A Prologue to Studies in the Fourth Gospel
A Prologue to Studies in the Fourth Gospel

Author: Riku P. Tuppurainen

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2021-05-25

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 172527311X

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The Fourth Gospel both blesses and betrays. It blesses readers who engage with its message, but it may betray those who read it nonchalantly. The notion that the Fourth Gospel is easy to understand is an enduring myth. This volume takes readers on a heuristic journey to discover the Fourth Gospel's unique theological aspects, problematic historical matters, inimitable literary features, and various interpretive approaches using an accessible format and easy-to-read language. The purpose of this publication is to enable readers to appreciate the Fourth Gospel's wide horizon, so necessary to understand its narratives in their historical and narrative contexts. Like the prologue of the Fourth Gospel that introduces and gives perspective on how readers should approach the rest of the Gospel, similarly, this volume introduces and gives perspective to studies in the Fourth Gospel. The text is divided into three parts, which examine its independent theology and argumentation, various outstanding issues, and its interpretation respectively. This volume is suitable for a wide readership, from Bible study groups to pastors and from undergraduate to graduate students.

The Written Gospel
The Written Gospel

Author: Markus Bockmuehl

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2005-07-28

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 9781139445726

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This book comprehensively surveys the origin, production and reception of the canonical gospels in the early church. The discussion unfolds in three steps. Part One traces the origin of the 'gospel' of Jesus, its significance in Jewish and Hellenistic contexts of the first century, and its development from eyewitness memory to oral tradition and written text. Part Two then more specifically examines the composition, design and intentions of each of the four canonical gospels. Widening the focus, Part Three first asks about gospel-writing as viewed from the perspective of ancient Jews and pagans before turning to the question of reception history in the proliferation of 'apocryphal' gospels, in the formation of the canon, and in the beginnings of a gospel commentary tradition.

The Prologue of the Fourth Gospel
The Prologue of the Fourth Gospel

Author: Peter Phillips

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2006-04-01

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 9780567030658

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This study explores the background to the interpretation of the Prologue of the Fourth Gospel and the various layers of meaning.

The Fourth Gospel
The Fourth Gospel

Author: John Shelby Spong

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2013-06-11

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1443424013

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Bestselling and controversial bishop and teacher John Shelby Spong reveals the subversive, mystical wisdom of the writer of the Gospel of John and how his teachings point us forward in the twenty-first century In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Spong turns his attention to the Gospel of John, the fourth Gospel in the Bible. Contrary to what is most often believed, he writes that this gospel was misinterpreted by the framers of the fourth-century creeds to be a literal account of the life of Jesus. In fact, it is a literary, interpretive retelling of the events in Jesus’ life through the medium of Jewish worship traditions and fictional characters, from Nicodemus and Lazarus to the “Beloved Disciple.” The Fourth Gospel not only recaptures the original message of this gospel, but also provides us with a radical new dimension to the claim that in the humanity of Jesus the reality of God has been met and engaged. This book offers a fresh way to read the Gospel of John and a unique primer about how to be a Christian in the post-Christian twenty-first century.

Word and Glory
Word and Glory

Author: Craig A. Evans

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 1993-11-01

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 1850754489

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Word and Glory challenges recent claims that Gnosticism, especially as expressed in the Nag Hammadi tractate Trimorphic Protennoia, is the most natural and illuminating background for understanding the Prologue of the Fourth Gospel. Scriptural allusions and interpretive traditions suggest that Jewish wisdom tradition, mediated by the synagogue of the diaspora, lies behind the Prologue and the Fourth Gospel as a whole, not some form of late first-century Gnosticism. Several features of the Fourth Gospel reflect the synagogue and nascent Christianity's struggle to advance and defend its beliefs about Jesus who, as God's son and Agent, was understood as the embodiment of the Divine Word. All of the ingredients that make up Johannine christology derive from dominical tradition, refracted through the lens of Jewish interpretive traditions. There is no compelling evidence that this christology derived from or was influenced by gnostic mythology. Word and Glory also develops and tests criteria for assessing the relative value of post-New Testament sources for the interpretation of New Testament documents.

The Legacy of John
The Legacy of John

Author: Tuomas Rasimus

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 9004176330

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This volume investigates the early, second-century reception of the Fourth Gospel. This is an era when its fortunes are surrounded by silence and mystery. It was assumed, until quite recently, that Gnostic and other so-called heterodox groups were the first ones to appreciate this gospel, and hence the mainstream Christians avoided using it until Irenaeus rescued it for the church. Lately, this view has been challenged by several scholars for several reasons. The contributions in this volume, written by leading specialists in their respective fields, offer an approachable, fresh, comprehensive and up-to-date view of the second-century reception of John s Gospel, in a situation where new understandings about various forms of early Christianity and its multiformity have started to emerge.

Incarnation and Covenant in the Prologue to the Fourth Gospel (John 1:1-18)
Incarnation and Covenant in the Prologue to the Fourth Gospel (John 1:1-18)

Author: Wilson Paroschi

Publisher: Europäische Hochschulschriften / European University Studies / Publications Universitaires Européennes

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783631548301

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This study deals with the structural and exegetical relationship between pre-existence and incarnation in the dynamics of John's Prologue (John 1:1-18). It discusses the point in the narrative at which the shift from the pre-existent Logos to the incarnate Christ takes place and, therefore, the perspective from which the individual parts of the passage (vss. 1-5; vss. 6-13; vss. 14-18) should be interpreted. By making a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the text and evaluating all contrasting views on the subject, the book shows the essential chronological order of the narrative, whose climax (vss. 14-18) is not the announcement of the incarnation proper, but rather a profound theological reflection on the significance of that event based on the covenantal traditions of the exodus story and later prophetic expectations.

The Preface to Luke's Gospel
The Preface to Luke's Gospel

Author: Loveday Alexander

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2005-10-13

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 9780521018814

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Completely re-evaluates the backgound to and provenance of the preface to Luke's Gospel.

The Discipleship Paradigm
The Discipleship Paradigm

Author: David Beck

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-11-15

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 900449796X

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This volume examines the Fourth Gospel narrative in terms of its character portrayal, especially the portrayal of anonymous characters. It focuses on how characterization impacts readers, eliciting their involvement in the narrative, particularly the recognition of and response to Jesus' identity, and how anonymity facilitates that participation. The first chapters examine the understanding of characterization in contemporary literary theory, then the author explores other contemporaneous narratives for the function of anonymous characters in those narratives. The final chapters examine specific character portrayals in the Fourth Gospel, demonstrating how the narratives of anonymous characters draw the reader into participation in the narrative and enables identification with those characters, especially the disciple Jesus loved, the Johannine paradigm of discipleship.