The Gospel According to Saint John (Black’s New Testament Commentary | BNTC)

by Andrew T. Lincoln

Publisher:

Continuum

, 2005

Overview

Of the New Testament accounts of the life of Jesus Christ, none remains as enthralling and enigmatic, provocative and profound as the Gospel according to Saint John. Introducing the book’s historical, literary, and theological backgrounds, Andrew Lincoln provides a pericope by pericope exposition of this ancient biography. While maintaining focus on the message of the text, he includes relevant discussion of narrative sequence, likely social function of individual passages, and relation to the Synoptic Gospels. From penetrating analysis of the Christology of the Fourth Gospel to adept discussion of the seeming hostility to the Jews, Lincoln offers balanced approaches to key Johannine issues. Readers along the whole theological spectrum will benefit from this masterful study.

Contents

Top Highlights

“Weddings, however, were not simply private family affairs but could often involve a whole village and in Jewish custom the wedding feast lasted for a week with guests coming and going during that time and the groom being responsible for ensuring there was sufficient wine for the whole period, often through organizing donations ahead of time from close relatives and friends. To run out of wine was not simply a social embarrassment but entailed a serious loss of family honour, suggested a lack of cooperative friends and had dire implications for the web of reciprocal obligations in which a person was involved.” (Page 127)

“It seems best, then, to attempt to interpret the more difficult ‘grace instead of grace’. It could still be taken as referring to an abundance of grace which is always being renewed as one kind replaces another. But it seems likely that it is primarily meant to point forward to v. 17, which begins with the connective ‘for’, and that it is claiming that the grace found in Jesus and his glory replaces that associated with the Mosaic covenant.” (Page 107)

“The stress is on God’s hiddenness and inaccessibility. Only God can make God accessible; only God can reveal God.” (Page 108)

“the basic force of ‘the Word’ is God’s self-expression” (Page 95)

“The number six may well then represent the imperfection or insufficiency of the old order of Judaism” (Page 129)

Praise for the Print Edition

This quality addition to the well-respected Black’s New Testament Commentary replaces the earlier work (1968) of Sanders and Mastin. Lincoln provides his own fresh translation of the gospel text, preferring to make it more literal in nature for purposes of study. His substantial introduction provides the reader an informative overview of current interpretation. One significant feature of Lincoln’s own perspective is that he joins those scholars who believe that John knew the Synoptic Gospels and that his own gospel represents a unique and creative interpretation of the Synoptic tradition. The commentary itself is incisive and provides the reader with a reliable literary and theological interpretation of the Fourth Gospel.

—The Bible Today

Andrew Lincoln, Portland Professor of New Testament at the University of Gloucestershire, England, offers a paragraph-by-paragraph exposition based on his own fresh translation of the biblical texts. His book includes introductions to the important historical, literary, and theological issues; key terms and phrases from the translation highlighted in the commentary; explanations of special Greek or foreign terms; references to important primary and secondary literature; and a scripture index. He makes available a wealth of contemporary scholarship, carefully discussing authorship; the identity of the beloved disciple; the Christology of the Fourth Gospel; the Gospel's apparent hostility to the Jews; historicity and truth; and John's relation to the synoptics. Throughout the commentary he inserts suggestions for further reading.

—Theology Digest

Product Details

• Title: Black’s New Testament Commentary: The Gospel According to Saint John
• Author: Andrew T. Lincoln
• Publisher: Hendrickson
• Publication Date: 2005
• Pages: 592

About Andrew T. Lincoln

Andrew T. Lincoln is the Portland Professor of New Testament at the University of Gloucestershire. He is the author of Black’s New Testament Commentary: The Gospel According to Saint John.