Belief in the Word: Reading John 1–4
Overview
Although studies have appeared on current narrative and reading approaches to John’s Gospel, no commentary is available that integrates their findings for students and scholars. Professor Moloney has met this need with a pioneering commentary that focuses on the text itself and its impact on the reader.
In the Logos edition, this volume is enhanced by amazing functionality. Important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.
If you like this resource be sure to check out Fortress Press Studies in John (7 vols.).
Top Highlights
“The positioning of the prologue at the very beginning of the narrative is part of the real author’s strategy. The reader comes to the prose narrative section of the Gospel (1:19–20:31) armed with the information provided in the poetic narrative of the prologue. Only the omniscient implied author and the narrator have knowledge of the contents of the prologue. No one else in the narrative knows the secrets the author has told the reader in the prologue.” (Pages 23–24)
“While it is legitimate to translate ‘and the Word was turned toward God,’ there may also be an intention on the part of the author to hint that there was a corresponding turning of God toward the Word.” (Page 28)
“imperfect form of the verb ‘to be’ places the Word outside time, without any controlled ‘beginning’ of his own.” (Page 28)
“The present study will attempt to ‘read’ the Johannine Gospel as a unified narrative” (Page 2)
“The prologue cannot be regarded as a ‘fixed choreography of timeless events,’ yet the epic qualities of the poetic narrative establish an ordered system of relationships between God, his Word, his creation, and its history. The prose narrative of 1:19–20:31 threatens to unsettle that order. Things will not happen as the reader of the prologue might expect. This is so because the prose narrative is a story of God’s self-revelation within the context of ‘the wayward paths of human freedom.’” (Page 24)
Francis J. Moloney is a senior professorial fellow of Australian Catholic University at its Melbourne campus, Australia, and member of the Department of Biblical Studies. He is also the former provincial superior of the Salesians of Don Bosco for Australia and the Pacific region and former Katharine Drexel Professor of Religious Studies and dean of the School of Theology at the Catholic University of America. Moloney is a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, a member of the Order of Australia, and the author of more than 40 books.