Gail R. O'Day

The Gospel of John is one of the most beloved books in the Christian canon. Its stories and images have long captured the imaginations of Christians. Not only is it one of the most popular writings of the New Testament, but many aspects of its style and outlook are distinctive. In this clear, thorough, and accessible commentary on the Gospel of John, scholars Gail O'Day and Susan Hylen explore and explain this Gospel's distinctive qualities.Books in the Westminster Bible Companion series assist laity in their study of the Bible as a guide to Christian faith and practice. Each volume explains the biblical book in its original historical context and explores its significance for faithful living today. These books are ideal for individual study and for Bible study classes and groups.

While feminist interpretations of the Book of Revelation often focus on the book’s use of feminine archetypes—mother, bride, and prostitute, this commentary explores how gender, sexuality, and other feminist concerns permeate the book in its entirety. By calling audience members to become victors, Revelation’s author, John, commends to them an identity that flows between masculine and feminine and challenges ancient gender norms. This identity befits an audience who follow the Lamb, a genderqueer savior, wherever he goes. In this commentary, Lynn R. Huber situates Revelation and its earliest audiences in the overlapping worlds of ancient Asia Minor (modern Turkey) and first-century Judaism. She also examines how interpreters from different generations living within other worlds have found meaning in this image-rich and meaning-full book.

The intimate presence of God in Jesus can be found in the gospels of John and can transform sermons. But this Fourth Gospel is often difficult to preach because of its long dialogues and intertwined narrative and theology. Unlike the synoptic accounts of Jesus' life, John's gospel does not fit neatly into the rhythms of the lectionary cycle. Gail O'Day encourages preachers to take on the task of preaching Johannine texts, assimilating these frequently elusive texts into the vital life of the church. Through exegetical guidance, homiletical instruction, and sample sermons, she helps preachers to enter the texts, to be shaped by them, and then to proclaim their message in their fullness. O'Day invites preachers to preserve the unique voice of Johannine texts by defying the traditional tendency to reduce a scripture passage to a central point, and even to abandon such a reductionist approach to biblical texts in general. Completely revised and undated, The Word Disclosed focuses on four of the most popular texts in John (passages involving Nicodemaus, the Samaritan woman, the man born blind, and Lazarus) and includes new or extensively revised sermons on other lectionary texts from John and other parts of scripture.

About this Book: Gail R. O'Day's Revelation in the Fourth Gospel set the stage for a new literary paradigm in Johannine studies, which has carried over into disciplinary advances in gospel criticism overall. With the addition of eight key Johannine essays and a state-of-the-art introduction by Alan Culpepper, this new publication as Volume 9 in the Johannine Monograph Series advances a fuller appreciation of her important work on John and new-literary biblical analyses overall. From the Preface: What becomes apparent in an overview of Gail O'Day's work is her keen analysis of relations and functions of literary themes and features within the Gospel of John, as they further its rhetorical thrust, elucidating its meaning. Whereas diachronic approaches to John have tended to compartmentalize and divide sections and literary forms, O'Day shows time and again how things worked synchronically within John's story of Jesus, challenging misinterpretations and opening doors to understanding more fully its message. The present collection highlights the dialectics between narrative and theology, time and space, and characters and plot in the Fourth Gospel, clarifying their tensive presentations within this classic narrative.