The Gospel according to John

Brown’s two-volume Anchor commentary remains one of the landmarks of Johannine scholarship and, despite its age, one of the most valuable resources for sustained work on John. Its great strength is the combination of detailed exegesis, historical investigation, Greek, Synoptic comparison and theological interpretation, especially the enormously influential distinction between the Book of Signs and Book of Glory. Some of Brown’s source-critical and Johannine-community reconstructions now appear more speculative than his close exegesis, but his later Introduction shows a welcome movement toward giving primary attention to the Gospel in its final form. Few commentaries offer such breadth while still containing so many individual insights worth interacting with.

Everything I wanted to know about the fourth Gospel from the historical-critical point of view to have the basic understanding of the text (together with Barrett's commentary). After it one should read more on literal technique of the author and more on his theology in the text (Thomas Brodie is excellent in this though sometimes he is too much imaginative, and the Church fathers are relevant, of course).

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This might be decades old now, but has stood the test of time. It is still unbeaten in it's depth and clarity. It provides great contextual details, guiding through the Jewish background. Brown captures the incredible richness of John's imagery wonderfully. I still consider this to have pride of place among John commentaries.

The whole book

I've only used Volume I of Brown's set, but I found it disappointing. He makes lots of helpful connections to related scripture passages, but spends too much time (in my opinion) discussing how likely it is that a certain story actually happened and how John may or may not be re-working synoptic material. Interesting, perhaps, but I wanted to hear more about John's text.

I always look to RE Brown first; it's getting old, but I've learned so much from him I start with his 2-volume commentary [Full Review]