The Spirit in the New Testament. By John Christopher Thomas. Pp. xiii + 283. Leiden: Deo Publishing, 2005. isbn 90 5854 029 4.

Abstract

This volume is a collection of essays written over a period of about 25 years by John Christopher Thomas, who is a lecturer in Biblical Studies at the Church of God Theological Seminary, Cleveland, Tennessee. It is this context of a Pentecostal seminary in the USA that gives the book its particular flavour. The content of the articles is eclectic and ranges over a wide area in New Testament studies and, although this is not always the case, one of the characteristic features of the essays is that they are written from a Pentecostal standpoint. The majority of these articles are based around the Johannine literature, with a few others on the Gospels and on topics of particular relevance to Pentecostal hermeneutics. The Johannine articles are located towards the end of the book. In them Thomas looks at some well-worn topics. In his article on the composition of the fourth Gospel (ch. 7, pp. 116–29), he argues that the Gospel grew up around the Beloved Disciple slowly over a period of time and was essentially complete when the Beloved Disciple died. He follows this with a discussion of the relationship between the fourth Gospel and Rabbinic Judaism (ch. 8, pp. 130–56), concluding that many of the themes of the Gospel were also important themes within pre-90 Pharisaism and/or emerging Rabbinic Judaism. Chapter 9 (pp. 157–74) explores the spirit in the fourth Gospel, which he traces through the lens of narrative criticism; whereas chapter 10 (pp. 175–89) shifts its attention to the atonement and the way in which healing flows out of the death of Christ. Chapters 11, 12, and 13 are concerned with John 13. Thus chapter 11 (pp. 190–6) examines the text of 13:10, arguing that eij mh; tou;∼ povda∼ should be accepted as original, and chapter 12 (pp. 197–212) looks the role of foot washing in the Johannine community and the church today. Chapter 13 provides a bibliographical essay on John's account of foot washing (pp. 213–22). The final two chapters of the book turn our attention to the Johannine epistles, with chapter 16 (pp. 248–54) arguing that 1 John may have been written after 2 and 3 John and that the epistles should be understood accordingly, and chapter 17 maintaining that 1 John has a clear literary structure with concentric form (pp. 255–66).