The Fourth Gospel

The Fourth Gospel PDF Author: John Shelby Spong
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 1443424013
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
Bestselling and controversial bishop and teacher John Shelby Spong reveals the subversive, mystical wisdom of the writer of the Gospel of John and how his teachings point us forward in the twenty-first century In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Spong turns his attention to the Gospel of John, the fourth Gospel in the Bible. Contrary to what is most often believed, he writes that this gospel was misinterpreted by the framers of the fourth-century creeds to be a literal account of the life of Jesus. In fact, it is a literary, interpretive retelling of the events in Jesus’ life through the medium of Jewish worship traditions and fictional characters, from Nicodemus and Lazarus to the “Beloved Disciple.” The Fourth Gospel not only recaptures the original message of this gospel, but also provides us with a radical new dimension to the claim that in the humanity of Jesus the reality of God has been met and engaged. This book offers a fresh way to read the Gospel of John and a unique primer about how to be a Christian in the post-Christian twenty-first century.

The Fourth Gospel

The Fourth Gospel PDF Author: John Shelby Spong
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 1443424013
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 323

Get Book Here

Book Description
Bestselling and controversial bishop and teacher John Shelby Spong reveals the subversive, mystical wisdom of the writer of the Gospel of John and how his teachings point us forward in the twenty-first century In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Spong turns his attention to the Gospel of John, the fourth Gospel in the Bible. Contrary to what is most often believed, he writes that this gospel was misinterpreted by the framers of the fourth-century creeds to be a literal account of the life of Jesus. In fact, it is a literary, interpretive retelling of the events in Jesus’ life through the medium of Jewish worship traditions and fictional characters, from Nicodemus and Lazarus to the “Beloved Disciple.” The Fourth Gospel not only recaptures the original message of this gospel, but also provides us with a radical new dimension to the claim that in the humanity of Jesus the reality of God has been met and engaged. This book offers a fresh way to read the Gospel of John and a unique primer about how to be a Christian in the post-Christian twenty-first century.

Theology and History in the Fourth Gospel

Theology and History in the Fourth Gospel PDF Author: Jörg Frey
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781481310345
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
The Fourth Gospel is deeply shaped by its remarkably high Christology. It depicts the earthly Jesus, the incarnate one, as fully divine. This unrelenting Christology has led interpreters, both ancient and modern, to question the historical value of John's Gospel. For many, the Gospel is just theology. It is to the vexed relationship between history and theology that Jörg Frey turns in Theology and History in the Fourth Gospel. John's theological obsession with Christology might suggest that history counts for little in the Gospel. But, as Frey argues, the Gospel's clear and central claim is that John narrates the story of Jesus of Nazareth, his ministry, and his death, as "factual," and that this narrated "history" is foundational for the Christian message. Frey traces the Gospel's use of the available historical tradition by chiefly drawing from Mark and the Johannine community. Even if the Gospel of John used this received witness in a remarkably free manner, replotting and renarrating traditional episodes and even creatively staging new episodes, Frey contends that the historical life and person of Jesus remain central to John's enterprise. In the end, Frey warns that Johannine interpretation will miss the intention of the Gospel and the interpretive perspective of the evangelist if it remains preoccupied merely with questions of historical accuracy. The interpretive goal is to "let John be John," and, as Frey shows, readers will always yield to the priority of theology over history in the Fourth Gospel. In John's telling of the Christ story, the significance of history lies precisely in its disclosure of theological meaning, just as the significance of the historical Jesus is only understood in the theological language of Christology.

The Adaptable Jesus of the Fourth Gospel

The Adaptable Jesus of the Fourth Gospel PDF Author: Jason S. Sturdevant
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004304231
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
In The Adaptable Jesus of the Fourth Gospel, Jason S. Sturdevant argues that the Gospel of John portrays Jesus as an adaptable teacher, who accommodates to different people in various ways to a singular end, to bring each to faith. In the same way, the Logos accommodates to humanity via the incarnation. Adaptability serves as both an interpersonal and universal category. Early Christian interpretations of John, especially that of John Chrysostom, describe the Jesus of John by echoing characterizations of the ideal Greco-Roman pedagogue, adapting to his diverse students. By looking to such interpretations, as well as illumination from the milieu of the Fourth Evangelist, Jason S. Sturdevant provides a new lens through which to understand the characterization of the Johannine Jesus.

Four Gospels, One Jesus?

Four Gospels, One Jesus? PDF Author: Richard Burridge
Publisher: SPCK
ISBN: 0281070318
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
First published in 1994, and revised in 2005, this classic edition includes updated suggestions for further reading at the end of the book.

