In this book Richard Horsley and Tom Thatcher trace the Gospel of John's portrayal of Jesus as a prophet of renewal by reading the text against a double backdrop -- the social history of Roman Palestine and the media world of John.This innovative study is the first to consider the Gospel of John as story in the ancient media context of oral communication and oral performance. Horsley and Thatcher creatively combine concerns from the fields of Jesus studies and ancient media studies in their analysis. Taking the main conflict evident in John's story of Jesus as the key to its plot, they discern how this Gospel -- usually read as "spiritual" -- portrays Jesus engaged in a concrete program of renewal and resistance.