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Apparently Erasmus wasn't kidding when he wrote, 'When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes'. I'm not quite as book mad as that, but on occasion I have been known to buy an expensive book.

In June 1991 a book was announced that at the time seemed, and was, an eye-watering price. This was before online comparisons and discounts. Understanding the Fourth Gospel by John Ashton was the first major survey and analysis of Johannine scholarship from Bultmann onwards. Published by Oxford University Press it was beautifully produced in hardback, at 600 pages, by a publishing house who produced amongst the finest examples of book-building and book-binding of volumes intended never to wear out. In 1991 it cost £65, today the equivalent of £177.

I ordered it and turned up at Blackwell's in Old Aberdeen with book tokens and a late birthday present, and came away happier than I ever did driving away a new car. So, yes, Erasmus wasn't far wrong about how priorities are quickly reshuffled when books enter the equation! (The current price of the extensively revised second edition from the publisher is £162, with a softcover at £37.99). For the avoidance of doubt, I would have bought the softcover if there had been one!

At College in the 1970's I worked through the Greek text of John's gospel under the guidance of R.E.O White, whose love of the Greek Testament was such that more than once he was accosted on the bus by someone reading over his shoulder and asking him what he was reading. He was never sure how far his enthusiasm for the Greek New Testament rubbed off on the enquirers. But it rubbed off on me. He passed that love of the NT text on to many of his students, myself included. I was captivated by his close exegesis and the wide range of secondary voices he introduced. Ever since I've tried to keep up with scholarly study of the Fourth Gospel, and that as a means to the end of preaching it well, and allowing it to be formative in my own spiritual life and practice. 

John Ashton's book found its place alongside Raymond Brown's 2 volume masterpiece in the Anchor Commentary; the three volume Schnackenburg which remains an intimidating invitation to dive in at the deep end; and C K Barrett, the commentary we used in college. I still have it, still consult it, and no other commentary has displaced it from that special place reserved for those books that were like a mountain to climb, but the view from the top made the effort worthwhile.

Monographs have kept coming and I have a selection that has grown slowly with the years. In close second to Ashton is my copy of John A T Robinson's The Priority of John, which I read throughout Lent in 1986. Bishop John Robinson is one of my heroes. He was a careful scholar, quite prepared to swim against the stream of the 'established' consensus in New Testament scholarship. His own spirituality was warm and enquiring, his intellectual honesty and learning beyond question. He was seriously and pastorally responsive to people struggling to make sense of the whole Christian thing in a secular society driven by consumer competitiveness and cultural flux in the second half of the 20th Century. 

His book on John is a remarkable piece of argumentation, based on careful if at times eccentric detective work. The Priority of John is theologically penetrating in his opening up of the passion story in John, one of the most moving sections of the book, given that Robinson was terminally ill during the writing of it. They were intended as the Bampton Lectures but were never delivered. 

There's much more on my John shelves, and they keep coming. But these two books, by two scholars called John, on a Gospel called John, are special. They are gifts to the church, and have been gifts to me in my own attempts at deep diving into the Fourth Gospel. With apologies to Erasmus, I'm glad that when I had a little money, I was able to buy and read them, and, with thanks to God, still have enough over for food and clothes.    

"As a student of theology, no one can and should do otherwise than keep enquiring after the true gospel, even more attentively and objectively, in ever more truth and love."

Bonhoeffer was saying farewell to the theological students in Berlin when he wrote this, prior to going to London to pastor two German churches. This short address is a passionate defence of theology and theologians as a calling essential to the life and future of the Church.

There was theological error, ecclesial compromise, a contamination of motive and a failure of vocational faithfulness in the German Church as it aligned its fortunes and future with the Nazi vision. Bonhoeffer was very clear that in the face of such false theology, theological faithfulness would require outspoken witness, and the cost and sacrifice of a true discipleship.

