In the Beginning Was the Verb: Encounters with Jesus in John's Gospel

By Brad Munroe

In the Beginning was the Verb is a different kind of book, neither a commentary nor a Bible study, neither a how to book on Christian living nor a book of sermons engaging the church missionally, yet it contains a plenitude of commentary, offers the insights of a Bible study and delivers both tips for Christian living as well as missional challenge. How can one book do all this? It can do it because this book immerses the reader into the Story of Jesus; it seeks a personal encounter between Jesus and the reader by depicting personal encounters between Jesus and the many individuals who populate the Gospel of John. In the Beginning was the Verb uses a first person, monologue format to highlight the intensely personal and intimate character of an encounter with Jesus; it seeks to help the reader hear the gospel from a new perspective by applying life stories to the task of Bible reading. Whether it is TV, novels, or YouTube, our society has become a narrative based nation. In the Beginning was the Verb taps into our love of narrative, using this literary form to provide depth of insight into the gospel. But this begs another question. Can the telling of stories, alone, provide the same depth of insights that a commentary or Bible study provides? The answer, of course, is no. While the first-person monologues provides emotional zing and helps the reader connect to the Scripture more personally, something more is needed if one is to convey the full promise of John's Gospel in its deep, rich theology. Enter Dale Bruner. The first-person story-teller in each monologue is accompanied by a modern narrator. This narrator functions literarily as a Greek chorus in order to create opportunities to quote the insights of commentators from Augustine to Raymond Brown; all quotes are used with citation and all quotes are taken from Dale Bruner's The Gospel of John: A Commentary (Eerdmans: Cambridge, 2012).* If you are wondering why quotes are only taken from Dale Bruner, you have never read one of his commentaries. Beyond his own pastorally sensitive and academically astute insights, Bruner's commentaries contain quotes from the church's full tradition of Johannine scholarship; to read Bruner is to engage the cumulative wisdom of the Church. In the Beginning was the Verb is designed for community use. John's Gospel, as you will learn, places significant importance on the person of Jesus being the center of the Christian community and suggests that the Risen Lord is found most powerfully within community. Therefore, each chapter concludes with questions for reflection and discussion in order to immerse the readers into the Word more completely. Finally, each narrative includes a prayer because there is no deeper way to immerse oneself into the Word than through the Spirit. These prayers are written in the spirit of, and with a similar structure to, the Prayer of St. Francis, which was not written by Francis himself but by his followers who sought to convey his life and faith. The prayers you will find included in In the Beginning was the Verb seek, similarly, to convey the lives and faith of those who met face to face in personal encounter with Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, and who found that by believing into him they had life in his name. *Both quotes from other scholars as well as allusions to points made by Dr. Bruner are noted within the text. All such notations refer to The Gospel of John: A Commentary (Eerdmans: Cambridge, 2012).

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1495384098
• ISBN13: 9781495384097
• Release Date: November 2013
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 148 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"