Johannes Beutler – författare

This volume, which emerges from an SNTS seminar in 1985-1986, analyses one of the best-known, but also one of the most intriguing, of Jesus' discourses within the Fourth Gospel. Previous studies of the Shepherd Discourse have concentrated either on its historical setting in the life of Jesus (Simonis) or on the prehistory of its text (Bullmann and his school). The present study, consisting of essays written by an international team of specialists, adopts a more contextual approach. The Shepherd Discourse is here situated in the text of the Fourth Gospel, with particular emphasis on the preceding chapter and on the subsequent Passion narrative. The internal coherence of John 10 so becomes clearer, and it is seen that - in spite of its links with Gnostic ideas - the roots of the Discourse in Old Testament and Jewish texts about the shepherds of Israel become apparent.

In this study, the First Farewell Discourse of Jesus (Jn 14) is read in the light of the Old Testament and Early Judaism. At the beginning of the chapter, influence of Psalm 42/43 can be shown. In the central part of the chapter, the subjects of loving God / Jesus and keeping the commandments seem to go back to Deuteronomic covenant theology. In the final part, prophetic announcements of eschatological salvation are echoed. Thus, Jn 14 makes use of the three parts of the Hebrew Bible: the Law, the Prophets and the Writings. This is important for Jewish-Christian dialogue. The English edition of this book is based on the German original of 1984. In a Postscript the contributions on the chapter since the first publication are reviewed, and an additional bibliography has been added.

The Johannine symbol of the good shepherd (Jn 10:1-18) is employed by the fourth evangelist from the Jewish cultural context, to communicate the Divine message of the redemption of humanity by Jesus Christ, who is the Symbol, the Son and the Revealer of the Johannine Father. This symbol is discussed here from the hermeneutical perspective in the context of Igbo in Nigeria, with particular reference to «Ofo», an Igbo ritual symbol. The symbol of the good shepherd depicts different meanings, depending on the exegetical approach of the interpreter, and among them is the depth of love which the Johannine Father has for the humanity. The «Ofo» similarly, symbolizes diverse values among which are, the virtue of truth, innocence, justice, power, emblem of unity, staff of authority and indestructibility of the individual or the group. Using the literary analysis of exegesis, the method of the intercultural hermeneutics, employed in the African method of biblical analysis, is applied in the discourse. With this method therefore, the findings from the analysis of the «Ofo» ritual symbol are used to read the results from the exegetical analysis of the symbol of the good shepherd because they have interface at the symbolic level. This feature enables the reader to grasp the message of the shepherd discourse of Jn 10:1-18.

This book traces the roots of the Christian belief in resurrection and the afterlife as presented by Paul in First Thessalonians.The Ghanaian author adopted mainly the approach of History of Religion (Religionsgeschichte) to his study of the Pauline exhortations on the fate of the dead and the living at the Lord’s parousia in First Thessalonians. He is of the view that neither the African Traditional Religion nor ancient Greek philosophy and mythology can give the background information on the Pauline exhortations in question but Paul’s origin as a Jewish Pharisee who believed in the resurrection of the dead and valued this belief he inherited from Judaism.The publication can help believers in Christ see death as an event which paves the way for them to begin a new life with God, their creator.

The influence of the Old Testament and Early Judaism on the Fourth Gospel is the subject of various contributions of this book, as well as the influence of the Synoptic tradition. However, the author''s interest also lies in the latest stratum of the Gospel of John. The interpretive model of "relecturing" allows the study of the relation between texts without the need to hypothesize about their authors and sources. At the same time it is easier to consider the message of the Gospel in the past and in the present day in the light of the complete text. John invites his readers to not only have faith in Christ, but also to fearlessly profess their faith. Of the twenty contributions to this volume, originally published since 1998, three have been translated from Italian or Spanish, and five have remained in the original English.

La presente obra es la traducción del gran comentario del evangelio de Juan publicado por el autor en alemán en 2013. Este comentario presenta el Evangelio de Juan como testimonio del primer siglo cristiano, con raíces en las Escrituras de Israel y en la antigua tradición cristiana, en particular en los evangelios sinópticos de Mateo, Marcos y Lucas. Basándose en una evaluación de los estudios clásicos y recientes, el autor une un análisis histórico-literario con un acercamiento sincrónico orientado hacia el análisis semántico y narrativo del texto final del evangelio de Juan. Junto con otros intérpretes el autor cuenta con una relectura del evangelio, en la cual el texto original es actualizado por los lectores de la generación siguiente. Así se abre el horizonte para los lectores actuales con sus preguntas y necesidades.