Thomas G. Weinandy.

Jesus Becoming Jesus: Volume 2: A Theological Interpretation of the Gospel of

John: Prologue and the Book of Signs. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press,
2021. 454 pp. $34.95.

Weinandy is a Roman Catholic priest and theologian who has written a number of books. With this
volume, we have the second installment of his three part series. The first installment (Jesus Becoming
Jesus: A Theological Reading of the Synoptic Gospels [Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of
America Press, 2018]) provided a theological reading of the Synoptic Gospels. This second installment
provides a theological interpretation of the first thirteen chapters of the Gospel of John.

Weinandy defines his approach to theological interpretation of the Johannine Gospel as his attempt “to
discern the theological and doctrinal content of John's Gospel” and, as such, he states that his aim is not
to treat such topics as “textual and form criticism” nor to employ the “historical critical method.” In
terms of the theological starting point for his interpretation, he makes clear that he is attempting to
“apply the teaching of Second Vatican Council,” that is, that Scripture must be interpreted in light of
“the living apostolic tradition,” “later magisterial conciliar teaching” and “the subsequent theological
tradition” (p. x). In a word, Weinandy's offering is a thoroughly Roman Catholic theological
interpretation of John 1-13.

The book is divided into two parts. Part I consists of two chapters and covers in some depth John 1.
Part II consists of twelve chapters which cover John 2-13. The conclusion briefly summarizes some of
the main highlights content in the body of the work.

A number of insights or, at the very least, statements that give food for thought emerge from
Weinandy's reading of John 1-13. Commenting on the first half of John 1, Weinandy writes:

What we will see throughout the Gospel of John is the mutual glorification of the Father and the
Son, a mutual glorification that is rooted in their eternal being as Father and Son. … Moreover,
again as John will demonstrate, only by living in the life that comes from the Word … can one
live in the light … (p. 17)

He helpfully contends that the theological import of “[t]he Word became flesh” in John 1:14 is best
understood as “came to exist as a man” (p. 26; emphasis original), which, he argues, preserves the fact
that neither the Word nor Christ's humanity is altered; that is to say, the Word remains God and Christ's
humanity remains true humanity. Later, Weinandy makes the intriguing suggestion that John's baptism
of Jesus was understood by John the Baptizer “as being the preeminent act by which Jesus is made
known, for in that baptismal act, Jesus is revealed to be the Spirit-anointed Son of God ...” (p. 61). This
suggestion is built on Weinandy's (perhaps overstated) contention that the gospel of John as a whole is
a theological interpretation of the prior Synoptic Gospels and therefore it “provides a deeper or more
reflexive theological interpretation of the” Synoptic tradition (p. xii). From this, Weinandy questionably
concludes that the theological reading provided by John is a “more profound” perspective of “Jesus'
words and actions” (p. 434) than the Synoptics.

There are a few points in which Weinandy's interpretation is questionable. For example, after
suggesting that for all for gospels, “Peter … is and will be the rock of faith upon which the future
church will be built,” he writes that “Peter stands alone at the epicenter of the entire gathering” in John
1:35ff (p. 71). One wonders if he would draw that conclusion without his aforementioned theological
commitments. Similarly, in his discussion of the wedding feast of Cana in John 2, he writes that it is not
“simply the celebration of the betrothal of a man and a woman”; rather, it “is the contextual graphic
image of Jesus' saving betrothal of the church, the ecclesial woman, personified in Mary” (p. 107). One
wonders if it is truly likely that John's intention was to place this level of theological significance on
Mary in his account? Also, as one would suspect, Weinandy understands John 6 primarily as a
'Eucharistic Discourse' with John 6:52-58 strongly supporting the notion of transubstantiation (i.e., that
the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Jesus).

Despite these and other shortcomings, Weinandy has provided a very helpful theological interpretation
of John's Gospel. He truly does draw out some substantial theological insights from the text while at
the same time writing lucidly and even devotionally. Moreover, the thematic connections he makes as
well as his comments on the relationship between the Synoptic Gospels and the Johannine Gospel at
the very least give the reader food for thought and at times his points are compelling. Now, it must be
stressed that this is not a normal commentary where the busy pastor or NT scholar can look up
Weindandy's comments on a particular verse since he discusses blocks of texts rather than providing
verse-by-verse exegesis. Further, while exegesis is unavoidable on some level, as promised, his work is
primarily theological not exegetical and as such it will not be useful for every person interested in a
scholarly analysis of the gospel of John. However, we hasten to add that his deep, and oftentimes
accurate and thought provoking, theological reading should garner a wide audience. We would highly
recommend this book to anyone interested in an explicitly theological reading of John 1-13 atypical of
a normal commentary or for the reader desiring a theological nuanced yet devotionally rich approach to
John's gospel.

Thomas Haviland-Pabst
One Family Ministries
Asheville, NC, USA