Gospel of Glory: Major Themes in Johannine Theology

Bauckham offers splendid insights, insights that you will ponder for a long time, in this collection of essays on John's Gospel.My favorite essay was the last, "The Johannine Jesus and the Synoptic Jesus". The four Gospels had a "diversity...was already a problem to which Papias of Hierapolis, at the beginning of the second century, was responding, and certainly it was a perceived problem by the end of the second century" (p 185). Marcion tried reducing the gospels to one; the church fathers furiously brought up apostolic witness, attested to by individual apostolic churches and bishops in an unbroken line.By the 19th century, the differences between John and the Synoptics was brought up by "Liberal scholars (who found) the Fourth Gospel's portrayal of Jesus the least palatable" (p 186), which is putting it mildly. Some insisted it was so different that clearly it had been written around 200. What usually happened with these scholars was that the gospels were stripped off all that was distinctive, and the Jesus they found was markedly reduced, a Jesus who was much less than the Jesus of the gospels.John is selective, according to Bauckham, deliberately omitting many of the incidents relayed in the Synoptics, and he makes a point of noting that many more miracles were performed by Jesus than John chose to tell. Bauckham argues "only by reducing the 'literal' story to key moments and indispensable sequences - albeit told in relatively lavish detail - has John allowed himself space to expound the 'symbolic' meaning of it all" (p 201) especially taken with the interrelatedness of the other gospels.In "Dualisms" Bauckham reinters Bultmann, and Bultmann's "reconstruction of the Gnostic myth of the Revealer and the claim that this Gospel owes its distinctive character to its dependence on this myths" (p 114). All pretty much sniggered at today. Similarly, Bultmann's Heideggerian analysis has ceased to have impact. (Okay, picture vast rolling of eyes here) . In sum, Bultmann ideas have not fared well with time.For that matter, the stunning finds at Qumran have overturned the claims of Liberal scholars that John must have been influenced by Gnostics, (Liberal scholars failed to note that Gnostics were mysteriously unmentioned by the early Christians for another 40-50 years).Bauckham argues "that the resemblances can be explained as independent developments...The theological significance of the (light/dark) imagery...can be better explained from other sources" (p 117) rather than a direct influence by Qumran. Bauckham concludes "that soteriology is the central concern in the Gospel's prominent use of dualisms" (pp 128-9). And this is a simply wonderful line by Bauckham: "Light dispels darkness, requiring decision, while the world that rejects Jesus is conquered and saved by him through its rejection of him" (p 129).John is notable for the emphasis he places on individualism. In the essay "Individualism" Bauckham points to 'aphoristic sayings about the individual's relationship with Jesus" (p 4) in an ancient society that emphasized the collective nature of society, rather than the person. Various scholars have attempted "to find parallels to this Johannine language in Philo...or even Ignatius" (p 12), but in fact the language is unique to John.Yet John also underlines 'oneness', The Father and Son are one (hen) Jesus says in John 10:30, a statement which "could not fail to recall the Shema for any Jewish hearer" (p 32). Christian is urged to become part of the love between the Father and the Son.

