Customer Reviews

The Gospel of John, 1-3 John (Cornerstone Biblical Commentary)

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The Cornerstone Biblical Commentary- Gospel of John is beautifully written. Dr. Grant Osborne has done an extraordinary piece allowing for an array of theological positions to be represented from the community of great minds. This is a must read for anyone exploring the claims of Christ. I'm thoroughly enjoying every page. This is accessible not only to scholars, but also for someone like me without a seminary degree. Trish Southard, Tucson, AZ

Tyndale sent along a copy of Grant Osborne's commentary on John along with Comfort and Hawley's commentary on 1-3 John (in one volume) for review. So here it is.

As is the case with all the commentaries in this series, the base text is the New Living Translation. Said translation is very readable and in most instances very good. However, it can, in places, and should have done a bit better. For instance, it's rendering of John 3:16 (a famous and rightly so text) is wanting because it renders ''''''' with `eternal' and while technically correct the context is always determinative (since words have usage, not meaning). In this context believers in Jesus do not have `eternal' life since `eternal' means without beginning or ending. Instead, properly speaking, they have `everlasting' life- life which clearly has a beginning point (as birth) but which has no end point.

Osborne, in his remarks on the text, repeat the error of the NLT and discusses the gift of `eternal' life.

On the other hand, 1 John 2:2's ''''''' is correctly rendered 'sacrifice' and not `propitiation' as the KJV and others have it. ''''''' does not in fact mean `propitiation' but `expiation' or `carrying off' (''''''' is translated `take away' at 4:10). Nonetheless, Comfort (or perhaps Hawley) incorrectly remarks `First John 4:10 says that God demonstrated his love to us by sending his Son to become the `propitiation' for our sins' (p. 336).

Hence in the first instance, in John's Gospel, the translation gets it wrong and the commentator follows suit. At 1 John 2:2 and 4:10 the translation gets it right and the commentary misses the point a bit.

These 'soundings', though, are just that. Like an archaeologist digging at a Tel, what one discovers is utterly dependent on where one digs. Digging in some loci might result in nothing but dirt and rock while digging a few meters over one might well find a cache of gold coins. And that's the case in this volume as well. The rock found to this point gives way to pure `commentarial' gold when one digs down at John 15 into the comments Osborne proffers (pp. 224ff).

There are other really well done segments as well- 1 John 1:1-4, and John 21.

Unsurprisingly, given the theological presuppositions of the authors of the commentary, the biblical texts are attributed to the Apostle John. The discussion of the issue, however, is fairly and concisely written.

Overall, this commentary like the others I've taken a look at in the series, is very useful in spite of a few drawbacks (i.e., the occasional weakness of the NLT and the rather conservative viewpoint of the authors as well as the always troubling inclusion of Strong's numbering and definitions). I have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending it to interested lay persons and Clergy who have only a basic background in biblical studies.