History and Theology in the Fourth Gospel, 3rd ed. (The New Testament Library Series | NTL)

von J. Louis Martyn

Verlag:

Westminster John Knox

, 2003

Overview

This volume surveys the scholarly work that has been done concerning the book of John. Biblical scholar J. Louis Martyn also provides his own reading of the fourth Gospel.

Key Features

• Opens fresh perspectives on Johannine studies
• Author’s own reading of John’s gospel
• Historical theology

Contents

Top Highlights

“Bultmann’s interpretation of John seemed oddly timeless, detached from any social dimension in Christian antiquity, Martyn’s thesis located the Fourth Gospel firmly and plausibly along a Jewish landscape. Moreover, Martyn encouraged an interpretation of John that, with variations, persists in twenty-first-century scholarship: as a drama of conflict occurring simultaneously on two historically different planes, that between Jesus and his adversaries and that between believers within the Johannine community and Jewish leaders of the evangelist’s day.” (Page ix)

“Martyn’s contribution lies precisely in the determination of that historical setting and its impact on the interpretation of Johannine theology, particularly in the Gospel. He called into question the view that the most relevant historical setting was Hellenistic, gnostic, or Christian by proposing that the primal context of Johannine thought was Jewish, or Jewish-Christian.” (Page 1)

“The gnostic mythology becomes the vehicle for the Christian message. By the same token the Jews, who appear throughout the Gospel as Jesus’ opponents, are not real, historic Jews, but symbolize unfaith’s rejection of Jesus.” (Page 3)

“To return to the example of chapter 8, why should the Johannine Jesus, himself a Jew, engage in such an intensely hostile exchange with ‘the Jews’?” (Page 28)

“All set the problem of Johannine interpretation against a horizon of Christian or more general religious or existential theological concerns.” (Page 2)

About J. Louis Martyn

J. Louis Martyn is Edward Robinson Professor Emeritus of Biblical theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He has written books and scholarly articles on various New Testament topics, notably Theological Issues in the Letters of Paul.