The Gospel of John in Cultural and Rhetorical Perspective

The Gospel of John in Cultural and Rhetorical Perspective PDF Author: Jerome H. Neyrey
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802848664
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 511

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Book Description
Johns Gospel has been studied and evaluated and interpreted constantly by theologians throughout the ages. Can anything more possibly be said? Jerome Neyrey says it can, indeed, by interpreting it in two fresh ways by means of ancient rhetoric and by viewing it in its cultural context. / In order to find patterns and concepts that have a bearing on how to read John Neyrey examines the rhetoric of praise and blame described in the ancient encomium, the Greek commonplace on noble death, rules for rhetorical conclusions, and Jewish background materials. He then uses materials from cultural anthropology, such as the effects of limited good and envy, secrecy, and brokerage. Even innocent topics such as time and space have much to say about interpreting the figure of Jesus. / In viewing John through these two lenses, The Gospel of John in Cultural and Rhetorical Perspective brings the book into clear focus as a truly maverick gospel

The Gospel of John in Cultural and Rhetorical Perspective

The Gospel of John in Cultural and Rhetorical Perspective PDF Author: Jerome H. Neyrey
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802848664
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 511

Get Book Here

Book Description
Johns Gospel has been studied and evaluated and interpreted constantly by theologians throughout the ages. Can anything more possibly be said? Jerome Neyrey says it can, indeed, by interpreting it in two fresh ways by means of ancient rhetoric and by viewing it in its cultural context. / In order to find patterns and concepts that have a bearing on how to read John Neyrey examines the rhetoric of praise and blame described in the ancient encomium, the Greek commonplace on noble death, rules for rhetorical conclusions, and Jewish background materials. He then uses materials from cultural anthropology, such as the effects of limited good and envy, secrecy, and brokerage. Even innocent topics such as time and space have much to say about interpreting the figure of Jesus. / In viewing John through these two lenses, The Gospel of John in Cultural and Rhetorical Perspective brings the book into clear focus as a truly maverick gospel

The Gospel of John

The Gospel of John PDF Author: Jerome H. Neyrey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521828015
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Book Description
This highly accessible 2007 commentary brings readers into the cultural world of the gospel.

The Strange Gospel

The Strange Gospel PDF Author: James L. Resseguie
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004494766
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
In this literary analysis of the Gospel of John, Resseguie examines rhetoric, setting, character, and plot to uncover the Gospel’s unique point of view. He shows the usefulness of the concepts of defamiliarization and point of view for understanding how the narrator makes the familiar seem strange. A material, familiar point of view that is voiced by the dominant culture is compared with a defamiliarized, strange point of view that is expressed by Jesus and the disenfranchised. Through close readings of narrative texts, the author develops and elaborates the theological perspective of John, which emerges in the clash of differing points of view. The introduction defines “objective” and “subjective” point of view, and shows the value of the works of Boris Uspensky and Susan Sniader Lanser for understanding the Gospel of John. In chapter one, irony, misunderstandings, and double entendres are shown to be important rhetorical tools in the Gospel’s attempt to make the familiar seem strange. Chapter two discusses point of view as it is expressed in architectural settings (sheepfold, garden, courtyard, praetorium, well, temple, and tomb) and in topographical settings (sea, mountain). Chapter three highlights the distinct points of view of Jesus, Nicodemus, religious authorities, the world, the royal official, the man at the pool, the man born blind, Mary Magdalene, Simon Peter, the beloved disciple, and Judas. Chapter four discusses the point of view that emerges from an analysis of the plot. The final chapter is a summary of the narrative’s singular point of view. This work is a suitable introduction to a literary analysis of the Gospel of John. It makes an important contribution to narrative criticism on the Fourth Gospel in particular, and to our understanding of defamiliarization and point of view in general. The book confronts head-on habitualized and familiar ways of thinking in the ancient world and today.

The Rhetorical Impact of the Sēmeia in the Gospel of John

The Rhetorical Impact of the Sēmeia in the Gospel of John PDF Author: Willis Hedley Salier
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 9783161484070
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Revision of the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Cambridge, 2003.

Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes

Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes PDF Author: Kenneth E. Bailey
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830875859
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
Beginning with Jesus' birth, Ken Bailey leads you on a kaleidoscopic study of Jesus throughout the four Gospels, examining the life and ministry of Jesus with attention to the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes, Jesus' relationship to women, and especially Jesus' parables. The work dispels the obscurity of Western interpretations with a stark vision of Jesus in his original context.

Biblical Narrative Learning

Biblical Narrative Learning PDF Author: Tung Chiew Ha
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1498205135
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Biblical narrative learning is a non-critical educational approach for Christian communities with diverse learning backgrounds, involving three sets of movement: inquire and invent, interpret and imagine-inspire, and imitate and impart. It is grounded in humankind's universal capacity to teach and learn through stories and built on practices in narrative learning, along with biblical narratives. The Gospel of John provides a model for this interpretive process that continues the teaching of living in a loving relationship with God and one another. John uses many literary devices to enhance an affective and reflective learning. The literary devices create the familiar-strange effect. John's narrative fosters remembrance of the Story and guides the learner to adequate faith in God. It inculcates adequate faith to wait in suspense, while the Jesus Story and our stories, when they are remembered, create new understanding and transform the life experiences of the person.

