An Ideology of Revolt

Behind the triumphant proclamation of Jesus as God in the Fourth Gospel stands a history of alienation, intense conflict, and crisis. Jerome Neyrey unearths that history by showing how the Gospel's Christology functions as a cipher for the Johannine community's estrangement -- and eventual revolt -- from its roots in the synagogue. In Part One, Neyrey offers a fresh, full exegesis of the controversies over Jesus's eschatological and divine powers, which underlay the Gospel's confession of Jesus as equal to God. Part Two deftly employs social-science modeling for a rigorous and enlightening reconstruction of the worldview of John's community as it evolved through stages of controversy that propelled Christians into an exaltation of Christ and a radical devaluation of this world -- an ideology of revolt. A paradigm of interdisciplinary biblical research, An Ideology of Revolt discloses the irony and scandal of John's community and of John's Christ.