable as the Johannine community. A product of the era in New Testament studies dominated by redaction criticism, the Johannine community construct as articulated first by J. Louis Martyn and later by Raymond E. Brown emerged with an explanatory power that proved persuasive to scholars deliberating on the provenance and emergence of the Johannine literature for the next 50 years. Recent years, however, have seen this once dominant paradigm questioned by many of those working with the Gospel and Letters of John. The Johannine Community in Contemporary Debate is dedicated to exploring the current state of the question while shining a light on new and constructive proposals for understanding the emergence of the Johannine literature. Some contributions accept the idea of a Johannine Community but suggest different ways we might know about the nature of that community. Others reject the existence of a Johannine Community, suggesting alternate models for understanding the emergence of these texts. These proposals are themselves set in perspective by responses from senior scholars.
The essays in Reading the Gospel of John’s Christology as Jewish Messianism: Royal, Prophetic, and Divine Messiahs seek to interpret John’s Jesus as part of Second Temple Jewish messianic expectations. The Fourth Gospel is rarely considered part of the world of early Judaism. While many have noted John’s Jewishness, most have not understood John’s Messiah as a Jewish messiah. The Johannine Jesus, who descends from heaven, is declared the Word made flesh, and claims oneness with the Father, is no less Jewish than other messiahs depicted in early Judaism. John’s Jesus is at home on the spectrum of early Judaism’s royal, prophetic, and divine messiahs
A critical analysis of the historicity of the Gospel of John Since it began in 2002, the John, Jesus, and History Project has assessed critically the modern disparaging of John's historicity and has found this bias wanting. In this third volume, an international group of experts demonstrate over two dozen ways in which John contributes to an enhanced historical understanding of Jesus and his ministry. This volume does not simply argue for a more inclusive quest for Jesus—one that embraces John instead of programmatically excluding it. It shows that such a quest has already indeed begun. Contributors include Paul N. Anderson, Jo-Ann A. Brant, Peder Borgen, Gary M. Burge, Warren Carter, R. Alan Culpepper, James D. G. Dunn, Robert T. Fortna, Jörg Frey, Steven A. Graham, Colin J. Humphreys, Craig Keener, Andreas Köstenberger, Tim Ling, William Loader, Linda McKinnish Bridges, James S. McLaren, Annette Merz, Wendy E. S. North, Benjamin E. Reynolds, Udo Schnelle, Donald Senior, C.P., Tom Thatcher, Michael Theobald, Jan van der Watt, Robert Webb, Stephen Witetscheck, and Jean Zumstein. Features A state-of-the-art analysis of John’s contributions to the quest for the historical Jesus, including evaluative responses by leading Jesus scholars •An overview of paradigm shifts in Jesus scholarship and recent approaches to the Johannine riddles Detailed charts that illuminates John's similarities and differences form the Synoptic Gospels as well as the gospel's contributions to the historical Jesus research
Johannine Christology explores the formation of Christology in the Fourth Gospel, the Hellenistic and Jewish contexts, the literary character of these writings, and Christology’s application for various audiences.
John's Transformation of Mark brings together a cast of internationally recognised biblical scholars to investigate the relationship between the gospels of Mark and John. In a significant break with the prevailing view that the two gospels represent independent traditions, the contributors all argue that John both knew and used the earlier gospel. Drawing on recent analytical categories such as social memory, 'secondary orality,' or 'relecture,' and ancient literary genres such as 'rewritten Bible' and bioi, the central questions that drive this volume focus on how John used Mark, whether we should speak of 'dependence,' 'familiarity with,' or 'reception,' and whether John intended his work to be a supplement or a replacement of Mark. Together these chapters mount a strong case for a reassessment of one of the key tenets of modern biblical criticism, and open up significant new avenues for further research.
Wil Rogan argues that, contrary to twentieth-century interpretation, the Fourth Gospel did not replace purity with faith in Jesus. Instead, as with other early Jewish writings, its discourse about purity functions as a way to make sense of life before God in the world. He suggests that John's Gospel employs biblical and early Jewish traditions of purity associated with divine revelation and Israel's restoration to narrate how God's people are prepared for the coming of Jesus and enabled by him to have life with God characterized by love. After evaluating different theories of purity for the interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, Rogan explores John the Baptist as an agent of ritual purification, Jesus as the agent of moral purification, and the disciples of Jesus as ones who are (or are not) made morally pure by Jesus. While purity is not one of the Fourth Gospel's primary focuses, Rogan stresses that the concept figures into some of its most significant claims about Christology, the doctrine of salvation, and ethics. Through purity, the Fourth Gospel guards continuity with the past while placing surprising conditions on participation in Israel's future.
Essential classroom resource for New Testament courses In this book, a group of international scholars go in detail to explain how the author of the Gospel of John uses a variety of narrative strategies to best tell his story. More than a commentary, this book offers a glimpse at the way an ancient author created and used narrative features such as genre, character, style, persuasion, and even time and space to shape a dramatic story of the life of Jesus. Features: An introduction to the Fourth Gospel through its narrative features and dynamics Fifteen features of story design that comprise the Gospel of John Short, targeted essays about how John works that can be used as starting points for the study of other Gospels/texts
