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An Introduction to the Gospel of John
By Raymond E. Brown
New York, Doubleday, 2003. 365 pp. $30.00.
"The years of our life are threescore and ten," wrote the Psalmist (90:10), and Raymond Brown, whose work and life were in other respects guided by the Bible and his commitment to its interpretation, lived out those years exactly. Having completed the major works that he had planned, including a comprehensive Introduction to the New Testament (1997), he died quite suddenly and unexpectedly on 8 August 1998. His loss is keenly felt among biblical scholars, Roman Catholic and Protestant, who share his commitment to interpretation that is theologically relevant yet not theologically dogmatic.
Brown emerged on the scene of New Testament scholarship in 1966, with the publication of the first volume of his commentary on the Gospel of John in the Anchor Bible series (vol. 29). The second volume (29A) appeared in 1970. Brown's commentary quickly became a standard work in North America. The Gospel of John and the Johannine Epistles were a continuing interest of Brown's throughout his career. He also wrote the Anchor Bible Commentary on the Epistles (vol. 30, 1982) and the highly provocative Community of the Beloved Disciple (1979). From 1971 until his early retirement in 1990, Brown was professor at Union Theological Seminary, where he was a colleague of J. Eouis Martyn, whose History and Theology in the Fourth Gospel (1968; 3rd...