Jörg Frey has devoted decades of his scholarly career to exploring the rich landscape of John’s Gospel. Frey chronicles the results of this work in The Glory of the Crucified One, demonstrating how the Gospel sits at the very heart of the New Testament witness.
Frey begins by locating his approach to the Gospel in relation to five classic ways John has been interpreted (Part 1) and by offering a summary of the results of his own interpretation, in which Frey argues that the Gospel forms the apex of New Testament theology (Part 5). In between, Frey first untangles several problems, such as questions of anti-Judaism, dualism, and docetism, that are characteristic of any discussion of John’s Gospel (Part 2). From there, he focuses attention on the weighty events that, for John, form the crucial "hour" of Jesus―the death, resurrection, and glorification of Christ (Part 3). Frey then builds on this central theme to explore the Christology and theology of John (Part 4).
 The Glory of the Crucified One underscores the central message Frey sees in the Gospel: "John’s post-Easter memory (anamnesis) of the Jesus story aims at communicating that Jesus, who was crucified, has actually been glorified and is present in the realm of God, and in spite of his apparent absence from this world he is present in the community of believers through the Spirit."
For John, according to Frey, there is no concealment of the cruel reality of Jesus’ death on the cross. The narrative of Jesus’ trial and his crucifixion deliberately shapes its readers’ perception of the truth of faith visualized in John’s narration. In the end, readers should contemplate the "pierced," crucified one as the source of their life and their communion with God.

The Glory of the Crucified One: Christology and Theology in the Gospel of John (Baylor-Mohr Siebeck Studies in Early Christianity)

Religion & Spirituality

Frey, Jörg

Christian Books & Bibles

Baylor University Press

Too small to be important, too different to be trusted. The New Testament’s Catholic letters have suffered neglect when compared to the attention lavished upon Jesus, the Gospels, and Paul. Jude and 2 Peter, especially, have been ignored. Jörg Frey remedies this dearth with this full-scale commentary on Jude and 2 Peter. Frey’s meticulous, sustained verse-by-verse interpretation highlights the theological achievements of the two canonical writings without sidestepping any of the open historical and literary questions plaguing these two pseudepigraphal letters.
 The Letter of Jude and the Second Letter of Peter investigates the historical location of the two writings, the literary context, the shape of their arguments, and the profile of the respective opponents that are the central concern of each epistle. The analysis also explores Jude and 2 Peter’s use of biblical, Second Temple Jewish, and apocalyptic traditions, the long-recognized interrelation between the two letters, and the difficult text-critical issues that haunt both.
Frey’s careful interpretation points to the theological work each letter performs. Jude takes part in a critical debate within the Pauline and post-Pauline communities, while 2 Peter becomes a testimony to the theological discussions of the second century. Far from insignificant or irrelevant, the epistles provide invaluable insight into the growth and consolidation of early Christian tradition. With this groundbreaking commentary, Frey rightly draws our attention back to these texts’ important role within the canon and early Christianity.

The Letter of Jude and the Second Letter of Peter: A Theological Commentary

The Fourth Gospel is deeply shaped by its remarkably high Christology. It depicts the earthly Jesus, the incarnate one, as fully divine. This unrelenting Christology has led interpreters, both ancient and modern, to question the historical value of John’s Gospel. For many, the Gospel is just theology. It is to the vexed relationship between history and theology that Jörg Frey turns in Theology and History in the Fourth Gospel. John’s theological obsession with Christology might suggest that history counts for little in the Gospel. But, as Frey argues, the Gospel’s clear and central claim is that John narrates the story of Jesus of Nazareth, his ministry, and his death, as "factual," and that this narrated "history" is foundational for the Christian message. Frey traces the Gospel’s use of the available historical tradition by chiefly drawing from Mark and the Johannine community. Even if the Gospel of John used this received witness in a remarkably free manner, replotting and renarrating traditional episodes and even creatively staging new episodes, Frey contends that the historical life and person of Jesus remain central to John’s enterprise.
In the end, Frey warns that Johannine interpretation will miss the intention of the Gospel and the interpretive perspective of the evangelist if it remains preoccupied merely with questions of historical accuracy. The interpretive goal is to "let John be John," and, as Frey shows, readers will always yield to the priority of theology over history in the Fourth Gospel. In John's telling of the Christ story, the significance of history lies precisely in its disclosure of theological meaning, just as the significance of the historical Jesus is only understood in the theological language of Christology.

