Bread from Heaven

If John 6 can be considered ""the Grand Central Station of Johannine Critical issues,"" Peder Borgen's 1965 monograph, Bread from Heaven, proved to be one of the most incisive and important monographs on that difficult chapter. With extensive implications for addressing a host of other New Testament issues--including the unity and disunity of John's narrative, relations between Johannine and Synoptic traditions, and the socio-religious context of the Fourth Gospel--Borgen's work argues hard for a unitive view of the Johannine text. Rather than seeing John's story of Jesus as an amalgam of disparate sources, or as dependent on the Synoptics, Borgen explores a number of commonalities between contemporary Jewish writings, including the writings of Philo and haggadic midrashim. In so doing, new glimpses are also availed onto the dialectical Johannine situation, including an antidocetic thrust as well as Johannine-synagogue engagements. The enduring impact of Borgen's work shows the Fourth Gospel to represent a self-standing tradition, characterized by Jewish engagements of biblical texts, contributing to homiletic expansions upon memories of the ministry of Jesus for later generations. --From the Foreword by Paul N. Anderson Critical praise for Bread from Heaven: ""The thorough treatment of the Johannine ideas and the Christological teaching of the discourse makes this a book which no serious student of the Fourth Gospel can afford to neglect."" -- Barnabas Lindars, Journal of Theological Studies (1967) ""Peder Borgen's Bread from Heaven is a landmark in Johannine studies. It opened up new and compelling ways of understanding the Fourth Gospel's composition and relationship to its Jewish context. His method of discerning homiletical patterns in the Bread of Life discourse, the writings of Philo, and rabbinic sources has helped interpreters appreciate the literary flow and rhetorical force of the John's text. Now more than fifty years later, scholars continue to benefit by engaging Borgen's pioneering study. It is rightly considered a classic study of the Fourth Gospel."" -- Craig R. Koester, Asher O. and Carrie Nasby Professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN Peder Borgen is Professor Emeritus of the University of Trondheim in Norway and author of ten books and numerous essays. He served as President of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas and was appointed Knight First Class of the Norwegian Order of St. Olav by the King of Norway.