Book Notice: Richard Horsley & Tom Thatcher on Gospel of John, Jesus, and Israel

Richard Horsley & Tom Thatcher

John, Jesus & the Renewal of Israel
Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013.
Available at Amazon.com

This is a bold book about how the Gospel of John contributes to the picture of the historical Jesus as a prophet of Israelite restoration hopes. The authors “offer a new reading of the Gospel of John as a story of Jesus’ mission in the historical context of early Roman Palestine”and argue that “the Gospel of John portrays Jesus engaged in a renewal of the people of Israel against the rulers of Israel, both the Jerusalem authorities and the Romans who placed them in power” (p. 1). Instead of treating John’s Gospel merely as a source for early Christology or a window into a Johannine the community, the authors claim: “We will instead treat the Gospel as a coherent narrative derived from a formative community memory that includes different strands that have been brought together” (p. 4). I think the strengths of this book are threefold: (1) Revisiting the issue of the historical value of the Gospel of John as a source for Jesus (in line with other scholars like Craig Blomberg and Paul Anderson); (2) Showing the parity between Mark and Q on the one hand and John on the other hand; (3) Demonstrating how John has his own array of Jewish restoration traditions like John 11:50-52 (see also John Dennis on this). However, it does a look a bit like the Johannine portrait has been Synopticized, for instance, when talking about Jesus’ death, the authors fail to mention the story of the raising of Lazarus, which in John is the catalyst for the high priests moving against Jesus (see John 11:53).