A Festschrift is usually a disparate collection of essays of uneven quality by students and colleagues of a celebrated scholar. Only occasionally do editors succeed in gathering together contributions all on one tightly knit theme. Culpepper and Black have done more that that: they have created a volume that can stand on its own as an introduction of the highest quality to Johannine scholarship from almost every major perspective current in the literature.

There are chapters by veteran scholars on areas of lifelong interest: W.D. Davies on Jewish backgrounds, J.H. Charlesworth on John and the Dead Sea Scrolls, S.S. Smalley on pneumatology, W. Meeks on ethics. There are chapters by younger writers of equally high calibre: M.M. Thompson on the Historical Jesus and the Johannine Christ, Black himself on rhetoric, and Culpepper on irony. Some items reflect established scholars turning to areas of more recent interest: C.K. Barrett on Acts and John E. Schweizer on Johannine ‘parables’, and J.D.G. Dunn on John and the Synoptics as a theological question.

Five major areas of reflection are given relatively equal treatment: the history and character of the Johannine community, the traditions behind the Fourth Gospel, literary criticism, theology, and ‘appropriating the proclamation of the Gospel of John’. Other contributors are also outstanding in their field: R. Kysar, P. Borgen, J.L. Martin, J. Beutler, F. Segovia, B.R. Gaventa, P.W. Meyer, L.E. Keck, H. Weder and J. Painter. And it is encouraging to see several evangelicals included among all these. Moody Smith is honoured indeed to have a book of this quality written for him.

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