One of the reviewers of this commentary called it a ?commentary you can read=. This new edition
has tried to make it even more readable. Following two previous editions it has now not only
been revised stylistically but also shortened in order to publish it in a single volume. The
commentary=s primary goal still applies of course: renewal of the relationship between
Christians and Jews combined with a non-polemical sympathetic and theologically deep-rooted
perception of the Jewish people. This is in no sense an ideological narrowing but rather is
required by the text. The Gospel according to St John & like the other New Testament scriptures
as well & is based on the Jewish Bible and arose in a Jewish context. To speak of
?Christianity= in the first century is simply anachronistic. In interpreting polemical
statements made in an internal Jewish dispute the commentary takes into account not only the
situation in which they arose but also the fact that our own situation today is substantially
different from that. This prohibits a responsible interpretation from simply repeating
statements that occur in such a context. More recent publications are also taken into account
in the new edition and fresh debate is sought particularly on passages in which contradictory
interpretative approaches diverge.
