The Gospel and Letters of John: Interpreting Biblical Texts Series

by R. Alan Culpepper

Book Overview

In this volume, R. Alan Culpepper considers both the Gospel and the Letters of John. The book begins with a close look at the relationship between John and the Synoptics and a summary of John's distinctive thought and language. The second chapter addresses the fascinating issues regarding the origins of the Gospel and the letters: authorship, sources, and composition. The history of the Johannine community is reviewed in chapter three. Chapter four...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0687008514
• ISBN13: 9780687008513
• Release Date: July 1998
• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Readable scholarship

I thoroughly recommend this title to anyone who wants to seriously study John's gospel and letters - and also to people who simply want to extend their knowledge of the scriptures for the purposes of deepening their relationship with the protagonist of this gospel. This highly readable book provides up to date scholarly information on the text: but it also provides indepth discussion of each section of the gospel in a way that would be very useful for personal reflection and prayer. There are many books on John, but I think this is one of the better ones.

Excellent Introductory Overview

R. Alan Culpepper is most noted for his ground breaking literary study of John's Gospel, Anatomy of the Fourth Gospel. This new work is not a verse by verse commentary, but rather an overview of the Gospel and letters of John. It is very good on the Gospel of John, but sketchy on the Johannine letters (only one chapter out of ten). His introductory material concerning the author and situation of the Gospel is a bit one-sided with little or no imput from any evangelical perspective, but it does introduce some of the problems associated with these issues. Chapter four, "The Gospel as Literature" with its theory of anagnoriseis or recognition scenes, is an excellent chapter when it comes to understanding the flow of this Gospel. Graphs and maps and sidebars seem to be the "in" feature of many new commentaries, sometimes overwhelming the actual commentary itself. Culpepper's sidebars are very judicious and actually very helpful.From a literary perspective this is certainly one of the best introductory commentaries overviewing John's Gospel around (again, the section on the Johannine letters is perhaps too brief).