Gospel of John Totally Explained

Everything about The Gospel Of John totally explained

The Gospel of John (literally, According to John; Greek, Κατὰ Ἰωάννην, Kata Iōannēn) is the fourth gospel in the canon of the New Testament, traditionally ascribed to John the Evangelist. Like the three synoptic gospels, it contains an account of some of the actions and sayings of Jesus of Nazareth, but differs from them in ethos and theological emphases. The Gospel appears to have been written with an evangelistic purpose, primarily for Greek-speaking Jews who were not believers: "these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name". A second purpose was to counter criticisms or unorthodox beliefs of Jews, John the Baptist's followers, and those who believed Jesus was only spirit and not flesh.
   Of the four gospels, John presents the highest Christology, describing him as the Logos who is the Arche (a Greek term for "existed from the beginning" or "the ultimate source of all things"), teaching at length about his identity as savior, and possibly declaring him to be God.
   Compared to the Synoptic Gospels, John focuses on Jesus' mission to bring the Logos ("Word", "Wisdom", "Reason" or "Rationality") to his disciples. Only in John does Jesus talk at length about himself, including a substantial amount of material Jesus shared with the disciples only. Certain elements of the synoptics (such as parables, exorcisms, and possibly the Second Coming) are not found in John.
   Since "the higher criticism" of the 19th century, historians have questioned the gospel of John as a reliable source of information about the historical Jesus. J. D. G. Dunn comments: "few scholars would regard John as a source for information regarding Jesus' life and ministry in any degree comparable to the Synoptics". Most scholars regard the work as anonymous, and date it to 90–100.

Narrative summary (structure and content of John)

After the prologue, the narrative of the gospel begins with verse 6, and consists of two parts. The first part (1:6-ch. 12) relates Jesus' public ministry from the time of his baptism by John the Baptist to its close. In this first part, John emphasizes seven of Jesus' miracles, always calling them "signs." The second part (ch. 13–21) presents Jesus in dialogue with his immediate followers (13–17) and gives an account of his Passion and Crucifixion and of his appearances to the disciples after his Resurrection (18–20). In Chapter 21, the "appendix", Jesus restores Peter after his denial, predicts Peter's death, and discusses the death of the "beloved disciple". Raymond E. Brown, a scholar of the Johannine community, labelled the first and second parts the "Book of Signs" and the "Book of Glory", respectively.
The major events covered by the Gospel of John include:
Hymn to the Word

Jesus is the word become flesh (1:–18)

Book of Signs, Seven Signs

John the Baptist (1:19–28, 3:22–36)

Jesus is the Lamb of God (1:29–34)

The calling of Simon, Andrew, Philip, and Nathanael (1:35–51)

Marriage at Cana (2:1–12)

Jesus and the money-changers (2:13–25)

Nicodemus the Pharisee (3:1–21)

The return to Galilee through Samaria (4)

The pool of Bethesda, Jesus as judge of the dead (5)

Resurrection of the dead (5:24–29)

The feeding of the five thousand (6:1–15)

Walking on water (6:16–21)

Jesus is the Bread of Life (6:22–59)

Last Day (6:39–40, 44, 54, 11:24, 12:48)

Jesus deserted by many disciples (6:60–71)

Unbelief of Jesus' brothers (7:1–9)

Feast of Tabernacles (7:10–44)

Unbelief of Pharisee leaders (7:45–52)

Jesus and the woman taken in adultery (7:53–8:11)

Jesus is the Light of the World (8:12–20)

Where I'm going, you can't come (8:21–30)

The truth will make you free (8:31–38)

Your father is the Devil (8:39–47)

Jesus existed before Abraham (8:48–59)

Blind man given sight (9)

The Good Shepherd (10:1–21)

Jesus rejected by the Jews (10:22–42, 12:37–43)

Raising of Lazarus (11:1–44)

Let's return to Judea (11:7)
Jesus wept (11:35)

Plot to kill Jesus (11:45–57)

Mary anoints Jesus (12:1–8)

Plot to kill Lazarus (12:9–11)

Entering Jerusalem (12:12–19)

Son of Man (12:20–36)

Last Judgment (12:44–50) Book of Glory, Last Teachings and Death

Last Supper (13:1–30)

Love one another (13:31–35)

Peter's denial (13:36–38, 18:15–18, 25–27)

Jesus is the only Way to the Father (14:1–14)

Promise of the Paraclete (14:15–31, 15:18–16:33)

Jesus is the true vine (15:1–17)

