In The Branches of the Gospel of John, Keefer presents a new paradigm for understanding the role of history of interpretation in New Testament studies, with a focus on the Gospel of John. Drawing largely from the work of Hans Robert Jauss, he presents history of interpretation as a means to understand both the text and the historical reader. Jauss's concept of Rezeptionsa?sthetik helps the New Testament scholar to reflect upon both text and history in a new light. John is an exemplary work to investigate along these lines because no other canonical book was as provocative in the early church. J