Characters in the Second Gospel are analysed and an in-depth look is provided of different approaches currently employed by scholars working with literary and reader-oriented methods of analysis. The first section consists of essays on method/theory, and the second consists of exegetical character studies using a literary or reader-oriented method. All contributors work from a literary, narrative-critical, reader-oriented, or related methodology. The book summarizes the state of the discussion and examines obstacles to arriving at a comprehensive theory of character in the Second Gospel. Different approaches are compared, and the diverse methodologies are compiled into one comparative study. Then, through detailed exegesis, the various theories come alive and the merits (or deficiencies) of each approach are available to the reader. This work is both a comprehensive exploration of narrative/reader-oriented theories, and a study in the application of those theories as they relate to characterization.