This study in Johannine ecclesiology reconstructs the history of the Christain community in the first century - a community whose life from its inception to its last hour is reflected in the Gospel and Epistles of John. It was a community that struggled with the world, with the Jews, and with other Christians. Eventually the struggle spread to its own ranks. It was, in short, a community not unlike the Church today. This book offers a different view of the traditional Johannine eagle. In the Gospel, the eagle soars above the earth, but with talons bared for the fray. In the Epistles we discover the eaglets tearing at each other for possession of the nest.