John, the Son of Zebedee: The Life of a Legend
by R. Alan Culpepper
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Description
Beginning with New Testament reports of John as fisherman and extending through the most recent Johannine scholarship, Culpepper gathers stories from church fathers, the apocryphal acts of John, medieval sources, Victorian poets, and nineteenth-and twentieth-century historians of earliest Christianity about the exploits and the death of this apostle. Culpepper's sweeping study examines a multitude of sources, many of which are widely dispersed and not previously available in show more English.Culpepper reveals images of John that suggest the power of historical tradition and legend. The resulting study is one of the most important sources of information about the development of Johannine legends, as well as one of the most successful efforts to overcome barriers that have traditionally separated New Testament exegesis from the study of the history of Christianity. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Three hundred seventy six small-print pages about the life and legends of St. John the Apostle. Culpepper is one of the foremost authorities on Johannine writings, and I’m a Culpepper fan, but this was overkill.
My current project is a story about the making of John’s Gospel, and naturally, John the Apostle is a primary character. For this, Culpepper’s book proved to be an exhausting resource. Oops, I meant exhaustive. Must have been a Freudian slip.
I had to give the book a strong rating for its research; there is simply nothing like it out there. You’ll learn stories about John in the Bible, a discussion of his possible identity as the Beloved Disciple of the Fourth Gospel, the evidence of Johannine thinking in the epistles of show more John, how the Gospel of John gained acceptance in the church (walking first through Gnostic strands of Christianity), various other extra-canonical Christian writings portraying John as a hero, legends about John written by more than twenty church fathers, how he became an icon in art and literature, all leading to current-day opinions by Bible scholars. Whew.
Buy it as a reference book. show less
My current project is a story about the making of John’s Gospel, and naturally, John the Apostle is a primary character. For this, Culpepper’s book proved to be an exhausting resource. Oops, I meant exhaustive. Must have been a Freudian slip.
I had to give the book a strong rating for its research; there is simply nothing like it out there. You’ll learn stories about John in the Bible, a discussion of his possible identity as the Beloved Disciple of the Fourth Gospel, the evidence of Johannine thinking in the epistles of show more John, how the Gospel of John gained acceptance in the church (walking first through Gnostic strands of Christianity), various other extra-canonical Christian writings portraying John as a hero, legends about John written by more than twenty church fathers, how he became an icon in art and literature, all leading to current-day opinions by Bible scholars. Whew.
Buy it as a reference book. show less
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Author Information
22+ Works 816 Members
R. Alan Culpepper was raised as a "missionary kid" in Chile and Argentina. He attended Baylor University, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and received a Ph.D. from Duke University. He taught at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for 17 years, and after a few years at Baylor University, he became in 1995 Dean of the McAfee School show more of Theology at Mercer University. show less
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- John, the Son of Zebedee: The Life of a Legend
- Original publication date
- 1994
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 74
- Popularity
- 424,701
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 1
