The Pillar New Testament Commentary

General Editor

D. A. CARSON

The Gospel

According to

JOHN

D. A. CARSON

William B.Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K.

© 1991 D. A. Carson.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers or the Copyright Licensing Agency.

Published 1991 in the U.K. by

APOLLOS (an imprint of Inter-Varsity Press)

38 De Montfort Street, Leicester, England LE1 7GP

and in the United States by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

255 Jefferson S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Carson, D. A.

The gospel according to John.

1. Bible. N.T. John—Critical studies

I. Title

226.506

ISBN 0-85111-749-X

Eerdmans ISBN 0-8028-3683-6 (cloth: alk. paper)

Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations in this publication are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used in USA by permission of Zondervan Publishers, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and published in Great Britain by Hodder and Stoughton Ltd.

This book is gratefully dedicated to

Kenneth and Ruth Kantzer

CONTENTS

PREFACE

ABBREVIATIONS

INTRODUCTION

I. Some distinctive characteristics of the Gospel of John

II. How John’s Gospel has been understood: select soundings

1. The early church

2. More recent discussion

3. The present position

III. The authenticity of the Fourth Gospel

1. The possibility of effective source-criticism in John’s Gospel

2. The challenge of the stylistic unity

3. The relation between the Fourth Gospel and the Synoptics

4. Reflections on the conceptual background

5. An assessment of the ‘new criticism’

IV. The authorship of the Fourth Gospel

V. The date and provenance of the Fourth Gospel

VI. The purpose of the Gospel of John

VII. Some theological emphases in John

VIII. Preaching from the Fourth Gospel

IX. The structure of John’s Gospel

ANALYSIS

COMMENTARY

INDEXES

Modern authors

Biblical references

SERIES PREFACE

Commentaries have specific aims, and this series is no exception. Designed for serious pastors and teachers of the Bible, the Pillar commentaries seek above all to make clear the text of Scripture as we have it. The scholars writing these volumes interact with the most important informed contemporary debate, but avoid getting mired in undue technical detail. Their ideal is a blend of rigorous exegesis and exposition, with an eye alert both to biblical theology and the contemporary relevance of the Bible, without confusing the commentary and the sermon.

The rationale for this approach is that the vision of “objective scholarship” (a vain chimera) may actually be profane. God stands over against us; we do not stand in judgment of him. When God speaks to us through his Word, those who profess to know him must respond in an appropriate ...