JJ Miller
- For the Greek student with a good grasp of the basics. This guide on John is separated into sectoons or pericopes and then, section by section, provides analyses of key words, syntax, and grammar along with exegetical insights. Very useful. The reader should know that not every issue will be discussed because of obvious restrictions and purpose. The reader will find useful the section, “For Further Study”, as well as “Homiletical Suggestions” that will help one see the possible ways for delivery based on the authors insights into the Greek Text. When the reader differs, however, these reflections may not prove as helpful.
- Rhetorical Analysis applied to the SYNOPTICS. This highlights the authors' purpose through close examination of the words and literary devices used. Not so much an "introduction" to issues of synoptic similarities and differences (like so many do) but a deeper look at a few passages that all share and the possible purposes for their unique takes and development. You learn RA through doing it along side of the author. But, more importantly, you see how the author's choices impacts the separate messages they are telling. And that is worthy 5 stars, regardless of interpretive choices one makes from those observations and correlations.
- Update: From the "Dubious Disciple" Blog...this informative review: This book is not what I was expecting when I saw the title! Wow. When Meynet titled his book an introduction, he didn't mean he'd be providing a surface description. He meant that after you work your way through 415 pages of analysis, you'll have barely turned the cover on the Synoptics. You can give a man a fish, and feed him for a day. Or, you can teach him to fish, and feed him until they quit stocking the pond. This book is meant as a university text, to teach you how to analyze the Bible as a linguist, by taking note of the links which tie the pericopes together, and trying to grasp the logic which connects them. It's a relatively new approach to Biblical study, sometimes at odds with the historical-critical method and normal form criticism. My rating of four stars does not represent my reading enjoyment, but rather, the teaching technique and depth of study. Reading Meynet's book is not fun; it's work. Seriously. You're going to study primarily two Bible pericopes in these 415 pages: the healing of the blind man at Jericho, and the calling of the rich man . You'll study them in context, noting each text's sub-sequences, carefully grinding out their meaning through rhetorical analysis of all three Synoptics.