Cast Out of the Covenant

Cast Out of the Covenant PDF Author: Adele Reinhartz
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1978701187
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
The Gospel of John presents its readers, listeners, and interpreters with a serious problem: how can we reconcile the Gospel’s exalted spirituality and deep knowledge of Judaism with its portrayal of the Jews as the children of the devil (John 8:44) who persecuted Christ and his followers? One widespread solution to this problem is the so-called “expulsion hypothesis.” According to this view, the Fourth Gospel was addressed to a Jewish group of believers in Christ that had been expelled from the synagogue due to their faith. The anti-Jewish elements express their natural resentment of how they had been treated; the Jewish elements of the Gospel, on the other hand, reflect the Jewishness of this group and also soften the force of the Gospel’s anti-Jewish comments. In Cast out of the Covenant, this book, Adele Reinhartz presents a detailed critique of the expulsion hypothesis on literary and historical grounds. She argues that, far from softening the Gospel’s anti-Jewishness, the Gospel’s Jewish elements in fact contribute to it. Focusing on the Gospel’s persuasive language and intentions, Reinhartz shows that the Gospel’s anti-Jewishness is evident not only in the Gospel’s hostile comments about the Jews but also in its appropriation of Torah, Temple, and Covenant that were so central to first-century Jewish identity. Through its skillful use of rhetoric, the Gospel attempts to convince its audience that God’s favor had turned away from the Jews to the Gentiles; that there is a deep rift between the synagogue and those who confess Christ as Messiah; and that, in the Gospel’s view, this rift was initiated in Jesus’ own lifetime. The Fourth Gospel, Reinhartz argues, appropriates Jewishness at the same time as it repudiates Jews. In doing so, it also promotes a “parting of the ways” between those who believe that Jesus is the messiah, the Son of God, and those who do not, that is, the Jews. This rhetorical program, she suggests, may have been used to promote outreach or even an organized mission to the Gentiles, following in the footsteps of Paul and his mid-first-century contemporaries.

Diving into the Gospel of John

Diving into the Gospel of John PDF Author: Bruce R. Reichenbach
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1666742090
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
Diving into the Gospel of John displays the rich and diverse arguments John presents for his thesis that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing, readers/listeners will find eternal life. John's arguments are developed in four parts. The first two chapters develop the author's literary techniques that are often based on ambiguity and his key symbols and concepts, the understanding of which are essential to fully appreciate the Gospel. Chapters 3 through 6 progressively portray the author's evidence for his thesis in the form of signs, testimony of those who encounter Jesus, Jesus's self-identification, and Jesus's relationships to others. Chapters 7 and 8 show how the author uses theatrically patterned dialogues and triadic discourses to convey Jesus's identity and mission. Finally, chapters 9 through 11 provide important hints that the author gives for his thesis: Jesus's appeals to time, the indirect use of seven as the number of completeness, and invocation of parentage in pointing to salvation. Through diving into the Gospel, readers will discover the richness of John's argument, the Jesus he portrays, and the God Jesus reveals. The book aims to stimulate commitment, challenge mind and spirit, and encourage further reflection and conversation.

Hearing Revelation 1–3

Hearing Revelation 1–3 PDF Author: Jerome H. Neyrey SJ
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1666787515
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Recipients of Revelation listened to it, and heard it like other oral performances. Greek recipients knew not only Greek, but conventional ways of rhetorical presentation typical of Greek culture. They knew how works began (with a proemium, but with focus on speaker's ethos). Ethos of speaker was the first proof of persuading, and so audiences knew what one sounded like. They heard Revelation 1 as a continuous presentation, not like scholars pausing to examine each tile in the mosaic. The Speaker of Revelation 1-3 is Jesus - not John, who delivers God's revelation to the seven churches. After presenting himself in an impressive bodily manner, called an ecphrasis, he addresses seven individual letters. He repeats appropriate aspects of his ethos in his address of each letter. The letter type is solely that of praise and blame. Because this type is opaque to modern readers, the monograph presents examples of letters of praise and of blame. Greek hearers, moreover, valued more than anything praise, honor and respect, and so these cultural values are presented in some detail. Finally, each of the seven letters is then examined in the light of praise and blame, which in this context means in terms of common understanding of the cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, courage, and temperance. The two dominant virtues turn out to be justice and courage. Since most commentators on Revelation consider the cities from the eyes of elite writers of antiquity, the mean character of urban life needs be brought into focus. Only then can the virtues of the non-elites be identified and given proper praise or blame. Whatever else goes on in Revelation, the first three chapters are thoroughly Greek in composition, structure, and values.

John and the Johannine Letters

John and the Johannine Letters PDF Author: Prof. Colleen M. Conway
Publisher: Abingdon Press
ISBN: 1426766408
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
While the book necessarily includes discussion of key concepts in Johannine scholarship (e.g., the existence or not of a distinctive Johannine community, questions regarding the gospel's sources and redactional layers), it also takes into account more recent developments in New Testament studies. It includes gender related issues with influence by postcolonial approaches as well as the influence of the Gospel's socio-political context in shaping its Christology and theology. Chapters focus on the different approaches to the Johannine texts and view the Gospel and letters through the lens of each respective approach. Chapters also encourage observation and open with a brief scripture reading assignment, followed by guiding questions to help students understand the key questions and themes for each approach.