John S Witness

The final book of the Bible, Revelation prophesies the ultimate judgement of mankind in a series of allegorical visions, grisly images and numerological predictions. According to these, empires will fall, the "Beast" will be destroyed and Christ will rule a new Jerusalem. With an introduction by Will Self.

"'...And the word was a god.' This mistranslation of John 1:1 by Jehovah's Witnesses has been vigorously refuted by Christians, and rightly so. Now, because the JWs have changed their line of reasoning in defending this key text, past refutations are obsolete. The new JW arguments are more sophisticated and their line of reasoning is far more subtle. To meet these new and dangerous misconceptions, this book focuses on the implications of the mistranslation of John 1:1 and John 8:58. Fallacies are exposed and dismissed in precise language that can be easily misunderstood by laypersons who have no knowledge of Greek. The misconceptions and mistranslations so enthusiastically propounded by JWs no longer need to be intimidating. Christians can intelligently and easily counterattack, using the clear and convincing evaluations given in this book" -- BACK COVER.

This book defends the claims of historical-critical research into the New Testament as necessary for theological interpretation. Presenting an interdisciplinary study about the nature of theological language, this book considers the modern debate in theological hermeneutics beginning with the Barth-Bultmann debate and moving towards a theory of language which brings together historical-critical and theological interpretation. These insights are then applied to the exegesis of theologically significant texts of the Gospel of John in the light of the hermeneutical discussion. Drawing together the German and Anglo-American hermeneutical traditions, and discussing issues related to postmodern hermeneutical theories, this book develops a view of the New Testament as the reflection of a struggle for language in which the early Church worked to bring about a language through which the new faith could be understood.

Karl Barth's lectures on the first chapter of the Gospel of John, delivered at Muenster in 1925-26 and at Bonn in 1933, came at an important time in his life, when he was turning his attention more fully to dogmatics. Theological interpretation was thus his primary concern, especially the relation between revelation and the witness to revelation, which helped to shape his formulation of the role of the written (and spoken) word vis-a-vis the incarnate Word. The text is divided into three sections - John 1:1-18, 19-34, 35-51, with the largest share of the book devoted to the first section. Each section begins with Barth's own translation, followed by verse-by -verse and phrase-by-phrase commentary on the Greek text. Although Barth's interpretation is decidedly theological, he does take up questions of philology and textual criticism more thoroughly than in his other works. Much has happened in Johannine scholarship since these lectures were first delivered, yet they remain valuable today - 100 years after Barth's birth - both for their insights into the gospel and into Karl Barth.