Full Description
2022 Catholic Media Association honorable mention in scripture: academic studies
Teaching and researching the Gospel of John for thirty years has led author Mary L. Coloe to an awareness of the importance of the wisdom literature to make sense of Johannine theology, language, and symbolism: in the prologue, with Nicodemus, in the Bread of Life discourse, with Mary and Lazarus, and in the culminating "Hour." She also shows how the late Second Temple theology expressed in the books of Sirach and Wisdom, considered deuterocanonical and omitted from some Bible editions, are essential intertexts. Only the book of Wisdom speaks of "the reign of God" (Wis 10:10), "eternity life" (Wis 5:15), and the ambrosia maintaining angelic life (Wis 19:21)—all concepts found in John's Gospel.
While the Gospel explicitly states the Logos was enfleshed in Jesus, this is also true of Sophia. Coloe makes the case that Jesus's words and deeds embody Sophia throughoutthe narrative. At the beginning of each chapter Coloe provides text from the later wisdom books that resonate with the Gospel passage, drawing Sophia out of the shadows.
Contents
Contents
List of Abbreviations ix
List of Contributors xv
Foreword: "Come Eat of My Bread . . . and Walk in the Ways of Wisdom" xix
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza
Editor's Introduction to Wisdom Commentary:
"She Is a Breath of the Power of God" (Wis 7:25) xxiii
Barbara E. Reid, OP
Author's Preface xliii
Author's Introduction xlv
John 1:1-18 Sophia Finds Her Home 1
John 1:19-51 The First Days: Sophia Gathers Disciples 35
John 2:1-12 A Jewish Mother Takes the Initiative at Cana 53
John 2:13-22 Sophia Claims Her Dwelling 65
John 2:23-3:36 Nicodemus: The Labor of New Birth 83
John 4:1-45 A Woman's Witness in Samaria 109
John 4:46-54 The Household of Faith 131
The Feasts of the Jews 13
John 5:1-47 Sophia Embodies the Law 141
John 6:1-71 Sophia Nourishes Her Children 161
John 7:1-52; 8:12-59 Sophia's Homecoming: Tabernacles 1 193
John 9:1-10:21 Sophia Ministers in the Tabernacle 235
John 7:53-8:11 In Search of a Home 261
John 10:22-42 Sophia's Festival of Lights (Hanukkah) 269
Works Cited 283
