Acknowledgements
There are many more people who deserve acknowledgement here than space or memory will allow. I must begin with my wife, Vanessa, and our children, who left the only home they had known to move to the U.K. despite the COVID pandemic in 2020. This monograph is the product not only of my work and perseverance, but that of our family.
I am deeply thankful for the academic community that I found during postgraduate studies in Scotland and England. I am grateful to Prof. David M. Moffitt, Prof. Jason König, and Dr T. J. Lang for their guidance and careful reading of my work while researching in St Andrews. Prof. George van Kooten pointed the direction which eventually led to this study; I am thankful for his influence during my time in Cambridge. Many thanks are due to the faculties and postgraduate researchers in the School of Divinity and the School of Classics at the University of St Andrews. I also wish to express my gratitude to the faculty and students of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, especially at the Jacksonville and Charlotte campuses, for their help and encouragement along the way. I am particularly indebted to Dr Gerry Wheaton, Dr David Palmer, and Dr Catherine McDowell.
My time in St Andrews was infinitely enriched by the warm friendship I experienced there. The Bannerman office of the Roundel was a gift and a delight; I am fortunate to have shared this space with my dear friends Josh Johnson, Melissa Barciela Mandala, Emily Page, and Stefanie Conradt. The bi-weekly coffee chats with the Gospels Researchers Group (namely, Jonathan Hunter, Tessa Hayashida, Joel Butcher, and Aogu Suzuki) were encouraging, as were the Friday pub meet-ups with many Divinity friends. Paulus de Jong and Matthew Sharp offered wisdom and encouragement as they walked the path of New Testament scholarship just ahead of me. Tyler Hoagland, Chris Whyte, and many other friends not named herein contributed to a meaningful season of research in the School of Divinity. On the behalf of the Foster-Whiddon family, I extend my thanks to the kind folks of St Andrews Baptist Church. We were greatly encouraged by the pastors, elders, and deacons there, many of whom are academics serving faithfully in this local congregation. They model this balance well, and their warm hospitality was a gift during our time in Scotland.
I am grateful for the support of the chairs and members of the Johannine Literature units of the British New Testament Society, the European Association of Biblical Studies, and the Society of Biblical Literature. My research has been much improved by the opportunity to present work in their friendly and academically rigorous environments. (I must say, Johannine folks are the best!) I owe much to those who read early drafts of this project and gave feedback, including Divinity friends from St Andrews, my Ph.D. viva voce examiners (Prof. Christopher W. Skinner and Dr Matthew Sharp), and the anonymous reviewer with the Biblical Interpretation Series. Their suggestions were welcomed, incorporated, and made the final edition more robust. All remaining deficiencies or errors are, of course, my own.
I enjoyed the privilege of working on a research fellowship with the Asia Minor Research Center in Antalya, Turkey for the whole of April 2024. I offer my thanks to Dr Mark Wilson and Dr Jason Borges of AMRC and Levent Oral of TUTKU Educational Travel for the means to spend a month in western Asia Minor, visiting ancient sites pertinent to the Gospel of John and Callirhoe. Finishing this thesis in the land of the Fourth Evangelist and Chariton made a fitting end to my research, an experience for which I am grateful.
It is an honor to contribute to the Biblical Interpretation Series; many thanks to the editorial board for accepting this project for publication. I thank the staff at De Gruyter Brill for their excellent work, and am especially grateful to Prof. Paul Anderson and Nitzan Shalev for their guidance through the process. I also extend my appreciation to colleagues and students at Tabor College, who have entertained my ramblings about this project and have been patient with me as I prepared the manuscript for publication.
My final thanks go to the family and friends who supported us in innumerable ways during our four years in the U.K. At the very top of the list are our parents and siblings, my grandmother, our home church (Heritage Church, Moultrie GA), and the Adventure Team. The research in this book would not have been possible without their support.
Eric Foster-Whiddon
Hillsboro, Kansas
October, 2025