Dear friends:
It has recently come to my attention that there are some unacknowledged similarities between my John commentary in the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament series (BECNT, 2004) and D. A. Carson’s Pillar commentary, a problem originally introduced in my Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary on John (ZIBBC, 2001). While Carson’s work is cited extensively in the BECNT, upon thorough review it came to light that certain portions were not cited adequately. I didn’t catch the mistakes when preparing the ZIBBC, and later the problem was carried over to the BECNT. Inadequate notetaking and substantially reducing the length of the ZIBBC content and endnotes to requested word limits likely contributed to the problem. Regardless of how these errors happened, I am ultimately responsible for them.
In dealing with this issue, I’ve made every effort to act with utmost honesty, integrity, and transparency. I immediately brought this matter to the publishers’ attention and apologized to my esteemed mentor and friend, Don Carson, telling him that any failure to give proper credit was completely unintentional. I also made financial restitution to Dr. Carson and his publisher. Both publishers decided to remove these works from circulation.
In working through this, I have deeply appreciated the guidance, encouragement, and support of the institution where I serve and of many colleagues in the scholarly community. In preparing a new, corrected edition of my commentary, and in my future academic work, I am resolved to give scrupulous attention to all notetaking and citations to make sure that the works to which I owe an intellectual debt are acknowledged to the fullest and most accurate extent.
For Christ and his kingdom,
Andreas Köstenberger