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The Gospel of John

Updated: Jan 25

The Gospel of John is the fourth of the New Testament's four canonical Gospels. It was written anonymously, although it recognises an unknown "Disciple whom Jesus loved" as the author of its passages. It contains a highly schematic account of the ministry of Jesus, with seven "signs" (miracles) culminating in the raising of Lazarus (foreshadowing the resurrection of Jesus) and seven "I am" discourses (concerned with issues of the church–synagogue debate) culminating in Thomas's proclamation of the risen Jesus as "My Lord and my God". The gospel's concluding verses set out its purpose, "That you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name."


John is rightly known for its clarity in pointing to Jesus. From the very first verse we are left in no doubt that Jesus is the divine Son, sent from God, sharing the nature of God. He reveals his divine identity in his signs, in his authoritative speech to others, and in his claims about himself (John 10:37–38).


John reached its final form around AD 90–110, although it contains signs of origins dating back to AD 70 and possibly even earlier. Like the three other gospels, it is anonymous, although it identifies an unnamed "Disciple whom Jesus loved" as the source of its traditions.


The Gospel of John


What is unique about St John's Gospel?

John's Gospel differs from the Synoptic Gospels in several ways: it covers a different time span than the others; it locates much of Jesus' ministry in Judaea; and it portrays Jesus discoursing at length on theological matters. The major difference, however, lies in John's overall purpose.


John is rightly known for its clarity in pointing to Jesus. From the very first verse we are left in no doubt that Jesus is the divine Son, sent from God, sharing the nature of God. He reveals his divine identity in his signs, in his authoritative speech to others, and in his claims about himself (John 10:37–38).


Because of its special theological character, the Gospel According to John was considered in ancient times to be the “Spiritual Gospel.”


The Gospel of John begins by announcing that God's Word, which brought all things into being, became flesh in Jesus. of Nazareth. During his ministry, Jesus reveals the power of God by performing seven miraculous signs, including turning water into wine, healing the sick, and raising the dead.


The Gospel of John emphasises Jesus as God incarnate and the reality to which the entire biblical story points. John emphasises this with his opening passages that states that Jesus was with God at creation and that Jesus is God.


John's Gospel is utterly unlike the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John is more mystical and more emphatic that Jesus was divine, was God, yet more accurate than the others.


The author of John's Gospel states that the book was written so that people might come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah whose life, death, and resurrection are God's saving act for humanity is indeed the Christ, the Son of God.


The words and deeds recorded in John only occur in John. For example, the story of Jesus turning water into wine only occurs in the Gospel of John, along with Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Long discourses and dialogue, including the dialogue with Nicodemus are unique to John.


The Gospel according to John is also quite different in character from the three synoptic gospels: It is highly literary and symbolic. In addition it does not follow the same order or reproduce the same stories as the synoptic gospels.


In terms of style, John presents Jesus' teachings in extended speeches rather than pithy sayings.


The Gospel of John is very readable.


So, John clearly wrote his Gospel to convince people that Jesus is the Messiah. The Gospel according to John in the New Testament narrates and recounts the life and death of Jesus Christ. John’s is the only one of the four not considered among the Synoptic Gospels (i.e., those presenting a common view). Although the Gospel is ostensibly written by St. John the Apostle, “The beloved disciple” of Jesus, there has been considerable discussion of the actual identity of the author. The language of the Gospel and its well developed theology suggest that the author may have lived later than John and based his writing on John’s teachings and testimonies. Moreover, the facts that several episodes in the life of Jesus are recounted out of sequence with the Synoptics and that the final chapter appears to be a later addition suggest that the text may be a composite work.


