John: Storyteller, Interpreter, Evangelist

Biblical Theology Bulletin, Spring, 2008 by Derek Tovey

John: Storyteller, Interpreter, Evangelist. By Warren Carter. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2006. Pp. xvi 264. Paper, $19.95.

Students of John's Gospel are well served with good introductions to its themes, issues and problems. Warren Carter has contributed another. The book is in three parts, and the title announces the tenor and content of each part. Part One, "John: Storyteller," looks at the narrative structure of the Gospel, examining such things as its literary genre, plot, characters, and the distinctiveness of its language and style. Part Two, "John: Interpreter," considers how the Gospel interprets Scripture, as well as scholarly theories as to the way successive editions of the Gospel may represent attempts to interpret Jesus for changing historical circumstances. Part Three, "John: Evangelist," explores possibilities for the identity of the Gospel's author, or authors, and the themes of the Gospel. The book concludes with a post-script that examines how some of the issues raised by the Gospel impinge upon its reading and interpretion in the modern world.

Overall, the book comprises ten chapters and the postscript. The first chapter considers the Gospel's genre (primarily that of ancient biography). Chapter Two outlines the main features that contribute to the plot and provides an overview of the way the plot develops. Chapter Three outlines the way in which God is depicted as a character (basically showing the attributes of God that emerge in the Gospel), how God is related to Jesus, and the way Jesus is shown as God's agent, through the use of titles and a relationship of unity and subordination. The roles that other characters play in helping the plot develop by bringing out Jesus' significance and revealing God's purposes is covered in the fourth chapter. Chapters Five and Six deal with John's distinctive dualistic language (an "antilanguage" employed by a group marginalized from mainstream Judaism), and the range of techniques used to get the story across.

Part Two comprises two chapters. As well as examining how the Gospel uses scripture, Chapter Seven explores how the material arises from a process of interpreting memories, from the use of prior sources such as the Synoptic Gospels, or from other independent written sources (signs source, revelatory discourse) or oral traditions. Chapter Eight surveys the various theories regarding the history of the Gospel's composition and posits various editions. Here Martyn's and Brown's positions are outlined, compared, and subjected to extensive critique.

Chapter Nine surveys options regarding authorship, demonstrating why the traditional position that John, the son of Zebedee is the author, is difficult to accept (later Carter critiques the second-and third-century development of this tradition). The possibilities for identifying the beloved disciple are explored, as are clues in the Gospel for providing a profile of the author(s) and the audience. The tenth chapter provides in a short compass an overview of what may be called the themes of the Gospel. This is an excellent chapter that builds a good picture of the Gospel's message, particularly its theme of Jesus as "the definitive revealer of God's life-giving purposes."

This book might be described as a handbook to the Gospel and Johannine scholarship. Carter will take an issue and explore the range of approaches and theories that surround it. For example, the survey of Martyn's and Brown's theories of the Gospel's composition also outlines the way in which this gives insight into the situation of the Johannine community, and how it developed over the period of the Gospel's production. To give two other examples, there is a good discussion of various ways in which "the Jews" are to be understood (67-73), and, more briefly, a profile of the Paraclete (210-11). Sometimes the discussion of the various scholarly options is somewhat compressed, and Carter summarizes by throwing out a series of questions.

A beginning student might be overwhelmed by Carter's attempt to "cover all the bases" on any issue. If one wants, however, to provide students with a good summary of an issue, and open them to the range of options provided by scholars, one is well advised to point them to this book. Sometimes, Carter invites the reader to have the Gospel open while reading the book. This is perhaps a good strategy for reading the book as a whole. It is a book to be taken slowly, and Carter's habit of providing bullet points and numbered lists, while helpful for the student, makes the reading process difficult. The book will serve college and seminary students well, and clergy wanting to do some solid work with the Gospel.

Derek Tovey

St. John's College

Auckland 1072

New Zealand