Gospel of John
The Gospel of John is the fourth gospel in the usual sequence of the canon as printed in the New Testament. It contains an account of the life of Jesus. The apostle John is traditionally considered its author, and his name appears as the author in many ancient manuscripts.
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2 Bridging the Old Testament and New Testament 3 Popular Passages in the Gospel 4 Structure 5 External link |
Sources
Beginning with a hypothesis elaborated by Rudolf Bultmann, some scholars have suggested that the author of John depended in part on an oral miracles tradition or a written manuscript of Christ's miracles that was independent of the synoptic gospels, whose authors did not use it. This has been labelled a "Signs Gospel," alleged to have been circulating before ca 70 A.D., which is evidently lost. Even readers who doubt that such a document can be precisely identified have noticed the remnants of a numbering associated with some of the miracles. Textual critics have noted that all the miracles mentioned only by John occur before John 12:37; that these "signs" are unusually dramatic; and that these "signs" (semeia, uniquely John's expression) are done in order to call forth faith, are different from the rest of the "signs" in John, and all the miracles in the synoptic gospels, which according to this interpretation occur as a result of faith. The conclusion is that John was reinterpreting an early Hellenistic tradition of Jesus as a wonder-worker, the "magician" that would fit within the Hellenistic world-view. (See more detailed discussions linked below)
Bridging the Old Testament and New Testament
Readers of Genesis 1 may note that John 1 shares a similar structure. Genesis 1 focuses on what God did to create the world, and John 1 focuses on the Word and all that the Word accomplished (Jesus). This internal contrast and comparison implies that John is starting with another beginning that is true because the Bible points to Jesus as the Second Adam. 1 Corinthians 15:45 states the First Adam from Genesis as a man who became "a living being", while the Second Adam (Jesus) is "a lifegiving spirit". With this in mind John aims not only to show Jesus as the Son of God but also to include the Jewish people by echoing the beginning of their earliest historical book, Genesis.
Popular Passages in the Gospel
John 3:16 is one of the most widely known passages in the New Testament: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. According to Gideons International, John 3:16 has been translated into more than 1100 languages.
Structure
After the prologue (1:1-5), the narrative of this gospel begins with verse 6, and consists of two parts. The first part (1:6-ch. 12) contains the story of Jesus' public ministry from the time of his introduction to it by John the Baptist to its close. The second part (ch. 13-21) presents Jesus in the retirement of private life and in his intercourse with his immediate followers (13-17), and gives an account of his sufferings and crucifixion and of his appearances to the disciples after his resurrection (18-21).
The Gospel of John is easily the most distinctive of the four. The other three, known as the synoptic Gospels, share a considerable amount of text and describe much more of Jesus' life. By contrast, the specific peculiarities of this gospel are the place it gives (1) to the mystical relation of the Son to the Father, and (2) of the Redeemer to believers; (3) the announcement of the Holy Ghost as the Comforter (called in Greek the Paraclete; (4) the prominence given to love as an element in the Christian character.
The Gospel of John takes place mainly in Jerusalem, where Jesus was supposed to have visited frequently for the many religious festivals held there. Much of its language is very technical, attributed by some to the fact that Jesus would be directly addressing the religious leaders.
This book is addressed primarily to Christians. Because its traditional author, John the Apostle, was believed as early as Papias to have lived at the end of his life at Ephesus, which became a major center of Christian life and activity after the destruction of Jerusalem (AD 70), many believe it was also written in that city. Scholarly research since the 19th century has raised suspicions about John's authorship, and the date of this gospel was believed to be many decades later than the events it describes; F.C. Baur asserted a date as late as AD 160 for this work. However, in 1934 C.H. Roberts published a scrap of papyrus (P52 = Papyrus Ryl. Gr. 457) that contained a few verses from the Gospel of John, whose handwriting he dated to the first half of the second century. While some experts in paleography have objected that a manuscript cannot be dated so accurately, it is agreed that this piece of papyrus is the earliest text for any portion of the New Testament.
Critics charge that some of the passages in this book are anti-Semitic, and that these passages have shaped the way that many Christians viewed Jews.
Unlike the synoptic Gospels, the Gospel of John is regarded by some scholars as a Gnostic Gospel. According to this school of interpretation, distinctions are made between "Johannine Christianity" and "Pauline Christianity." In the Gnostic view, the secret to salvation is through "knowledge" that Jesus is the Christ -- those who understand this are saved, those who don't "stand condemned already."
See also
External link
Portions originally from Easton's Bible Dictionary, 1897.