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Volumes have been written on various themes, including ecclesiology, in John’s Gospel. However, some advanced works on the formation, empowerment, and development of the church, God’s new community or the new covenant community, in John are called for in view of the growing threat and persecution to churches today. This would be possible if we study the Gospel with an analytical approach by way of exegesis. This is what I have attempted to do in this commentary, written for the New Covenant Commentary Series. I have argued that the church, God’s new community that consists of those who believe in Jesus as the Christ, was founded and expanded by Jesus globally through the working of the Holy Spirit. I have also detected that the progressing new community has its root at the cross of Christ and is empowered by the Holy Spirit to continue Jesus’ mission in the world. I develop these ideas by emphasizing the believers’ covenant relationship with God in Jesus and by allowing the text to speak for itself through a community to the present community, both social and ecclesiastical. The terms such as “God’s new community,” “Jesus’ community,” “the new covenant community,” “the believing community,” “community of faith,” and “the church” point to the same group.

I have given my own translation in English, wherever necessary, based on the 28th edition of Nestle-Aland’s Greek text. “The Jews” (in quotation marks) denotes the Jewish leaders or those who reject Jesus because of their unbelief. Otherwise it denotes the Judeans or the Jews in general, whether in dispersion or in Palestine. In this study, though brief, the readers, I believe, will not miss the kernel of John’s Gospel in its “new covenant community” perspective. The given outline of the Gospel is based on the proposals of Brown (2010), Lincoln (2006), and Michaels (2010).

I am indeed thankful to Profs. Craig Keener and Michael Bird for entrusting me with the responsibility of writing a commentary on John for the New Covenant Commentary Series and for their useful comments and suggestions to improve all the chapters for better reading. My sincere thanks are due to my doctoral mentor, Prof. James D. G. Dunn, to whom this volume is warmly dedicated, for having given me access to some of his fresh writings on John’s Gospel. I am indebted to Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, whose acceptance and unreserved support for four months enabled me to complete a few chapters in the preliminary stage. I express my gratitude to Langham Partnership in the UK and Ireland for their kindness to sponsor me as a visiting scholar at Wycliffe Hall. My sincere thanks are due to Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers, for publishing this work as one in the New Covenant Commentary Series.

Jey J. Kanagaraj

Aruppukottai, TN, India

December 2012