Gossiping Jesus

Readers of the Gospels are typically attuned to the words of Jesus while paying comparatively little attention to what other characters in the narratives say about him. This innovative study of John's Gospel looks at the text through the lens of a routinely misunderstood mode of speech, namely, gossip. Focusing on talk about Jesus in John, the author unpacks the intricate relationship between gossip and various social dynamics of Jesus' world, demonstrating how they collude to construct Jesus' identity. Ultimately, it is suggested that John presents a Jesus whose identity is elusive to both outsiders like the Pharisees and insiders like his disciples, and thus models the importance, if not the sheer necessity, of the ongoing public discourse around the question "Who is Jesus?"

"Daniels offers a novel and innovative reading of John's Gospel. The identification of gossip events as the social dynamics for constituting Jesus as a social personage provides a fresh reading of the Gospel of John and opens insights into the cultural process that have not been explored before."
--Pieter F. Craffert, University of South Africa

"Daniels turns our attention from the sayings of Jesus to what others said about him. This stimulating analysis of gossip about Jesus highlights his depiction in John 1-12 as an elusive, ambiguous figure and opens the door to fuller consideration of Jesus in the mold of a Galilean shaman. This is an innovative contribution to the study of John's Gospel and a welcome addition to anthropological approaches to Jesus and the Gospels."
--Stanley Saunders, Columbia Theological Seminary

John W. Daniels Jr. (Jack) is reference and instruction librarian at the Proctor Library at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, where he also serves as adjunct professor of religion for the humanities department.