John S. Kloppenborg

Published in 2006, Kloppenborg's book, The Tenants in the Vineyard: Ideology, Economics, and Agrarian Conflict in Jewish Palestine, titled after the "tenants in the vineyard" parable attributed to Jesus by the New Testament, provides an analysis for the critical reader of the Bible of this very difficult parable. The bible citation for the parable is Mark 12:1-12 and it is also recorded in the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas (65). In his book, Kloppenborg models a new approach to the parables of Jesus. He discusses the ideological interests engaged by the parable in modern times and over the history of the Christian Church. Next, he explains the conditions of the society in which the parable was first laid out, especially in regards to ancient viticulture. In his conclusions, Kloppenborg notes that the parable has ironically been interpreted from the viewpoint of those in power in politics and society rather than as a literary parable or as an "anti-power" parable, as it may have read in the original texts. He shows that the editing in Mark's version of the story takes it beyond the useful idiom common to Jesus' other parables. Kloppenborg also includes a second volume documenting historical papyrus dealing with ancient viticulture and agrarian conflict.

Published in 2000, by James M. Robinson, Paul Hoffmann, and John S. Kloppenborg, The Critical Edition of Q: Synopsis including the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Mark and Thomas with English, German, and French Translations of Q and Thomas is a groundbreaking, though still controversial, work of scholarship.

Containing a lengthy introduction by bible scholar James M. Robinson and a foreword by the three editor scholars: Robinson, John S. Kloppenborg and Paul Hoffmann, this hefty volume provides a redacted version of what the original Q document might have looked like whether it was written in Greek or Aramaic. The Critical Edition of Q is the product of the International Q Project (IQP), a program inaugurated at the Society of Biblical Literature in 1985 that has sought to establish an accessible critical edition of the source shared by Matthew and Luke.

Kloppenborg received his M.A. (1977) and his Ph.D. (1984) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from the University of St. Michael's College (a constituent college of the University of Toronto). He has taught and conducted research in Toronto, Windsor, United Kingdom, Helsinki, Jerusalem, Cambridge, Calgary, and the United States in Claremont, California. He is one of the general editors of the International Q Project.

John Seargeant Kloppenborg (born 1951) is a Canadian professor of religion who has authored numerous books and articles based on New Testament scholarship. He is the Chair of the Department and Centre for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto and a participant in The Context Group.