Craig Blomberg, a scholar that specializes in the studies of the historical reliability of the Gospels, has written a volume that is an essential-read for those seeking a solid, in-depth defense of this Gospel's historicity and for those wishing to collect and become familiar with material (positive or negative) that deals with this subject.
The reviewer below has given the basic outline of the book so I'll just elaborate briefly on the most important section. The meat of the book, which is the commentary section, moves through each chapter analyzing all of the events and discourses, discussing positive indicators of historicity and interacting with typical objections to it.
The major objection to the Gospel of John is how different the book is, theologically, from the Synoptic Tradition. Why is there so much of a difference in outline? Why is Jesus portrayed as being more explicit about his divinity in this book? Another major problem scholars face when approaching this book is differentiating the actual words of Jesus (that John is quoting) from the author's own theological reflections. Scholars, evangelical and critical, as a whole, are not nearly as optimistic about the historicity of this Gospel in comparison with the Synoptics.
Nevertheless, I find that Blomberg makes a great case for the overall reliability of John. The commentary section starts off with a discussion of the crucial question of authorship. If indeed the disciple John is the author of this Gospel, then the probability that the Gospel is generally historically reliable becomes very likely. After all, John, as a disciple that accompanied Jesus during his ministry, would have certainly been in a great position to record accurate history regarding these events, which in most cases he was an eyewitness. Not surprisingly, the majority of scholars reject traditional authorship. However, Blomberg manages to piece together a very solid case for Johannine authorship, beginning with the very important data of the testimony of the early church on this issue.
As far as the actual commentary is concerned, one aspect that is particularly helpful, and very revealing I might add, is how Blomberg constantly demonstrates that the concepts in John can be gleaned from references to the Synoptic Tradition as well. It may be somewhat surprising to the reader to discover that certain phrases and concepts propounded by Jesus in John's Gospel can be found, though usually in less explicit form, in the Synoptics themselves.
The discussions of the various miracles, including the turning of water into wine, the raising of Lazarus, the feeding of the 5,000, and Christ's resurrection also prove to be helpful as each passage is broken down, arguments against historicity are countered, and favorable indications of historicity are given.
While more could be said, hopefully this will suffice. A more detailed review that may be more helpful to the reader can be accessed from tektonics.org. I'll conclude by stating emphatically that Blomberg has written a volume that demands consideration from the scholarly world, particularly those that are the most critical of John's Gospel.
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