Customer Reviews

The Gospel According to John XIII-XXI (Anchor Bible, Vol 29, Part A)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If these two volumes were in print, they would be the texts for the Scripture course I'm taking. Overwhelmingly, Raymond Brown is the expert on John. He pulls from decades of research and numerous sources. It appears to be a life's work. He gives a phrase by phrase commentary, verse by verse. A narrative summary ties all the ideas together. He includes notes on translation including many possible views of sense of meaning. After delving into any section the reader should go away satisfied with the answer they need. This is very detailed. Be prepared to spend lots of hours satisfying your thirst.

Kudos for Brown. This is an outstanding addition to your theological library. Brown addresses the scholarly issues and at the same time, has superb insight to the text that preaches. No, it is not the easiest to read and use, but the best seldom are.

We used R.A. Brown's Introduction to the New Testament in our seminary intro class and I've never found him the easiest to read, but I really like his commentary on John's gospel... and on the epistles. For "ugo" who says he's looking for more of an exegetical approach, I would suggest C.K. Barrett's commentary.

Raymond E. Brown is without doubt the best theologian of his time. He has written excellent work which will be read and studied decades if not centuries later. The Gospel Acc. to John XIII-XXI, I am not too proud to admit, went over my head. More than an analysis on the Gospel acc. to John, this is a review of scholarly ideas in modern theology. For seminarians or those who have done extensive study of biblical scholarship, there should not be a problem. For the rest of us, it would be better to go with one of Brown's introductory works. It did not help matters that I assumed this was a one volume work, at over 1100 pages. This is merely the second half of the volume. The first concerns what Brown calls the "Book of Signs," or the first half of John, prior to the betrayal of Christ. This volume discusses the "Book of Glory," which begins at the last supper and ends at the resurrection. I would challenge smart, intermediate-level bible students to attempt this work, but be sure to start with v. 29 rather than 29A, like I did. And please ignore my rating as I did not finish the book and only gave three stars because Amazon makes forces every review to have a rating.

Why don't you offer both volumes? I notice that your competition offers the other volume. Another more recent study of John's Gospel is "The Good Wine" by Bernard Barnhart. I highly recommend it also.

I have searched for months for a good commentary on the Gospel of John and it looks like the search continues. I got it based on the reviews I have seen on the book from readers. I guess its different strokes for different folks. I am more of a greek and indepth detials on new testament words. My type of commentary is the classic on Jude&Peter by Bauckham. I didn't get that type of exegesis from Brown.