Abingdon New Testament Commentaries John

In this volume, Smith views the Fourth Gospel within several contexts in order to illuminate its specific purposes and achievements. A growing consensus of recent scholarship (including Martyn, Raymond E. Brown, Meeks) seeks the roots of this Gospel and its traditions in the conflict between Jesus' followers and opponents within Judaism. In their struggles, Jesus' followers are encouraged and strengthened by his continuing presence in the Spirit, which articulates his meaning for new situations. Although distinctive, Johannine Christianity does not develop in complete isolation from the broader Christian Gospels. Out of a fascinating, if complex, setting develops the strikingly unique statement of Christian faith, practice, and doctrine found in the Gospel of John. The purpose of this commentary is to enable the reader to comprehend that statement in historical perspective in order to appreciate its meaning and significance.

After years of close contact with the Johannine epistles, David Rensberger discusses the numerous puzzles--linguistic, literary, and historical--that characterize these brief texts. His comments on their theological and ethical significance illumines the meaning and interrelationship of faith and love. In short, Rensberger skillfully demonstrates that despite the Johannine epistles' existence on the periphery of the New Testament canon, they nevertheless touch on the heart of its message. Inquiry includes relationship of these epistles to the gospel of John, Christology, Dualism, Eschatology, the Church, and Salvation.

In this volume, Smith views the Fourth Gospel within several contexts in order to illuminate its specific purposes and achievements. A growing consensus of recent scholarship (including Martyn, Raymond E. Brown, Meeks) seeks the roots of this Gospel and its traditions in the conflict between Jesus' followers and opponents within Judaism. In their struggles, Jesus' followers are encouraged and strengthened by his continuing presence in the Spirit, which articulates his meaning for new situations. Although distinctive, Johannine Christianity does not develop in complete isolation from the broader Christian Gospels. Out of a fascinating, if complex, setting develops the strikingly unique statement of Christian faith, practice, and doctrine found in the Gospel of John. The purpose of this commentary is to enable the reader to comprehend that statement in historical perspective in order to appreciate its meaning and significance.

Sleeper's lucid exposition of James restores this often neglected work to its rightful place in the Christian canon. Carefully charting the verbal structures and argument of the letter, he demonstrates that it is a coherent piece of moral teaching intended to encourage the development of Christian character, not just a collection of disparate maxims. As he guides the reader through the letter's basic themes, Sleeper is attentive to its echoes in the Old Testament, Hellenistic Jewish wisdom literature, and sayings of Jesus, as well as to its affinities with other Christian writings. Moreover, he shows that the author's understanding of God and of human nature provides a significant theological foundation for practical wisdom about the Christian moral life.

In this lucid exposition, an acclaimed interpreter shows that the book of Revelation is to be read as a unified work of religious poetry aimed at extricating Christians from Roman society, in which they were living quietly and peacefully. Thompson considers connections between John’s negative view of society and his social location as a wandering prophet, compares his visionary experience with that of other prophets and seers, especially in Judaism, notes similarities between the depictions of Christ and Satan in Revelation and portraits of heroes and demons in other writings of the time, and emphasizes that John’s vision of heaven and the future were intended to infuse everyday Christian life with confidence in the goodness and ultimate triumph of God. “Thompson’s commentary on Revelation is written in an engaging literary style and, by presenting perceptive comparisons and contrasts with both Greco-Roman and Jewish literature—canonical and non-canonical—he highlights the distinctive features of this book. He deals effectively with the rhetorical and even the epistemological dimensions, while offering an illuminating and convincing proposal for the structure and thematic development of Revelation. In short, it is a most revealing and insightful analysis of this challenging early Christian writing, as it shows how this book addresses perennial human questions about divine purpose and human destiny.” –-Howard Clark Kee

In a striking departure from customary readings of the Acts of the Apostles as the story of the growth of the church, Gaventa argues that Luke's second volume has to do with nothing less than the activity of God. From the beginning of the story at Jesus' Ascension and extending until well past the final report of Paul's activity in Rome, Luke narrates a relentlessly theological story, in which matters of institutional history or biography play only an incidental role. Gaventa pays careful attention to Luke's story of God, as well as to the numerous characters who set themselves in opposition to God's plan.

Mark’s genius lies, not in telling a story about Jesus, but in creating conditions under which the reader may experience the peculiar quality of God’s good news. The Evangelist hurries one along breathlessly, “immediately,” making sure that the reader lurches with the characters into one pothole after another. “What is this new teaching” that consorts with the flagrantly sinful, turning the pious homicidal, intimates into strangers, and mustard seeds into “the greatest of all ... shrubs”? Jesus’ closest adherents, the Twelve, are among the most muddled. Who can blame them? They ask for an obscure parable’s interpretation and receive an answer even more confounding. They are told to feed thousands with next to nothing. Their boat almost capsizes while their teacher sleeps. As they oar in rough waters, the teacher strides the waves intending to bypass them. Putting the reader in the same boat, Mark structures conversations with Jesus that make little sense, if any. The Twelve are craven, stupid, self-serving, and disobedient: meet the average Christian. Besides, “their hearts were hardened.” Who hardens hearts? God. Should not God’s Messiah lift the burdens of those following him? What kind of Christ heads to a cross, handing his disciples another for themselves. “Do you not yet understand?” from the Introduction

The Abingdon New Testament Commentaries series offers compact, critical commentaries on the writings of the New Testament. These commentaries are written with special attention to the needs and interests of theology students, but they will also be useful for students in upper-level college or university settings, as well as for pastors and other church leaders. In addition to providing basic information about the New Testament texts and insights into their meanings, these commentaries exemplify the tasks and procedures of careful, critical exegesis. In this volume of the Abingdon New Testament Commentaries series, Steven J. Kraftchick both studies these two epistles in their late first century context and discusses their relevance to the contemporary Christian church. The author discusses the importance of the insider/outsider language, the harsh polemical tone of both letters, and their reliance upon the Old Testament and both early Jewish and Greco-Roman thought. "Because of the numerous similarities between Jude and Second Peter (the latter probably made use of the former), Kraftchick emulates many commentators by treating the two epistles together. In antiquity few writers commented upon Second Peter; the letter is little used in the liturgy. But this does not diminish its importance as providing an insight into aspects of life in the early church. Kraftchick sees Second Peter as possibly originating in the period 90-100 CE (earlier than many commentators). Its pseudonymous authorship and nature as a 'farewell testament' were common enough at the time, enabling the writer to cloak his own arguments in the garments of a revered, authoritative personage of the past. The letter's teaching on the delay of the parousia is among its most striking features; it is the only NT writing to teach that the present world will be destroyed by fire, though such a notion is found in intertestamental Jewish writings and among the Stoics. Kraftchick brings nothing startlingly new to an already well-furrowed exegetical field, but his skill at synthesis and clarity of expression will be appreciated by the students for whom this entire series is intended."--Casimir Bernas, Holy Trinity Abbey, in Religious Studies Review, Volume 29 Number 3, July 2003.