The essays in Reading the Gospel of John’s Christology as Jewish Messianism: Royal, Prophetic, and Divine Messiahs seek to interpret John’s Jesus as part of Second Temple Jewish messianic expectations.

The essays in Reading the Gospel of John's Christology as Jewish Messianism: Royal, Prophetic, and Divine Messiahs seek to interpret John's Jesus as part of Second Temple Jewish messianic expectations. The Fourth Gospel is rarely considered part of the world of early Judaism. While many have noted John's Jewishness, most have not understood John's Messiah as a Jewish messiah. The Johannine Jesus, who descends from heaven, is declared the Word made flesh, and claims oneness with the Father, is no less Jewish than other messiahs depicted in early Judaism. John's Jesus is at home on the spectrum of early Judaism's royal, prophetic, and divine messiahs

The Gospel of John is unique among the Gospels. It proclaims Christs love in a way the others do not. It also contains a different selection of miracles and teachings from our Lord. Most importantly, John places special focus on the complete and simultaneous divinity and humanity of Messiah. This is emphasized by the account being bookended between the powerful first chapter that reveals Christ as God the Creator and Johns nine-chapter retelling of the events surrounding Jesuss passion and resurrection. Over the centuries, Christianity has become dominated by well-meaning Gentile thought as the center of world culture has moved westward and anti-Semitic prejudice has become subtly more prevalent. As a result, we have missed the rich depth of so many truths by not reading the Gospel of John from his point of view of having walked and talked with his Jewish Messiah and God in the flesh. Most commentators approach Johns Gospel with a focus on expounding on the Greek language of the text. From this point, it is easy to wander into the realm of misunderstanding because Gentiles dissecting Gentile words leads to Gentile logic and analysis imposing itself on the fulfillment of the Jewish faith. In John the Jewish Gospel, Carroll Roberson invites the reader to get to know Jesus better by examining the text of John verse by verse and passage by passage from a first-century Jewish perspective. He does this with an open Old Testament and a wealth of biblical knowledge, study, and experience ready. Carroll pays special attention to messianic prophesy and details within the text that come alive when viewed with an understanding of the culture of the time. John the Jewish Gospel is a wonderful addition to the library of anyone who seeks to grow closer to Jesus the Messiah.

Who do the Gospels say Jesus is? The title and role of "Messiah" ascribed to Jesus in the Gospels has long been regarded as a late add on, a fabricated claim or an insignificant feature. Michael Bird, however, argues that the Gospels' messianic claims are the most significant feature of their portrayal of Jesus. Bird describes how each Evangelist portrays Jesus as the Messiah of Israel, what they think is at stake in that claim, and how the claim that "Jesus is the Messiah" drives the purpose and shape of the Gospels. Emphasizing that Christianity was a messianic movement rooted in its Jewish context, Bird points toward the profound theological implication of Jesus' identity: that Jesus' messiahship is the "mother of all Christology."

How do you understand the messianic judgeship of Jesus? Interpreting certain themes in the Gospels is often done through a twenty-first-century Western perspective. Judge Jesus will seek to help a modern reader of the Gospel of John see the concept of Jesus's messianic judgeship through the eyes of a first-century Jewish audience. Judge Jesus will explore how the themes of judgment and messianic expectation throughout Early Judaism impacted how John's Jewish audience would have understood the words of his Gospel. As a twenty-first-century interpreter of the Gospel of John, your studies will be greatly enhanced as you start to see these themes in the same way that John's Jewish audience originally understood the words that he wrote.

The conflict between Christianity and Roman Imperial theology manifested at very early stages in Christian history. Richard Cassidy argues that ignoring or downplaying such political-theological implications because of some supposedly manifest separation between spiritual belief and politics is both shortsighted and unbiblical. In this fascinating and original reading of the Gospel of John, it becomes clear that Christology is not merely theological theorizing, but a matter of immense political import.