Theology and History in the Fourth Gospel: Tradition and Narration

Among the archaeological discoveries of the modern era, the Qumran site and the Dead Sea Scrolls are some of the most significant. These finds offer rich understanding of not only Judaism but also the Christian New Testament. Jörg Frey, through careful study and insight, illuminates these texts for the modern reader. Qumran and Christian Origins examines the hermeneutical framework of Qumran scholarship, patterns for relating the scrolls to early Christianity, and the methodological challenges faced by comparisons between Qumran texts and New Testament writings. In a critical evaluation of earlier views, Frey provides a summary of the Scrolls’ impact on our views of the historical Jesus, Paul and his language, and the Johannine literature. Frey then considers how the Scrolls inform our understanding of the origins and meaning of apocalypticism, ancient concepts of scriptural authority, and the growth of the biblical canon. The final chapters discuss the relationship between the Qumran texts and ancient testimonies about the Essenes and the connection between the Scrolls and the archaeological site of Qumran. 
Drawing on several decades of Frey’s research, this book demonstrates why students of the New Testament must study early Jewish texts, and in particular the Qumran corpus, and how these texts can be aptly applied. In the end, the hope is that we will have learned to see the New Testament more in terms of contemporary Judaism. Such insights are of profound theological importance, enabling us to pay attention to a feature of Christianity that was fundamental in its beginnings and is still significant today.

Qumran and Christian Origins

The Holy Spirit, Inspiration, and the Cultures of Antiquity: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Ekstasis: Religious Experience from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, 5)

Early Christian claims to the Holy Spirit arose in a vibrant cultural matrix that included Stoicism, Jewish mysticism, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Greco-Roman medicine, and the perspectives of Plutarch. In a range of articles, this multidisciplinary volume discovers in these texts rich cultural connections related to inspiration and the Holy Spirit. Essential reading for scholars of Judaism and the New Testament, as well as classicists and theologians.

Reference

Encyclopedias & Subject Guides

de Gruyter

Die Johanneische Eschatologie: Band 1: Ihre Probleme Im Spiegel Der Forschung Seit Reimarus (Science Briefings) (French Edition)

Foreign Language Study & Reference

Mohr Siebeck

Die Johanneische Eschatologie: Band 2: Das Johanneische Zeitverstandnis (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament) (French Edition)

English summary: In the third volume of his comprehensive study on Johannine eschatology, Jorg Frey gives a thorough interpretation of the eschatological passages in the Johannine Epistles and in the Fourth Gospel. He analyzes the eschatological traditions of Johannine communities which make up the background for the understanding of the Johannine texts. In a detailed exegesis, he shows that the interpretation of the Fourth Gospel in terms of a mere present or realized eschatology can not be maintained. The textual linkage between expressions of realized eschatology and hope for future fulfilment is due to the specific rhetorical and communicative situation in the Gospel as well as in the Epistles. German description: Im abschliessenden dritten Band seiner umfassenden Arbeit zur johanneischen Eschatologie interpretiert Jorg Frey die eschatologischen Aussagen der johanneischen Schriften in ihrem literarischen und historischen Kontext. Dazu arbeitet er zunachst die eschatologischen Schultraditionen im johanneischen Kreis heraus, die den Rezeptionshorizont fur die Aussagen der Briefe und des Evangeliums bilden. Er interpretiert die eschatologischen Aussagen der Johannesbriefe, in denen diese Schultradition zur Bewaltigung einer akuten Krise im johanneischen Kreis aktiviert wird. In ausfuhrlichen Textanalysen stellt er schliesslich die eschatologischen Aussagen des vierten Evangeliums dar. Jorg Frey setzt dazu bei den Abschiedsreden an, die den hermeneutischen Schlussel zum Verstandnis des Evangeliums und seiner kommunikativen Situation bilden. Im Anschluss daran widmet er sich den Textstucken aus Joh 3 und Joh 5 und interpretiert abschliessend die narrative Ausgestaltung der johanneischen Eschatologie in Joh 11. Es wird deutlich, dass die These, der vierte Evangelist vertrete eine 'rein prasentische' Eschatologie, weder philologisch noch historisch haltbar ist. Zukunftsbezogene und gegenwartige Aussagen werden vielmehr in den Briefen wie auch im vierten Evangelium mit spezifisch kommunikativer Intention verknupft.

Die Johanneische Eschatologie: Band 3: Die Eschatologische Verkundigung in Den Johanneischen Texten (Kieler Studien,) (French Edition)

The Gospel of John is well-known for its wealth and depth of figurative language, metaphors and symbols. These articles, written by some of the leading scholars in Johannine exegesis and particularly in the debate on Johannine imagery, utilize a broad variety of methods of interpretation. The authors provide an in-depth discussion of the variety of terms and forms of figurative speech and explore the conceptual and traditio-historical background of central motifs. Some of the most prominent Johannine images (lamb, king, bread, shepherd, vine, eating and drinking and others) are discussed with regard to their literary design and theological meaning. The collection aims at opening up paths in the tangled thicket of John's figurative world, it amply demonstrates the close relationship between the different metaphors and images in the Fourth Gospel and opens the view to the inter-relatedness of its theological themes.

Imagery in the Gospel of John: Terms, Forms, Themes, and Theology of Johannine Figurative Language (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament) (German and English Edition)

Die Johannesapokalypse: Kontexte - Konzepte - Wirkungen (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament, 287) (German Edition)

History

World

Mohr Siebrek Ek

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