Prayer to the one true God (17)

John 17:21

Arrest (18:1–11)

Before the High Priests (18:12–14, 19–24)

Before Pilate (18:28–19:16)

Crucifixion (19:17–37)

Joseph of Arimathea (19:38–42)

Empty tomb (20:1–10)

Mary don't hold on to me (20:11–18)

Great Commission (20:19–23)

Doubting Thomas (20:24–29)

Appendix (20:30–31)

Appendix to the Appendix (21)

Catch of 153 fish (21:1–14)
Prophecy of Peter's crucifixion (21:15–19)
Disciple whom Jesus loved (21:20–25)

Date and authorship

Authorship

The authorship has been disputed since at least the second century, with mainstream Christianity traditionally holding that the author was John the Apostle, son of Zebedee. Several other authors have historically been suggested, including Papias, John the Presbyter and Cerinthus, though many apologetic Christian scholars still hold to the conservative view that ascribes authorship to John the Apostle. Most modern experts conclude the author to be an unknown non-eyewitness.
   The text itself is unclear about the issue. contains information that could be construed as autobiographical. Conservative scholars generally assume that first person "I" in verse 25, the disciple in verse 24 and the disciple whom Jesus loved (also known as the Beloved Disciple) in verse 20 are the same person; they further identify all three descriptors with the Apostle John through a combination of external and internal evidence. Critics point out that the abrupt shift from third person to first person in vss. 24–25 indicates that the author of the epilogue, who is supposed a third-party editor, claims the preceding narrative is based on the Beloved Disciple's testimony, while he himself isn't the Beloved Disciple.
   Ancient testimony is similarly conflicted. Attestation of Johannine authorship can be found as early as Irenaeus. Martin Hengel and Jorge Frey similarly argue for John the Presbyter as the author of the text. Hill goes on to propose that Ignatius, Polycarp, Papias’ elders, and Hierapolis' Exegesis of the Lord’s Oracles possibly all quote from the Gospel of John. Epiphanius, however, takes note of an Early Christian sect, the Alogi, who believed the Gospel was actually written by one Cerinthus, a second-century Gnostic. Corroborating this evidence is a quotation by Eusebius of Caesarea (History of the Church 7.25.2) in which Dionysius of Alexandria (mid-third century) claims that the Apocalypse of John (known commonly as the Book of Revelation), but not the Gospel of John, was believed by some before him (7.25.1) to also have been written by Cerinthus. This discussion of the Alogi represents the only instance in which both the Book of Revelation and the Gospel of John were specifically attributed to Cerinthus.
   Starting in the 19th century, critical scholarship has further questioned the apostle John's authorship, arguing that the work was written decades after the events it describes. The critical scholarship argues that there are differences in the composition of the Greek within the Gospel, such as breaks and inconsistencies in sequence, repetitions in the discourse, as well as passages that clearly don't belong to their context, and these suggest redaction. Raymond E. Brown, a biblical scholar who specialized in studying the Johannine community, summarizes a prevalent theory regarding the development of this gospel. He identifies three layers of text in the Fourth Gospel (a situation that's paralleled by the synoptic gospels): 1) an initial version Brown considers based on personal experience of Jesus; 2) a structured literary creation by the evangelist which draws upon additional sources; and 3) the edited version that readers know today (Brown 1979).
   Among scholars, Ephesus in Asia Minor is a popular suggestion for the gospel's origin.

Date

Most scholars agree on a range of c. 90–100 for when the gospel was written, though dates as early as the 60s or as late as the 140s have been advanced by a small number of scholars. Justin Martyr quoted from the gospel of John, which would also support that the Gospel was in existence by at least the middle of the second century, and the Rylands Library Papyrus P52, which records a fragment of this gospel, is usually dated between 125 and 160 CE.
   The traditional view is supported by reference to the statement of Clement of Alexandria that John wrote to supplement the accounts found in the other gospels (Eusibius, Ecclesiastical History, 6.14.7). This would place the writing of John's gospel sufficiently after the writing of the synoptics.
   Conservative scholars consider internal evidences, such as the lack of the mention of the destruction of the temple and a number of passages that they consider characteristic of an eye-witness (John 13:23ff, 18:10, 18:15, 19:26–27, 19:34, 20:8, 20:24–29), sufficient evidence that the gospel was composed before 100 and perhaps as early as 50–70. Barrett suggests an earliest date of 90, based on familiarity with Mark’s gospel, and the late date of a synagogue expulsion of Christians (which is a theme in John). Morris suggests 70, given Qumran parallels and John’s turns of phrase, such as "his disciples" vs. "the disciples". John A.T. Robinson proposes an initial edition by 50–55 and then a final edition by 65 due to narrative similarities with Paul.
   There are critical scholars who are of the opinion that John was composed in stages (probably two or three), beginning at an unknown time (50–70?) and culminating in a final text around 95–100. This date is assumed in large part because John 21, the so-called "appendix" to John, is largely concerned with explaining the death of the "beloved disciple", supposedly the leader of the Johannine community that would have produced the text. If this leader had been a follower of Jesus, or a disciple of one of Jesus' followers, then a death around 90–100 is reasonable.

