Social-Science Commentary on the Gospel of John

by Richard L. Rohrbaugh and Bruce J. Malina

Book Overview

Building on the unique format and success of their Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels, Includes illustrations and photographs. Malina and Rohrbaugh extend their framework to the Fourth Gospel.

Unlike the usual historical, exegetical, or theological commentaries, this rich and engrossing work assembles and catalogs the pertinent values, conflicts, and mores of ancient Mediterranean culture. Its Gospel outline, detailed...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0800629922
• ISBN13: 9780800629922
• Release Date: June 1998
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Necessary, with mitigation

Dr. Malina's commentary on the Johanine gospel is indispensable. Face it, nobody is engaging the New Testament in this way, his commentaries are powerful and are ushering in a new era of Biblical scholarship. As to not engaging text criticism, Malina explicitly states in the introduction that the commentary will not do it and that the commentary is supplemental to other good commentaries that do engage the technicalities of the text. As for original meaning of the text, look no farther, you have found your commentary. I have one complaint about this book: the characterization of the Johanine writer as a community astral seer is dubious. I don't think Malina makes any attempt to explain or elaborate why this is the case, however it taints the commentary very little as it is only important to the prologue of John.

Excellent, but...

As I said on the review of the Synoptics: I enjoyed the book that, with its companion "on the synoptic gospels", form a source of "inside" information that otherwise I woudln't have access to. The book is structure according to a regular commentary with additional "notes" or "reading scenarious." Unfortunately, there are no footnotes; therefore, when they tell you abuot a particular custom of that time, there is no direct reference to a primary source. Therefore, you have to take their words for it. There is a bibliography, which can help a bit, but still you're left with no way to further a specific point.

Indespensible tool for studying the Gospel of John

Bruce Malina and Richard Rohrbaugh show that the Christian community of John's Gospel was an "anti-society", that is, a consciously alternative society consisting of exiles, rebels, or ostracized deviants. (They note parallel examples of anti-societies, such as reform-school students in Poland, members of the underworld in India, and vagabonds in Elizabethan England.) As such, it had developed its own "anti-language", that is, a resistance language used to maintain its highly sectarian religious reality. This accounts for many of the strange expressions found in the gospel. For instance, the Christians of this community referred to all outsiders as people of "this world". They believed that all members of wider society -- especially "the Jews" -- lay outside the scope of redemption and were completely beyond the pale. Like all anti-societies, they overlexicalized their language, which basically means that they used redundant euphemisms. Thus, "believing into Jesus", "abiding in him", "loving him", "keeping his word", "receiving him", "having him", and "seeing him" all meant the same thing. Likewise, "bread", "light", "door", life", "way", and "vine" were all redundant metaphors for Jesus himself. This anti-language served to maintain inner solidarity in the face of pressures (or perhaps even persecutions) from wider society. Unlike the religious language found in the Synoptic Gospels or Paul's letters, John's language would have been meaningless in the context of wider Judeo-Christian society ("this world").Understanding this social background is crucial for interpreting the gospel as a whole and controversial passages in particular.........................

Fine Work

Dr. Malina asked me to read and review an early form of this book a few years back, of which I did not realize at the time was the first reading of this fine work. As a personal friend and past student of Dr. Malina, I can say with full sincerity that Dr. Malina's work is some of the most under-acknowledged scholarly writing of our time in this area of study. This fine volume carries on the Malina tradition of scholarly excellence in chasing down and capturing with pure mind-blowing enlightenment the multi-dimensional, historical truth behind the creation and content of John. This volume is an absolute necessity for anyone even halfway attempting to respectfully comprehend John in its rightful, historical context. This book is so wonderfully researched and executed that I can hardly recommend it enough. I urge anyone who has reached this review to order this book and all others by Dr. Malina for an extremely interesting and educational look at the world of Jesus, and furthermore, a look at how much the modern Church has distorted and twisted hardcore Biblical truth (for one of thousands of examples, check out Dr. Malina's 1995 book on Revelation and compare it to the feeble and cheap trash put out by jokesters and ill-educated fundamentalists such as Hal Lindsey). You will never look at John the same after reading this book, but I promise your life will be changed through the deep and meaningful questioning this and other Malina volumes will bring about. Do yourself and Biblical scholarship a favor and read this great book and pass the word on.