The Missions of Jesus and the Disciples According to the Fourth Gospel

The Missions of Jesus and the Disciples According to the Fourth Gospel PDF Author: Andreas J. Köstenberger
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 9780802842558
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
In this exegetical study of the Gospel of John, Andreas Kostenberger strives to discover and articulate a throroughtly biblical theology of mission which would have contemporary implications for how the church responds to Christ's mandate.

The "I Am" of the Fourth Gospel

The Author: Philip B. Harner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
"The mysterious phrase 'I am' in the Gospel of John has long fascinated and puzzled readers. Was Jesus equating himself with Yahweh? Philip B. Harner delves into this expression, particularly where it appears without a predicate, as in 'before Abraham was, I am.' In assessing the background and sources of the nine verses that contain the absolute 'I am,' the author takes account of Exodus, Isaiah, Judaic traditions, the Hellenistic environment, and the Synoptic tradition. Dr. Harner concludes that the term was central to John's theology and was based on a parallel Hebrew expression found in Second Isaiah. At the heart of this provocative study lies the question of whether or not the 'I am' claim is part of the post-Easter Christology of the early church." --

Love in the Gospel of John

Love in the Gospel of John PDF Author: Francis J. SDB Moloney
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 144124574X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
The command to love is central to the Gospel of John. Internationally respected scholar Francis Moloney offers a thorough exploration of this theme, focusing not only on Jesus's words but also on his actions. Instead of merely telling people that they must love one another, Jesus acts to make God's love known and calls all who follow him to do the same. This capstone work on John's Gospel uses a narrative approach to delve deeply into a theme at the heart of the Fourth Gospel and the life of the Christian church. Uniting rigorous exegesis with theological and pastoral insight, it makes a substantive contribution to contemporary Johannine scholarship.

The Christ of the Fourth Gospel

The Christ of the Fourth Gospel PDF Author: E. M. Sidebottom
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1608997464
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
The field of Johannine Christology has been well covered, but Mr. Sidebottom has found new things to say and new material to put before the reader. His method is to analyze the language used about our Lord by the writer of the Fourth Gospel and to interpret it in the light of contemporary first-century thought and phraseology. Those who are already familiar with the Hermetic and similar literature will find new insights here; while for those who have not yet become acquainted with it, Mr. Sidebottom is a learned and stimulating guide. The student will be particularly grateful for the way in which he gathers into a convenient compass much of importance that has hitherto been difficult to access, and for his dealing less in generalizations than in direct quotations from which the reader is encouraged to draw his own conclusions.

How John Works

How John Works PDF Author: Douglas Estes
Publisher: SBL Press
ISBN: 0884141470
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
Essential classroom resource for New Testament courses In this book, a group of international scholars go in detail to explain how the author of the Gospel of John uses a variety of narrative strategies to best tell his story. More than a commentary, this book offers a glimpse at the way an ancient author created and used narrative features such as genre, character, style, persuasion, and even time and space to shape a dramatic story of the life of Jesus. Features: An introduction to the Fourth Gospel through its narrative features and dynamics Fifteen features of story design that comprise the Gospel of John Short, targeted essays about how John works that can be used as starting points for the study of other Gospels/texts

Jesus: the Celestial Man

Jesus: the Celestial Man PDF Author: David Barnett
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781071091920
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 675

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Book Description
Jesus: The Celestial Man is a book about the Fourth Gospel of the New Testament, the Gospel of John. The subtitle describes its two-fold purpose. "Time" refers to the historical context and the meaning of words for those who wrote them and originally heard them. "Space" is the unique cosmology the author of the Fourth Gospel captured from the teaching and ministry of Jesus, a new perspective on creation with its higher dimensions that provide a scientific basis for understanding God, the world, and our place in it.Since Jesus and his disciples spoke Aramaic, the author goes behind the Greek words preserved in the ancient Gospel to discover the original sayings of Jesus and their impact for Christians today. Although the book contains many footnotes and an extensive index, the author's style is easy to read. Stories come alive with a unique writing style that allows the reader to experience what it was like to be with Jesus in first-century Israel. You'll see Jesus as you've never seen him before: laughing, arguing with religious authorities, dying on the Roman stake, and exploding from the tomb on Easter morning.The author's viewpoint is orthodox, but non-traditional. He asks questions of the text few others have and finds answers that shed new meaning on familiar verses. The book includes the author's translation of the Gospel of John, clarifying words too often left unexplored. For example, what "world" did God so love He sent his only Son? And what did agape love mean in the context of people who spoke Aramaic, and not primarily Greek? Jesus: The Cosmic Man is a verse-by-verse tour de force of the only eyewitness Gospel to the life and ministry of Jesus.