An Introduction to the Gospel of John

The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library

by Raymond E. Brown, Francis J. Moloney

When Raymond E. Brown died in 1998, less than a year after the publication of his masterpiece, An Introduction to the New Testament, he left behind a nearly completed revision of his acclaimed two-volume commentary on the Gospel of John. The manuscript, skillfully edited by Francis J. Moloney, displays the rare combination of meticulous scholarship and clear, engaging writing that made Father Brown’s books consistently outsell other works of biblical scholarship.

An Introduction to the Gospel of John represents the culmination of Brown’s long and intense examination of part of the New Testament. One of the most important aspects of this new book, particularly to the scholarly community, is how it differs from the original commentary in several important ways. It presents, for example, a new perspective on the historical development of the Gospels, and shows how Brown decided to open his work to literary readings of the text, rather than relying primarily on the historical, which informed the original volumes. In addition, there is an entire section devoted to Christology, absent in the original, as well as a magisterial new section on the representation of Jews in the Gospel of John.

Genres: Theology, Biblical Studies, New Testament, Christianity, Religion, Scripture, Christian

384 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2003

About the author

Roman Catholic priest, member of Society of Saint-Sulpice and a prominent biblical scholar, esteemed by not only his colleagues of the same confession. One of the first Roman Catholic scholars to apply historical-critical analysis to the Bible.

Reviews

[Ross Blocher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read many apologetic works in recent years, it was refreshing to read a purely scholarly treatise on one of the most influential books of the Bible, John. I must emphasize up front that this is not a work written for mass consumption. I could only recommend it to someone who considers biblical scholarship an important part of her or his life. This took me a LONG time to read, and I will be glad to finally return this book to my patient friend Scott.

To give you an idea of the density, here's an example footnote from page 222: "In querying the minimalist results of the argument from silence, I do not mean to favor the maximalist alternative: one should attribute to John's view of the church anything found in other NT ecclesiology that is not denied. That also has many dangers." I found myself re-reading almost every paragraph for clarity, and each page sent me about three times to a browser to look up some related issue, or to the Bible to read the verses referenced. I probably read the book of John roughly two times in the process of reading this book, as well as many other biblical passages and non-canonical books and church fathers' writings.

I would describe this book as a survey of biblical scholarship on John, with Raymond E. Brown's conclusions presented after he lays out the various arguments of prominent scholars. I came to largely trust Brown's choices over time. A major question addressed is the authorship of the gospel: Brown posits a "beloved disciple" who was the progenitor off the eyewitness narrative, an evangelist who wrote the primary account, and a redactor who clarified certain theological points. The process itself may have spanned up to seven decades, explaining many internal contradictions, voices, and layers of interpolation and repetition. It is a very clear-headed exploration: Brown's conclusions are tempered with the recognition that all pronouncements are provisional and marked by degrees of certainty - never absolute certainty.

Funny enough, the book itself is something of a meta-narrative about complicated authorship. Raymond E. Brown was a prominent Catholic scholar who wrote an earlier version of this book in 1966, and was actively revising it for a new version when he died in 1998. Another Catholic scholar, Francis J. Moloney, then took over from Brown's notes to bring the volume to completion. What you end up with is a book pockmarked with footnotes from an editor pointing out inconsistencies and missing pieces in the work of an earlier author, and adding his own observations. The irony was not lost on Moloney, and he even comments on this work's similarity to the puzzle of John's authorship.

I felt the outline of the gospel at the end of the book would have been far more helpful at the beginning, in order to anchor the major divisions and themes in the gospel. That said, the book is focused far more on the composition and setting and influences and audience of John (and other writings from the Johannine community, including the three epistles of John - but excluding Revelation, which Brown had earlier considered a related work before changing his mind in the light of contemporary scholarship).

One interesting theme (and takeaway) of the book is the date of composition. Brown shares arguments for early and late composition, and gives the plausible range of composition (of the final gospel we now know) between 75 and 110 CE, with the most plausible range being 90 to 110.

Brown (and Moloney) also contrast John with the synoptic gospels, contemplate the relationship of ideas to Gnosticism, Hellenism, Jewish Wisdom motifs, and other popular strains of thought, consider the role of John the Baptist and his followers, the role and definition of "the Jews" as mentioned in the text, the possible place of composition (Brown puts his best bet on the Ephesus region), the effect of John's message on Jews and Gentiles, attitudes toward church structure (John is largely silent on the matter and perhaps against structure), sacramentalism, eschatology (an interesting section to me that points out John's dual presentation of a final/late end time and an immediate "kingdom of God"), the original language of the gospel, and much more.

