This study in Johannine ecclesiology reconstructs the history of one Christian community in the first century, a community whose life from its inception to its last hour is reflected in the Gospel and Epistles of John. It was a community that struggled with the world and eventually among its own ranks, not unlike the Church of today. Pulling together twenty-five years of Brown's research into the Johannine corpus, this book explains why Brown called Johannine thought "the most adventuresome theology in the New Testament." In a new introduction to the book, Paul N. Anderson provides an updated overview of the book's receptions and further developments in Johannine scholarship.