He urged theological students to go on doing good theology, enquiring after the true gospel. The theologian is not called to ecclesial politics and tactics. "The student of theology is the last one who should be thinking tactically and instead should carry on working with purely theological objectivity, in service to God." The theologian is called neither to loud protesting arguments nor clever tactical manoeuvres in church and state. "One should in such times, err on the side of being too quiet rather than too loud. Fore the false confidence of a loud voice has nothing to do with the assurance of repentance and the gospel."

Bonhoeffer himself would go against his own advice later when he became embroiled in precisely the machinations of a church in extremis, seeking to minimise the harm being done by his country's war machine in blind devotion to an ideology of death.

"Finally, one should know as a true theologian that, even where our knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ in its truth and purity keep us away from false doctrines, we stand beside our brethren who have wandered and been misled, sharing their guilt, interceding and praying for them., knowing that our own life depends, not on our better knowledge of being on the right side, but on forgiveness."

This is a call to radical discipleship, a blend of peace-making, truth telling, and gospel humility, each an essential in a true theologian. Those commitments of the theologian were carried forward and given firm biblical anchorage in his later writings, especially Life Together and Discipleship.

For now I read this short address and am astonished yet again at the prescience and theological instincts of Bonhoeffer. This was spoken to students when he was 27 years old, his country descending towards immense darkness, the church divided and confused and tempted by the idols of State prestige and power, his best efforts in the Church Struggle seeming ineffective; but he recognised that the gospel would require minds committed to truth, vocations faithful in their focus on the gospel and the health of the church, and for that the church needed theologians with a passion for Jesus Christ. 

"Theological students must learn and know that the driving force in their lives and thinking, as theologians, can only come from the passion of Jesus Christ, our crucified Lord. The study of theology cannot be conquered by the overflowing vitality of one's own passions; rather the real study of theologia sacra begins when in the midst of questioning and seeking human beings encounter the cross; when they recognize the endpoint of all their passions in the suffering of God at the hands of humankind and realize that their entire vitality stands under judgment."

This is about first loyalties in Christian discipleship for theologians. Truth and Love, and both as revealed in Jesus Christ and his gospel. The encounter with the cross is not a single moment, but a whole life commitment, an alignment of life purpose and theological vocation with "the suffering of God at the hands of humankind." Theological education is not neutral, but arises out of a commitment to truth and love as revealed in the gospel. And it may be costly and demanding, but it is in the service of a God whose suffering on the cross bears witness to the love and truth of God as eternal realities that have intersected with the world at its worst as redeeming and reconciling grace.

So Bonhoeffer concludes, "One should keep on, ever more undaunted and joyfully, becoming a theologian, speaking the truth in love." (Eph. 4.15)

All quotations are from 'What Should a Student of Theology So Today?", Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Works (English Edition), London 1933-35. Vol. 12:432-435.

Monday 30 January

Ephesians 3.7 &14, 15 “I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power…For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.”

“For this reason I kneel…” What reason? Paul’s answer is the reason we all kneel before the Father – “the gift of God’s grace given us through the working of God’s power.” It’s a hard time to be a Christian in a world so broken. Yet by prayer and God’s grace we can have the same wide, generous, open-armed compassion for the world that brought Paul to his knees in prayer for the whole family of God, that is, every soul made in God’s image. By intercession we make ourselves conduits, sluices, through which God’s grace flows.

Tuesday 31 January

Ephesians 3.I6 “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being…”

When the problems of the world, and the worries of our own lives, and the anxiety felt by whole communities of our country – when these and much more drain us of energy, joy and hope, think of what Paul prayed for, and hear him praying it for you. Then make it your own prayer, now, here: Lord strengthen me with power through your Spirit in my inner being…”

Wednesday 01 February

Ephesians 3.17 “So that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith.”

By faith in Christ we are made one with the Saviour, drawn into the very life of God. Christ dwells in our hearts, the risen life of Christ is within us and strengthens us in our inner being. But more than that, Christ is in us and we are in Him, so that “our lives are hidden with Christ in God.” (Col 3.3) Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!

