This book is written in the conviction that the church is called into being and nourished by the Word of God that comes through Scripture. But how can Scripture offer any specific guidance for hearers lives today? What are modern readers to make of the dragons and slaughtered lambs in the book of Revelation? What are we to make of a man who turns water into wine while comparing himself to bread? Can people today know what the Bible says and means?  The world of the Bible is strange and distant, not only in time and space but also in language, culture, and in its basic assumptions about reality. The first task in both pulpit and pew is not to be in too great a hurry to overcome this distance, but to acknowledge it and respect it. Communication across the gap is the task of the church's preachers and teachers.  Drawing on his years of teaching and study, Gene Boring offers a way of opening the ears of those who take the message of the Bible seriously, a message from a world different from our own. Beginning with Revelation, Gene provides a historically informed and pastorally sensitive reading of the various Johannine voices in the New Testament for contemporary preachers and teachers.