Come and Read: Interpretive Approaches to the Gospel of John ed. by Alicia D. Myers and Lindsey S. Jodrey

Abstract

Reviewed by: Come and Read: Interpretive Approaches to the Gospel of John ed. by Alicia D. Myers and Lindsey S. Jodrey Luke Macnamara OSB alicia d. myers and lindsey s. jodrey (eds.), Come and Read: Interpretive Approaches to the Gospel of John (Interpreting Johannine Literature; Lanham, MD: Fortress Academic, 2020). Pp. xiii + 231. €95. This volume of collected essays originated from the Johannine Literature section at the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2017, where participating scholars reflected on various rhetorical elements in John 10 and the plurality of possible interpretations. This gave the impetus to the editors to explore four broadly defined interpretive approaches and illustrate the application of these approaches to three passages from the Gospel of John, namely, the prologue (John 1:1–18), John 10, and John 20. The introduction provides a concise overview of the four types of reading—narrative, sociocultural, intertextual, and rhetorical—and a brief summary of each of the twelve chapters. The volume intends to showcase the different questions, vantage points and diverse responses of the four approaches. The collection is divided into three parts, with each part dedicated to a particular biblical passage, treated in four chapters illustrating the four approaches. Contributions in part 1 are Sherri Brown, “Beginnings: Introducing the Narrative of the Word through the Prologue of John’s Gospel”; Lindsey S. Jodrey, “John 1 Beyond the Binary”; Craig S. Keener, “Revealing the Fuller Word”; and Jo-Ann A. Brant, “Ambiguity as a Rhetorical [End Page 536] Strategy in the Prologue to John’s Gospel.” The essays represent, respectively, the narrative, sociocultural, intertextual, and rhetorical readings. Employing a narrative approach, Brown first discusses the narrative function of the prologue, which tells what the rest of the narrative shows, and then exposits the narrative of the mission of the incarnate Word and its potential implications for the audience. Part 2 contains examples of the four approaches to John 10: Dorothy A. Lee, “The Parable of the Sheepfold: A Narrative Reading of John 10”; Warren Carter, “Jesus the Good Shepherd: John 10 as Political Rhetoric”; Catrin H. Williams, “Persuasion through Allusion: Evocation of ‘Shepherd(s)’ and Their Rhetorical Impact in John 10”; and Alicia D. Myers, “Discerning Characters: Parrēsia, Paroimia, and Jesus’s Rhetoric in John 10:1–21.” Carter’s contribution, classified as a sociocultural reading, examines how the Good Shepherd passage interacts with Greek and Roman traditions of rulers as good shepherds. John’s rhetoric contests and challenges these traditions but also imitates and reinscribes many of the features of the ideal ruler, including the exercise of domination and subjugation. The portrayal of Jesus thereby emulates that of the ideal ruler, with Jesus not simply the “good” shepherd but the “best.” Part 3, focusing on John 20, follows the same pattern and includes further examples of the four approaches: Craig R. Koester, “Narrative-Critical Interpretation of John 20”; Angela N. Parker, “Reading Mary Magdalene with Stacey Abrams: Developing an Inclusive National Consciousness”; Helen K. Bond, “Recognition and ‘Those Who Have Not Seen’: John’s Reception of Synoptic Resurrection Narratives”; and Kasper Bro Larsen, “Rhetorical Vividness in John 20: Making Jesus Present before the Eyes.” Larsen explores the ancient rhetorical feature of ekphrasis, or vividness, not primarily in the ancient rhetorical handbooks but in the more elementary progymnasmata. These, Larsen notes, probably reflect better the level of rhetorical training available to John. The strategies employed by John to demonstrate vividness include the dramatic present tense, imitation of real discourse, repetition, visual vocabulary, circumstantial detail, suspense, and narrative asides. The ekphrastic rhetoric makes readers spectators through the Gospel, but Jesus’s final words (John 20:29) emphasize hearing rather than seeing. The audience, who have been made a party to eyewitness testimony, are now brought back to their actual situation as hearers of the Gospel story. While several of the contributions resume previous scholarship, the set goal of the volume to place four approaches to three chosen texts side by side in order for readers to compare and contrast them is met. Comparisons may also be made among the three examples of each approach, given the diversity within each. For example, the sociocultural approaches include queer...