Textual history and manuscripts

The earliest known manuscripts of the New Testament is a fragment from John, Rylands Library Papyrus P52. A scrap of papyrus roughly the size of a business card discovered in Egypt in 1920 (now at the John Rylands Library, Manchester, accession number P52) bears parts of on one side and on the other. Most texts list the date of this manuscript to c. 125. The difficulty of fixing the date of a fragment based solely on paleographic evidence allows for a range of dates that extends from before 100 to well into the second half of the second century. P52 is small, and although a plausible reconstruction can be attempted for most of the fourteen lines represented, nevertheless the proportion of the text of the Gospel of John for which it provides a direct witness is necessarily limited, so it's rarely cited in textual debate. Other notable early manuscripts include Papyrus 66 and Papyrus 75. Much current research on the textual history of the Gospel of John is being done by the International Greek New Testament Project.

Source criticism

Source criticism is the practice of deducing an author's or redactor's sources, especially in Biblical criticism.

Signs gospel

In 1941 Rudolf Bultmann suggested that the author of John depended in part on an oral miracles tradition or manuscript account of Christ's miracles that was independent of, and not used by, the synoptic gospels. This hypothetical "Signs Gospel" is alleged to have been circulating before 70. Its traces can be seen in the remnants of a numbering system associated with some of the miracles that appear in the Gospel of John: all of the miracles that are mentioned only by John occur in the presence of John; the "signs" or semeia (the expression is uniquely John's) are unusually dramatic; and they're accomplished in order to call forth faith (see ). These miracles are different both from the rest of the "signs" in John, and from the miracles in the synoptic gospels, which occur as a result of faith. Bultmann's conclusion that John was reinterpreting an early Hellenistic tradition of Jesus as a wonder-worker, a "magician" within the Hellenistic world-view, was so controversial that heresy proceedings were instituted against him and his writings. (See more detailed discussions linked below.)

Egerton gospel

The mysterious Egerton Gospel appears to represent a parallel but independent tradition to the Gospel of John. According to scholar Ronald Cameron, it was originally composed some time between the middle of the first century and early in the second century, and it was probably written shortly before the Gospel of John. Robert W. Funk, et al, places the Egerton fragments in the 2nd century, perhaps as early as 125, which would make it as old as the oldest fragments of John.

Characteristics of the Gospel of John

The Gospel of John is easily distinguished from the three Synoptic Gospels, which share a considerable amount of text. John omits about 90% of the material in the synoptics. The synoptics describe much more of Jesus' life, miracles, parables, and exorcisms. However, the materials unique to John are notable, especially in their effect on modern Christianity.

Christology

John portrays Jesus Christ as "a brief manifestation of the eternal Word, whose immortal spirit remains ever-present with the believing Christian." The gospel gives far more focus to the mystical relation of the Son to the Father. Many have used his gospel for the development of the concept of the Trinity while the Synoptic Gospels focused less directly on Jesus as the Son of God. John includes far more direct claims of Jesus being the only Son of God than the Synoptic Gospels. The gospel also focuses on the relation of the Redeemer to believers, the announcement of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter (Greek Paraclete), and the prominence of love as an element in the Christian character.
Some critics have maintained that the opening Hymn to the Word declares that the Logos is "god" or "a god" (Greek: theos, without the article) and was with "God" (Greek: pros ton theon), but not that the Logos is God (Greek: ho theos). The translators of the New International Version (and Today's New International Version), the New American Standard Bible, the Amplified Bible, the New Living Translation, the King James Version, Young's Literal Translation, the Darby Translation, and the Wycliffe New Testament, to name a few, all disagree with these critics.

