★★★★★ 5
Brilliant! I have been convinced for that the opening ...
Format: Paperback
Brilliant! I have been convinced for some time that the opening verses of I John were speaking about the resurrection and not the incarnation per se. Not that these two are opposed to one another, which is evident from Jensen's title: resurrection presupposes incarnation, but what John has specifically in mind in his letter's opening is the resurrection. So, when John says in his opening "That which was from the beginning, which we heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life..." What was heard, seen, looked upon, and touched was the resurrected Christ (cf. John 20:24-29). And next, "the life was manifest" would mean the new life Jesus was resurrected to, that is eternal life never to die again. And now what John has seen and heard concerning the resurrection he has proclaimed to the recipients of his letter. Moreover, it is the resurrection that confirms that Jesus is the Christ; it is his vindication by the Father that he was exactly who he claimed to be and was unjustly put to death by his fellow Jews. This then means that the major conflict taken up within the letter is over the resurrection. To deny the resurrection is to deny that Jesus is the Christ and vice versa. In fact, this is the spirit of the antichrist.
Jensen goes into much more detail than this, and provides a reading of the entirety of the letter through the lens of the resurrection. His reading is overall successful and convincing. There is a portion here or there that I would differ from him, but Jensen's thesis is sound and makes remarkable sense of John's epistle. I highly recommend this book.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2017
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