John's Wisdom

John's Wisdom Synopsis

Jesus as depicted in the Fourth Gospel is remarkably dissimilar to the Jesus found in the synoptic gospels. In this book, Ben Witherington places the Gospel of John within its proper literary, historical, social, and theological contexts, especially those dealing with the wisdom traditions of Hellenistic Judaism. What emerges is a compelling argument that the Gospel of John has an agenda for mission, in addition to concerns for discipleship and community life. The book begins with an Introduction, which contains much invaluable material under the subheadings: Genre (John as ancient biography); Mode (the link to drama); Sources (John and the Synoptics, Signs Source); Authorship and Editorship (relationship between the two; Jewish background; internal and external evidence); Voice and Style (relation to Wisdom literature); Date and Provenance (relation to other Johannine material, Ephesus, last part of the first century); Purpose (analysis of John 20:31); Audience; Social Setting (consideration of Rensburger, sectarianism etc.); Structure (outline of the gospel). There follows a Commentary on the gospel covering the Original/Historical Horizon (a discussion of the critical issues about the passage in question) and more unusually, general and introductory suggestions about the application of the material. This second approach marks John's Wisdom as an exceptional work, dealing with questions raised by critical study of the passage for preachers, teachers and theological students.

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