Jews

The Gospel’s treatment of the role of the Jewish authorities in the Crucifixion has given rise to allegations of anti-Semitism. The Gospel often employs the title "the Jews" when discussing the opponents of Jesus. The meaning of this usage has been the subject of debate, though critics of the “anti-Semitic” theory cite that the author most likely considered himself Jewish and was probably speaking to a largely Jewish community. Hence it's argued that "the Jews" properly refers to the Jewish religious authorities (see: Sanhedrin), and not the Jewish people as a whole. It is because of this controversy that some modern English translations, such as Today's New International Version, remove the term "Jews" and replace it with more specific terms to avoid anti-Semitic connotations, citing the above argument. Most critics of these translations, conceding this point, argue that the context (since it's obvious that Jesus, John himself, and the other disciples were all Jews) makes John's true meaning sufficiently clear, and that a literal translation is preferred.
Other critics go further, arguing that the text displays a shift in emphasis away from the Roman provincial government, which actually carried out the execution, and to the Jewish authorities as a technique used to render a developing Christianity more palatable in official circles. Nevertheless, these passages have been historically used by some Christian groups to justify the persecution of Jews.

Gnostic elements

Though not commonly understood as Gnostic, John has elements in common with Gnosticism. Gnostics must have read John because it's found with Gnostic texts. The root of Gnosticism is that salvation comes from gnosis, secret knowledge. The nearly five chapters of the "farewell discourses" (John 13

, 18

) Jesus shares only with the Twelve Apostles. Jesus pre-exists birth as the Word (Logos). This origin and action resemble a gnostic aeon (emanation from God) being sent from the pleroma (region of light) to give humans the knowledge they need to ascend to the pleroma themselves. John's denigration of the flesh, as opposed to the spirit, is a classic Gnostic theme.
It has been suggested that similarities between John's Gospel and Gnosticism may spring from common roots in Jewish Apocalyptic literature.Kovacs, Judith L. (1995).

Differences from the Synoptic Gospels

John is significantly different from the Synoptic Gospels in many ways. Some of the differences are:

The Gospel of John contains 4 visits by Jesus to Jerusalem, each with a Passover celebration. This chronology suggests Jesus' public ministry lasted 3 years. In the synoptic gospels, Jesus makes one trip to Jerusalem in time for the Passover observance.

The Kingdom of God is only mentioned twice in John . In contrast, the other gospels repeatedly use the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven as important concepts. John's Jesus claims a kingdom of his own, not of this world: . See also New Covenant (theology).

John doesn't contain any parables, that's poetic stories each illustrating a single message or idea. Rather it contains metaphoric stories or allegories, such as The Shepherd and The Vine, in which each individual element corresponds to a specific group or thing. The UBS Greek New Testament titles as "The Parable of the Sheepfold", but continues as a metaphor: "I am the gate".

The saying "He who has ears, let him hear" is absent from John.

The healings of demon-possessed people are never mentioned as in the Synoptics.

The Synoptics contain a wealth of stories about Jesus' miracles and healings, but John doesn't have as many of those stories; John tends to elaborate more heavily on its stories than do the Synoptics.

Major synoptic speeches of Jesus are absent, including all of the Sermon on the Mount and the Olivet discourse and the instructions that Jesus gave to his disciples when he sent them out throughout the country to heal and preach (as in and ). Instead the major speeches according to John are at the Sea of Galilee, the temple, and the last supper .

Jesus driving the money changers from the temple appears near the beginning of the work. In the Synoptics this occurs late in Jesus' ministry.

Most of the action in John takes place in Iudaea Province and Jerusalem; only a few events occur in Galilee, and of those, only the feeding of the multitude (6:1–16) and the trip across the Sea of Galilee (6:17–21) are also found in the Synoptics.

According to the New American Bible, the story of the adultress is missing from the best early Greek manuscripts. When it does appear it's at different places: here, after John 7:36 or at the end of this gospel. It can also be found after Luke 21:38.

The crucifixion of Jesus is recorded as Nisan 14, the day of preparation for the Passover, about noon, in contrast to the synoptic Nisan 15. The difference led to schism in the early church (see Quartodecimanism). This would mean there were two sabbath days between Jesus' crucifixion and the morning of his resurrection as the Passover festival had additional Sabbaths.

The earthquake and the darkening of the sky, prominent in the Synoptics, are missing.

Jesus doesn't utter eschatological prophecies.

Characteristics unique to John

The Apostle Thomas is given a personality beyond a mere name, as "Doubting Thomas" (etc).