[Carson Harraman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t understand why conservative NT scholars dislike this guy. Obviously they don’t like form criticism, but Brown repeatedly emphasized literary criticism/ receiving the gospel as it has come down to us (least towards the end of his life). Otherwise, his exegetical/historical work is top rate, what’s not to like?

This is a good book, and a nice posthumous testament to one of the greatest Johannine scholars of the last century. One nit to pick: it is not always clear where Moloney (the editor)’s comments begin. It would be nice for these editorial additions to he more clearly labelled.

[Nathanial]

Excerots from the table of contents:

Crucial Questions in Johannine Theology:
Ecclesiology
Sacramentalism
Eschatology
Christology
Son of Man
Wisdom Motifs

The Language, Text, and Format of the Gospel:
Original Language
Greek Text
Poetic Format of Gospel Discourses

Johannine Tradition: Relation to the Synoptics and Historicity:
Value of the Information found Only in John
Question of Dependence on the Synoptic Gospels
Historical Value of John in Reconstructing Jesus' Ministry

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3838593.html

It's a book with a slightly sad history - Brown, the original author, died in 1998 when it was almost finished, and Moloney stepped in to edit his notes and supply a last chapter. This gives rise to the odd situation on pages 257 and 258 where a short footnote by Brown disagreeing with Moloney has been substantially extended with a long defensive comment from Moloney explaining his own argument in more detail.

That aside, I found this a lot more digestible than the biography of St Paul that I recently tried. A lot of the theological discussion here is beyond me, but I found Brown's speculation about the process of composition very interesting: that there may have been an original text, now lost, heavily revised and supplemented a few decades later to produce the Gospel that we have, possibly by the same person. Moloney points out very pleasingly in the last chapter that this is also the story of this book - it is based on Brown's numerous earlier writings, but is itself a revision of them by Brown and then by Moloney.

I was also interested in the question of who John was writing *against*. There is clear polemic against followers of John the Baptist (though one wonders how many of them were left by the time the Gospel was written); against "the Jews", unhelpfully generalised; and against other followers of Jesus who were in disagreement with the writer. In the end, though, Brown agrees with the Gospel's own statement of its purpose at 20:31: "these [things] are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name" - the key purpose is encouragement for the believer, whatever their previous background may be.

Also pleasingly, Brown refers to John the Baptist throughout as "JBap", as if he were a rapper. You can see why, of course, there are a lot of Johns in this story.

I don't think even my regular reader will be rushing to add this to their library, but I got more from it than I had hoped.

[Ed Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was to be the beginning of a new multi-volume commentary on the Gospel of John by renowned New Testament scholar, Raymond Brown. Unfortunately, Brown died an untimely death, so his work was never completed. New Testament scholar Francis Maloney was approached to complete/edit the introduction to John based on Brown’s manuscript, which was (as far as the introduction) partially, but largely, completed. Maloney edited the work into what we now have as this Introduction.

A must read, along with Brown’s original commentary (volume 1, 1966, volume 2, 1970), for anyone interested in an in depth, exegetical, understanding of the Gospel of John.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating. Basically the start of a second edition of Brown’s great commentary on John (1966). Unfortunately, Brown died before finishing this (basically a rewrite of the introduction). Edited from his papers by Francis Maloney. It’s interesting to see what Brown has altered between his commentary on John (1966) and his death (1998). In any case both this and his previous commentary are essential reading for anyone studying John.

[Kingsley Layton · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important prequel to Brown's work on John.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A scholarly text. This book is for serious students of theology not for general consumption.

[cindy]

Read chapters 3 "Johannine Tradition: Relation to the Synoptics and Historicity" and 7 "Crucial Questions in Johannine Theology" for Re-Reading John.

[Antonio Pedro · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extraordinary review of the Gospel of John, previously written by expert Raymond Brown and edited by Francis Moloney. The author couldn't see this book published because of his death in 1998. Many questions and answers about what I think it is the most inspiring of the so-called canonical gospels.

[Pl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good intro, and in light of how the book came-to-be, useful, if for nothing other than understanding how NT scholarship works. Informationally, much of it is found in other works by Brown, and is a bit 'dated' as NT scholarship goes.

[Larry Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

modern scholars spend so much time worried about who wrote the book and when they wrote it, which i find mildly interesting, and so little time discussion what the text actually says

[Judy Olmanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the most insightful and accurate scholarly book on the Gospel of John to date. I intend to re- read soon as some of it went over my head.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

somewhat uneven due to Father Brown's sudden death but still is a masterly and clear introduction to this gospel.

[John Hornyak · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Classic commentary

[David Keith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Scholarly ONLY! Brown & Maloney tear apart what has been read as a continual whole for over 2000 years, WHY. I wanted an exposition or commentary regarding the Gospel of John "as is"