Journal for the Study of the

New Testament
http://jnt.sagepub.com

C.K. Barrett, The Gospel According to St. John. An Introduction

with commentary and notes on the Greek Text. Second Edition,
S.P.C.K., London: 1978. xv + 638 pp. 15
Graham Stanton
Journal for the Study of the New Testament 1980; 2; 74
DOI: 10.1177/0142064X8000200707
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74

C.K.

with

An Introduction
Barrett, The Gospel According to St. John.
Second Edition,
commentary and notes on the Greek Text.

S.P.C.K.,

London:

1978.

Graham Stanton,
University of London Kings
Strand, London WC2R 2LS.

xv

638 pp.

£15.

College,

The publication of the revised edition of Professor Barretts

For some 25 years the first edition
commentary is most welcome.

helped not only Johannine specialists but also

In recent
undergraduates just beginning study of the Greek text.
on
the
Fourth
excellent
commentaries
so
Gospel have
years
many
has stimulated and

is bound to wonder whether this revised

I
influential as the first edition.
this is the only recent major commentary,
apart from Bultmanns, to be based on the Greek text; the authors
balanced judgement on disputed questions, his thorough and careful
exegesis, and his theological perception will continue to be
appreciated widely for many years to come.
become available that
edition will be quite
suspect that it will:

one
as

Both the
The new edition is over 100 pages longer.
introduction and the commentary have been revised fairly
substantially and expanded at many points; a small amount of
material has been omitted.

The manuscript of the first edition was completed at the end of

1951, before the full significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls had
become apparent.
So, not surprisingly, many references to the
Rather less predictable (but
Qumran material have been added.
very welcome) is the expansion of the first editions 6 references
to the Odes of Solomon to 64.
No attempt has been made to discuss all the Johannine
literature which has appeared since the first edition.
Nonetheless, most of the more important recent discussions are
For example, in the introduction
considered, if only briefly.

under the heading Sources, in a fresh section

Professor Barrett
discusses the evangelists possible use of a signs source.
It
but I see no evidence that proves, or indeed
may have been so;
could prove, that it was so, or even that the hypothesis has such

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1980 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.

75

weight of probability as to make it a valuable exegetical tool.

Different views of the significance of the miracles of Jesus did
But to say that they existed is not necessarily to say
exist.
that one of them was to be found in a source and the other in the
editorial work of the user of the source.
It may well be that
both existed in the mind of John himself.(p.19).
a

Martyns well-known

and widely accepted view that the

levels is considered to be the best of all
the attempts to relate John to a Diaspora background.(p.138 n.l).
In a most interesting paragraph Barrett notes that almost the
whole of Martyns theory is cautiously anticipated by Bultmann
in his note on 5.1-18.
(Barrett p.250, quoting Bultmann p.239
and p.247).
E.L. Allens anticipation of the theory is also
referred to. (p.355) .
J.L.

gospel

was

written

on

two

fresh section on Johannine Theology, Barrett stresses

of Bultmanns interpretation of Johannine thought
in terms of existentialist anthropology, notes that more recently
Johannine interpretation has moved in the direction of Christology
and then sums up his own view:
The gospel is about Jesus, but
Jesus (if one may put it so) is about God.
The gospel is in the
fullest sense of the term a theological work.
John was concerned
to confront his readers through Jesus with God. (p.97).
In

the

importance

I have noted two important points at which the authors

earlier views have been modified.
In the first edition the
function of the Son of Man in John is said to be in line with
those speculations about the primal or archetypal Man which lie
at the root of the biblical Son of Man conception. (p.61).
The second edition stresses that John is far less dependent on
a myth of the primal or
than on the fundamental
archetypal man
conviction
that
in
Jesus
Christological
deity and manhood are
united in an indissoluble unity. (p.73).
...

The revised edition is very much more cautious on the place

of the sacraments in Johannine theology.
In the first edition
19.34 provides at least allusion to the Christian sacraments
(p.69); in the second edition the allusion is not certain.

(p.83). The new edition emphasises that Johns acceptance of

the sacraments is, in the proper, theological, sense, critical.
(p.85) .

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76

In recent years Professor Barrett has written a number of

invaluable essays and a short book on the Fourth Gospel.
It is good to have much of this work referred to and summarised
in the commentary, but the essays themselves (which are not all
should be consulted by
as widely known as they deserve to be)
all serious students of the gospel.
*

BOOKS RECEIVED
G.W.

BROMILEY, Children of Promise: The Case for

(Eerdmans, 1979) 116pp.

J.

XI.

Baptizing

Royaute,Regne

CARMIGNAC, Le Mirage de 1Eschatologie:

Royaume de Dieu... sans Eschatologie (Letouzey et

250pp.
H.J.B.

Infants

$3.95.
et

Ane,

1979)

100F.

COMBRINK, Structural Analysis of Acts 6:8-8:3: Stellenbosch

4 (Dutch Reformed Church Publishers, 1979)

Theological Studies
36pp. R2-50.

(with an introduction by F. Montagnini), Comunione

condivisione dei beni: Chiesa primitiva e giudaismo essenoqumranico a confronto (Morcelliana, 1977) 150pp. L4000.

M.

DEL VERME

P.

HENRY, New Directions in New Testament Study

(SCM, 1980) 300pp.

6-95.
M.D.
J.

HOOKER, Pauline Pieces (Epworth, 1979) 95pp.

1-25.

KOENIG, Jews and Christians in Dialogue: New Testament

Foundations (Westminster, 1979) 185pp.
$7.95.

E.P.

SANDERS

The

(Ed), Jewish and Christian Self-Definition, Vol.

of

Christianity
(SCM, 1980) 313pp. + XVII.

S.H.

Shaping

TRAVIS, Christian

hope and

the future of

man:

in
2-85.

Issues

contemporary theology (Inter-Varsity, 1980) 143pp.

H.

in the Second and Third Centuries

E10-50.

VON LIPS, Glaube-Gemeinde-Amt: Zum Verstandnis der Ordination

in den Pastoralbriefen: F.R.L.A.N.T. 122 (Vandenhoeck and

Ruprecht, 1979) 327pp.

66DM.

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1980 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.