The Gospels As Historical Documents The Fourth Gospel 1920

First published in 1920, this final volume in a three-part series examines the Gospel of John. Stanton investigates the environment in which the Gospel was composed, its attribution to the disciple John son of Zebedee, and its relationship with the Synoptic Gospels. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Church history or in the transmission of biblical texts.

First published in 1930, this second volume in a three-part series examines the Synoptic problem.

It has been the fate of many books on John to be left unfinished, for its interpretation naturally forms the crowning of a lifetime. I have myself been intending to write a book on the Fourth Gospel since the 'fifties, before I broke off (reluctantly) to be Bishop of Woolwich, though I am grateful now that I did not produce it prematurely at that time. It means however that I shall be compelled to refer to and often recapitulate material directly or indirectly related to the Johannine literature, which I have written over the years (some of it indeed while I was bishop). Many scholars in fact, if not most now, think that the author of the Gospel himself never lived to finish it and have seen the work as the product of numerous hands and redactors. As will become clear, I prefer to believe that the ancient testimony of the church is correct that John wrote it 'while still in the body' and that its roughnesses, self-corrections and failures of connection, real or imagined, are the result of its not having been smoothly or finally edited. If so I am in good company. At any rate who could wish for a better last testimony from his friends than that 'his witness is true' (John 21.24)? In other words, he got it right--historically and theologically. --from the Introduction At the time of his death in December 1983, John Robinson had completed the text of the book on which his 1984 Bampton lectures were to be based, so that it is possible to see the full details of his extremely controversial argument that the Gospel of John was the first Gospel to be written. Dr. Robinson himself once described the dawning of his conviction that this was the case as a 'Damascus Road experience', and his presentation of the evidence is made with all the customary vigor with which he would argue for something in which he deeply believed. The objections which need to be overcome to stand on its head what has long been one of the fundamental assumptions of New Testament scholarship are substantial, but here once again Dr. Robinson shows that so much of what is taken as established fact in that area is no more than preference and presumption. Certainly he will provoke rethinking on a whole series of topics, from the chronology of Jesus' ministry to the nature of his teaching. As The Listener said of the equally controversial Redating the New Testament: The greatest pleasure Dr. Robinson gives is purely intellectual. His book is a prodigious virtuoso exercise in inductive reasoning and an object lesson in the nature of historical argument and historical knowledge. This sequel equals, if not excels, its predecessor in those respects and is a fitting tribute to a brilliant New Testament scholar. The manuscript was prepared for publication by Dr. Chip Coakley, Dr Robinson's pupil, now Lecturer in Religious Studies in the University of Lancaster.

These in-depth studies on the Gospel of John, written by the man who describes himself as a 'conservative evangelical,' demonstrate that the application of the critical method to an understanding of scripture need not rule out an acceptance of inspiration. Dr. Morris is here concerned with the authorship of the fourth Gospel, its relation to the Synoptists, the origin and date of writing, and with other similar issues. To his discussion of these issues he brings both his impressive scholarship and firm commitment to the revelatory nature of the Bible. The result is an informed and articulate statement of the conservative position on the many crucial questions raised by John's Gospel. In his Preface to this volume, Dr. Morris notes that Critical Protestant scholars and Roman Catholics are reading one another's works and discussing one another's writings with charity and mutual profit. Perhaps it is not too much to hope that both will include the conservative evangelicals within the scope of their reading and charity. In the hope that it will make some small contribution to the continuing dialogue this book goes forth.