John, An Earth Bible Commentary: Supposing Him to Be the Gardener by Margaret Daly Denton (review)

This volume, John, An Earth Bible Commentary, takes its place among the growing number of volumes in the Earth Bible Commentary series edited by Norman C. Habel. Sheffield Phoenix Press published the early volumes in the series and Bloomsbury T&T Clark continues to support the project. In each volume, authors develop unique ways of undertaking the contemporary challenge of reading biblical texts in an age of increasing ecological consciousness. Margaret Daly Denton contributes to this growing volume of diverse ecological readings.

The subtitle of D.'s commentary, "Supposing Him to Be the Gardener," a citation of a portion of John 20:15, is evocative as well as foundational. It is not only the subtitle of the entire work but also the title that D. gives to her first chapter, following a brief introduction. In that introduction, she very succinctly addresses the contemporary challenge of ecological consciousness with its accompanying attentiveness to Earth. It is this that she brings into dialogue with an Earth consciousness she sees woven into the Johannine text and the world it creates. Her approach, therefore, moves between the text and the world it constructs, which she reads through a contemporary ecological lens.

Daly Denton does not, however, begin this task immediately. Rather, under her subtitle, D. undertakes an intertextual and sociocultural exploration of "garden" (and its relationship to Eden) in Second Temple Judaism. Halfway through the chapter and in relation to Ezek 28:13-14, she begins to uncover the link between garden and temple, which she develops for the remainder of this opening chapter. This enables her to interpret the Johannine Jesus through the lens of the divine present at the center of the material world. This will be the central hermeneutical key to her commentary proper which follows.

Across fifteen chapters, the reader follows D.'s careful reading of the Johannine text, attends to the rich layers of intertextuality that are constantly and carefully evoked, and from time to time catches a glimpse of the Johannine text and its exposition speaking to contemporary ecological issues. In relation to her exploration of the text and its intertexts, we see an extraordinary Johannine scholar at work, extending her perspective to include the ecological features encoded in the Johannine text. D. herself recognizes that in drawing out contemporary narrative and ethical Earth readings, she tends to be "tentative" (p. 40). Her readers, however, may be able to expand on what she has begun in this regard, but it should be noted that she herself becomes more confident in this as the narrative progresses.

Where she is not tentative is in relation to her evoking of the materiality encoded in the text. In chap. 4, by way of example, she foregrounds the Galilean context, highlights the significance of the "fig tree" in Israel's traditions and recognizes the village of Cana as the material context for eating and drinking that grounds the Jesus group in the Earth community. What emerges is a richer and deeper intertextuality. Such readings brought into dialogue with contemporary ecological thinkers and activists such as Bill McKibben and Wendell Berry, as D. does at the end of this chapter, can lead to ecological action as the fruit of an ecological reading of the Johannine Gospel.

Another brief glimpse into a chapter, namely, chap. 11, entitled simply "Bethany to Jerusalem," will further demonstrate the scope of D.'s work. The very title turns the reader to profound ecological realities, physical places where life and death are encountered. It is along such a path that D. leads her readers. She attends, however, not just to spatiality but also temporality, six days before the Passover. Into this time and place in the Johannine Gospel is brought a significant material element—a pound of costly perfume. Here we find an excellent example of D.'s approach. She explores the reference to the perfume in the narrative context of...