This is an excellent book for those who like exploring the scriptures in a new way.

‘Called to be Friends’ examines one biblical book in detail – the Gospel of John, wherein Bible teacher, Ian Galloway aims to show how the Gospel’s structure helps us to come into a closer relationship with Jesus.

Textual analysis

The method the author uses is narrative analysis (rather than any historical-critical approach), which means taking the text as it is. As Galloway explains in his introduction, “I am going to take you on a journey into the text so that you can see how John has written his Gospel and understand why he has written it this way” (p.xv). Basically, the author invites us to live within each portion of the scriptural text for a while, and let it speak to us.

To this end, Galloway uses a similar set of questions with each passage to help us get into the story for ourselves and make comparisons with other passages. Questions include, ‘Where are we geographically?’, ‘What time of year is it?’, ‘Who is in the story?’, ‘Who starts the conversation?’, ‘How does Jesus respond?’, and so on. Galloway encourages us to read each passage carefully and do our own thinking before we read what he has to say.

The author’s style is direct, with short and simple sentences. He expresses his ideas expertly and builds his case slowly, with good use of repetition. What could be a difficult task for the reader is made easier this way. Textual analysis can so easily be rather dry and academic, but this book is a delight to read; here is a skilful teacher at work. After a few pages, I was hooked, not only into the book but into wanting to study John again.

Narrative panels

It is important to realise that Galloway does not attempt a sequential chapter-by-chapter survey of the Gospel. Rather he looks for patterns in what he calls narrative panels. For instance, he takes the first two ‘signs’ for comparison, and then the next two. He then takes the stories that surround these ‘sign’ passages for further comparison, looking for common structures and the use of the same ‘storyboard’.

Basically, the author invites us to live within each portion of the scriptural text for a while, and let it speak to us.

For the author, these patterns within the Gospel of John, with its elegant structure of narrative panels, reveal that John was attempting to write a literary ‘temple’ into which his readers are invited in order to encounter Jesus. Galloway sees John as “a skilled writer, working with words to create a space in which we can go to meet with God” (p. 227). He explains in the third section of Part One how this will work and therefore how we are to read his book.

Creating the Space

In Part Two, entitled ‘Creating the Space’, the longest of the book’s three sections, Galloway takes us through the passages in John chapters 1 to 14, but not in their gospel order. Rather, these are put together according to their literary design. The result, the author claims, is that the first set of ten stories forms a holy place, as does the second set.

Galloway provides diagrams to help us grasp this, in each case placing the passages in a cubical structure to reflect the ‘temple’ aspect of the writing. In each ‘block’ of ten, the stories are categorised under headings of 'Demonstration', 'Invitation', 'Provocation', 'Contention', 'Declaration', and 'Admission' (as in ‘entering’). These are useful even if you find the overall ‘temple’ structure less easy to see.

Come Inside

Part Three, entitled ‘Come Inside’, picks up the Gospel from chapter 15, and in some ways I found this less convincing. However, when it comes to the Crucifixion and the Resurrection there are useful comparisons with the other three Gospels, something naturally not attempted for the rest of the Gospel of John. By asking ‘What does John leave out?’ and ‘What does he put in?’ we can see how John’s account is both different and yet the same.

Galloway is always looking for connections with the Old Testament, something he believes was deliberately done by John.

Another ‘plus’ feature of the book is the way the author helps us understand how Jesus was ‘located’ within the entire story of Israel. Galloway is always looking for connections with the Old Testament, something he believes was deliberately done by John. The author also explores the festivals in the Gospel, reminding us that John alone has three Passovers. Galloway asserts that the festivals create a timeline over approximately two years from just before the first Passover and leading up to the third.

Patterns abounding

It could be argued that once you get into this kind of analysis it is easy to become obsessed with finding such patterns everywhere, and that these start to dominate your reading. However, it is clear that to some extent these patterns do exist and it is up to each reader to decide how far to take this. Clearly this will take time and each chapter of the book will need careful study. The author states his intention to provide an accompanying workbook at some point, which will both help and encourage group study of John.

Overall, this is a highly commendable study, worth coming back to every time you want to read John as a whole or study the individual parts of it. Ian Galloway has done a great service for Bible students and teachers. His book has matured though twenty years of study and prayer, and the fruits of his labours will bear dividends for others. The author could ask for no better outcome than that!

‘Called to be Friends’ (332 pp) is published by Hodder & Stoughton and is available from Re-vived for £13.49 inc P&P