Kirjahaku

In this volume, Smith views the Fourth Gospel within several contexts in order to illuminate its specific purposes and achievements. A growing consensus of recent scholarship (including Martyn, Raymond E. Brown, Meeks) seeks the roots of this Gospel and its traditions in the conflict between Jesus' followers and opponents within Judaism. In their struggles, Jesus' followers are encouraged and strengthened by his continuing presence in the Spirit, which articulates his meaning for new situations. Although distinctive, Johannine Christianity does not develop in complete isolation from the broader Christian Gospels. Out of a fascinating, if complex, setting develops the strikingly unique statement of Christian faith, practice, and doctrine found in the Gospel of John. The purpose of this commentary is to enable the reader to comprehend that statement in historical perspective in order to appreciate its meaning and significance.

John's relationship to the other canonical Gospels has from Christian antiquity been the subject of serious discussion and debate. Did John know them? Did he use them as sources for his own ""spiritual"" gospel? If so, can his eccentricities in using them be explained? In ""John Among the Gospels"" D. Moody Smith confronts these questions, describing how the relationship of the Fourth Gospel to the Synoptics has been understood, particularly in modern biblical scholarship. John's difference from the other gospel narratives was recognized by such ancient Christian writers as Clement of Alexandria in the late 2nd century, Origen in the early 3rd century, and Eusebius in the early 4th century, who set the stage for opposing views of John's relation to the Synoptics. John was deemed either compatible with, if supplementary to, the other canonical Gospels, as Clement and Eusebius believed, or obviously at odds historically with the companion works, according to Origen's opposing view. These two essential interpretive views have played out to the present day. Smith summarizes the theories and countertheories that have driven Johannine scholarship since the time of the early church, clarifying the interrelationship among commentators at the same time that he offers an insightful overview of this key issue in Johannine studies. In a new, final chapter included in the second edition of ""John Among the Gospels"", Smith emphasizes the difficulty of determining what constitutes redaction and how the apparently redactional or compositional elements found their way into the Gospel of John. Using the Gospel of Mark as his primary point of reference, Smith probes the difficulties involved in discerning how John understood and used ther Synoptics, if indeed John knew or used them at all.

This title offers compelling perspectives on the ""Gospel of John"" from a premiere scholar of the subject.This multidimensional volume from the leading American scholar of Johannine studies brings together D. Moody Smith's germinal works from the past two decades along with some original articles published here for the first time. The resulting collection augments current understanding of the ""Gospel of John"" with fresh insights and research and points the way toward opportunities for new inquiry.The collection is structured around four focal issues that define contemporary studies of John. In the first section, Smith places the book within its Jewish milieu, attempting to account for the tension between the work's seeming anti-Jewishness and its familiarity with Jewish life and thought. Next Smith engages the relationship between John and the historical figure of Jesus, especially the extent to which John's representation of Jesus reflects knowledge of independent traditions as well as the self-consciousness of his own community. The third section examines John's account against the Synoptic Gospels, assessing the evidence of John's access to an independent record of the passion and the possibility that John adopted the gospel genre from Mark. Finally, Smith explores how the Gospels, and especially that of John, evolved into scripture and how they have come to be interpreted in conjunction with one another.