The Gospel according to John

705 Pages·1991·4.89 MB·English

by  D. A. Carson

Table of Contents

THE PILLAR NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY
Dedication
Title Page
Copyright Page
Preface
PREFACE
ABBREVIATIONS
Introduction

COMMENTARY
I. THE PROLOGUE (1:1–18)
II. JESUS’ SELF-DISCLOSURE IN WORD AND DEED (1:19–10:42)

A. PRELUDE TO JESUS’ PUBLIC MINISTRY (1:19–51)
B. EARLY MINISTRY: SIGNS, WORKS AND WORDS (2:1–4:54)
C. RISING OPPOSITION: MORE SIGNS, WORKS AND WORDS (5:1–7:52)
EXCURSUS: THE WOMAN CAUGHT IN ADULTERY (7:53–8:11)
D. RADICAL CONFRONTATION: CLIMACTIC SIGNS, WORKS AND WORDS (8:12–10:42)

III. TRANSITION: LIFE AND DEATH, KING AND SUFFERING SERVANT (11:1–12:50)

A. THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS (11:1–44)
B. THE JUDICIAL DECISION TO KILL JESUS (11:45–54)
C. TRIUMPH AND IMPENDING DEATH (11:55–22:36)
D. THEOLOGY OF UNBELIEF (12:37–50)

IV. JESUS’ SELF-DISCLOSURE IN HIS CROSS AND EXALTATION (13:1–20:31)

A. THE LAST SUPPER (13:1–30)
B. THE FAREWELL DISCOURSE: PART ONE (13:31–14:31)
C. THE FAREWELL DISCOURSE: PART TWO (15:1–16:33)
D. THE PRAYER OF JESUS (17:1–26)
E. THE TRIAL AND PASSION OF JESUS (18:1–19:42)
F. THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS (20:1–31)
V. EPILOGUE (21:1–25)

A. JESUS APPEARS TO HIS DISCIPLES BY THE SEA (21:1–14)
B. JESUS AND PETER AND JOHN (21:15–24)
C. THE GREATNESS OF JESUS (21:25)

INDEX OF MODERN AUTHORS
INDEX OF BIBLICAL REFERENCES
THE PILLAR NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY
General Editor
D. A. CARSON
This book is gratefully dedicated to
Kenneth and Ruth Kantzer
© 1991 D. A. Carson
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior permission of the publishers or the Copyright Licensing Agency.

Published 1991 in the U.K. by
APOLLOS (an imprint of Inter-Varsity Press)
38 De Montfort Street, Leicester, England LE1 7GP
and in the United States by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
255 Jefferson S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503

Printed in the United States of America

04 03 02 01 00 99 12 11 10 9 8 7 6

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Carson, D. A.
The gospel according to John.
1. Bible. N.T. John — Critical studies
I. Title
226.506

ISBN 0-85111-779-X

Eerdmans ISBN 0-8028-3683-6 (cloth: alk. paper)

Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations in this publication are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973,
1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used in USA by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and
published in Great Britain by Hodder and Stoughton Ltd.
SERIES PREFACE
Commentaries have specific aims, and this series is no exception. Designed for serious pastors and
teachers of the Bible, the Pillar commentaries seek above all to make clear the text of Scripture as we
have it. The scholars writing these volumes interact with the most important informed contemporary
debate, but avoid getting mired in undue technical detail. Their ideal is a blend of rigorous exegesis and
exposition, with an eye alert both to biblical theology and the contemporary relevance of the Bible,
without confusing the commentary and the sermon.
The rationale for this approach is that the vision of “objective scholarship” (a vain chimera) may
actually be profane. God stands over against us; we do not stand in judgment of him. When God speaks
to us through his Word, those who profess to know him must respond in an appropriate way, and that is
certainly different from a stance in which the scholar projects an image of autonomous distance. Yet this
is no surreptitious appeal for uncontrolled subjectivity. The writers of this series aim for an evenhanded
openness to the text that is the best kind of “objectivity” of all.
If the text is God’s Word, it is appropriate that we respond with reverence, a certain fear, a holy joy, a
questing obedience. These values should be reflected in the way Christians write. With these values in
place, the Pillar commentaries will be warmly welcomed not only by pastors, teachers, and students, but
by general readers as well.
PREFACE
Anyone who dares to write yet another commentary on the Gospel of John must give reasons for doing
so.
The original impetus was the invitation to provide a volume for a series. But as I set to work, it
became clear that I needed more reason than that. A new commentary needs to justify itself in broader
terms: it needs to carve a niche for itself by aiming at a specific readership, or by tackling certain
problems, or by its particular emphases.
As these matters were discussed with the publishers, both they and I originally thought that the extra
length and detail my own aims demanded could be accommodated within the series. Eventually,
however, it was thought otherwise, and so we amicably agreed to publish this commentary on its own.
This history largely explains why the format of this work is as it is.
This commentary seeks above all to explain the text of John’s Gospel to those whose privilege and
responsibility it is to minister the Word of God to others, to preach and to lead Bible studies. I have tried
to include the kind of information they need to know, but to do so in such a way that the informed
layperson could also use the work in personal study of the Bible, exclusively for purposes of personal
growth in edification and understanding.
In particular, I have attempted:
(1) To make clear the flow of the text. Instead of offering detailed word studies and comments on
Greek syntax, I have kept such remarks to the minimum required to make sense of the book, and
have focused on the movement of thought.
(2) To engage a small but representative part of the massive secondary literature on John.
Doubtless many who read this commentary will be informed pastors and theological students
who need some kind of map of contemporary studies on John. Without permitting such
interaction to become intrusive, I have tried to indicate what is valuable in such work, and where
(and why) I depart from some of it.
(3) To draw a few lines towards establishing how the Fourth Gospel contributes to biblical and
systematic theology. There is, of course, no point in deriding such syntheses; any thinking
Christian is in some sense a systematician. But if all of us consciously or unconsciously
systematize what we learn from the Scriptures, it may be a help to pause now and then in the
course of an exegetical and expository commentary and reflect on the contribution of the text to
a mature and holistic Christian faith.
(4) To offer a consistent exposition of John’s Gospel as an evangelistic Gospel. This is out of step,
I confess, with what is in vogue in current scholarship: the majority opinion understands the
Fourth Gospel to have been written with Christian readers in mind. In the past I have written the
odd article poking away at this synthesis, trying to establish the minority opinion; but this
commentary attempts, in part, to provide a global (if still entirely preliminary) defence of this
reading.
No-one is more aware than I how far I have proved unable to achieve these goals as I would have
liked. I am grateful for the careful reading and thoughtful suggestions of Leon Morris and David
Kingdon. That I have not always agreed with them must not detract from the fact that because of their
wisdom and attention to detail this work is better than it would have been without them. I am also
grateful to the publishers, not least for their continued enthusiasm for the work even when it became
clear that it could not be accommodated within the series for which it was originally planned. Finally, I
want to express my thanks to Steve Bryan for compiling the Scripture index.
Above all, if this commentary helps some to honour the Son just as they honour the Father (5:23),
and to believe that the Christ, the Son of God, is Jesus (20:30–31), and thus to discern both the love
(3:16) and the wrath (3:36) of God that have been brought near in the coming of the Son, I shall be
profoundly grateful.
Soli Deo gloria.

D. A. Carson