![\"The](\"http:\/\/ws.amazon.com\/widgets\/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0802848664&tag=jamefmcgrshom-20\")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jamefmcgrshom-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0802848664\")
I am grateful to Eerdmans for sending me a review copy of Jerome Neyrey\u2019s latest book,\u00a0The Gospel of John in Cultural and Rhetorical Perspective<\/i><\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jamefmcgrshom-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0802848664\")
\u00a0(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009). The book is made up of previously-published studies, most of which are fairly recent, but the earliest of which goes back some 30 years. As such, the book brings together a life\u2019s work in the realm of cultural anthropological and rhetorical study of the Gospel of John. Neyrey\u2019s categorization of the volume seems accurate (see pp.vii, xii-xiii): it stands somewhere in between the commentary and the typical volume about a particular New Testament text viewed from a particular angle. In a sense, it is \u201cmore than a commentary\u201d since it provides detailed study of key passages from the perspective of two types of methodological approach which share in common an emphasis on the importance of setting the Gospel of John (and any ancient text we try to interpret) in the context of the literature and culture of that time and place.<\/p>\nThe aforementioned characteristics make it a difficult volume to summarize. But hopefully what I write here \u00a0will make clear why it should be of great interest to anyone interested in the Gospel of John and\/or in the application of cultural anthropology to the study of the New Testament. Although focused on John, in the process of studying this specific piece of literature Neyrey provides a wide array of general information about cultural values from Mediterranean societies, such as status, honor, space, labels, concepts of limited good, agency, patrons and clients, secrecy, and much more. Neyrey has the very helpful tendency to use charts and diagrams to clarify concepts and to highlight parallels of structure, language and concept between passages. A question he asks more than once is \u201cWhat do we know if we know this?\u201d (pp.81, 398; cf. 434) \u2013 in other words, he consistently shows a concern to make explicit how the general cultural information and literary parallels he discusses are relevant to our understanding of specific passages.<\/p>\n
The only real criticism I have of the book relates to the treatment of the story of the Samaritan woman in John 4. Neyrey sums up Jesus\u2019 statement to her and the woman\u2019s recounting of the incident in terms of her \u201csexual history,\u201d and he uses this phrase with surprising frequency (see pp.41-42, 70, 157, 160-161, 163, 166). I doubt that, if Jesus had told a man<\/i> how many wives he had had, this phrase would have been used. But the ancient cultural context in which the Gospel of John was written didn\u2019t treat women and men as equals, and so the more important question is whether the woman\u2019s \u201csexual history\u201d is the focus in the story as it is likely to have been understood in that time. It is not clear that Samaritans allowed women to initiate divorce, and at any rate it is unlikely that a woman who had been divorced by several men would have found a new husband so many times. And so the most likely scenario is that the woman had been widowed multiple times (a possibility Neyrey mentions in passing on p.156 without giving it much attention), perhaps in an echo of the story in the Book of Tobit. Nor is it clear that concubinage would have been viewed as sinful in this time and context. And so it seems that there is reason to doubt that the woman\u2019s testimony about Jesus meant \u201cCome see a man who told me everyone I ever did.\u201d The woman in the story, I suggest, would more likely have been viewed as a tragic figure than a sexually promiscuous one.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the failure to break free from the classic tradition of interpretation of this story illustrates well why a book like Neyrey\u2019s is so important. In spite of my criticisms on this one particular point, the book on the whole is not characterized by cultural blind spots but by a wealth of relevant and helpful cultural material, with specific discussion of how knowledge about the cultural context clarifies the meaning of a great many parts of the Gospel of John. This book is a treasure trove for anyone interested in the Gospel of John or in perspectives from cultural anthropology on the New Testament. And anyone interested in Johannine Christology cannot afford to ignore Neyrey\u2019s treatment of key passages, themes and concepts. I highly recommend this book!<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-3483918312332746248?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\")
<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I am grateful to Eerdmans for sending me a review copy of Jerome Neyrey\u2019s latest book,\u00a0The Gospel of John in Cultural and Rhetorical Perspective\u00a0(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009). The book is made up of previously-published studies, most of which are fairly recent, but the earliest of which goes back some 30 years. As such, the book […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n