John for Everyone, part 1

by N. T. Wright

Publisher:

SPCK

, 2004

Overview

Making use of his scholar's understanding, yet writing in an approachable and anecdotal style, Tom Wright manages to unravel the great complexity of the extraordinary Gospel of John. He describes it as "one of the great books in the literature of the world; and part of its greatness is the way it reveals its secrets not just to a high-flown leaning but to those who come to it with humility and hope." Wright's stimulating comments are combined with his own fresh and inviting translation of the Bible text.

Tom Wright has undertaken a tremendous task: to provide guides to all the books of the New Testament, and to include in them his own translation of the entire text. Each short passage is followed by a highly readable discussion with background information, useful explanations and suggestions, and thoughts as to how the text can be relevant to our lives today. A glossary is included at the back of the book. The series is suitable for group study, personal study, or daily devotions.

Praise for the Print Edition

This enterprise is probably the most exciting thing to have happened in Christian education in Britain for many years.

—The Expository Times

If you wish to meet the Jesus who broke into people's lives while on earth, I heartily recommend these guides.

—The Christian Herald

Product Details

• Title: John for Everyone, part 1
• Author: N. T. Wright
• Publisher: SPCK
• Publication Date: 2004
• Pages: 192
• Christian Group: Anglican

About N. T. Wright

Nicholas Tom Wright, commonly known as N. T. Wright or Tom Wright, is Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at St. Andrews University. Previously, he was the bishop of Durham. He has researched, taught, and lectured on the New Testament at McGill, Oxford, and Cambridge Universities, and has been named by Christianity Today a top theologian. He is best known for his scholarly contributions to the historical study of Jesus and the New Perspective on Paul. His work interacts with the positions of James Dunn, E. P. Sanders, Marcus Borg, and Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Wright has written and lectured extensively around the world, authoring more than forty books and numerous articles in scholarly journals and popular periodicals. He is best known for his Christian Origins and the Question of God Series, of which three of the anticipated six volumes are finished.

Sample Pages from the Print Edition

Contents

Top Highlights

“That’s the theme of this gospel: if you want to know who the true God is, look long and hard at Jesus.” (Page 5)

“What matters is not just what Jesus can do for you; what matters is who Jesus is.” (Page 79)

“The transformation from water to wine is of course meant by John to signify the effect that Jesus can have, can still have today, on people’s lives. He came, as he says later, that we might have life in all its fullness (10:10). You might want to pray through this story with your own failures and disappointments in mind—remembering that transformation only came when someone took Mary’s words seriously: ‘Do whatever he tells you.’” (Page 23)

“The wedding is a foretaste of the great heavenly feast in store for God’s people (see Revelation 21:2). The water-jars, used for Jewish purification rites, are a sign that God is doing a new thing from within the old Jewish system, bringing purification to Israel and the world in a whole new way.” (Page 22)

“The point is obvious, but we perhaps need to be reminded of it: so often we ourselves have no idea what to do, but the starting-point is always to bring what is there to the attention of Jesus. You can never tell what he’s going to do with it—though part of Christian faith is the expectation that he will do something we hadn’t thought of, something new and creative.” (Page 73)

Product Details

• Title: John for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1–10
• Author: N. T. Wright
• Series: For Everyone Bible Study Guides
• Publisher: SPCK
• Print Publication Date: 2004
• Logos Release Date: 2011
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Bible. N.T. John › Commentaries
• ISBNs: 9780664227890, 9780281053025, 9780281055203, 9780664227906, 0664227899, 0281053022, 0281055203, 0664227902
• Resource ID: LLS:EVRY64JN01
• Resource Type: Bible Commentary
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:40:58Z

About N. T. Wright

Nicholas Thomas “Tom” Wright (1948–) is a New Testament scholar, Pauline theologian, and Anglican bishop and currently Research Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Early Christianity at St. Mary's College in the University of St Andrews and Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. Christianity Today named him one of today's top theologians. 

Wright was born in Morpeth, Northumberland, and recounts an awareness of God's presence from a young age—and that relationship with God ever since is reflected in his life and work. He's a prolific author; one of his most popular books, Surprised by Hope, frames the resurrection of the dead as the appropriate hope for all believers rather than an overemphasis on just "going to heaven when you die." He's among the leading theologians in the New Perspective on Paul debate. Wright has several honorary doctoral degrees, and in 2014, the British Academy awarded him the Burkitt Medal "in recognition of special service to biblical studies." In 2015, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Wright served as chaplain at Cambridge from 1978 to 1981, then as assistant professor of New Testament language and literature at McGill University in Montreal. Before becoming a chaplain, tutor, lecturer, and fellow at Oxford in 1986, Wright served as dean of Lichfield Cathedral, canon theologian of Westminster Abbey, and the bishop of Durham from 2003–10. In addition to the entire New Testament for Everyone Series, some of N. T. Wright's books include The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians, Who Was Jesus, The New Testament and the People of God, God and the Pandemic, Evil and the Justice of God, Surprised by Hope, and Simply Christian. He coauthored Jesus the Final Days with Craig A. Evans.