Thursday 02 February

Ephesians 3.17-18 “And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep  is the love of Christ.”

Rooted is about being a tree with strong anchorage and full nourishment from deep roots. Established is about foundations, straight, true, sound, solid, and our foundation is the love of Christ. You can’t ever fully grasp the depth dimensions of God’s love in Christ; as well stand beneath Niagara with a bucket, or a thimble! Just stand under the deluge!

Friday 03 February

Ephesians 3.19 “And to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

To know what surpasses your knowledge, to understand the incomprehensible – that can only happen if God expands the horizons of our hearts and draws us ever more deeply into the mystery that Charles Wesley puzzled over and admitted defeat. “In vain the first-born seraph tries, to sound the depths of love divine.” We’ll never understand until we are in heaven. Till then we wonder, and worship at the one who “emptied Himself of all but love, and bled for Adam’s helpless race.” Amazing Love!

Saturday 04 February

Ephesians 3. 20 “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…”

I don’t know about you but I can ask a lot, and I have quite a lively imagination. But they are not enough to outdo the One who is able to do immeasurably more than anything I can think of. We aren’t asked to be followers of Jesus in our own strength. Yes, at times it’s hard going, and we pray for strength, faith, help with hard decisions, and help for those we love – Remember, “He can do immeasurable more, and his power is at work within us.” We’re not on our own. We are in Christ, and He is in us, and as our Risen Lord it is his power that’s at work within us, renewing and reviving.

Sunday 05 February

Ephesians 3.21 “To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever.”

This whole passage is like an illuminated manuscript that places the love of God in Christ against a shining gold foil background. And that dazzling gold highlights who God is towards us; Love. Love beyond our grasp but within our reach. Love that the baffles the mind, but which the heart recognises. Love deeper than any needs we could ever have. Love beyond our imagination, but nearer than our own hearts.

So we make Paul’s prayer our own: May Christ dwell in our hearts through faith, and may we be rooted and established in love, filled to the measure of the fullness of God.

At the far end of the beach at Banff, in Scotland, a small river finally reaches its destination. I walked here today and stood for a while enjoying the mid-afternoon light, the blue skies, the sound of waves as the tide turned, and the almost inaudible murmuring of the river as it emerged from the grass and met the cobbled slope, where it rushed towards the sea.

It's a favourite beach, but this part of the walk is less familiar. "All rivers run to the sea, and the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they will return." (Ecclesiastes 1.7) I've often pondered these words, in the way you do when well written words don't immediately give up all of their meaning. Like many other sentences in Ecclesiastes, there are hidden depths in this image, suggesting constant motion, journey's culmination, and the cycle of rain, river and sea.

I stood for a few minutes gazing and listening, half thinking and half praying, the scene so obviously recollecting words that are meant to induce pondering and wondering. I knew why I had paused. The words of Ecclesiastes are an exact fit to the lovely serenity in front of me. It might be worth explaining why they came back to me so powerfully.  

The first sentence of Eccl. 1.7 was used by Elie Wiesel as the titles of his two volume autobiography, in my view one of the most important literary accounts of the Holocaust. Volume One of his memoir he titled All Rivers Run to the Sea, and Volume Two, And the Sea is Never Full. Wiesel survived Auschwitz and for the rest of his life he determined to tell the stories of those who perished there, and to bear witness through these stories and his own story to the truth, the reality, the factual inescapability of the Shoah.

As a Nobel Prize winning novelist, an essayist and journalist, Wiesel like Jeremiah the prophet, wrote to inform, to declare, to bear witness, to ensure that the truth would never be silenced, or forgotten, or denied. Two days ago in our different ways we marked Holocaust Memorial Day and yesterday I was reading about Elie Wiesel. And while standing by that lovely stream flowing out of the marsh into the sea, the words of Qoheleth came naturally to mind, towing with them memories of reading Wiesel's autobiography.

