Studien zum Corpus Iohanneum

By reprinting selected studies of the Corpus Johanneum, the first part of this volume documents Hartwig Thyen's long road in dealing with the Fourth Gospel. To begin with, he was oriented more toward the supposed genesis of the Gospel than he was toward the interpretation of the text which had been handed down. It was this research which induced him to write the Commentary on John (Handbuch zum Neuen Testament). The second part of this book provides analyses of theories of the sources and of the attempts of literary criticism to distinguish between supposedly secondary levels and the original Evangelist's work. Since however all these studies are oriented primarily toward the presumed development of the Gospel instead of toward the Gospel itself, they became separate elements within the Commentary on John during the course of the work. They do however not only illustrate the way of reading John in the Commentary; they also substantiate their prerequisites in the analysis of the controversial secondary literature.