The present volume reproduces, in modified form, papers presented to the continuing Seminar on Johannine Writings of the international association of New Testament scholars, Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas. They were given at the General Meetings of the Society at Trondheim (Norway) in 1985, and at Atlanta, Georgia (USA), in 1986. The editors, who have shared the leadership of the seminar, had proposed the tenth chapter of John's gospel as the theme for both sessions, and it proved unusually successful. Indeed, that chapter of the Fourth Gospel serves as a focal point for most of the issues of current Johannine scholarship. Does the chapter belong in its present context within the gospel? Does the received text of the chapter preserve the correct order? Was it written down in a single stage or did it come into existence by stages? Could the author or authors depend on written sources, or at least oral traditions, and if so, what history of religions currents gave the impetus? To what extent can historical questions properly be asked of the text? Or must it be explained above all in itself and as part of its context within the entire work?

The papers begin with a survey of the literary and theological problems of the Shepherd Discourse as a whole (Busse), then deal with the question of background – the Biblical/Jewish (Beutler) and the Hellenistic/Gnostic (Turner). These three papers were presented in Trondheim in 1985. The discussion continued with four papers in Atlanta the following year. Painter deals with the question of the chapter's origin. Also using a historical perspective, Sabbe treats the relation of the text to the Synoptic Gospels.