: F.F. Bruce
: The Gospel of John A Verse-by-Verse Exposition
: Kingsley Books
: 9781912149285
: 1
: CHF 10.50
:
: Christentum
: English
: 200
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
This outstanding commentary is easy to read, informative, and intended for the general reader interested in serious Bible study. The translation used is Bruce's own. He sets passages in their historical and cultural context, compares them with the other three Gospel accounts, and opens the meaning of the verses. The book has won such praises as 'scholarly, concise, and practical'; 'the best overall commentary on the Gospel of John'; and 'clear-headed and consistently informative.' John wrote his Gospel so 'that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, you may have life in his name.' For nearly 2,000 years the Gospel's 'straight, unequivocal words about sin and salvation somehow go home,' Bruce quotes, 'and carry conviction to the most abandoned, while its direct invitation wins a response that nothing else does.' 'The Gospel of John' by F.F. Bruce is written for ordinary Christians who want to know their Bible better. It draws out the rich depths of John's marvelous Gospel.

CHAPTER 1

PROLOGUE

(John 1:1-18)

The prologue to the Fourth Gospel sets forth the theme of the whole work.57 The narrative as a whole spells out the message of the prologue—that in the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth the glory of God was uniquely and perfectly disclosed. This message, of course, is not peculiar to the Fourth Evangelist among the New Testament writers; it is summed up concisely in Paul’s affirmation that “the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). The same parallel between the work of God in the old creation and his work in the new creation is drawn in the Johannine prologue.

The prologue is composed in rhythmical prose—hardly, as some have suggested, in poetry. It may have been originally a separate composition which has been integrated with the Gospel by having two preliminary sections of narrative dovetailed into it—verses 6-8 and verse 15, recording the beginning of the witness of John the Baptist. This and similar suggestions (such as that it was composed after the Gospel and then prefaced to it) are speculative at best. It is certainly the work of the Evangelist himself, if we may judge from the way in which it anticipates the various forms in which the main theme of the Gospel is presented in the chapters which follow. Several of the key words of the Gospel—life, light, witness, glory (for example)—appear in the prologue. But the most characteristic term in the prologue, the term “Word,” does not reappear in the body of the Gospel in th