It was 1997. I was on holiday in Yorkshire National Park, near Goathland, in a lovely 19th C railway cottage beside the railway where every day a steam train passed. I was sitting under a tree, in a deck chair, beside the stream at the bottom of the garden, reading All Rivers Run to the Sea. The story had just reached the point where the chugging of the steam trains arriving at Auschwitz, and the screaming of the whistles, signalled arrival, with all the horror and terror that lay ahead.

And at that precise moment, in that eerie way that defies our most insistent common-sense, the Yorkshire steam train came under the bridge with a huge puff of white smoke and a loud whistle. I'm not sure I have ever fully recovered from that near numinous sense of fear and heightened awareness, as the world of 50 years earlier coincided with my immediate mental images of the book I was reading. What I do know is this; I can't read (or recall) that verse of the Bible without remembering that Tuesday afternoon, in July 1997, sitting beside a stream, reading under a tree, when Elie Wiesel's testimony was accompanied by sound effects choreographed by I'm not sure what – or whom. 

"All rivers run to the sea, and the sea is never full." The writer of Ecclesiastes was too good a philosopher-preacher to indulge in frivolity for its own sake. And Elie Wiesel was too serious in his calling as survivor, storyteller and witness, and too burdened by memory of what happened to his people, to choose his book titles carelessly.

He doesn't explain his choice. As one who stood in that liminal space reserved for those whose life experiences make faith in God at times all but impossible, he stood in defiant trust; and as one for whom at other times faith was at least real enough to have an argument with a God in whose world Auschwitz happened, he stood his ground before God, albeit with his shoes off. 

For myself, I defer to a man whose humanity, was so deeply wounded and permanently formed by unimaginable suffering, both witnessed and experienced. Today's lovely walk, in a world beautiful and far removed from all the brokenness elsewhere, I was ambushed by a scene of a river and the sea, and by a memory of a book I once read, under a tree, beside a stream, alongside a railway.

"All rivers run to the sea, and the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they will return."         

There's been a recent resurgence of scholarly publications on Jonah. What I find intriguing and heartening is the growing number of such publications by women biblical scholars.

One of the first major contributions on Jonah was Phyllis Trible, whose Rhetorical Criticism: Context, Method and the Book of Jonah was published in 1995. This dual purpose work was and remains a substantial contribution to rhetorical criticism as a key hermeneutical approach to the biblical text. Literary critical, and rhetorical analysis, open new avenues to understanding the author's care and craft in composition, and how such skill becomes a vehicle for the art of persuasion. Jonah is then used by Trible as an example to test drive many of her proposals. As the publishers explained to prospective readers:

"In this book Trible's formulated guidelines are applied to a detailed study of the book of Jonah. A close reading with respect to structure, syntax, style, and substance elicits a host of meanings embedded in the text, enabling the relationship between artistry and theology to emerge with clarity."

The result is an enlightening and innovative approach to Jonah that is multi-disciplinary, and avoids a far too swift foreclosing on the text with settled conclusions as to what it means, and what the writer is trying to persuade the reader to think, or do. 

A couple of years later Trible followed up with a commentary on Jonah for the New Interpreter's Bible. Like several first class commentaries in this series, it is embedded in a composite volume that contains the full Book of the Twelve Prophets and Daniel, which makes it expensive and hard to source. That seriously limits the audience for her commentary – and that's a shame, because Trible on Jonah is one of the most stimulating treatments available. Find it in a library if you can. 

A Biblical Text and Its Afterlives. The Survival of Jonah in Western Culture, (Cambridge 2000), by Yvonne Sherwood, is a tour de force, a definitive example of listening to a text by listening to how others have heard it. The result is a book packed with information about how Jonah has been represented in painting, sculpture, stained glass, novels, poetry, film, music, slave songs, sermons and so many other human cultural and linguistic ways of telling the story, and sadly, not always telling it well.

