C. H. Dodd's contribution to the modern study of John's Gospel remains unrivalled, and the present volume testifies to that fact. It is a collection of fourteen essays that together look back on his seminal publications of the 1950s and 1960s and offer evaluation from the vantage of current scholarship. After Thatcher's opening chapter, which presents an overview of Dodd's methods and major conclusions, the contributors address a wide variety of topics. These include narrative criticism, source criticism, symbolism, rabbinics, realized eschatology, and the historical Jesus. The general procedure is to present what Dodd had to say on a certain subject and then to assess his ideas in the light of new methods and other recent developments in biblical studies and related fields. Although the essays are uniformly respectful and appreciative, they are not uncritical. Gilbert Van Belle and David R. M. Godecharle, in a detailed examination of John 13:16 and 15:20, argue, against Dodd, that the author of John probably knew Matthew.

Similarly, Wendy E. S. North contends that the anointing of Jesus in John 12:1–8 was composed with a knowledge of Mark and Luke. Dodd's hypothesis, that the Fourth Evangelist here made use of independent oral tradition, is less plausible. The chief impression the volume as a whole leaves is that, while Dodd's work is in some respects dated—see especially the essays of Jan van der Watt on symbolism and of Williams on rabbinic sources—it is still very much worth knowing and engaging.