(Part 1)

JBTM Book Reviews
164
John. By Murray J. Harris. Exegetical Guide to the Greek New Testament. Edited by
Andreas J. Köstenberger and Robert W. Yarbrough. Nashville: B&H Academic, 2015.
xxxiv + 366 pages. Paperback, $34.99.
Visionary, scholar, and shepherd are three words that come to mind at the mention of the
name Murray J. Harris, founding editor of the Exegetical Guide to the Greek New Testament
(EGGNT). First, Harris’s vision to create an excellent exegetical resource for busy pastors
and students alike came to fruition with Harris’s Colossians and Philemon—the first volume
published in the EGGNT series. 1 Second, Harris completed his PhD at the University of
Manchester under the supervision of the late F. F. Bruce, and is currently professor emeritus
of New Testament exegesis and theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and former
warden of Tyndale House in Cambridge. Third, Harris is also a prolific author whose works
include numerous commentaries and scholarly monographs. 2
Lastly, Harris displays a shepherd’s heart in aiding pastors and teachers as they grapple
with the Greek text in expositing the New Testament with “accuracy and authority” (xxii).
Furthermore, Harris’s shepherding is evinced in the prioritization of his life through
relinquishing his role as co-editor of the EGGNT to care for his wife, Jennifer, who struggles
daily with the challenges of multiple sclerosis (xx–xxi).
Bedrock to the EGGNT series is Harris’s “lifelong conviction that the careful grammatical
investigation of the text is the necessary prelude to a correct understanding of its message,”
and that “the systematic exposition of the scriptural text is a prerequisite for the renewal and
upbuilding of the church” (xx). The EGGNT series seeks to “close the gap between the Greek
text and the available tools” such as intermediate grammars and grammatical analyses (xxii).
In his introduction, Harris proffers a brief prolegomenon (12 pages) to the introductory
matters of John, and then proceeds to guide his readers phrase-by-phrase in his detailed
exegetical and syntactical analyses of the Fourth Gospel throughout the remainder of this
book. Structurally, Harris adopts a fivefold division in his exegetical outline of John’s Gospel
[i.e., I. 1:1–18; II. 1:19–12:50; III. 13:1–17:26; IV. 18:1–20:31; and V. 21:1–25] (11), which deviates
from the traditional fourfold structural view [i.e., I. 1:1–18; II. 1:19–12:50; III. 13:1–20:31; and IV.
21:1–25] (10). Thus, it appears that Harris has expanded the structural proposals of Brown 3
¹Currently, there are five available titles in the EGGNT series (John, Philippians, Colossians/Philemon
[2nd ed.], James, and 1 Peter) with fifteen more volumes planned which span the entirety of the
canonical NT.
²For his commentaries, see: Colossians and Philemon in the Exegetical Guide to the Greek New
Testament series (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991; Nashville: B&H Academic 2010 [2nd ed.]); Second
Corinthians in Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976; 2008 [2nd ed.]); and
The Second Epistle to the Corinthians in New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2005). For his monographs, see Jesus as God (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992) and Slave of
Christ (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2001).
³Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John (2 vols..; AB 29–29A; eds. William F. Albright and