1, 2, and 3 John

Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

by Robert W. Yarbrough

Robert Yarbrough, coauthor of the bestselling Encountering the New Testament , offers a historical and theological commentary on the Johannine Epistles in this new addition to the BECNT series. The commentary features the author's detailed interaction with the Greek text, explores the relationship between John's Epistles and Jesus's work and teaching, interacts with recent commentaries, is attentive to the history of interpretation, and seeks to relate these findings to global Christianity.

Genres: Biblical Studies, New Testament, Reference, Theology

464 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2008

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and thorough.

[Mike Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent resource for exegesis of John’s letters. A knowledge of Greek is helpful for using this most beneficially, but I find Yarborough’s translation and linguistic decisions to be quite sound. Like all volumes in this series, this is a good first stop to hear an overview of all pertinent issues in a passage.

More than most BECNT volumes, you will find some personal anecdotes and application come through from time to time, which I found refreshing.

[Nathan Stine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The truths in here were wonderful, but the writing style was so academic and dense that they were unnecessarily hidden.

If he had focused less on Greek grammar statistics and more on cultural commentary, I would’ve found it more helpful.

[Brian Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part of being a pastor means reading commentaries. I make a habit of reading a commentary or two from cover to cover when I preach through a book of the Bible. Often, reading commentaries is a lot forcing down a bunch of vegetables that aren't tasty but are good for you. The bulk of this commentary is more readable than most. The only parts that are a bit of drudgery are the further notes regarding textual critical issues. This is a very solid commentary if you are teaching or preaching through the Johannine epistles. I think Colin Kruse, in his Pillar New Testament Commentary, has better readings on some passages, so I would recommend checking out his commentary in addition to this one.

(Finished reading on August 17.)

[Kristopher Schaal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this book alongside Kruse as one of my two go-two commentaries when preaching through 1 John in our youth group. While I enjoyed Kruse better, Yarbrough was certainly helpful at points as well. My main beef was that he is so wordy. I feel like I wasted time at points slogging through his verbosity. Still, an excellent commentary on the book of 1 John.

[Ken Montgomery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very solid exegesis and clear writing, what a commentary should be!

[Sagely · Rating 1 out of 5]

I never had class with Robert Yarbrough when I was at TEDS. Some dear friends did, and they thought the world of his pastoral sensitivity and preaching sense. He's an man with a heart soaked in Scripture and with his feet on the ground.

This commentary on 1-3 Jn, however, belies his reputation. It's pedantic and argumentative. The writing is needlessly formal and dense. It's honestly hard to track one sentence from beginning to end.

Most frustrating to me, Yarbrough gives little thought to the historical situation of the Johannine letters. He does spend a great deal of energy arguing for John son of Zebedee as the historical author. But that's where history ends. The author's and the audience's real situations are utterly neglected, judged inconsequential for the riches of theological truth contained in the text.

I had hoped that Yarbrough would offer a solidly Evangelical interpretation of the letters and their historical context. Instead, I received Evangelical truisms appended verse by verse to the letters. Disappointment.

[Peter Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite commentary on John's Epistles besides John Stott's. I like commentaries where the author gives his own translation of the passage. He does that. There is some overkill in places and I am not fond of the format. But overall a very helpful commentary and worth the time and money.

[Joe Haack · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my go-to exegetical commentary for my sermon preparation.

[Axekickr · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite commentary on John's epistles.

[Brett Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many things Yarbrough does well in this commentary. He is very good at breaking down the structure of passages in ways that are easy to understand, and for the most part his commentary does a good job of explaining the meaning and import of certain verses. He also does a decent job of connecting the themes of the Johannine letters to the Gospel of John.

There are, however, certain things that I think he gets flat wrong. He doesn't spend much time on the historical context of the letters, and at times that causes him to suffer in how he reads certain passages. He also appears at times to be reading into the verses things which are not there and even seem to contradict the themes of certain passages, though this tendency is mostly isolated to passages near the end of 1 John.

Overall, I think Yarbrough's commentary is incredibly helpful for anyone wanting to delve more deeply into the Johannine letters. There are issues, as there are with any commentary, but the positives far outweigh the negatives. This commentary was released around the same time as Judith Lieu's, and I would recommend both of them to anyone wanting to better understand the Johannine tradition.