Some Commentaries on John

This fall I preached an eight-part series on the "I am" statements of Jesus in the Gospel of John. I posted before some general thoughts on the unique challenges and blessings of preaching John. Now that I'm through the series I thought I'd share a few words on the some of the commentaries I used-- binoculars, so to speak, in my quest to spot the eagle.

Craig Keener's two volume commentary (Hendrickson, 2004) was an extremely useful resource for preaching John, and perhaps one of the most thorough commentaries on this Gospel that I've seen. In the past, I've really appreciated Keener's balanced and historical approach to New Testament exegesis, and this tome is no exception. Here he offers a breadth and depth of research that fleshed out the most obscure of images, and always drew me deeper into the text. There were times, perhaps, when it felt like his historical references were a bit erudite, at least for the purposes of pulpit ministry; and there were other times when I was looking for a more theological reading of the text than he was prepared to give, but overall it is a veritable treasure-trove of research, and a welcome addition to my spare but slowly growing commentary library.

I used John Brown's Anchor Bible Commentary on the Gospel of John quite extensively in seminary and found it often illuminating and always stimulating. The price was a bit too prohibitive for me to purchase my own copy, so I went instead with his "concise commentary," a sort of Cole's Notes for Brown's take on the Gospel. Though it was usually thought provoking, most often I found it a bit too concise for the kind of exegesis I felt necessary to preach these complex texts in a meaningful way. That said, there were a few times when he forced me to step back and get a big picture of the text, where someone like Keener had me lost in the particulars, and in that it was helpful.