Since its publication almost forty years ago, The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel has established itself as a classic of biblical scholarship. Regarded as a seminal text in Johannine studies, it provides a comprehensive and authoritative exposition of the major elements and themes contained in this more original and fascinating of ancient documents. The author reconstructs the background and intellectual milieu out of which the Fourth Gospel may be supposed to have taken shape. He then defines as precisely as possible the leading concepts that may be said to have determined the structure and arrangement of the book as we have it. The result is a massive achievement, and no serious student of the New Testament can afford to ignore this study's findings. The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel represents the culmination of a lifetime's reflection on its subject by one of this century's most distinguished New Testament scholars, and will continue to stimulate and provoke generations o
Professor Dodd's answer to the question, 'what is the Bible' is that it is 'a unity of diverse writings which together are set forth by the Church as a revelation of God in history'. In the four earlier chapters of this digitally reprinted edition of his 1946 work he examines these diverse writings in their historical setting, and makes clear their claim to unity. In the three subsequent chapters he discusses in greater detail the idea of history as revelation, considering what special significance that idea confers upon the Church, and upon non-biblical history relating to the troubled events of the mid twentieth-century; and finally, what an acceptance of the idea of history as revelation implies for the individual in his own time and circumstances.
To distinguish between history and interpretation is difficult in all the gospels, and perhaps most difficult in the Fourth Gospel. In his sequel to The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, Dr Dodd attempts, with the historical question in mind, to discover the particular strain of common tradition on which the unknown author worked. This detailed study of St John's Gospel is in two parts. In the first Dr Dodd examines the narrative material - the Passion narrative, the Ministry and the chapters on John the Baptist and the first disciples - and in the second he makes a detailed examination of the Sayings. As against theories which assert the dependence of the Fourth Gospel on one or more of the Synoptic Gospels, Dr Dodd marshals a mass of evidence to show that behind it there lies an ancient tradition independent of the Synoptic Gospels, deserving serious consideration as a contribution to our knowledge of the historical facts concerning Christ. This critical and historical
Professor C. H. Dodd's four English broadcast talks upon the enduring significance of Advent are contained in this little book, uniform with his other broadcast brochure, 'About the Gospels'. The author's movingly simple, reasonable presentation, his acceptance of the problems, and his gift of interpreting his theme inspiringly and broadly, must make many new friends.
By recovering the world for whom the first three gospels were written, Professor Dodd, in this short book, confers upon his readers the ability to make fresh approach and a new understanding to turn a worn-out experience into tone that is vivd and moving. He discusses the events of the Old World into which the gospels entered, their date of writing, their authenticity in the light of modern biblical criticism, the early communities of Christians whose needs the gospels met and the fundamentals of early Christian society. All is tersely dealt with, but one feels the authority of learning behind the summary. The chapters were originally broadcast as part of the Sunday morning services of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
