Keep Yourselves From Idols: A New Look at 1 John

(Hardback)

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Challenging gnosticizing interpretations of the letter, Terry Griffith explores how the polemic against idols was variously used in Jewish and Christian circles to define self-identity and the limits of community. He shows that the rhetoric of 1 John is not polemical, but pastoral, directed at confirming Johannine Christians in their fundamental confession of faith and preventing further defections of Jewish Christians back to Judaism. Griffith argues that the christological focus in 1 John concerns the identification of Jesus as the Messiah, and that the ending of the letter both contributes to the author's overall pastoral strategy and sheds light on the issues of sin and christology that are raised in this letter.

Reviews

"This is a well-argued thesis and an important contribution to scholarship on 1 John. Griffith's arguments are both exegetically precise and conceptually sound. Not only does he provide a new look' at 1 John, but his argument falls in line in interesting ways with some recent scholarship on the Gospel of John. This is a book to be taken seriously and one that offers a solid contribution to a growing movement to reconsider the rhetoric and Sitz im Leben, not only of 1 John, but also of the Hohannine literature in general." -Society of Biblical Literature/RBL, 09/2003

Author Bio

Terry Griffith is currently Pastor of Trinity Baptist Church, Bexleyheath, Kent.