The interpretation of this gospel integrates an objective analysis of its historical context and a subjective semantic disclosure of meaning. To that end, a close reading of the text is combined with consistency building in order to achieve textual congruence and plenitude of meaning. The subject/ object split of traditional biblical scholarship that requires analysis in order to produce explanation as a definable object is superseded in this book by the event of reading as a dynamic happening of personal experience from which the reader cannot detach herself or himself.

There is a general consensus that the Fourth Gospel underwent two editions. But in contrast to all previous efforts to reconstruct these two editions on the basis of source and redaction criticism, Waetjen maintains that these two editions essentially overlap without far-reaching changes. Chapter 1-20 originated within the Jewish community of Alexandria and were addressed to Jews in order to persuade them to "believe into" Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God. The second edition originated when chapter 21 as added and certain revisions were made in chapters 1-20 by an editor in the Christian community of Ephesus in order to present the Gospel to Gentile Christians and perhaps attendantly to legitimate it for canonization. Waetjen examines John's gospel by engaging in a close reading of various units of the Gospel from the perspective of a two-level drama that presents two narrative worlds within the literary structure of the Gospel. Out of his readings of the texts, one of the major and provocative conclusions Waetjen draws is that Lazarus is the Beloved Disciple of Jesus in chapters 1-20. John, the son of Zebedee, is intimated to play the role of the Beloved Disciple not only in chapter 21, but throughout the Gospel. In other words, the editor of chapter 21 has concluded that John (based on the title that the gospel already bears), is the Beloved Disciple and project that backwards from chapter 21 throughout the previous 20 chapters. Waetjen's thorough scholarship and his attention to detail in his original readings challenge traditional readings of John's Gospel, providing fresh insights into the Gospel.

Romans, says Waetjen, is the first publication of the Christ movement. To understand it well is therefore a task of monumental importance, and to understand it today requires a postmodern hermeneutics, in which the interpreter's subjective experience of reading the text is correlated with historical-critical knowledge and socialscientific criticism. That hermeneutics has to create a new genre of commentary, making room for readers' prior understandings as well as for a dynamic form of close reading and consistency building. The outcome is a contemporizing of Paul's theology that induces conversation with Derrida, Zizek, Badiou and Agamben and others. The central theme of Romans is, according to Waetjen, the healing of humanity through the realization of 'the justice of God', which is disclosed in the movement 'out of trust into trust', or, more specifically, out of the trust of Abraham into the trust of Jesus Christ. Living on this side of the law of Sinai and therefore being conscious of the condition of sin requires the reconciliation of Christ's death and the justification of Christ's resurrection in order to participate in the New Humanity of life-giving spirits. Consequently Romans is more than a rhetorical effort to mediate conflicts between Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome. Composed prior to his journey to Jerusalem with the possibility of martyrdom before him, the letter is Paul's major theological testament.

The interpretation of this gospel integrates an objective analysis of its historical context and a subjective semantic disclosure of meaning. To that end, a close reading of the text is combined with consistency building in order to achieve textual congruence and plenitude of meaning. The subject/ object split of traditional biblical scholarship that requires analysis in order to produce explanation as a definable object is superseded in this book by the event of reading as a dynamic happening of personal experience from which the reader cannot detach herself or himself.

There is a general consensus that the Fourth Gospel underwent two editions. But in contrast to all previous efforts to reconstruct these two editions on the basis of source and redaction criticism, Waetjen maintains that these two editions essentially overlap without far-reaching changes. Chapter 1-20 originated within the Jewish community of Alexandria and were addressed to Jews in order to persuade them to "believe into" Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God. The second edition originated when chapter 21 as added and certain revisions were made in chapters 1-20 by an editor in the Christian community of Ephesus in order to present the Gospel to Gentile Christians and perhaps attendantly to legitimate it for canonization. Waetjen examines John's gospel by engaging in a close reading of various units of the Gospel from the perspective of a two-level drama that presents two narrative worlds within the literary structure of the Gospel. Out of his readings of the texts, one of the major and provocative conclusions Waetjen draws is that Lazarus is the Beloved Disciple of Jesus in chapters 1-20. John, the son of Zebedee, is intimated to play the role of the Beloved Disciple not only in chapter 21, but throughout the Gospel. In other words, the editor of chapter 21 has concluded that John (based on the title that the gospel already bears), is the Beloved Disciple and project that backwards from chapter 21 throughout the previous 20 chapters. Waetjen's thorough scholarship and his attention to detail in his original readings challenge traditional readings of John's Gospel, providing fresh insights into the Gospel.

Endorsements: "Waetjen offers us an illuminating reading of Mark's Gospel that was forged out of his own experience in the Third World. Working from a fresh translation that lays bare the Markan style, Waetjen traces the stark conflict between the new ordering of power announced by Jesus and the tenacious domination of the ruling elite in Israel's agrarian society. This innovative application of the sociology of millennialism to the phenomenon of Mark's narrative world is loaded with insights that will be of interest to readers at every level." --David Rhoads, Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago