This pioneering commentary embraces the full scope and themes raised in John's Gospel, offering an engaging and perceptive reading. Mark Edwards explores a diverse range of excerpts and creative responses, with particular emphasis on the treatment of the Gospel in English poetry.

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• Explores the diverse themes and issues raised in John's Gospel, and considers its influence on figures from Saint Augustine, to Dorothy Sayers and Bob Dylan.
  
• Treats well-known interpreters such as Thomas Aquinas along with lesser-known figures such as the Gnostic Heracleon, and the sixth-century hymn-writer, Romanos.
  
• Brings ancient and modern commentators into dialogue with each other, and takes a critical stance towards some parallels drawn by modern scholars between the Gospel and the surrounding pagan culture.
  
• Features excerpts from a wide variety of poets who give a creative interpretation of John's Gospel, and considers many artistic representations.
  
• Suggests that imaginative response can illuminate a reading of the Bible where purely critical and historical analysis has proved unsatisfactory.
  
• An accessible introduction and extensive section notes address interpretations of the Gospel from antiquity to the present.
  
• Published as part of the ground-breaking Blackwell Bible Commentaries series.

More information about this series is available from the Blackwell Bible Commentaries website at http://www.bbibcomm.net/

About the Author
Mark Edwards is Tutor in Theology and Lecturer in Patristics at Christ Church College, University of Oxford. He is the author or translator of numerous volumes, including Origen against Plato (2002).

Reviews
"Mark Edwards' John commentary breaks new ground in the field of the reception history of biblical texts. Displaying a remarkable knowledge of its different readings, he brings into dialogue the most diverse and unexpected commentators on the text: bishops, scholars, devotional writers, poets, artists, hymn-writers, and provides the whole with a wonderfully lucid and learned survey of the history of Johannine interpretion."
John Riches, Professor of Divinity with Biblical Criticism, University of Glasgow

"An attractive inventory of exegetical opinion on one of the most important books of the NT. A true mine of information, published in a series that makes the life of researchers easier."
International Review of Biblical Studies

"The commentary provides a wonderful smorgasbord of readings and interpretations, drawn from all centuries. Thus the reader is put in touch with a representative sample of readings, interpretations and imaginative appropriations of the Gospel." Australian Religious Studies Review

"In Edwards' hands 'reception history' becomes a feast of allusions and references around each Johannine text. The mixture is rich and provocative, making you want to read more and more."
Robert Kysar, Bandy Professor Emeritus of Preaching and New Testament, Candler School of Theology, Emory University

"Edwards has provided New Testament scholars with a valuable resource for understanding and appreciating the history of interpretation of the Fourth Gospel. The commentary makes a persusaive case for taking seriously the richness and the value of premodern exegetical insight, artistic interpretation, and reception history for understanding the biblical text, and I look forward to other commentaries appearing in the series."
William M. Wright, Emory Universitiy

Book Information
ISBN 9780631229070
Author Mark Edwards
Format Paperback
Page Count 258
Imprint Wiley-Blackwell
Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Weight(grams) 386g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 19mm