Befriending The Beloved Disciple: A Jewish Reading of the Gospel of John [Paperback]

Adele Reinhartz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 29, 2002

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.">

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Adele Reinhartz's long-awaited and elegantly written book enriches our knowledge of emerging Judaism and Christianity. Befriending the Beloved Disciple engaged in a very generous and original reading of the fourth Gospel from a critical but sympathetic Jewish perspective. This is "must" reading for anyone concerned with the long history of anti-Judaism engendered by the Chrsitian Gospels. I highly recommend it."--Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza

"Befriending the Beloved Disciple is an invigorating exercise in situated reading. Adele Reinhartz candidly lays out her reader's position in relation to John's Gospel as a Jew and a feminist, and then instructively explores the ways in which a reader so situated might relate to this text that insistently demads of its audience adherence to a particular community of belief. There is much to be learned here both about John and about the reading process."--Robert Alter, University of California, Berkeley

"Reading the Gospel unaware of the cogency of alternative readings is ultimately an act of denial that robs the text of its potential to call readers into self-examination and conversation with other readers. By exploring compliant, resistant, sympathetic, and then engaged readings, as a female Jewish New Testament scholar, Reinhartz brings divergent readings of the Fourth Gospel into dialogue withone another and exposes the potential and the problems of each approach. As a result, everyone who reads this book will find that they are able to read the Gospel more knowingly, though less comfortably."--R. Alan Culpepper, McAfee School of Theology

"A sensitive and highly perceptive Jewish reading of John." --E. P. Sanders, The New York Review, November 2001



"Sensitive and engaging."
--Craig A. Evans, Theological Studies, March 2002

"This book will help rather than hinder Jewish-Christian relations."
--Casimir Bernas, Religious Studies Review, April 2002


"Reinhartz has helpfully opened a door to Jewish-Christian exegetical and theological discussion of this Gospel."
--Theology Today, July 2002

"This beautifully written and, at times, very personal study is a delight to read. Reinhartz brings both the text and the Beloved Disciple vividly to life (often in ways which Christian readers will find uncomfortable), and the book will prove essential reading for anyone desiring to deepen his or her relationship with both the Beloved Disciple and his gospel." Helen Bond, University of Edinburgh, The Journal of Theological Studies

About the Author

Adele Reinhartz is Professor of New Testament and Second Temple Judaism at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. She is the author of The Word in the World and "Why Ask My Name?" Anonymity and Identity in Biblical Narrative.

Product Details

• Paperback: 206 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (October 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082641446X
• ISBN-13: 978-0826414465
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #361,405 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Adele Reinhartz is Professor in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa in Canada. Her main areas of research are the Gospel of John, early Jewish-Christian relations, feminist criticism, and, most recently, the Bible and Film. She is the author of numerous articles and several books, including "Why Ask My Name?" Anonymity and Identity in Biblical Narrative (Oxford, 1998), Befriending the Beloved Disciple: A Jewish Reading of the Gospel of John (Continuum, 2001), and Scripture on the Silver Screen (Westminster John Knox, 2003). Her most recent book is a study of the Jesus movies, entitled Jesus of Hollywood (Oxford, 2007). She is currently completing a book on Caiaphas the High Priest, in History, Historiography, and Culture, with support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Adele was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada in 2005.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Looking Through Another's Eyes, March 8, 2007

By 

S. Rogers "Sandy" (Richmond, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Befriending The Beloved Disciple: A Jewish Reading of the Gospel of John (Paperback)

Reinhartz's Befriending the Beloved Disciple provides Christians with another lense through which to see the difficult passages of the Gospel of John. Additionally, she provides an alternative for the historical (ecclesiological) theory for the writing of the Gospel of John.

Her four different approaches to reading the Gospel models ethical techniques for critique.

A wonderful and fun read!