Introducing John

We should also bear in mind that most of John's original audience would have encountered the Gospel being read aloud, and I believe John wrote with such an audience in mind. When you read John—or any other book in the New Testament for that matter—try reading it aloud; or, better, have someone read it to you. This will more closely replicate the way John's original audience first encountered the text. Since most of his audience was illiterate, and books were very expensive, most would never have actually had the chance to read John; the only way they could encounter the text was to hear John. The entire book can be read aloud in about three hours. A large number of audio recordings of the Bible and John are available, as well as a movie, The Gospel of John (ASIN: B0006Q93ZG), which follows the text of John word for word (in the longer version). Listening to John forces you to experience the narrative more like a symphony than a book. There is often a poetic rhythm and patterns of repetition in John that are lost when we read the book slowly and silently, constantly stopping to ponder, check cross references, or read a commentary. Of course, I am not advising against a careful reading, only suggesting that listening to John should be part of your exploration of the book. 

Translations

Of course the ideal is to read John in Greek, but for most people this is not possible, so we must turn to translations. The number of contemporary Bible translations is rather staggering. There are also many "study bibles" aimed at particular audiences. Everyone has their favorite translation, and each has it's own particular strengths and weaknesses. Any translation you choose will have its own history: a time of translation, specific individual translator(s), a purpose, a special target audience, a point of view, a denominational or theological context, and a set of assumption. Some translators are atheists. Others are part of fundamentalist or sectarian Christian movements. Some are official representatives of a particular Christian denomination. It is helpful to get a sense of the background to the translation you use, and perhaps to use several different translations as you study John.

Modern translations update English language usage and take into account many textual, linguistic, historical, archaeological, and other scholarly advances made in the past century. Many scholars prefer the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), which can be consulted in either the New Oxford Annotated Bible, or the HarperCollins Study Bible (prepared by the Society for Biblical Literature). Both of these study Bibles include the Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical books. These books—rejected by the Rabbis in their canon, but included in the earliest Christian versions of the Old Testament—are an important resource for understanding the New Testament, and serious students should have access to them. The Zondervan New International Version Study Bible (NIV) is widely preferred by evangelicals. The newly published English Standard Version Study Bible (ESV) closely follows modernized King James language, taking a conservative perspective, with useful notes, charts, maps and illustrations. Many of the commentaries listed below also include their own translation. I will tend to follow the ESV or NRSV, or will make my own translations.   

Commentaries

In addition, commentaries can be very valuable for the study of John. Once again, there have been innumerable commentaries on John written in the past century, with no end in sight. These commentaries can vary widely in quality, focus, assumptions and perspectives. Some are written for bible scholars who know Greek. Others are written for the person who is trying to encounter John for the first time in a serious way. Picking a commentary is a matter of both taste and purpose. My own approach could be called moderate conservative, which is to say, I am a Christian and accept the divinity of Christ, and basic historicity of the Gospels, but I am not an inerrantist and recognize the various historical and literary issues surrounding the Gospels.

The Structure of John

Before at last turning to the actual text of John, it can be helpful to outline the basic literary structure of the Gospel, to provide a road map, so to speak, for our spiritual pilgrimage through John. John's Gospel is the most self-consciously literary of the canonical Gospels, and its literary structure is purposeful and meaningful. 

Basically, John's Gospel is divided into two halves. The first half, often called the "Book of Signs" (John 1-11) covers Jesus' ministry, focusing on his activities in Jerusalem at the great Jewish temple festivals. It contains alternating miraculous "signs" of Jesus' divinity, interspersed with discourses by Jesus about the nature of his divinity. The second half (Jn 12-21), which could be called the "Book of Glory," focuses on Jesus' last few days in Jerusalem. It includes a long discourse and prayer at the Last Supper (Jn 13-17), and four chapters on the arrest, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus (Jn 18-21). Thus, fully half of the Gospel of John deals with the last few days of Jesus' life. Many scholars see Jn 1.1-18 as a prologue, and Jn 21 as an epilogue. Bearing this structure in mind, next week we can at last turn to the Gospel itself.