The author of John’s Gospel tells us that he has chosen not to record many of the symbolic acts of Jesus and has instead included certain episodes in order that his readers may understand and share in the mystical union of Christ’s church, that they “May believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30). This motive pervades the narrative, as do a kind of mystic symbolism and repeated emphasis on the incarnation. The author begins his account with a pronouncement on the incarnation that clearly intimates Genesis (“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”). (John 1:1) The author continually adds interpretative comments of his own to clarify Jesus’ motives. In the narration of certain miraculous deeds, for example, the feeding of the 5,000 (John 6:1–15), which appears in all four Gospels, John’s version is explained as symbolic of a deeper spiritual Truth (“I am the bread of life”). Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus openly presents himself as the divine Son of God, not hiding his identity as he does in The Gospel According to Mark. Thus, the author of John’s Gospel does not merely narrate a series of events but singles out details that support an ordered theological interpretation of those events. 


Composition

The Gospel of John, like all the Gospels, is anonymous. John 21:22 references a disciple whom Jesus loved and John 21:24–25 says: "This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true". Early Christian tradition, first found in Irenaeus (c. 130 – c. 202 AD), identified this disciple with John the Apostle, but most scholars have abandoned this hypothesis or hold it only tenuously; there are multiple reasons for this conclusion, including, for example, the fact that the gospel is written in good Greek and displays sophisticated theology, and is therefore possibly unlikely to have been the work of a fisherman of that time. Rather, these verses imply that the core of the Gospel relies on the testimony (perhaps written) of the "Disciple who is testifying", as collected, preserved, and reshaped by a community of followers (the "we" of the passage), and that a single follower (the "I") rearranged this material and perhaps added the final chapter and other passages to produce the final Gospel.


The author seems to have known some version of Mark and Luke, as John shares with them some vocabulary and clusters of incidents arranged in the same order, but key terms from those Gospels are absent or nearly so, implying that if the author did know them they felt free to write independently.


The Gospel according to John is also quite different in character from the three synoptic Gospels: It is highly literary and symbolic. It does not follow the same order or reproduce the same stories as the synoptic Gospels. To a much greater degree, it is the product of a developed theological reflection and grows out of a different circle and tradition.


The fourth Gospel is not simply history; the narrative has been organised and adapted to serve theological purposes as well. 


Structure and content of John's Gospel

The prologue informs readers of the true identity of Jesus, the Word of God through whom the world was created and who took on human form; he came to the Jews and the Jews rejected him, but "to all who received him (the circle of Christian believers), who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God."


Book of Signs (ministry of Jesus): Jesus calls his disciples and begins his earthly ministry. He travels from place to place informing his hearers about God the Father in long discourses, offering eternal life (Heaven on Earth) to all who will believe, and performing miracles that prove the authenticity of his teachings, which creates tensions with the religious authorities (manifested as early as 5:17–18), who decide he must be eliminated.


The Book of Glory tells of Jesus's return to his heavenly Father: it tells how he prepares his disciples for their lives without his physical presence and his prayer for himself and for them, followed by his betrayal, arrest, trial, crucifixion and post-resurrection appearances.


The conclusion sets out the purpose of the Gospel, which is "That you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name."


Chapter 21, the addendum, tells of Jesus's post-resurrection appearances in Galilee, the miraculous catch of fish, the prophecy of the crucifixion of Peter, and the fate of the 'Beloved Disciple'.


The structure is highly schematic: there are seven "signs" culminating in the raising of Lazarus (foreshadowing the resurrection of Jesus), and seven "I am" sayings and discourses, culminating in Thomas's proclamation of the risen Jesus as "my Lord and my God".


Christology

Scholars agree that while the Gospel of John clearly regards Jesus as divine, it just as clearly subordinates him to the one God.


The idea of the Trinity developed only slowly through the merger of Hebrew monotheism and the idea of the messiah, Greek ideas of the relationship between God, the world, and the mediating Saviour, and the Egyptian concept of the three-part divinity.


Individualism

Compared to the synoptic gospels, John is markedly individualistic, in the sense that it places emphasis more on the individual's relation to Jesus than on the corporate nature of the Church.


Gnosticism

Gnosticism taught that salvation came from gnosis, secret knowledge, and Gnostics saw Jesus as not a saviour but a revealer of wisdom. The Gospel teaches that salvation can be achieved only through revealed wisdom, specifically belief in (literally belief into) Jesus.


