Studi sul vangelo di Giovanni: Testi, temi e contesto storico by Maurizio Marcheselli

Abstract

Reviewed by: Studi sul vangelo di Giovanni: Testi, temi e contesto storico by Maurizio Marcheselli Francis J. Moloney maurizio marcheselli, Studi sul vangelo di Giovanni: Testi, temi e contesto storico (AnBib Studia 9; Rome: Gregorian & Biblical Press, 2016). Pp. 470. €38. Marcheselli, the author of a significant volume on John 21 ("Avete qualcosa da mangiare?" Un pasto, il risorto, la communità [Biblioteca di Teologia dell'Evangelizzazione 2; Bologna: Facoltà Teologica dell'Emilia Romagna, 2006]), divides his collection into three parts. In part 1, essays dedicated to the study of texts treat Jesus as the bread in John 6, with a strong focus on the christological nature of the gift of the bread. Studies of the nature of the sin and who the sinner is in John 9 develop a close analysis of the encounters between the man born blind, the Pharisees (to be equated with hoi Ioudaioi), and Jesus. The universality of the salvation made possible through the "lifting up" of Jesus emerges from a study of 12:32 in its broader context, and the same theme of the universality of the saving death of Jesus is traced in the trilingual titulus on the cross (Hebrew, Latin, and Greek) of 19:19-21. A study of the macarism of 20:29 asks who is "blessed," in the light of who saw what, and how they responded in 20:1-18. Three rich studies of John 21 close the first section. Adopting a position that the chapter is chronologically "later" than the body of the Gospel, M. provides surveys of recent interest in a text long regarded as an "addendum." He argues that John 21 is a repensimento, a "rethinking" (what Andreas Dettwiler ["Le phénomène de la relecture dans la tradition Johannique: Une proposition de typologie," in Intertextualité: Le Bible en échos (MdB 10; Geneva: Labor et Fides, 2000) 185-200] and Jean Zumstein ["Der Prozess der Relecture in der Johanneischen Literature," NTS 42 (1996) 394-411] call Relecture), of the Gospel itself, aiming to bring the message of the Gospel, especially through the treatments of Peter and the Beloved Disciple, to what has come to be known as "the greater Church," that is, beyond the boundaries of the community that produced and accepted John 1‒20, enriching contemporary ecumenical relationships. The final study points out that the use of phaneroō in John [End Page 756] 21 points to the church as the "place" where the conditions and the possibility of the revelation of God can be found. Part 2 contains five thematic studies. M. links 20:9 with 2:17 and 12:16, arguing that a true understanding of Israel's Scriptures takes place not at the empty tomb but in the experience of the death and resurrection of Jesus, the result of the gift of the Spirit. A study of John 5 and 11 claims that John begins with Jewish eschatological hopes to render them realized and immortal through faith in Jesus Christ. The prayer of Jesus reflects an unconditional trust in God that continues into the prayer of a church praying in the name of Jesus. Returning to John's use of Israel's Scriptures, M. argues for a close relationship between the Gospel and Ezekiel in general terms, and in more specific areas of dependency: the shepherd, the vine, community life, the water that flows from the temple, and the fishing miracle of John 21. The final essay in this section asks what John contributes to the role of the Spirit to the missio ad Gentes. M. traces Jesus's gift of the Spirit to witnesses (John 4), the gospel to the Greeks (7:33-36; 12:20-36), and the multilingual titulus on the cross (19:19-22). The third part considers John in the context of the Judaism of the first century. Taking as its historical starting point the Leuven Colloquium of 2000 (see Reimund Bieringer, Didier Pollefeyt, and Frederique Vandecasteele-Vanneuville, eds., Anti-Judaism and the Fourth Gospel: Papers of the Leuven Colloquium 2000 [Assen: van Gorcum, 2001]), it contains four chapters: a survey of recent scholarship surrounding the theme of anti-Judaism in the Gospel, an evaluation of the accusation of...