Gospel According to John

I

Introduction

Gospel According to John, fourth book of the New Testament. Ecclesiastical tradition, dating from the latter part of the 2nd century, has maintained that it was written by Saint John toward the end of his life and published late in the 1st century, possibly in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus. Tradition also has held that it is the latest of the Gospels, a view shared and substantiated by modern scholars. For this reason, the Gospel of John appears in the New Testament canon after the three Synoptic Gospels. The Synoptic Gospels share a common viewpoint and common subject matter.

II

The Author

Since the 19th century the authorship of the Gospel of John has generated heated controversy. Conservative scholars today generally accept John the Evangelist as the author, but most scholars, who are not prepared to defend the view that the author was an apostle and an eyewitness to the events recorded in the book, have proposed several different hypotheses. Chief among these hypotheses are that the fourth canonical Gospel was written by “the elder” mentioned in the Second and Third Epistles of John (see John, Epistles of); that it was composed by a disciple of John the Evangelist (and so was based, in part, on John's recollections of the Gospel events); that it may have been written by a friend of Jesus Christ, Lazarus of Bethany; or that it was written by an anonymous Christian in Alexandria in the first half of the 2nd century. Most moderate scholars now date John from sometime in the last decade of the 1st century or early in the 2nd century.

III

Treatment of the Gospel

The Gospel of John falls into four distinct sections. The first (1:1-18) is a brief prologue on the nature of Jesus Christ as the incarnation of “the Word” (1:1-2, 14), or Logos, a word signifying reason, which in some ancient Greek philosophy is the governing principle in the universe. Largely on the basis of its use in John's Gospel, Logos also came to designate a Christian doctrine explaining how the divine agent is manifested in the creation, ordering, and salvation of the world. The second section (1:19-11:57 or, according to some scholars, 1:19-12:50) presents testimony that Jesus is the true Christ, or Messiah—that he is, in other words, the manifestation of the incarnate Logos. This testimony is provided partly by John the Baptist and the first disciples, but chiefly by the miracles, or “signs” (20:30), done by Jesus, which “manifested his glory” (2:11). These miracles are the changing of water into wine at Cana (2:1-11); the healing of an official's son (4:46-54); the healing of a man who had been lame for 38 years (5:1-9); the feeding of the 5000 (6:1-15), the only miracle recorded in each of the four Gospels; the healing of a man who had been blind from birth (9:1-7); and the raising of Jesus' friend Lazarus from the dead (11:1-46). The sight of Jesus walking on the sea (6:16-21) also is considered a miracle, or sign, by some scholars. Other scholars, uncertain whether this act should be regarded as a miracle, consider as additional miracles his death (19:30) and appearances as the risen Christ (20:1-29).

The third section of John is said by some scholars to begin with Christ's final trips to Bethany and Jerusalem, which marked the end of his public ministry (chapter 12), and according to them, the section comprises the passion and resurrection of Jesus (chapters 12-20). Others, favoring a thematic outline and following the doctrine of the Logos set forth in the prologue, see as the main theme of this section the return of the incarnate Son to the Father. According to these scholars, the third section thus begins with chapter 13 after Christ's public ministry and continues through chapter 20. Divided either way, the section includes an account of the Last Supper (see Eucharist); Christ's last discourse and prayer, the so-called High Priestly Prayer; largely narrative passages treating dramatically the betrayal, arrest, trial, crucifixion, and burial of Jesus; and dramatic and inspirational personal testimony to the empty sepulchre and the appearances of the risen Christ to Mary Magdalene, the disciples, and the doubting disciple Thomas. The fourth section of John (chapter 21) is an appendix, or postscript. In it the risen Christ, appearing a third time to his disciples, commands Peter to “Feed my lambs” and “my sheep,” foretells Peter's death, and speaks about a disciple whom he loves. This disciple is identified as the author of the Gospel (21:24).

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The author of John wrote when the beliefs of mystery cults and Gnosticism were circulating in the early church along with the first doctrines of Christianity. He seems to have intended his Gospel to serve primarily as a theological reinterpretation of Jesus' person and mission. He presented his message in terms influenced by the philosophical milieu of his time, in a form perhaps more accessible both to Christians of the later church and to Hellenistic Gentiles than to his contemporaries. The author's main purpose apparently was to counteract a teaching of docetic Gnosticism that Christ was a divine being who appeared in human form but was incapable of mortal feeling or of dying (see Docetism). The express purpose of the Gospel is revealed in 20:30-31.

IV

John and the Synoptics

It has long been recognized that the Gospel of John differs from the earlier Synoptic Gospels. Among the more conspicuous and significant differences are the absence in John of any such biographical and historical matters as Jesus' birth, his childhood, his temptation, the transfiguration, the institution of the Eucharist, and the agony in the garden of Gethsemane; and the mention only in John of Christ's miraculous changing of water into wine at Cana, his miraculous raising of Lazarus, his washing of the disciples' feet at the Last Supper (13:1-20), the baptizing by Jesus and his disciples (3:22-36; 4:1-2), the conversation with Nicodemus (3:1-21), the Samaritan woman (4:7-26), and an incident originally not part of the Gospel, that of the woman caught in adultery (7:53-8:11). Important chronological differences also emerge when John is compared with the Synoptics. In John, Christ's public ministry extends over several years, the Last Supper is eaten before the Passover, and Jesus is crucified before the first day of that holiday.