John Through the Centuries

by Mark Edwards

Overview

This pioneering commentary embraces the full scope and themes raised in John's Gospel, offering an engaging and perceptive reading. Mark Edwards explores a diverse range of excerpts and creative responses, with particular emphasis on the treatment of the Gospel in English poetry.

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• Explores the diverse themes and issues raised in John’s Gospel, and considers its influence on figures from Saint Augustine, to Dorothy Sayers and Bob Dylan.
  
• Treats well-known interpreters such as Thomas Aquinas along with lesser-known figures such as the Gnostic Heracleon, and the sixth-century hymn-writer, Romanos.
  
• Brings ancient and modern commentators into dialogue with each other, and takes a critical stance towards some parallels drawn by modern scholars between the Gospel and the surrounding pagan culture.
  
• Features excerpts from a wide variety of poets who give a creative interpretation of John’s Gospel, and considers many artistic representations.
  
• Suggests that imaginative response can illuminate a reading of the Bible where purely critical and historical analysis has proved unsatisfactory.
  
• An accessible introduction and extensive section notes address interpretations of the Gospel from antiquity to the present.
  
• Published as part of the ground-breaking Blackwell Bible Commentaries series.

More information about this series is available from the Blackwell Bible Commentaries website at http://www.bbibcomm.net/

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780631229063
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	01/16/2004
Series:	Wiley Blackwell Bible Commentaries , #6
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.91(d)

About the Author

Mark Edwards is Tutor in Theology and Lecturer in Patristics at Christ Church College, University of Oxford. He is the author or translator of numerous volumes, including Origen against Plato (2002).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations.

Series Editors' Preface.

Acknowledgements.

List of Abbreviations.

Introduction: the Gospel and its Interpreters.

Christ the Word: John 1.1-18.

The Baptist’s Testimony: John 1.19-51.

Symbols of Purity: Chapter 2.

The New Birth: John 2.23-4.2.

The Samaritan: Chapter 4.

Two Healings and their Aftermath: 4.46-5.47.

Bread from Heaven: Chapter 6.

Ministry in Jerusalem: Chapters 7 and 8.

Parables of the Messiah: Chapters 9 and 10.

The Raising of Lazarus: Chapter 11.

Preparing for Death: Chapters 12 and 13.

Christ and Spirit: Chapter 14.

Valedictory: Chapters 15-17.

Arrest and Trial: Chapter 18.

The Crucifixion: Chapter 19.

The Resurrection: Chapter 20.

The Final Commission: Chapter 21.

Bibliography.

Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Mark Edwards' John commentary breaks new ground in the field of the reception history of biblical texts. Displaying a remarkable knowledge of its different readings, he brings into dialogue the most diverse and unexpected commentators on the text: bishops, scholars, devotional writers, poets, artists, hymn-writers, and provides the whole with a wonderfully lucid and learned survey of the history of Johannine interpretion."
John Riches, Professor of Divinity with Biblical Criticism, University of Glasgow

"An attractive inventory of exegetical opinion on one of the most important books of the NT. A true mine of information, published in a series that makes the life of researchers easier."
International Review of Biblical Studies

“The commentary provides a wonderful smorgasbord of readings and interpretations, drawn from all centuries. Thus the reader is put in touch with a representative sample of readings, interpretations and imaginative appropriations of the Gospel.” Australian Religious Studies Review

"In Edwards' hands ‘reception history’ becomes a feast of allusions and references around each Johannine text. The mixture is rich and provocative, making you want to read more and more."
Robert Kysar, Bandy Professor Emeritus of Preaching and New Testament, Candler School of Theology, Emory University

"Edwards has provided New Testament scholars with a valuable resource for understanding and appreciating the history of interpretation of the Fourth Gospel. The commentary makes a persusaive case for taking seriously the richness and the value of premodern exegetical insight, artistic interpretation, and reception history for understanding the biblical text, and I look forward to other commentaries appearing in the series."
William M. Wright, Emory Universitiy

Editorial Reviews

"Mark Edwards' John commentary breaks new ground in the field of the reception history of biblical texts. Displaying a remarkable knowledge of its different readings, he brings into dialogue the most diverse and unexpected commentators on the text: bishops, scholars, devotional writers, poets, artists, hymn-writers, and provides the whole with a wonderfully lucid and learned survey of the history of Johannine interpretion."
John Riches, Professor of Divinity with Biblical Criticism, University of Glasgow

"An attractive inventory of exegetical opinion on one of the most important books of the NT. A true mine of information, published in a series that makes the life of researchers easier."
International Review of Biblical Studies

“The commentary provides a wonderful smorgasbord of readings and interpretations, drawn from all centuries. Thus the reader is put in touch with a representative sample of readings, interpretations and imaginative appropriations of the Gospel.” Australian Religious Studies Review

"In Edwards' hands ‘reception history’ becomes a feast of allusions and references around each Johannine text. The mixture is rich and provocative, making you want to read more and more."
Robert Kysar, Bandy Professor Emeritus of Preaching and New Testament, Candler School of Theology, Emory University

"Edwards has provided New Testament scholars with a valuable resource for understanding and appreciating the history of interpretation of the Fourth Gospel. The commentary makes a persusaive case for taking seriously the richness and the value of premodern exegetical insight, artistic interpretation, and reception history for understanding the biblical text, and I look forward to other commentaries appearing in the series."
William M. Wright, Emory Universitiy

From the Publisher