Thomas L. Brodie – författare

This book presents a controversial thesis concerning the composition of the Gospel According to John. Most New Testament scholars believe that John was independent of the other three (Synoptic) Gospels, although some hold that he may have been familiar with Mark. This has led many to attempt to reconstruct the history of the community within which and for which John must have written. Brodie argues, however, that until the source question is settled, the historical question remains fruitless. What has been missing from Johannine scholarship, he says, is an accurate sense of the way in which writers of the ancient world set about composing their works. Given this literary context, it can be argued that John knew and used not only all of the Synoptic Gospels, but Acts, Ephesians, and the Pentateuch as well. Finally Brodie concludes that `John' was the individual John and not the mouthpiece of a putative `Johannine Community'. The Gospel should thus be read as a unified work, and not as the product of an aggregation of different sources or different dates of redaction.

While synthesizing well-established commentators as diverse as Bultmann and Brown, Brodie expands Johannine studies in two directions. First, by drawing on the techniques of contemporary literary studies, he shows that John's Gospel, far from being poorly edited, is a carefully-wrought unity. Second, he shows that the final basis of this unity lies not in history or theology but, as ancient tradition suggested, in spirituality. Brodie also includes his own innovative translation of John. The result is a new type of commentary that is thoroughly contemporary in style, perspective, and method.

Recent years have seen a remarkable surge in interest in the book of Genesis - the first book of the Bible - and a foundational text of Western culture. In this new commentary, Thomas Brodie offers a complete and accessible overview of Genesis from literary, theological, and historical standpoints. Brodie's work is organized around three main ideas: the first is that the primary subject of Genesis is human existence - while full of historical echoes, it is primarily a sophisticated portrayal of the progress and pitfalls of human life. His second thesis is that Genesis' basic organizational unity is binary, or diptych: building on older insights that Genesis is somehow dialogical, he argues that the entire book is composed of diptychs - accounts which, like some paintings, consist of two parts or panels. Finally, Brodie contends that many of Genesis' sources still exist, and can be identified and verified.

Drawing on the insights of ancient literary theory and practice, this book seeks to unlock the age-old puzzle of the relationship of John''s gospel to the other gospels and to the early Christian church. Applying a new method to an old problem, Brodie uses a form of source analysis that takes account of the practices of ancient writers to reveal John as someone who deliberately rendered the earlier gospels into a new language. The deeply theological, and at the same time more down-to-earth voice characteristic of John is revealed to be not that of a marginal community ("the Johannine community") but of an independent prophetic presence within the mainstream church.

Recent years have seen a remarkable surge in interest in the book of Genesis - the first book of the Hebrew Bible, and a foundational text of Western culture. In this new commentary, Thomas Brodie offers a complete and accessible overview of Genesis from literary, theological, and historical standpoints. Brodie''s work is organized around three main ideas. The first is that the primary subject of Genesis is human existence; the second is that Genesis'' basic organizational unity is binary, or diptych. Brodie argues that the entire book is composed of diptychs - accounts which, like some paintings, consist of two parts or panels. Finally, Brodie contends that many of Genesis'' sources still exist, and can be identified and verified.

The Elijah-Elisha narrative (1 Kgs 16:29–2 Kgs 13) is the most underestimated text in the Bible. Far from being a disparate collection, it is actually a carefully crafted double drama that both mirrors life and synthesizes systematically the entire Primary History (Genesis-Kings). In a bold hermeneutical move it transforms the language of historiography–of patriarchs and kings–into the language of prophetic biography.

This prophetic biography, rooted in historiography, later becomes the evangelists' primary literary model. The Elijah-Elisha narrative is the crucial bridge between the foundational narratives of Judaism and Christianity.

Since the 1970s there has been increasing evidence that Scripture texts that at first sight appear fragmented are in fact unified. Judges is a striking example of this. Because of the earlier exegetical models used, Judges was often regarded as a collection of rugged traditions that were independent of one another. Now, however, these apparently disconnected stories are intimately interconnected. Brodie explains that, as with earlier research on Judges, the quest for history–for underlying traditions–has tended to obscure the existing narrative account. In particular, the Elijah-Elisha narrative has often been read as consisting largely of two independent units, two cycles of traditions. The Elijah-Elisha narrative is indeed twofold–it clearly highlights two main prophets–but it is also a careful unity, as closely knit as Judges is now seen to be.

Chapters are "The Unity of the Narrative (1 Kings 16:29–2 Kings 13)," "A Synthesis of the Primary History: Initial Comparison Quantity Analysis," "A Synthesis of the Primary History: A More Detailed Comparison," "A Reinterpretation of the Leading Scriptures," and "A Literary Model for the Gospels."

Thomas L. Brodie, OP, has taught Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament in various institutions across the U.S. and in South Africa and is now teaching in his native Ireland. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on the Scriptures.

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