The Historical Reliability of John's Gospel: Issues & Commentary

Rating:
Summary: A worthy read
Review: I haven't finished with this book yet, but I see it has been around a while, and there are no reviews at all, so I thought I'd at least add some preliminary observations to help prospective readers.

Blomberg, of course, writes from the perspective of a fairly conservative evangelical. I am not (or, more accurately, no longer) an evangelical, and yet I find Blomberg is one of a handful of evangelical biblical scholars who deserves to be read and taken seriously by non-evangelicals.

The format here is very simple: a) an introduction to the historical issues surrounding John's gospel, a rundown of the Johannine distinctives that cause scholars to doubt its historicity, and a survey of the main arguments concerning authorship, genre and critical methodology; b) a commentary on the text of John, dealing with the historical issues as they arise; c) a conclusion.

By no means does Blomberg simply opt for the most conservative interpretation available, although he certainly argues for the general historical trustworthiness of John's gospel. My biggest concern is what he'll do with all the theological padding, especially the high christology of some of the discourse attributed to Jesus himself -- for me personally, that is one of the most historically dubious aspects of the gospel (and I say that as a trinitarian who has no problem affirming the deity of Christ). I haven't gotten very far into the commentary itself yet, so it remains to be seen what Blomberg argues.

Two things that would have made the book an easier read are footnotes, rather than the awkward references scattered in parentheses throughout the book as it is, and also the text of John itself alongside the commentary, for convenient reference.