An Introduction to John

I wrote a term paper on the gospel of John for a New Testament class in college. I chose John because I knew nothing about the gospel and wanted to correct the problem. It was a mistake. After reading the gospel three or four times, I had no idea what it was all about.

The gospel of John is different from the Synoptic gospels. There is no virgin birth story, and the implication is that Jesus was born in Nazareth, the result of the normal biological union between a man and a woman (see John 6: 42-43 and 1:45-47). Further, Jesus is not baptized by John in this gospel, nor is he tempted by Satan in the wilderness. There is no transfiguration, no institution of the Lord’s Supper, no trial before the Sanhedrin, and no charge of blasphemy. Jesus never tells a parable or casts out a demon. There is no Sermon on the Mount or concern with ethical teachings. Nor does Jesus focus much attention on the imminent coming of the kingdom of God. The gospel is all about identity. Jesus speaks about himself.

The organization of the gospel is also different. Jesus’ public ministry spans three years instead of the one year posited in the Synoptic gospels, and he goes back and forth between Jerusalem and Galilee with most of the action centering in Judea. Jesus throws out the money changers at the beginning of his story rather than the end as with the first three gospels. The four authors use this story to make different points.

Finally, most of the stories in John are unique to his gospel. The different style of story telling jumps out at you. The gospel of John is filled with long, reflective discourses rather than the more straight forward biographical style of the first three gospels. The author quotes Jesus making long speeches. Obviously, this is not history. There is no way these speeches could have been remembered word for word sixty years later.

The gospel of John is the story of the cosmic Jesus. This Jesus was present with God from the beginning. He is a Jesus that came from heaven and returns there. It is the story of the incarnation, of God becoming flesh. It is also the story about a new religion. The cleansing of the Temple symbolizes the end of sacrificial religion. Faith in Jesus is the road to eternal life.

The gospel begins with a prologue, the famous poem that introduces the theme of incarnation. The second section known as the Book of Signs, John 1:19 through 12: 50, consists of miracle stories designed to bring people to faith. The third section contains the Farewell Discourses, chapters 13 through 17, where Jesus teaches his disciples in private about mutual love and the future of the Christian community. This section is followed by a passion narrative, the resurrection, and an appendix that describes an additional resurrection encounter at the Sea of Tiberias in Galilee.

The gospel contains several text related problems. The story of the adulterous woman (7:53-8: 11), as I pointed out in the blog dealing with Mark’s resurrection story, is an insertion. The story is not found in the earliest manuscripts of the gospel, and the language and grammar are different from the rest of the gospel. The appendix in chapter 21 is an addition to the original gospel. The gospel has a natural ending in Chapter 20:31, and again the vocabulary and grammar of chapter 21 reflect important differences with what comes before. Finally, there are several examples of rough transitions between stories. In 5:1, Jesus goes to Jerusalem where he heals and teaches. In 6:1, we find him on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. These transitional problems are interesting because they show an author putting stories together as if he were constructing a patchwork quilt.

The gospel claims in the appendix that the story was written by Jesus’ favorite disciple, John of Zebedee (see 21:24). This claim lacks validity for several reasons. The author of Acts describes John as an illiterate peasant (see Acts 4: 13), which doesn’t fit with the gospel’s poetic style and deep philosophical reflection. There are also hints that the gospel was written rather late, a time when it is extremely unlikely that John was alive. The author mentions that many Jews were reluctant to accept Jesus as the Messiah for fear of being expelled from their synagogue (see 12:43). Such conflicts did not take place until late in the first century. Most scholars date the book between 90 and 110 C.E. As a result, though it is possible that the author was a follower of John, it is unlikely that the author was the disciple of Jesus. Ancient writers often used pseudonyms to add credibility to their work.

The gospel of John describes the faith claims of many Christians today. These faith claims are explored in the blogs that follow. The most important one dealing with the incarnation is the subject for next week.