Monday, April 7, 2008

As a first entry, I ask that you bear with some groundwork. After this I hope to just start writing entries, but I feel some basic information will help. As time goes by I may edit this entry (say, to add to the bibliography, or perhaps annotate it), so come back to it every now and then.

It is my hope to look at the Gospel of John (GoJohn) in a new light. Using D. Moody Smith's commentary on the gospel entitled John and the Oxford College edition of The Access Bible as my base texts, I hope to move past a purely devotional stance to a more comprehensive understanding of the author's intent and especially of how first and second century readers would have understood it.

GoJohn is, I think, the more interesting of the gospels. Growing up in the church, I can remember a youth pastor telling new members to start with the fourth gospel. No wonder-- it's theology would color their understanding of the other gospels.

That, as of now at least, is what I will focus on. It seems rather typical, even boring, to focus on ideas such as the doctrine of the incarnation, or Creedal notions of "the God-man," and the like. Nonetheless, it'd be poor style to look at GoJohn and not give them sufficient emphasis. I hope, however, to color that focus with questioning shades. That is to say, I have a keen interest in how the author of the gospel (for convenience sake either John or the Evangelist, or most likely, John Ev) incorporated logos and Wisdom, in how GoJohn presents Jews, and how GoJohn serves as a sort of bridge into the doctrine of the incarnation and Paul's conception of Christ.



Bibliography:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/The_Gospel_of_John

D. Moody Smith, John (Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1999).

Gail R. O'Day and David Petersen, eds., The Access Bible (New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).

James D. G. Dunn, Christology In The Making: A New Testament Inquiry into the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incarnation (Philadelphia, Penn.: The Westminster Press, 1980).

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