"The Beloved Disciple" is the trade book adaptation of the bestselling, video-based, interactive Bible study "Beloved Disciple." It shows readers that John was uniquely chosen to be the one who received the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and that Christ still desires to reveal Himself to His disciples today.

There is a general consensus that the Fourth Gospel underwent two editions. But in contrast to all previous efforts to reconstruct these two editions on the basis of source and redaction criticism, Waetjen maintains that these two editions essentially overlap without far-reaching changes. Chapter 1-20 originated within the Jewish community of Alexandria and were addressed to Jews in order to persuade them to "believe into" Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God. The second edition originated when chapter 21 as added and certain revisions were made in chapters 1-20 by an editor in the Christian community of Ephesus in order to present the Gospel to Gentile Christians and perhaps attendantly to legitimate it for canonization. Waetjen examines John's gospel by engaging in a close reading of various units of the Gospel from the perspective of a two-level drama that presents two narrative worlds within the literary structure of the Gospel. Out of his readings of the texts, one of the major and provocative conclusions Waetjen draws is that Lazarus is the Beloved Disciple of Jesus in chapters 1-20. John, the son of Zebedee, is intimated to play the role of the Beloved Disciple not only in chapter 21, but throughout the Gospel. In other words, the editor of chapter 21 has concluded that John (based on the title that the gospel already bears), is the Beloved Disciple and project that backwards from chapter 21 throughout the previous 20 chapters. Waetjen's thorough scholarship and his attention to detail in his original readings challenge traditional readings of John's Gospel, providing fresh insights into the Gospel.

"This study in Johannine ecclesiology reconstructs the history of one Christian community in the first century -- a community whose life from its inception to its last hour is reflected in the Gospel and Epistles of John. It was a community that struggled with the world, with the Jews, and with other Christians. Eventually the struggle spread even to its own ranks. It was, in short, a community not unlike the Church of today. This book offers a different view of the traditional Johannine eagle. In the Gospel the eagle soars above the earth, but with talons bared for the fray. In the Epistles we discover the eaglets tearing at each other for possession of the nest" -- Back cover.

"The Gospel of John refers five times to "the disciple whom Jesus loved." From the second through the present century, scholars have sought to identify this "disciple," traditionally concluding that he is the author of the Gospel and is indeed none other than John the son of Zebedee." "In recent phases of research, however, the identification of the Beloved Disciple with John the son of Zebedee has been exposed as weak and unpersuasive. Yet, according to James Charlesworth, even this new research is problematic in that it tends to ascribe priority in discerning the meaning of the Gospel of John to documents other than the Gospel itself. Moreover, this research tends to impute historical accuracy to documents that were not primarily intended to present histories." "Based on extensive research, then, Professor Charlesworth has concluded that the primary texts in the Gospel of John and the reflections of modern scholars indicate that any identification of the Beloved Disciple - whether with one of the disciples specified in the Gospel, with one who is anonymous in this Gospel, or with some symbolic theme - must provide credible answers to eight questions."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

A leading New Testament scholar explores key issues in the Gospel of John.

The common supposition that the Fourth Gospel presents a rivalry between Peter and the Beloved Disciple, in which Peter is subordinated to the hero of the Johannine Community, is here subjected to fresh scrutiny. After establishing working hypotheses regarding the Johannine Community and the function of representative figures in the Fourth Gospel, the author first examines the function of Peter independently of the Beloved Disciple. Here, he is the exemplary leader of 'the Twelve'. In those passages where the two characters are juxtaposed, it is evident that the Beloved Disciple is not inordinately exalted above Peter, who in fact enjoys a comparable status. Peter and the Beloved Disciple have complementary roles to play in relation to Jesus and his unfolding 'hour'. John 20 shows the Beloved Disciple as the example of a true believing disciple of Jesus, while concerned to give appropriate respect and support to the 'Apostolic' stream of traditions associated with Peter. The Gospel appendix, ch. 21, is concerned to hold together both sorts of traditions and allegiances. Finally, the author shows how the Gospel as a whole works coherently to encourage a wider view of Christian 'intercommunity' unity after the death of the Beloved Disciple.

Was the Gospel of John written in critical response to the Gospel of Thomas, an early collection of Jesus's sayings? Or was it directed to the Christians among whom Thomas originated? Ismo Dunderberg challenges these views, arguing that the two gospels were written at about the same time but without knowledge of each other. He also offers a thorough discussion of the identity and functions of the enigmatic Beloved Disciple in the Gospel of John, throwing new light on this figure by comparing it to other `beloved' disciples of Jesus in early Christian literature. This part of Dunderberg's analysis also helps to evaluate the portrayal of Judas in the recently published Gospel of Judas, although this text was not yet available, when this study was completed.

Adele Reinhartz has been studying and teaching the Gospel of John for many years. Earlier, she chose to ignore the love/hate relationship that the book provokes in her, a Jew, and took refuge in an "objective" historical-critical approach. At this stage her relationship to the Gospel was not so much a friendship as a business relationship. No longer willing to ignore the negative portrayal of Jews and Judaism in the text, nor the insight that her own Jewish identity inevitably does play a role in her work as an exegete, Reinhartz here explores the Fourth Gospel through the approach known as "ethical criticism," which is based on the metaphorical notion of the book as "friend"--not "an easy, unquestioning companionship," but the kind of honest relationship in which ethical considerations are addressed, not avoided. In a book as multilayered as the Gospel itself, Reinhartz engages in 4 different "readings" of the Fourth Gospel: compliant, resistant, sympathetic, and engaged. Each approach views the Beloved Disciple differently: as mentor, opponent, colleague, and as "other." In the course of each of these readings, she elucidates the three narrative levels that interpenetrate the Gospel: the historical, the cosmological, and the ecclesiological. In the latter, Reinhartz deals at length with the so-called expulsion theory, the dominant scholarly notion that the Johannine community, which included believers of Jewish, Gentile, and Samaritan origins, engaged in a prolonged and violent controversy with the local Jewish community, culminating in a "traumatic expulsion from the synagogue."

The 2024 Bloomsbury Lent Book invites you on a six-week journey in the company of the 'beloved disciple' as found in the narrative of the Gospel of St John. As the only disciple to have stayed close to Jesus at every stage from the Last Supper to the Crucifixion at Calvary, this eagle-eyed eyewitness intentionally records certain subtle details and signs which, when perceived with the eyes of faith, indicate a deeper and far lasting significance. Michael Marshall explores what these signs are and how, with prayerful reflection, they draw us ever more deeply into the personal, eternal and cosmic significance and awareness of all that Christ accomplished by his death and resurrection – the Paschal Mystery. Ideal for both individual use and for small group study, Lent with the Beloved Disciple takes us into the heart of that Paschal Mystery, by which all things in heaven and earth are ultimately fulfilled in the risen and ascended Christ, who is 'all in all'.