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The Gospel of John PDF

645 Pages·1986·40.503 MB·English
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THE NEW CENTURY BIBLE COMMENTARY THE GOSPEL OF JOHN BARNABAS LINDARS THE NEW CENTURY BIBLE COMMENTARIES EXODUS U. P. Hyatt) LEvrncus AND NUMBERS (N. H. Snaith) DEUTERONOMY (A. D. H. Mayes) JOSHUA, JUDGES AND RUTH Uohn Gray) EZRA, NEHEMIAH AND ESTHER (L. H. Brockington) JOB (H. H. Rowley) PSALMS Volumes I and 2 (A. A. Anderson) ISAIAH 1-39 (R. E. Clements) ISAIAH 4<r6ti (R. N. Whybray) EZEKIEL Uohn W. Wevers) THE GOSPEL OF MATIHEW (David Hill) THE GOSPEL OF MARK (Hugh Anderson) THE GOSPEL OF LUKE (E. Earle Ellis) THE GOSPEL OF JOHN (Barnabas Lindars) THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES (William Neil) ROMANS (Matthew Black) I and 2 CORINTHIANS (F. F. Bruce) GALATIANS (Donald Guthrie) EPHESIANS (C. Leslie Mitton) PHILIPPIANS (Ralph P. Martin) COLOSSIANS AND PHILEMON (Ralph P. Martin) I PETER (Ernest Best) THE BOOK OF REVELATION (G. R. Beasley-Murray) Other titles in prtparation NEW CENTURY BIBLE COMMENTARY Based on the Revised Standard Version The Gospel of JOHN BARNABAS LINDARS WM. B. EERDMANS PUBL. Co., GRAND RAPIDS MARSHALL, MORGAN &SCO'IT PUBL. LTD., LONDON Copyright to Marshall, Morgan & Scott 1972 First published 1972 by Marshall. Morgan & Scott. England Softback edition publishcd 198 I Reprinted, March 1986 All rights rescn'cd Printcd in the U nitcd States of America for Wm. B. Ecrdmans Puhlishing Company 255 Jefferson Ave. S.E .• Grand Rapids. Mich. 49503 and Marshall. Morgan & Scott A Pentos company I Bath Strcct. London EelV 9LB ISBN 0551008482 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Lindars, Barnahas. The Gospel ofJ ohn. (Ncw ccntury Bible commental'ics) Rcprint of the cd. published by Oliphants. London. which was issued in sel'ies: New century Bible. Bibliography: p. 13 Includes index. I. Bible. N.T. John - Commcntaries. I. Titlc. I I. Series. New century Biblc commcntary. II I. Serics: Ncw ccntury Bible. [BS2615.3.L54 1980] 226'.507 80-18297 ISBN 0-8028-1864-1 The Bible references in this publication are taken from the Rel'/sed Stmu/rmi Version of the Bible, copyrighted 1946 and 1952 by the Di"ision of Chi,tiall u.s Education, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the .A .• mit/usn/ by permission. CONTENTS PREFACE 7 ABBREVIATIONS 9 BIBLIOGRAPHY 13 INTRODUCTION 23 1 The Central Message of the Fourth Gospel 24 2 John and the Synoptic Gospels 25 3 Authorship 28 4 Background of Thought 35 5 Date and Place 42 6 The Language of John 44 7 The Making of the Fourth Gospel 46 8 The Historical Value of the Fourth Gospel 54 9 Special Issues 56 10 The Permanent Value of the Fourth Gospel 63 COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 75 INDEX 643 To the Mem01yof Brother Peter, S.S.F. PREFACE The Fourth Gospel has attracted the interest of an overwhelming number of scholars, because of the range and intricacy of the problems which it presents. But for most people its attraction lies in what it is in itself-a strange but compelling picture of the irruption of Jesus Christ on to the stage of history to claim the allegiance of men. My own interest was aroused in the mid-I950s, when for several years I conducted a daily Bible study for the mission team of a Mission to hop-pickers in Kent, led by the late Brother Peter, S.S.F. (J. P. Searle). The subject was always St John. Sitting round trestle-tables in a disused oast-house, we sought to unlock the riches of the Fourth Gospel, and discovered that it is pre-eminently an evangelistic work. Subsequently I was asked at very short notice to deputize for one of the principal speakers at the Fourth Theology and Ministry Convention at Oxford in 1956. The lecture had to be produced in a single after noon, without access to any reference books; it was published under the title of 'The Fourth Gospel an Act of Contemplation' in the conference volume, Studies in the Fourth Gospel, edited by F. L. Cross (1957). Since then my work has taken me into other fields. But the request to contribute the commentary on St John for the present series was one which could not be refused. The work has had to be done more rapidly than I could have wished; but I hope that the result will commend itself to scholarly judgment, and will be found useful by students and the general reader alike. It has been my