Sherwood illumines several major issues, including anti-Judaism in biblical studies (itself now a major field of both study and required redress), and the secularisation of the Bible whose stories are now popularly divorced from the numinous and transcendent as understood in the Bible itself. This book is hard to describe adequately as to its range and importance; it is required reading for any and all serious study of Jonah that post dates its publication. It's that good.

By far the most substantial commentary on Jonah so far is now Amy Erickson's magnum opus, the Illuminations Commentary on Jonah, published by Eerdmans in 2021. This is a major critical commentary but written to be read as well as consulted. This series of commentaries has two main sections for each volume, giving them a particular niche as exegetical resources.

Part One is 'A History of Consequences', and this accounts for around 170 pages. Not unlike Sherwood, Erickson has carefully excavated the history of interpretation but used that information to examine the consequences, impact and after effects of certain interpretations. Like Sherwood, Erickson unearths surprising, at times shocking ways the text of Jonah has been preached, received, interpreted and shaped (at times misshaped), cultural norms and theological conclusions, for good or ill.

Part Two is the Interpretation section, of around 200 pages. This is in the more traditional form of a commentary. I intend to write a full review of this commentary later – for now, with Trible, Sherwood and Erickson, Jonah scholars are well set up for future studies. Of which there are even more in the pipeline, and also by leading women scholars!

A third major study of reception history, or history of interpretation has just been published by Blackwell, Jonah Through the Centuries, by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer. The approach is different in this series, however. The commentary works through the text verse by verse, and brings the history of interpretation to bear on the meaning of each passage. This is done chronologically through early Jewish and Rabbinic, to Christian Fathers, Medieval and Reformation periods, Enlightenment and into the contemporary era. Film and art, fiction and poetry, music and theatre are quoted alongside sermons, commentary and other literary studies.

This is the most user friendly format of the three volumes that major on the after-life of the story of Jonah; and Tiemeyer knows the field as thoroughly as Sherwood and Erickson. The format of this series is much more accessible for those who will be teaching and preaching the Jonah text. But Sherwood and Erickson add so much more, so that for those specially interested in reception history and history of consequences, all three are required reading.

April will see the publication of yet another premier league commentary, this time in the Hermeneia Series, by Susan Niditch, a veteran scholar of the Hebrew Bible.

I think the publishers description gives an indication of the approach and value of this commentary which brings yet another perspective on the puzzles of Jonah:

"Jonah's story is treated as a complex reflection upon the heavy matters of life and death, good and evil, and human and divine relations. The narrative probes an individual's relationship with a demanding deity, considers vexing cultural issues of "us versus them," and examines the role of Israel's God in a universal and international context. The author examines the ways in which Jonah prods readers to contemplate these fundamental issues concerning group- and self-definition."

And to complete the set, Elaine Philips has just published a composite volume in yet another series, this time on Obadiah, Jonah and Micah. This is a more conservative series than those reviewed above, but it is conservative scholarship at its best. Evidenced argument, consideration of alternative viewpoints, careful exegetical study in conversation with critical scholarship, and in most of the volumes I have used, readable commentary that seeks to understand original meaning and contemporary interpretation for the church.

The publisher's description is understandably positive, but Phillips' previous work suggests this is a worthwhile option for plunging with Jonah into the depths of what God is about. 

"Comprehensive and compelling, Elaine Phillips' commentary on Obadiah, Jonah and Micah is a thorough study that will give you an appreciation of the struggles these prophets faced as they answered God's call to speak into difficult geo-political contexts, and the lessons that they can teach Christians today."

We all meet God in our own way. There are moments of recognition that, brief as they are, touch those deepest longings we find it hard to name. In the encounter with God it is seldom clear whether we meet God, or God meets us, and in any case, to make such a distinction risks missing the mystery that challenges all such certainties.