Synopses & Reviews
In this fully revised new edition of a pioneering study of John's gospel, John Ashton explores fresh topics and takes account of the latest scholarly debates. Ashton argues first that the thought-world of the gospel is Jewish, not Greek, and secondly that the text is many-layered, not simple, and composed over an extended period as the evangelist responded to the changing situation of the community he was addressing. Ashton seeks to provide new and coherent answers to what Rudolf Bultmann called the two great riddles of the gospel: its position in the development of Christian thought and its central or governing idea. In arguing that the first of these should be concerned rather with Jewish thought Ashton offers a partial answer to the most important and fascinating of all the questions confronted by New Testament scholarship: how did Christianity emerge from Judaism? Bultmann's second riddle is exegetical, and concerns the message of the book. Ashton's answer highlights a generally neglected feature of the gospel's concept of revelation: its debt to Jewish apocalyptic.
Review
"The most comprehensive, up-to-date, and knowledgeable study of the fourth gospel available today. Comparable in scope, erudition, and insight to the classic works of Dodd and Bultmann from a previous scholarly generation."--J. Warren Holleran,
St. Patrick's Seminary"Presents an outstanding overview of the history of Johannine scholarship and then offers some valuable insights into the theology of the book itself."--Irvin Meinrad Arkin, St. Louis University
"Fine book! After reading Ashton, most commentaries seem dull....I will almost certainly choose it as a required text the next time I do a graduate course on John."--David P. Efroymson, La Salle University
"An important benchmark in understanding the Fourth Gospel."--Religious Studies Review
"This significant contribution to the debate on Johannine Gospel origins offers nuanced insights, serious evaluations of other scholars, and is sensitively and economically written."--Theological Studies
Synopsis
The first comprehensive study of St. John's Gospel in forty years, this book provides new and coherent answers to what Rudolf Baltmann regarded as the two great riddles of the Gospel: its position in the history of Christian thought, and its central or governing idea. Ashton provides
translations of all non-English quotations, and confines detailed exegetical arguments and intricate questions of specialized concern to the footnotes, therein making Understanding the Fourth Gospel an accessible study of the Gospel for the general reader.
About the Author
John Ashton was formerly University Lecturer in New Testament Studies, and Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford.
Table of Contents
Introduction
I. Genesis
1. Religious Dissent
2. The Community and its Book
3. Messiah
4. Son of God
5. Son of Man
6. Messenger of God
II. Revelation
Introduction
7. Intimations of Apocalyptic
8. The Gospel Genre
9. The Story of Wisdom
10. Dualism
11. Departure and Return
12. Passion and Resurrection
13. The Medium and the Message