Jesus refers to himself with "εγω ειμι" "I am" seven times , beyond the common meaning, Trinitarians see this as an allusion to and thus a claim to divinity, for example God the Son. John Shelby Spong argues that the "I Am" statements are not self-reflexive on Jesus, but refer to "I Am" as a name of God.

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus refuses to give any sign that he's the messiah, which is known as the Messianic Secret, for example . In the Gospel of Matthew and Gospel of Luke, only the Sign of Jonah will be given ( ). The Gospel of John on the other hand has Jesus providing many signs, such as and and .

Each "sign" corresponds to one of the metaphoric "εγω ειμι" "I am" sayings For example, the multiplication of bread corresponds to "I am the bread of life"

Two "signs" are numbered—"the first sign,", and "the second sign," —but there are two other signs that occur in between these. Scholars conclude that this strange numbering occurs because John had access to a source, probably written, that consisted of the "signs" of Jesus in some numbered order. In between the first and second signs found in John's "Sign source", known as the Signs Gospel, John added his own, but didn't account for his additions by numbering.

There are no stories about Satan, demons or exorcisms, no predictions of end times, though there's mention of the Last Day (,, ), no Sermon on the Mount, no ethical teachings such as the Expounding of the Law other than Love one another, or apocalyptic teachings other than perhaps .

The hourly time is given: Greek text: about the tenth hour, translated as "four o'clock in the afternoon" [firsthour is 6 a.m., sundial time]

When the water at the Pool of Bethesda is moved by an angel it heals

Jesus washes the disciples' feet

At Chapter 13 there's the description of the Last Supper but, unlike the Synoptic Gospels (Mat 26:26–29; Mar 14:22–26, Luke 22:14–20) there's no formal institution of the Eucharist, whereas the prediction of Judas' betrayal is amply reported .

No other women are mentioned going to the tomb with Mary Magdalene.

Mary Magdalene visits the empty tomb twice. She believes Jesus' body has been stolen. The second time she sees two angels. They don't tell her Jesus is risen. They only ask why she's crying. Mary mistakes Jesus for the gardener. He tells Mary not to touch or cling to him. . About a week later (some translations give "eight days later"), in the same chapter, Jesus asks Thomas to touch him and to place his fingers and hand in Jesus' still open wounds. At the sight of Jesus, Thomas gives an exclamation of faith but if he follows Jesus' direction, it isn't in the text.

Some of the brethren thought the disciple whom Jesus loved wouldn't die, and an explanation is given for his death.

The "disciple whom Jesus loved" wrote down things he'd witnessed, and his testimony is asserted by a third party to be true

The beloved disciple (traditionally believed to be the Apostle John) is never named.

When speaking, prior to his message, Jesus says "verily" twice, (25 times, starting with,, … Hebrew amen

, see also Amen), rather than just once as in the Synoptic Gospels.

Jesus carried his own cross ; in the synoptics the cross was carried by Simon of Cyrene ( ).

Critical scholarship on the differences between John and the synoptics

Since the advent of critical scholarship, John's historical importance has been considered less significant than the synoptic traditions by some scholars. The scholars of the 19th century concluded that the Gospel of John had little historical value. Over the next two centuries scholars such as Bultmann and Dodd looked closer and began finding historically important parts of John. Many scholars today believe that parts of John represent an independent historical tradition from the synoptics, while other parts represent later traditions. The scholars of the Jesus Seminar still assert that there's little historical value in John, and consider nearly every Johannine saying of Jesus to be nonhistorical. However, most scholars agree that John is a very important document on Christian theology.

History

John was written somewhere near the end of the first century, probably in Ephesus, in Anatolia. The tradition of John the Apostle was strong in Anatolia, and Polycarp of Smyrna reportedly knew him. Like the previous gospels, it circulated separately until Irenaeus proclaimed all four gospels to be scripture.
   In the early church, John's reference to Jesus as the eternal Logos was a popular definition of Jesus, defeating the rival view that Jesus had been born a man but had been adopted as God's Son. The gospel's description of Jesus' divinity was fundamental to the developing doctrine of the Trinity.
   In the second century, Montanus of Phrygia launched a movement in which he claimed to be the Paraclete promised in John. Jerome translated John into its official Latin form, replacing various older translations.
   Although very much in line with many stories in the Synoptic Gospels and probably primitive (the Didascalia Apostolorum definitely refers to it and it was probably known to Papias), the Pericope Adulterae isn't part of the original text of the Gospel of John. The evidence for this view doesn't convince all scholars.
   When Bible criticism developed in the 19th century, John came under increasing criticism as less historically reliable than the synoptics.

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