The Gospel of John

Description

This 2007 commentary differs from most others in that it does not attempt to repeat all the critical materials which can be found in the larger, major series. Rather it brings to the interpretation of John, materials more literary and rhetorical in nature. It presents full paragraphs on passages, key terms and major motifs. One might say that the 'big picture' is more important here than exacting detail. Readers will be invited into the gospel by noting its typical literary patterns (chiasms, topic statements and development, patterns of double-meaning words), rhetorical commonplaces and discourse (e.g., 'the 'noble' shepherd'; forensic trials: accusations, defense, verdict and sentence). In particular this commentary brings readers into the cultural world of the gospel by presenting materials such as honor and shame, challenge and riposte, gossip, secrecy, and sectarian character of the group. This is a very accessible reading of John.

Jerome H. Neyrey, S.J. is currently Professor at the University of Notre Dame. He has served on six editorial boards, and has been elected to various offices in the Catholic Biblical Association and the Society of Biblical Literature, once being honored as president of the New England region. Among his most recent books are Paul. In Other Words. A Cultural Reading of His Letters, 1990; 2 Peter, Jude in the Anchor Bible Commentary series (1993); Portraits of Paul. An Archeology of Ancient Personality, 1996 (with Bruce Malina), Honor and Shame in the Gospel of Matthew, 1998, and Render to God. New Testament Understandings of the Divine, 2004. He has published over 60 articles in scholarly journals, dictionaries, encyclopedias and festschriften.

'One particularly gratifying feature of this commentary is its ability to offer good connections with many decades of established and respected Johannine scholarship, while at the same time making effective recourse to disciplines that have been increasingly brought to bear within biblical studies over more recent years.' Journal for the Study of the New Testament