Preaching the Gospel of John:Â Proclaiming the Living Word [Paperback]

Lamar Williamson Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2004

In this accessible treatment of the major themes of the Gospel of John, renowned New Testament scholar Lamar Williamson blends the best of biblical scholarship and a close reading of the Fourth Gospel to meet the practical needs of weekly preaching. A more reflective Gospel in which the risen Jesus speaks in signs and discourses, John does not simply tell stories, but allows us to experience the Word and to see Jesus offering living water to the aridity of the institutional church and bread to the hungry hearts of individual disciples. More than mere exposition, Preaching the Gospel of John includes at the end of each passage three to five possibilities for preaching the text-creative and pertinent suggestions that can help preachers apply the words of the Fourth Gospel to the lives of today's churchgoers. Proclaiming the living Word is a major theme of the Gospel of John, and this clear and insightful commentary captures that message in the preaching moment.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

LAMAR WILLIAMSON JR. is Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Virginia. He is the author of "Mark" in the Interpretation Commentary series, available from Westminster John Knox Press.

Product Details

• Paperback: 354 pages
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press (January 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0664225330
• ISBN-13: 978-0664225339
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,445,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most Readable and Insightful / Good for teaching, June 1, 2004

By 

Cheng Wai Ming (Kowloon Hong Kong) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Preaching the Gospel of John:Â Proclaiming the Living Word (Paperback)

Two words sum up the whole book value are Readable and Insightful.

According the writer this book help you to interpret the Gospel of John faithfully without jargon.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely helpful, October 17, 2009

By 

Hos Agonios "JAY" (Virginia Beach, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Preaching the Gospel of John:Â Proclaiming the Living Word (Paperback)

Several years ago one of the editors of the Interpretation Commentary series commented to me that they, the editors, were thinking about redoing some of their volumes, because a few of them did not succeed as well as the others in making clear the homiletical moves and possible sermon themes that could be developed from the given texts. One of the clearest volumes was the one on Mark by Lamar Williamson, a masterpiece of scholarly condensation and homiletical sensitivity. This reviewer does not know whether or not the volume on John in the Interpretation Series was to be redone (in his opinion it is the weakest in the entire series) but this work of Lamar Williamson would make a wonderful replacement volume in that particular series, for it can stand even taller next to his effort on Mark in this Interpretation Commentary Series. It is, if anything, a better volume, if that is possible. The reviewer says this because the issues in John are quite complex and, especially in the case of how John writes of 'the Jews', potentially harmful. Williamson masterfully summararizes the scholarly opinion on each pericope, sometimes spending several pages on this, sometimes only a few paragraphs, depending on the complexity of the scholarly issues involved. The reviewer was partiularly impressed that Williamson is very much aware of the more recent debates on'the Jews' in this gospel. (This is an anomoly in the gospels, since Jesus and his disciiples were also Jews. The question is, just who is the gospel referring to?) Williamson takes careful note of the more recent opinion that the rabbi's declaration against Christians probably occured later than the Gospel of John, and agreeing that Martyn, Brown (and others) are correct in the perceiving that this gospel presents not just a remembrance/deeply spiritual reflection of Christ, but it also offers a window that presents some of the issues facing the Johannine community in Asia Minor (probably Ephesus)some sixty-five years after Jesus' crucifixion, especially the issue of Johannine christians being expelled from the synagogue. Summarizing scholarly debate can become tedious, but Williams does this in a succinct, to-the-point fashion so that the reader's attention does not wander. This is the first half of each pericope's exposition, and, while good and interesting, it is the second half of each section that is the real gold in this volume, for it is in the suggestions for sermon themes and how these might be developed that Williamson really shines. You can tell that we are in the hands of a master teacher who has the heart of a pastor. No where does this emerge greater than in several of the comments (and particularly in some of the appendices)where he admits he himself has been deeply challenged by the Johannine text, challenged so that he wrestled mightily with this text, even as he wrote the book. This particular pastor is preaching through John over the next two years (with occasional side-trips to the lectionary). My greatest study helps in this major task are Bultmann, Schnackenberg, Brown, O'Day, Augustine, the Ancient Christian Commentary on John (and, yes Barklay sometimes) Williamson is definitely now on this list.