Richard Bauckham writes with usual erudition in "Gospel of Glory." He calls attention to various features of John's Gospel which both set it apart from the Synoptic Gospels and unite it with them. He points out, for example, that John is particularly concerned to reveal the relationship of each individual person with Jesus. To that end, John records seven different conversations with seven very different people. This reveals not just who Jesus is to Israel, but who Jesus is to you and I. He likewise shows how John interacts with early Judaism as to the oneness of God. Early Judaism affirmed one God over and against the many gods of the nations, but John extends this to analyze the inner unity of God as Father and Son. Bauckham says that the Gospel has little to no conception of the dwelling of believers in one another, but this strikes me as a selective reading of the text. Mary Coloe argues that the "many dwellings" of John 14 are, in fact, other believers. This is supported by similar texts from John 17 where Jesus prays that the Church would exist as one just as Father and Son are one.Bauckham argues that the Sacraments, in John, at most exist at a secondary level of meaning, and that such a level does not exist at all in John 3. It seems to me that Bauckham misses one of the most important clues as to the interpretation of John 3. Immediately after the conversation with Nicodemus, we are told that Jesus began a ministry of baptisms. For me, this closes the case. While Nicodemus would undoubtedly thought of Israel's exodus through the Red Sea (after all, baptism is based on such typology), John intends his readers to perceive a deeper level of meaning. Likewise, I don't think Bauckham really grapples with the fact that if John intends to write a supplement to the Synoptic Jesus tradition (especially Mark) then he would expect us to perceive the Eucharist in the Bread of Life discourse, based on the fact that it occurs at Passover and based on the fact that the feeding of the five-thousand is described in Eucharistic language.Bauckham's analysis of the intratextual relationships and literary strategies of the Evangelist are excellent. He shows how John intends "full of grace and truth" to allude to the "steadfast love and mercy" of the God of Exodus 33 who is heard by Moses but not seen. Unlike the Exodus 33 theophany, Jesus is both seen and heard, and ratifies a new covenant, better than the old covenant. As such, the seven "I am" sayings and the seven "I am the..." sayings disclose the character of the God revealed in Jesus. John the Baptist speaks of Jesus being revealed to Israel, and Nathaniel is the "Israelite indeed" who symbolizes the true Israel to whom Jesus reveals himself. Still, it is frustrating to read Bauckham pronounce a verdict on which texts certainly do not have a symbolic meaning: how does he know? One can demonstrate that a certain text has a symbolic meaning, but one cannot demonstrate the opposite. Indeed, it seems to me that many of the texts he denies symbolic meaning to, actually possess such a meaning. Take the six stone jars of John 2. We're told that they are six of them: John loves sevens. Wine is the drink of Sabbath, and Jesus is about to show a sign of the eschatological Sabbath, taking the world from the sixth day to the seventh day. John also paints Jesus as New Moses, and Moses drew water from a rock. Jesus transforms protological water into eschatological wine, drawing wine from a rock. And so on. Bauckham should have left the question of further symbolic meaning open instead of pronouncing definitively.The insights Bauckham does have, however, are excellent, and he has demonstrated himself in this and other books to be one of the most skilled Johannine scholars alive today.

The usual from Bauckham. Strong opinions but well-researched with a wide range of information pertinent to any serious study of John.

This was a digestible and compelling explication of the themes and features of the gospel of John. Helpful take on dualism in chapter 6.

Surpassing older interpretations of John, Bauckham contributes to new understandings of this Gospel, which blaze trails to be followed on behalf of church, society, and scholarship.

This is a marvelous book. Bauckham is exegetical my rigorous in such a way that helps his reader see the glory of Jesus out of the text and doesn't rely on mere theological truisms to make his points. I highly recommend this book to anyone serious about studying John's account of the gospel.

Anyone doing a serious study of John's Gospel should have this book in their library.

Great experience

I am pleased I bought this book and I intend to keep it so that I can read it again. The author has opened my mind to some important issues I never considered before and would probably never have discerned merely from reading the text of John's Gospel on its own. The book is intellectually taxing (as one would expect) and a small number of sections seemed to me a little abstract, in as much that they analysed features of the Gospel text that are not particularly relevant to a life of faith and worship but are rather just theoretical issues to be discussed in university cloisters! However, overall the vast majority of the book is fascinating and enlightening and spiritually edifying.

After enjoying Baukham's spicy work on The Book of Revelation, I was disappointed to find these rather ponderous essays so insipid that I could not finish them.

Any theology student knows Baukham's books are worth their weight in gold and his book here on the Gospel of John is brilliant work

Once again, Richard Bauckham surpasses himself with his insights into the Gospels.

This is an excellent meditation on the concept of glory. Highly recommended.