The Community Of The Beloved Disciple

"This study in Johannine ecclesiology reconstructs the history of one Christian community in the first century -- a community whose life from its inception to its last hour is reflected in the Gospel and Epistles of John. It was a community that struggled with the world, with the Jews, and with other Christians. Eventually the struggle spread even to its own ranks. It was, in short, a community not unlike the Church of today. This book offers a different view of the traditional Johannine eagle. In the Gospel the eagle soars above the earth, but with talons bared for the fray. In the Epistles we discover the eaglets tearing at each other for possession of the nest" -- Back cover.

A leading New Testament scholar explores key issues in the Gospel of John.

Who is the mysteriously-unnamed Beloved Disciple of Jesus, in the Gospel according to John? Evidence from Mark's Gospel indicates that Jesus' brother Jacob (called "James" in the English New Testament) was a boy at the time of Jesus' crucifixion. Following this premise, an examination of the Greek text of John's Gospel reveals that this young brother Jacob is the Beloved Disciple - "the disciple whom Jesus loved." Further, it is (the future adult) Jacob of whom Jesus speaks at the Supper, as the Paraclete/Spirit of Truth who will, in the following years, guide the disciples and remind them of Jesus' words to them. It is Jacob's own death by stoning, in 62 C.E., which lies behind the deeply-moving story of the illness, death, and raising to life of "Lazarus." Implicit in John's Gospel is a post-resurrection community, centred around, and led by, Mary Magdalene. Jacob's own letters (1 and 2 John) to Mary Magdalene and her community reveal the tensions which arose in that community. John, the evangelist, set out to record not only his understanding of the meaning of Jesus' life, death and resurrection, but also the significance of Jesus' brother Jacob and Mary Magdalene for the fledgling church in the years between c30 and 62 C.E. "I think that if anyone wants to write on the topic [the Beloved Disciple] then they have to take this book into account and give reasons for either agreeing or disagreeing with it." Robert Crotty - Emeritus Professor of Religion and Education, University of South Australia Katherine C. Linforth, MTS, is a graduate of the MCD University of Divinity, Melbourne. Her current interest is the early church and the men and women who formed and influenced it, in the years between c.30 and 70 C.E.

The common supposition that the Fourth Gospel presents a rivalry between Peter and the Beloved Disciple, in which Peter is subordinated to the hero of the Johannine Community, is here subjected to fresh scrutiny. After establishing working hypotheses regarding the Johannine Community and the function of representative figures in the Fourth Gospel, the author first examines the function of Peter independently of the Beloved Disciple. Here, he is the exemplary leader of 'the Twelve'. In those passages where the two characters are juxtaposed, it is evident that the Beloved Disciple is not inordinately exalted above Peter, who in fact enjoys a comparable status. Peter and the Beloved Disciple have complementary roles to play in relation to Jesus and his unfolding 'hour'. John 20 shows the Beloved Disciple as the example of a true believing disciple of Jesus, while concerned to give appropriate respect and support to the 'Apostolic' stream of traditions associated with Peter. The Gospel appendix, ch. 21, is concerned to hold together both sorts of traditions and allegiances. Finally, the author shows how the Gospel as a whole works coherently to encourage a wider view of Christian 'intercommunity' unity after the death of the Beloved Disciple.

The bestselling author of Misquoting Jesus, one of the most renowned and controversial Bible scholars in the world today examines oral tradition and its role in shaping the stories about Jesus we encounter in the New Testament—and ultimately in our understanding of Christianity. Throughout much of human history, our most important stories were passed down orally—including the stories about Jesus before they became written down in the Gospels. In this fascinating and deeply researched work, leading Bible scholar Bart D. Ehrman investigates the role oral history has played in the New Testament—how the telling of these stories not only spread Jesus’ message but helped shape it. A master explainer of Christian history, texts, and traditions, Ehrman draws on a range of disciplines, including psychology and anthropology, to examine the role of memory in the creation of the Gospels. Explaining how oral tradition evolves based on the latest scientific research, he demonstrates how the act of telling and retelling impacts the story, the storyteller, and the listener—crucial insights that challenge our typical historical understanding of the silent period between when Jesus lived and died and when his stories began to be written down. As he did in his previous books on religious scholarship, debates on New Testament authorship, and the existence of Jesus of Nazareth, Ehrman combines his deep knowledge and meticulous scholarship in a compelling and eye-opening narrative that will change the way we read and think about these sacred texts.

Adele Reinhartz has been studying and teaching the Gospel of John for many years. Earlier, she chose to ignore the love/hate relationship that the book provokes in her, a Jew, and took refuge in an "objective" historical-critical approach. At this stage her relationship to the Gospel was not so much a friendship as a business relationship. No longer willing to ignore the negative portrayal of Jews and Judaism in the text, nor the insight that her own Jewish identity inevitably does play a role in her work as an exegete, Reinhartz here explores the Fourth Gospel through the approach known as "ethical criticism," which is based on the metaphorical notion of the book as "friend"--not "an easy, unquestioning companionship," but the kind of honest relationship in which ethical considerations are addressed, not avoided. In a book as multilayered as the Gospel itself, Reinhartz engages in 4 different "readings" of the Fourth Gospel: compliant, resistant, sympathetic, and engaged. Each approach views the Beloved Disciple differently: as mentor, opponent, colleague, and as "other." In the course of each of these readings, she elucidates the three narrative levels that interpenetrate the Gospel: the historical, the cosmological, and the ecclesiological. In the latter, Reinhartz deals at length with the so-called expulsion theory, the dominant scholarly notion that the Johannine community, which included believers of Jewish, Gentile, and Samaritan origins, engaged in a prolonged and violent controversy with the local Jewish community, culminating in a "traumatic expulsion from the synagogue."

"A stunning new gospel--in the words of Jesus' beloved disciple, a woman."--Dust jacket.