Abstract
The Oxford handbook library is a state-of-the-art project, designed to provide the reader with the Status Quaestionis for a broad array of individual subjects in arts and sciences. A particular group of Oxford handbooks is dedicated to the study of the world's religions. The volumes on Christianity published in the series so far can be further grouped into biblical, constructive, and historical categories. This volume primarily contributes to biblical studies, although constructive and historical essays are included as well. As far as New Testament specialists and students will be concerned, the volume supplements the Oxford handbooks on apocalyptic literature, early Christian apocrypha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, biblical studies, and (forthcoming) the Synoptic Gospels. As new entries arrive in the coming decade, these handbooks are well positioned to become a marquee reference resource in theological and biblical studies, on a par with the leading commentary and dictionary series.
Like all Oxford handbooks, this volume is a collection of essays by specialists in the field. This makes it a necessary complement to commentary and monograph series featuring entries on Johannine literature in any specialist's library. The handbook also distinguishes itself from many collected volumes, which tend either to feature wide-ranging contributions on a general theme or are narrowly focused on one particular research aspect. Here, one finds an attempt to offer an allencompassing cross-section of Johannine studies. One would be mistaken, however, to expect from this handbook a strictly introductory resource summarizing existing opinion. On the contrary, this volume, as other entries in the Oxford handbook library, seeks to supply the reader with cutting-edge surveys that are both retrospective and prospective in their scope. All essays included bear a strong individual stamp and the closest point of comparison is probably the Anchor Bible Dictionary.
Unlike a number of other entries in the handbook series, this volume's table of contents is not divided into sections. Although the editors helpfully provide the breakdown in the introduction (p. 4), an uninterrupted string of twenty-four essays calls for more explicit structuring, to facilitate browsing for a non-specialist. Once the (invisible) sections are understood, the layout becomes clear. The volume moves across: (1) historical and literary facets; (2) a range of constructive readings; (3) the primary theological themes; and (4) the reception of Corpus Joanneum in the early Church. One could see the reception essays moved earlier in the order, after the historical-critical segment.
The list of contributors is impressive, assembling prominent Johannine specialists from Africa, Australia, Europe, and North America. I shall highlight some of the twenty-four contributions, beginning with the contested questions in biblical studies. From the perspective of text criticism, the traditional dating of John's Gospel is problematized in light of recent questions about the date of our earliest manuscripts (H. A. G. Houghton). The dependence of Papyrus Egerton 2 on John's Gospel is found to be likely (H. W. Attridge). Source criticism, today frequently bypassed in favor of newer methods or at times even repudiated, is given “permanent methodological validity” (M. Labahn, p. 37), even as the need for an increased interplay between synchronic and diachronic approaches to the fourth Gospel is correctly acknowledged (M. Labahn; J.-A. A. Brant). John's creative use of the Synoptic Gospels is accepted “in some fashion, either directly or indirectly,” without denying “access to other sources” (Attridge, p. 56). The existence of a Johannine group or community is upheld in many contributions (e.g., M. C. de Boer; T. Thatcher; R. Zimmermann; J. van der Watt), in spite of some vigorous opposition to this view in recent scholarship. The fourth evangelist is located in that group and identified as, most likely, a disciple of the Beloved Disciple (Thatcher). The historicity of some of the place names and sites mentioned only in the fourth Gospel is highlighted by recent archeological discoveries (U. C. von Wahlde). Von Wahlde's essay contains photographs, which is always a welcome addition to such discussions. The complex compositional history of the Gospel is acknowledged on multiple occasions.
Turning to constructive contributions, John's Gospel and/or letters are read with feminist (C. M. Conway), postcolonial (W. Carter, as part of a larger essay on ideological readings), social-scientific (P. F. Esler), and post-Holocaust perspectives (A. Reinhartz). The latter receives a companion essay in the study of Corpus Joanneum's Jewishness (J. Leonhardt-Balzer), which contextualizes Johannine literature in first-century intra-Jewish conversations. The many fine essays highlighting individual theological themes or motifs in the Gospel or the letters will be of interest to all readers, along with the two studies of Johannine literature's reception in the patristic era (J. M. Lieu; W. Lamb).
The beautiful dust jacket appropriately features the eagle from the Book of Kells, folio 27 (in reverse). The volume concludes with a 32-page index, containing an Index locorum and a general index. Note that the latter includes contemporary authors. The editors are modest in their introduction (“no introduction or handbook can hope to be comprehensive…”), but this is a near-comprehensive volume and an important contribution to Johannine studies that should serve as a standard reference in the field for the next decade.