This volume explores the distance, historically and theologically, between the historical Jesus and the Gospel of John. Essays on these topics are provided by 27 authors from a variety of backgrounds.

A critical analysis of the historicity of the Gospel of John Since it began in 2002, the John, Jesus, and History Project has assessed critically the modern disparaging of John's historicity and has found this bias wanting. In this third volume, an international group of experts demonstrate over two dozen ways in which John contributes to an enhanced historical understanding of Jesus and his ministry. This volume does not simply argue for a more inclusive quest for Jesus—one that embraces John instead of programmatically excluding it. It shows that such a quest has already indeed begun. Contributors include Paul N. Anderson, Jo-Ann A. Brant, Peder Borgen, Gary M. Burge, Warren Carter, R. Alan Culpepper, James D. G. Dunn, Robert T. Fortna, Jörg Frey, Steven A. Graham, Colin J. Humphreys, Craig Keener, Andreas Köstenberger, Tim Ling, William Loader, Linda McKinnish Bridges, James S. McLaren, Annette Merz, Wendy E. S. North, Benjamin E. Reynolds, Udo Schnelle, Donald Senior, C.P., Tom Thatcher, Michael Theobald, Jan van der Watt, Robert Webb, Stephen Witetscheck, and Jean Zumstein. Features A state-of-the-art analysis of John’s contributions to the quest for the historical Jesus, including evaluative responses by leading Jesus scholars •An overview of paradigm shifts in Jesus scholarship and recent approaches to the Johannine riddles Detailed charts that illuminates John's similarities and differences form the Synoptic Gospels as well as the gospel's contributions to the historical Jesus research

Recent research on the Johannine literature has concluded that behind these writings stands a flourishing community of Christians who lived under the tutelage of the Beloved Disciple, preserved his writings, and venerated his memory. In this book, Gary M. Burge examines one feature of this community's belief and experience: the role of the Spirit in its view both of Christ and of the Christian experience.

The Fourth Gospel is deeply shaped by its remarkably high Christology. It depicts the earthly Jesus, the incarnate one, as fully divine. This unrelenting Christology has led interpreters, both ancient and modern, to question the historical value of John's Gospel. For many, the Gospel is just theology. It is to the vexed relationship between history and theology that Jörg Frey turns in Theology and History in the Fourth Gospel. John's theological obsession with Christology might suggest that history counts for little in the Gospel. But, as Frey argues, the Gospel's clear and central claim is that John narrates the story of Jesus of Nazareth, his ministry, and his death, as "factual," and that this narrated "history" is foundational for the Christian message. Frey traces the Gospel's use of the available historical tradition by chiefly drawing from Mark and the Johannine community. Even if the Gospel of John used this received witness in a remarkably free manner, replotting and renarrating traditional episodes and even creatively staging new episodes, Frey contends that the historical life and person of Jesus remain central to John's enterprise. In the end, Frey warns that Johannine interpretation will miss the intention of the Gospel and the interpretive perspective of the evangelist if it remains preoccupied merely with questions of historical accuracy. The interpretive goal is to "let John be John," and, as Frey shows, readers will always yield to the priority of theology over history in the Fourth Gospel. In John's telling of the Christ story, the significance of history lies precisely in its disclosure of theological meaning, just as the significance of the historical Jesus is only understood in the theological language of Christology.

How do the Gospel and Epistles of John depict the death of Jesus, and why do they do so in the way that they do ? The argument of this study is that there is a diversity of theological perspectives on Jesus' death in the Johannine Corpus and that at least some of that diversity can be elucidated with reference to the changing Sitze im Leben of the Johannine community. This book thus attempts to correlate Johannine theology with Johannine history, building on the earlier labors of Raymond E. Brown and J. Louis Martyn in particular. Part One assesses recent trends in Johannine scholarship and gives a fresh account of the history of Johannine Christianity and of its literary legacy. Part Two then investigates Jesus' death in the Gospel and Epistles of John, attempting to understand and to explain the diversity of Johannine theological perspectives with reference to historical developments and sociological realities. Focal point of discussion and analysis are Johannine passages which relate Jesus' death to the fulfillment of Scripture (e.g. John 12:37-39, 19:24, 36-37), to his departure or going away (e.g., 14:2-3), to his exaltation and glorification (e.g. 3:14, 8:28, 12:32-34; 13:31), and to the language of flesh, blood and water (John 6:51-56; 13:1-20; 19:34; I John I:7; 4:2; 5:6-8; 2 John 7).

An historical investigation of the narrative material and Sayings of St John's Gospel.

Over the last two centuries, many scholars have considered the Gospel of John off-limits for all quests for the historical Jesus. That stance, however, creates a new set of problems that need to be addressed thoughtfully. The essays in this book, reflecting the ongoing deliberations of an international group of Johannine and Jesus scholars, critically assess two primary assumptions of the prevalent view: the dehistoricization of John and the de-Johannification of Jesus. The approaches taken here are diverse, including cognitive-critical developments of Johannine memory, distinctive characteristics of the Johannine witness, new historicism, Johannine-Synoptic relations, and fresh analyses of Johannine traditional development. In addition to offering state-of-the-art reviews of Johannine studies and Jesus studies, this volume draws together an emerging consensus that sees the Gospel of John as an autonomous tradition with its own perspective, in dialogue with other traditions. Through this challenging of critical and traditional assumptions alike, new approaches to John’s age-old riddles emerge, and the ground is cleared for new and creative ways forward.

John, Jesus, and History, Volume 4: Jesus Remembered in the Johannine Situation addresses the narrative development of the Johannine corpus over as many as seven decades. Contributors connect how Jesus is presented in the Fourth Gospel to how the memory of his ministry is developed in Palestine during the earliest period (30–70 CE), in Asia Minor in the later first century (70–100 CE), and in the main and alternative streams of post-Johannine early Christianity (100 CE and later). Contributors include Paul N. Anderson, Harold W. Attridge, Giovanni Bazzana, Jonathan Bernier, Sherri Brown, Rex D. Butler, Andrew J. Byers, Stephen C. Carlson, Warren Carter, Amber M. Dillon, Jonathan A. Draper, Musa W. Dube, Charles E. Hill, Karen L. King, Peter T. Lanfer, Kasper Bro Larsen, Ian N. Mills, Alicia D. Myers, Reinhard Pummer, Tuomas Rasimus, David Rensberger, Clare K. Rothschild, Geoffrey Smith, Travis D. Trost, Meredith J. C. Warren, Kenneth L. Waters Sr., and Lorne R. Zelyck. The collection pushes Johannine, Jesus, and early Christian history studies in new directions, raising possibilities for future research.