Zeichman

In my foreign language Greek class we're going to need to write a paper on some aspect of John's Gospel, and I want to do something with the Johannine Community. I was thinking about "The Community of the Beloved Disciple" by Brown, but the reviews were only "he's too conservative" and "he's too liberal" on Amazon, so I have no idea what the general thinking on this work is, or others. Shoot me reccomendations (or websites) please.

SaintCog

I've never read Brown's "Community," but I'm familiiar with his commentary on John, and I found it to be very good. Most mainstream scholars respect his work. I've always found the "too liberal" or "too conservative" label to be an unfair criticism for anyone. Usually this means that people are upset with the scholar's conclusions. Scholarship should be evaluated on method rather than conclusion. What I've read of Brown's seemed methodologically adequate.

Cheers,
SC

Peter Kirby

You might want to compare someone who describes a Johannine community, such as Raymond Brown, with Richard Bauckham (The Gospel for All Christians) who denies the idea of such separated communities.

kind thoughts,
Peter Kirby

Chris Weimer

I'd recommend David C. Sim's "The Gospels for All Christians? A Response to Richard Bauckham" from the Dec. 2001 issue of the Journal for the Study of the New Testament. Also, have you joined the Johannine list on Yahoo?