The Gospel of John
Author
The Gospel of John is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, one of Jesus's twelve closest disciples.
John was a fisherman with connections in both Galilee and Jerusalem.
Unlike the other synoptic gospels which focus more on what Jesus did, John reflects on who Jesus were by describing his personality in much more detail. For example John often omits key events like Jesus' birth, baptism and temptation, but include unique interactions with individuals.
Purpose
These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is:
- the Christ,
- the Son of God, and
- that by believing you may have life in his name.
-- John 20:31 ESV
In John emphasise more on the vertical relationship between God and man than the horizontal timeline of events like the other gospels.
Reliabilitya
No other bible author quotes the Gospel of John, because it was one of the later books written in the New Testament. Many estimate that John's Gospel was written after the other synaptic gospels. However, it was also of the earliest Christian writing that gained widespread acceptance.
Evidence that is often used to proof the reliability of this book is:
- Modern archaeological finding affirms the locations John described, for example:
- Jacob’s Well (John 4:6),
- the Pool of Bethesda (John 5:2),
- the Siloam Pool (John 9:7)
- John's account is chronological consistent with the recorded history.
- John provides an eyewitness account.
- The early Christian church fathers (like Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen) affirms John the apostle as the author.
- John's account is complementary to the other gospels.
Critiques
John 21
Some reason that John 21 is an addition which was not originally written by John, because:
- Some believe the language and style differs.
- John 20 concludes the witness of Jesus, but John 21 jumps back to another resurrection occurrence which breaks the text's chronological flow.
- John 21 refers to John in the third person.
Although some manuscripts lack John 21, some of the most early manuscripts did include John 21.
A possible explanation is that John as a fisherman was likely illiterate and someone else wrote the Gospel on his behalf and possibly added his own commentary at the end which some might have removed or included depending on the view of the person that copied the text.