The Riddle called John

I’m not alone in the experience, but here it is: a deep and lengthy immersion in the language and thought of the Synoptic Gospels followed by a reading of any passage in the Gospel of John. The change of texts can befuddle even the most experienced of readers.

What happened, for examples, to kingdom and discipleship? And why now so much on faith and eternal life? What happened to the more reticent Jesus in the Synoptics when we get to the overtly self-proclaiming Jesus of John? And what about that imminent eschatology in the Synoptics and, in fact, what happened to eschatology in the Gospel of John?

Such are not uncommon questions. For which we need an uncommon book, and we’ve now got it in Paul A. Rainbow, Johannine Theology: The Gospel, The Epistles and the Apocalypse, by IVP (2014). Just fresh out. My blurb on the book reads:

Exegetically intricate, bibliographically exhaustive, theologically alert, historically judicious and hermeneutically traditional. Paul’s Rainbow’s decades of research, sifting of substantive scholarship and careful examination of the texts of the apostle John are brought into a theological synthesis incomparable for our day. Johannine Theology may well become an encylopedia for Johannine studies for decades to come.

Put this one on your shelf.