Gossiping Jesus

Download or read book Gossiping Jesus written by John W. Daniels and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2013-09-10 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Readers of the Gospels are typically attuned to the words of Jesus while paying comparatively little attention to what other characters in the narratives say about him. This innovative study of John's Gospel looks at the text through the lens of a routinely misunderstood mode of speech, namely, gossip. Focusing on talk about Jesus in John, the author unpacks the intricate relationship between gossip and various social dynamics of Jesus' world, demonstrating how they collude to construct Jesus' identity. Ultimately, it is suggested that John presents a Jesus whose identity is elusive to both outsiders like the Pharisees and insiders like his disciples, and thus models the importance, if not the sheer necessity, of the ongoing public discourse around the question "Who is Jesus?"