John for Everyone, Part 1 (The New Testament for Everyone)

For those unfamiliar with Wright's "______ for Everyone" series, they are a series of commentaries on the New Testament books by Bishop Wright based on his extensive historical scholarship. He provides his own translation (based on his study of the source languages) which is a very engaging paraphrase. The text is divided up into chronological topic-based segments, followed by a 2-3 page sermonette/commentary based on that section. This is the first of two volumes on the Gospel of John. Volume 1 covers John Chap. 1-10. In this book, Wright reveals the thematic strands that John used, and John's emphases and pointer phrases that highlight important points and refer back to the overall threads. The primary theme is that Jesus is the Messiah, fulfilling God's plan to redeem and remake the world, heralded by John the Baptist, and not only unrecognized by his people but actively opposed. The Pharisees' hostility to Jesus is explained by the initial cleansing of the Temple as well as the scandal of Jesus' healing on the sabbath. Wright shows how John's gospel includes interesting and colorful tidbits about characters in the background of the story (glimmers of disciple's personalities, etc.), as well as emotional tone of some of the scenes and glimmers of Jesus' humor. I recommend that you obtain both volumes before starting to read, because at the end of this book you will be eager to continue the narrative with Volume 2.

John for Everyone is the perfect "middle" resource for those wanting to dive deeper into this amazing Gospel without drowning in a seminary text. Tom Wright does a great job of opening up the background and setting of John as well as carrying the important themes of the Gospel straight through by reminding the reader of important events. By using story and analogy, Wright draws parallels that help modern readers make the connections important to understanding the biblical times. Further, the glossary in the back defines the important people and events in an engaging way. This book is great for individual use to increase Bible knowledge and appreciation. As a pastor, I have small groups using the book to walk through the scriptures together. I highly recommend the entire series.

Tom Wright has written a very simple and easy to read book on the first 10 chapters of the Gospel of John. The Everyone tile is for real, because anyone who can read can get great scholarly interpretion without any technical language. Wright provides his own translation, which when this series is done, needs to become "The Wright New Testament." After the translation comes a little story or an anecdote that leads you into the interpretation of the section that is being discusssed. This, quite frankly is what a called theologian should be doing. It does very little good to know the Bible in a deep scholarly fashion if you are unable to communicate that to the masses. Tom Wright has that ability and displays it greatly in this series of books. His interpretation of John (and he claims he is not a Johanine scholar) could not have been any better than this. Wright has a great ability to avoid being anachronistic, yet brings great application from the text for the Christian to live and be transformed by. My favorite part of this commentary was how Wright sees the opponents of Jesus and holds together the chapters without sharp breaks in thought. His handling of John 9 and 10 and linking these chapters together is a demonstration of that. This was a very helpful interpretation of John and I highly recommend for all to enjoy. Questions or comments contact me at [email protected]

I very much like Bishop Tom Wright's commentary on the Gospel of John. His treatment of the text is consistently insightful and especially accessible to lay people. I would have given it 5 stars if the commentary was a bit richer academically. My lay people love it.

One of the best from Tom Wright's "Everyone" New Testament series.