by: Frederick Dale Bruner
The author of a much-loved two volume Matthew commentary (1990) that he
greatly revised and expanded fourteen years later, Frederick Dale Bruner
now offers The Gospel of John: A Commentary -- more rich fruit of his
lifetime of study and teaching. Rather than relying primarily on recent
scholarship, Bruner honors and draws from the church's major John
commentators throughout history, including Augustine, Chrysostom,
Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Bultmann, Barrett, and many more. Alongside
this "historical interpretation" is Bruner's own contemporary
interpretation, which incorporates a lucid translation of the text,
references to recent scholarship, and his pastoral application of the
Gospel to present-day experience. Like Bruner's other work, this
commentary is rich in biblical insights, broadly historical, and deeply
theological. Here is what Eugene Peterson said about Bruner's earlier
work on Matthew: "This is the kind of commentary I most want -- a
theological wrestling with Scripture. Frederick Dale Bruner grapples
with the text not only as a technical exegete (although he does that
very well) but as a church theologian, caring passionately about what
these words tell us about God and ourselves. His Matthew commentary is
in the grand traditions of Augustine, Calvin, and Luther -- expansive
and leisurely, loving the text, the people in it, and the Christians who
read it." The same could well be said about the present John
commentary, which promises to be another invaluable resource for
pastors, teachers, and laypeople alike.