The Voices of the Fourth Gospel : Characters in an Emerging Christian Community

Throughout history, the Fourth Gospel has been an enigma to its readers, and most notably in the way that it shapes its characters. Although traditional approaches to gospel characterization have often confined its characters to the pages of the text, The Voices of the Fourth Gospel presents a fresh, interdisciplinary approach that reveals the characterizations of the Fourth Gospel as vibrant, literary products based on eyewitness testimony of their encounters with Jesus of Nazareth. As such, the characters of the Fourth Gospel emerge as unique "voices" that speak to both the realities of their narrative world and the context of the emerging Christian community in Ephesus at the end of the first century. Based on the Fourth Gospel’s chronological and geographical distinctions, The Voices of the Fourth Gospel challenges its readers to hear the voices of each character from the historical memory of the Johannine church through five character case-studies: (1) the Disciple whom Jesus Loved, (2) Jesus of Nazareth, (3) John the Baptist, (4) Nicodemus, and (5) the Samaritan woman. Written for scholars, pastors, and serious students of Scripture, The Voices of the Fourth Gospel is an ideal source for readers who seek to better understand the Fourth Gospel from within its own cultural world.