Jesus as Mirrored in John

James H. Charlesworth is George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature and Director of the Princeton Dead Sea Scrolls Project at Princeton Theological Seminary, USA.

• Preface: John’s Symbolic Language: The Johannine Community and Its Jewish BackgroundForeword AbbreviationsIntroduction: The Genius in the New TestamentI. Origin, Evolution, and Settings of the Gospel of John1. Paradigm Shifts in Johannine Studies2. The Priority of John3. The Beloved Disciple: Criteria and Observations4. The Historical and Social Setting of the Gospel of John in Light of the EssenesII. John and the Historical Jesus5. John: A Neglected Source6. Archaeological Discoveries Supporting the Historicity of John’s TraditionsIII. The Gospel of John and Other Sacred LiteratureJohn and the Dead Sea Scrolls7. The Dualism of Qumran and the “Dualism” of John8. An Overview of the Dead Sea Scrolls and a Revolutionary New Perspective9. John and Qumran: Almost Seventy Years of Research10. John’s Indebtedness to Judaism and the Self-Glorification HymnJohn and Enoch11. Did the Fourth Evangelist Know the Enoch Tradition?John and the Odes of Solomon12. The Odes of Solomon and the Gospel of John13. Qumran, John, and the Odes of SolomonIV. Symbolic Language in the Gospel of John14. Jewish Purity Laws and the Identity of the Beloved Disciple15. The Symbolism of the Serpent in John16. Symbology in Johannine Christology17. Is it Conceivable that Jesus Married Mary Magdalene?; Searching for Evidence in Johannine Traditions 18. Whence the Title Kata Ioannon: “According to John”?ConclusionAdvances in the Study of the Fourth Gospel: A Selected Bibliography – Jolyon G. R. PruszinskiIndexes

Good books on the Gospel of John abound; important books are fewer. This book by James Charlesworth, however, is both. Drawing on a half century of original Johannine research, this collection of essays puts forward a bold and noteworthy overall theory regarding John's composition, religious background, historical setting(s), and implications for understanding more fully the Jesus of history as well as the Christ of faith. As a self-standing Jesus tradition, informed by state-of-the-art analyses of its Jewish environs, this book not only critiques older paradigms; it heralds and furthers new paradigms regarding some of the most complex issues within modern New Testament studies. A must-read for scholars and students alike!