Customer Reviews

The Gospel of John: A Commentary - 2-Volume Set

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Craig Keener has given us a rather magisterial work on the Fourth Gospel with this 2 volume commentary. Keener approaches the text from a moderately charismatic perspective, and as a non-charismatic, I am very pleased that someone of Keener's tradition has delivered such a scholarly and well researched work for the benefit of the church at-large.

Keener does a very good job of laying down the ground rules of his approach at the outset of his commentary. Keener's main purpose to analyze the Fourth Gospel within its own socio-historical context. With this in mind, the reader will find a breathtaking array of references to ancient sources throughout the commentary to give weight to Keener's 'original audience/context' interpretive approach. Keener is refreshingly candid in acknowledging the limitations inherent in this approach (but of course, there are limitations to any interpretive approach), such as less emphasis on conversing with other more modern scholars who hold to different interpretive approaches. But his particular approach is indeed the valuable and fairly unique contribution to Johannine studies that he seeks.

Keener's introduction deals with issues of authorship, the Johannine community, the issue of 'the Jews', genre, and other overarching issues. The reader will find a very organized and well laid-out presentation of these issues. Keener puts forth a generally conservative view on authorship that is very well reasoned and irenic. Keener's proposal on 'the Jews' issue is also very well done and thought provoking. Here in particular, he has made a very real contribution to a very important discussion.

Keener's interaction with the text is also quite good, if imperfect. Keener deserves great commendation for periodically touching on the much neglected issue of hospitality in the Fourth Gospel (though he could have done much more with this). I felt Keener did a very good job of mostly avoiding the convenient theoretical speculation that tends to dominate most Fourth Gospel commentaries, and to instead focus his interpretive energies on drawing from many other sources contemporary to the Fourth Gospel to draw his conclusions. While there are risks to doing this, it is a far more careful and responsible approach to exegesis than forcing modern day paradigms and theories onto the Fourth Gospel and making it fit, a la Bultmann, Brown, and many others.

I will note a few quibbles I have with this work, but the reader should understand that these are indeed quibbles and do not severely detract from the high quality Keener has given us. First, while the average reader will likely be blown away by the depth and breadth of Keener's bibliography, there are a number of important omissions that are unfortunate. It is unusual to me that Keener did not converse with Lieu's important article on the Johannine view of blindness, particularly in his treatment of John 12. In addition, it is very surprising that in Keener's introductory treatment of the alleged sectarian nature of the Johannine community, no mention is made of Gundry's provocative assertions. This is particularly odd since Keener does cite a number of other works by Gundry, some of which are much farther off topic than Gundry's work on the 'sectarian John'. Lastly, this commentary, like many others, fails the reader when it comes to practical application. Keener's treatment of 'the Jews' question is helpful in this regard, but it is shame that this work tends to reflect the false dichotomy that one cannot produce a scholarly commentary if it emphasizes practical application. To the contrary, theology and exegesis cannot be done well in a vacuum, and Keener knows this because of his heavy interaction with sources contemporary with the Fourth Gospel. But what Keener does so well here he does not do well when it comes to taking the Fourth Gospel's implications for the original audience and responsibly applying them to contemporary life today. A failure to embrace this step in the exegetical process puts an unnecessary cap on its usefulness within the church, and it's a shame because it didn't have to be that way.

But overall, there is little argument that Keener has provided a very valuable study of the Fourth Gospel that provides an outstanding basis to conduct further research and compensate for the weaknesses I've suggested above. Well done, and highly recommended.

This two-volume work is one that I keep right on my desk every day, year in and year out, as I study Scripture. What astonishes me is the sheer scope of Keener's knowledge, and the clear and engaging way that he presents his conclusions. He treats the skeptics with the requisite generosity and patience to which I've become accustomed when reading the brilliant scholarship of a believer, and his knowledge of ancient Greek, Roman and Jewish writers is breath-taking. This and his work on Matthew are immense contributions to the field of New Testament Scholarship. I find all Keener's work to be accessible for mainstream people such as myself, who cannot read the ancient languages. The comprehensive nature of Keener's approach, the way he truly does explain just about every conceivable interpretation of a passage is simply amazing. I turn to him constantly for insight, and go back over material again and again discovering something new each time. Make this part of your library.

Though this is not a cheap commentary by any stretch of the mind, it is an commentary well worth every cent spent to obtain it! When the introduction to the material itself is a couple of hundred pages alone you know that you are in for an amazing ride.

The scholar is an evangelical who appears to be part of the 'new breed' of evangelical scholars who do not shy away from asking the most difficult questions about the text and its meaning(s).

This edition has great binding and is easy on the eyes. Between the two volumes there are over 4000 references, too.

Highly recommended.

Keener's work is now one of my favorite commentaries on the fourth Gospel. This commentary complements Carson's acclaim piece on John's Gospel including that of Kostenberger (very recent work), of course, Barrett, Lincoln, Moody, etc. The strenght of this commentary lies in its focus on the social- historical millieu, and literary and theoligical character of the Gospel of John. Keener's mastery of original and secondary sources is striking. Students of John will find this commentary valuable, not only for academic research on the Gospel, but for spiritual nourishment.

This is a monster of a commentary! It is fantastic to read through as well. I really like the way Keener makes a punchy point quite quickly. It makes me struggle to understand why Ramsey Michael's even bothered with his very disappointing commentary when you see scholarship in this book like this! I still think Kostenberger's commentary is well rounded but personally this is the best commentary on John.

I purchased this commentary for my pator at Christmas.
He said that he was intrigued by the authors use of
Language Structures in interpreting the Gospel of John.
Though intrigued, he found this use of interpertation
best used on the Letters of St. Paul. He had not
completed reading the II Volumes at the time. I had the
impression that he liked what he saw!

Second time around, service was wonderful, but I had to return the first order because only Vol 1 of a 2 vol set was shipped. The same problem occurred last week, as I received only 1 vol of a 3 vol set, and I'm having to mail back vol 1 to start over. This is not only inconvenient for me, but expensive for Amazon. Better quality control is need to insure a full order is actually shipped!