F.F. Bruce - The Gospel of John: A Verse-by-Verse Exposition

The
GOSPEL
of JOHN

Introduction, Exposition and Notes

by

F. F. Bruce D.D., F.B.A.

TO
Barry and Betty Hale

CONTENTS

EXPOSITION

PUBLISHERS
INTRODUCTION

T HE QUESTION TO BE ASKED OF all teaching is not, Is it new? but Is it true? said Bruce in his commentary on The Epistles of John .

F.F. Bruce put this into practice in his own writing and teaching. His friend I. Howard Marshall explains, F. F. Bruce may not go down in history as a creative, original thinker. His name will probably not be associated with any brilliant new thesis in biblical scholarship.... His gifts are of a different order,... the ability to sift the work of others, to weed out what is ephemeral, and to present in solid and convincing form a picture of the real state of affairs.... The reader knows that he will learn much from the presentation, and that he will not be exposed to daring and unlikely hypotheses.... It is of supreme value to be presented with sound learning and sober conclusions.

This gift of Professor Bruces is demonstrated supremely in The Gospel of John . This introduction and exposition does not push back the frontiers, said D.A. Carson, but it is nevertheless exactly the sort of work one likes to put into the hands of ordinary Christians who want to know their Bible better.

The first seven chapters of this study of the Gospel of John began as a series of articles in The Bible Student , published in Bangalore, India. Bruces study of the last chapters of the Gospel St. Johns Passion Narrative and St. Johns Resurrection Narrative were then written for The Witness , a respected British Brethren monthly. The Witness (and The Harvester , with which The Witness merged) then published his commentary on the entire Gospel. Bruce next edited the entire commentary for publication in book form.

The result is a treasure. Reviewers says it is scholarly, concise, and practical; clear-headed and consistently concisely informative; easily the very best commentary on the Gospel of John that I have ever come across.

John wrote his Gospel so that the reader may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, you may have life in his name. For nearly 2,000 years the Gospels straight, unequivocal words about sin and salvation somehow go home, Bruce quotes, and carries conviction to the most abandoned, while its direct invitation wins a response that nothing else does.

* * * * *

The Epistles of John is published under the Kingsley Books imprint of F.F. Bruce Copyright International.

When Robert Hicks, a British book publisher, realized that many of the works of F.F. Bruce were not readily available, he wanted to correct that situation. Of the nearly 60 books and hundreds of magazine articles written by the Dean of Evangelical Scholarship, Robert felt many of those not in print could be presented in a visually appealing way for the modern reader.

After receiving the support of F.F. Bruces daughter, Sheila Lukabyo, Robert enlisted the help of Larry Stone, an American publisher. Together they contacted nearly twenty of F.F. Bruces publishers. Some of Bruces books are being reformatted into printed booklets suitable for evangelism and Bible study in universities and in church groups. Many of Bruces printed books as well as collections of articles never before appearing in book form are being made available as reasonably-priced ebooks that can be easily distributed around the world.

The purpose of F.F. Bruce Copyright International is to encourage an understanding of Professor Bruces teaching on the Scripture, to encourage his spirit of humility in approaching the Bible, and encourage academic scholarship among todays evangelical students and leaders.

For the latest information on the availability of ebooks and printed books by F.F. Bruce and his friends, see www.ffbruce.com.

PREFACE

T his exposition of the Fourth Gospel , like my expositions of Ephesians (1961) and the Epistles of John (1970), is intended chiefly for the general Christian reader who is interested in serious Bible study, not for the professional or specialist student. Textual, linguistic and other critical questions have been touched on lightly; the chief aim has been to communicate what I myself have learned of the Evangelists meaning and message.

This work has taken shape over a period of nearly thirty years. In 1953 I began to contribute, in quarterly installments, An Expository Study of St Johns Gospel to The Bible Student of Bangalore, India, at the invitation of the editor, Alfred McDonald Redwood. By the time The Bible Student ceased publication in 1960 (two years before the editors death), the first seven chapters of John had been covered. The work was then set aside for several years.

Then, in 1971 and 1972, mainly out of a desire to clarify for myself certain problems in the passion narrative of the Fourth Gospel (especially with regard to the trial of Jesus), I contributed to The Witness eighteen articles on St Johns Passion Narrative and six on St Johns Resurrection Narrative. Later, in 1977, the editor of The Witness , the late Cecil Howley, suggested that I might reproduce in its columns the expository study which had appeared previously in The Bible Student (revised where appropriate) and carry on until I had covered the whole Gospel. This I proceeded to do (with the good will of his successor as editor, John Polkinghorne), and when The Witness was merged with The Harvester from the beginning of 1981, the exposition continued to appear in The Harvester month by month until it was completed in December 1982. I am grateful to my publishers for giving me the opportunity to prepare the work for publication in book form.

The haphazard and topsy-turvy way in which much of the work originally appeared means that a good deal of overlapping and inconcinnity has had to be removed. It would be over-optimistic to suppose that this removal has been as thoroughgoing as it should have been. The introduction and notes have been added for the present form of publication.

I am conscious of my deep indebtedness to many previous expositors. Some of this indebtedness is expressly acknowledged, but much of it must remain unacknowledged, because most of what I have read or heard about the Gospel of John over many years has been integrated with my own thinking about the Gospel and cannot now be analysed into its sources. My chief conscious indebtedness is to the work of C. H. Dodd. Also, for much of my career as a teacher of Biblical Studies I was fortunate in having two colleagues who specialized in the study of this GospelDr Aileen Guilding in the University of Sheffield and Dr Stephen Smalley in the University of Manchesterand my understanding of the Gospel was greatly strengthened through my association with them.

The biblical text which is printed at the head of each section of the exposition is my translation from the Greek of the Nestle-Aland edition of 1979.

F. F. BRUCE

PRINCIPAL
ABBREVIATIONS