Wisdom Christology in the Gospel of John - Dustin R. Smith

This volume contends that the Gospel of John presents the most thorough and robust Wisdom Christology of all the New Testament books. Wisdom Christology--the christological concept that applies the roles, characteristics, and functions of God's personified wisdom to the man Jesus Christ--is displayed to be skillfully interwoven throughout all twenty-one chapters of the Fourth Gospel, starting with the famous prologue. In response to the prevailing tendency among interpreters to project postbiblical understandings of Jesus from the fourth- and fifth-century church councils back into the Gospel of John, this volume shows that a more fitting context emerges from Jewish Wisdom literature. By situating the Johannine Jesus in his first-century Jewish context, readers can appreciate John's commitment to monotheism and Jesus' role as the Father's highly empowered human agent, fully embodying Lady Wisdom.