The Gospel narrative contains a series of “signs” - the gospel’s word for the wondrous deeds or miracles performed by Jesus. The author is primarily interested in the significance of these deeds, and so interprets them for the reader by various reflections, narratives, and discourses. The first sign is the transformation of water into wine at Cana (John 2:1–11); this represents the replacement of the Jewish ceremonial washings and symbolises the entire creative and transforming work of Jesus. The second sign, the cure of the royal official’s son (John 4:46–54) simply by the word of Jesus at a distance, signifies the power of Jesus’ life-giving word. The same theme is further developed by other signs, probably for a total of seven. The third sign, the cure of the paralytic at the pool with five porticoes in Chapter 5, continues the theme of water offering newness of life. In the preceding chapter, to the woman at the well in Samaria Jesus had offered living water springing up to eternal life, a symbol of the revelation that Jesus brings; here Jesus’ life-giving word replaces the water of the pool that failed to bring life. John 6 contains two signs, the multiplication of loaves and the walking on the waters of the Sea of Galilee. These signs are connected much as the manna and the crossing of the Red Sea are in the Passover narrative and symbolise a new Exodus. The multiplication of the loaves is interpreted for the reader by the discourse that follows, where the bread of life is used first as a figure for the revelation of God in Jesus and then for the Eucharist. After a series of dialogues reflecting Jesus’ debates with the Jewish authorities at the Feast of Tabernacles in John 7; 8, the sixth sign is presented in John 9, the sign of the young man born blind. This is a narrative illustration of the theme of conflict in the preceding two chapters; it proclaims the triumph of light over darkness, as Jesus is presented as the Light of the world. This is interpreted by a narrative of controversy between the Pharisees and the young man who had been given his sight by Jesus, ending with a discussion of spiritual blindness and spelling out the symbolic meaning of the cure. And finally, the seventh sign, the raising of Lazarus in Chapter 11, is the climax of signs. Lazarus is presented as a token of the real life that Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life, who will now ironically be put to death because of his gift of life to Lazarus, will give to all who believe in him once he has been raised from the dead.


The whole gospel of John is a progressive revelation of the glory of God’s only Son, who comes to reveal the Father and then returns in glory to the Father. The author’s purpose is clearly expressed in what must have been the original ending of the Gospel at the end of John 20: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of [his] disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may [come to] believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.”


The Gospel of John read for you:

The Gospel according to St John, read by Sir David Suchet


My favourite quotes from the Gospel of St John

  1. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1)

  2. "But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name." (John 1:12) We are all innocent children of God.

  3. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of Grace and Truth." (John 1:14)

  4. "Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3). This quote emphasises the need to be reborn through personal transformation.

  5. "For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) Here he is referring to Heaven on Earth and not some mystical afterlife.

  6. "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in Truth." (John 4:24)

  7. "Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgement but has passed from death to life." (John 5:24). This quote indicates that God is not a punishing God.

  8. "You will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free." (John 8:32) This is one of the most powerful phrases in the whole Bible.

  9. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  (John 10:10)

  10. "I and the Father are one." (John 10:30). Jesus also means that we and our Higher Power are one too.

  11. "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live.'” (John 11:25)

  12. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34). This is a powerful statement calling us to end conflict and hate and replace it with unconditional love.

  13. "Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me." (John 14:1). This calls us to be fearless in Faith.

  14. "Jesus told him, 'I am the way, the Truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.' John 14:6

  15. "But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you." (John 14:26). This passage indicates that the Holy Spirit is sent to us, during meditation, like a smartphone, to teach us and remind us of our divine nature.

  16. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." (John 14:27). Again, have no fear.

  17. "I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me." (John 15:5). This indicates that it is only by handing our life and will over to our Higher Power (for me that is Jesus) that we can achieve anything lasting and significant.

  18. "So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy." John 16:22. Joy is an inner resource that does not depend on people, places, or events.

  19. "In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." John 16:23. This means that your prayers will always be answered.

  20. “Sanctify them by the Truth; your word is Truth.”  (John 17:17)


Namaste.


Sending you love, light, and blessings brothers.


Olly



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