primary aim to show the vital contact between John's presentation of the Gospel narrative· and the living tradi tion of the words and deeds of Jesus. Discussion of the sources of the Fourth Gospel has been dominated by what I can only regard as false criteria: it is only in recent years that a proper employment of form-critical techniques has begun to appear in Johannine studies. I have tried to interpret the Gospel afresh from this point of view, so as to expose the underlying traditions which John had at his disposal, and to trace his creative use of them for his theological design. The literature listed in the bibliography is confined to works which are actually mentioned in the course of the commentary, but I have added publications of my own in which some of my 7 PREFACE 8 thinking on John has been worked out. It will be evident from the commentary which are the authors to whom I am most deeply indebted. At the time of writing only the first volumes of the commentaries of R. E. Brown (The Anchor Bible) and of R. Schnackenburg (Herders theologischer Kommentar) were avail able. I would like to thank my colleagues in the Faculty of Divinity for kindly arranging to free me from teaching duties during the past academic year, and for their help and encouragement. B. L. 28th October 1969 ABBREVIATIONS BIBLICAL OLD TESTAMENT (OT) Gen. Jg. I Chr. Ps. Lam. Ob. Hag. Exod. Ru. 2 Chr. Provo Ezek. Jon. Zech. Lev. I Sam. Ezr. Ec. Dan. Mic. Mal. Num. 2 Sam. Neh. Ca. Ros. Nah. Dt. I Kg. Est. Isa. Jl Rab. Jos. 2 Kg. Job Jer. Am. Zeph. APOCRYPHA (Apoc.) I Esd. Tab. Ad. Est. Sir. S. 3 Ch. Bel. I Mac. 2 Esd. Jdt. Wis. Bar. Sus. Man. 2 Mac. Ep.Jer. NEW TESTAMENT (NT) Mt. Ac. Gal. I Th. Tit. I Pet. 3Jn Mk Rom. Eph. 2 Th. Phm. 2 Pet. Jude Lk. I C. Phil. I Tim. Heb. I In Rev. In 2 C. Col. 2 Tim. Jas 2Jn DEAD SEA SCROLLS CD Damascus Document (fragments of a Zadokite work) IQH Hymns of Thanksgiving IQM War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness IQS Rule of the Community (Manual of Discipline) JEWISH WRITINGS B Babylonian Talmud (B-Babli) Y Jerusalem Talmud (Y-Yerushalmi) GENERAL AG A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, trans. and ed. of Walter Bauer's Griechische-Deutches Worterbuch zu det! Schriften des Neuen Testaments und der iibrigen urchristlichet! LiteratuT, by W. F. Arndt and R. W. Gingrich (Cambridge, 19524) 9 ABBREVIATIONS 10 AV Authorized Version 161 I BDF A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and ot!l£r Early Christian Literature, trans. and rev. by F. Blass, and A. Debrunner's Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Griechisch, by R. W. Funk (Cambridge, 1961) BJRL Bulletin of the John Rylands Lib1"ary, Manchester BZ Biblischer Zeitschrijt, Paderborn BZNW BeiheJte zur Zeitschrijt fur die neutestamentliche Wissenscllf-!fi, Berlin CBQ Catholic Biblical Qparterry, Washington (D.C.) CQEG De Congressu Quaerendae Eruditionis Gratia (Philo) ET Expository Times, Edinburgh EvTh Evangelische Theologie, Munich FRLANT Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neucn Testa ments, Gottingen HE Historia Ecclesiastica (Eusebius) HTR Harvard Theological Review, Cambridge (Mass.) IDB Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, 4 vols (New York and Nashville, 1962) JB The Jerusalem Bible (London, 1966) JBL Journal of Biblical Literature, New York JJS Journal of Jewish Studies, London JTS Journal of Theological Studies, Oxford LSJ A Greek-English Lexicon, by H. G. Liddell and R. Scott, rev. H. S. Jones, 2 vols (Oxford, 1925-40) LXX Septuagint MM The Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament, illustrated from the papyri and other non-literary sources, by J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan (London, 1914-29) MS(S) Manuscript(s) NEB(mg) The New English Bible (London, 1970), (margin) NT(Sup) Novum Testamentum, Leiden, (Supplements) NTS New Testament Studies, Cambridge para(s) parallel(s) RB Revue Biblique, Paris RGG Die Religion in Geschichte uttd Gegenwarl. 3rd edn, 6 vols (Tiibingen, 1957-62) RV(mg) Revised Version (1884), (margin) RSV(mg) Revised Standard Version (1952), (margin) SB Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, by H. L. Strack and P. Billerbeek, 5 vols (1922-55) SBT Studies in Biblical Theology, London TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testammt, translation of

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