Introduction to the Gospel of John
A Different Gospel
No Infancy Narrative
No Parables
No Lord’s Prayer
No Institution of the Eucharist
No Agony in the Garden
Extended Narratives, Dialogues, and Discourses
Jesus seems to preach himself, not the Kingdom
A Different Angle of Vision
The Synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke) basically present the story of the man, Jesus, whose words and deeds show that he is somehow more than a man, and lead to the recognition that he is the Messiah, the Holy One of God, the Son of God. We observe Jesus from the outside, observing what he does and says, wondering with the disciples and the people who this might be, as his identity is gradually revealed to us.
The Gospel of John begins with the presentation of Jesus as the Word of God who from the “beginning” was with God, indeed was God, and was made flesh and came to dwell among us, and proceeds to tell the story of Jesus as this God/man fully aware of who he is and of his relationship with the Father. We see Jesus and his mission from inside, from his divine point of view.
Relationship to the Synoptic Gospels
There is no clear borrowing from the Synoptic Gospels.
Only a few stories in the Synoptic Gospels are found also in John.
Sometimes in John Jesus seems to be contradicting what is found in the Synoptics. For example, in the Synoptics, in the Garden, Jesus asks the father to take “this cup” away from him. In John, Jesus says “I am troublednow. Yet what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” (John 12:27-28)
While sometimes Jesus’ words in John seem to be so different from his words in the Synoptics. In John he says a lot about his relationship with the Father, and claims to be divine. But in the Synoptics we have two typical “Johannine” expressions:
- At that time [when the disciples return from their preaching mission] Jesus said in reply, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him. (Matthew 11:25-27)
- When Jesus walks on water and comes to the frightened disciples in the boat, he says “Take courage, it is I [εγωειμι];do not be afraid.” (Matthew 14:27)
Question of historicity
Theology or History?
Historical details about Jewish practices and Palestinian geography
Long discourses vs. collections of parables and sayings
Special characteristics
High Christology
Symbolism
Repetition of words and themes. Spiral development?
Dualism
The Lawsuit motif: “Truth on Trial”
Hoi Ioudaioi (See separate treatment)
Outline of the Gospel
Prologue: 1:1-18
“Book of (Seven) Signs” 1:19-12:50
“Book of Glory” 13:1-20:31
- Last Supper Discourse
- Passion, Death and Resurrection
Epilogue 21:1-25
Who was the Author of the Fourth Gospel and what was he trying to do? (See separate treatments)
The “Other” Disciple and The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved:
Authorship of the Fourth Gospel
John 1:35-40
The next day John was there again with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus.
John 13:23-25
One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved,was reclining at Jesus’ side. So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant. He leaned back against Jesus’ chest and said to him, “Master, who is it?”
John 18:15-16
Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Now the other disciple was known to the high priest, and he entered the courtyard of the high priest with Jesus. But Peter stood at the gate outside. So the other disciple, the acquaintance of the high priest, went out and spoke to the gatekeeper and brought Peter in.
John 19:25-27
Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
John 19:33-35
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out. An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true; he knowsthat he is speaking the truth, so that you also may come to believe.
John 20:3-10
On the first day of the week,Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial clothsthere, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned home.
John 21:1-7
After this, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. He revealed himself in this way. Together were Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We also will come with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore; but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, have you caught anything to eat?” They answered him, “No.” So he said to them, “Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something.” So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in because of the number of fish. Sothe disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.”
John 21:20-24
Peter turned and saw the disciple following whom Jesus loved, the one who had also reclined upon his chest during the supper and had said, “Master, who is the one who will betray you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus said to him, “What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours? You follow me.” So the word spread among the brothers that that disciple would not die. But Jesus had not told him that he would not die, just “What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours?” It is this disciple who testifies to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true.
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Richard Bauckham, The Testimony of the Beloved Disciple, pp. 68-69.
The Fourth Gospel was never anonymous. As Hengel has shown, as soon as Gospels circulated in the churches, they must have been known with authors’ names attached to them. The Fourth Gospel was known as John’s. In Asia, the tradition from Papias early in the second century to Polycrates at its end was that this John, the beloved disciple and author of the Gospel, was John the Elder, a disciple of the Lord but not one of the Twelve, who had died in Ephesus. We know of no dissent from this tradition in Asia before the third century. It is not certain when the identification of this John of Ephesus with John the son of Zebedee was first accepted in Asia, but it does not appear to have happened for more than a century after the writing of the Gospel.
The identification of John of Ephesus, the beloved disciple and the author of the Fourth Gospel, with John the son of Zebedee seems to have been first made in Egypt…around the middle of the second century.
Francis J. Moloney, S.D.B., The Gospel of John (Sacra Pagina series, pp. 8-9.
…However much the scholarly assessment of the internal and external evidence militates against the traditional identification of John the son of Zebedee with the Beloved Disciple, there is always the chance that the apostle John may have been in some way “author” of the Gospel we traditionally call “of John.” It is arrogant to rule any possibility out of court. It should not worry us that we cannot be sure. The authority of this Gospel flows from the way it tells the story of God and God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and its challenge to all who would wish to be his followers. These issues do not depend on the apostolicity of its author.
What is John Doing?
Sharing The Experience
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life -- the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us -- that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing this that our joy may be complete.
1John 1:1-4
The Witness
He who saw it has borne witness -- his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth -- that you also may believe. John 19:35
This is the disciple who is bearing witness to these things, and who has written these things; and we know that his testimony is true. John 21:24
Why He Writes
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
John 20:30f
Words about the Word
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. John 1:14
Remembering and Bearing Witness in the Spirit
“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” John 14:26
“But when the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me; and you also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning.” John 15:26f
"I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” John 16:12-14
Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, p. 411
In the case of the other Gospels it was important that the form of the eyewitness testimonies was preserved in the Gospels. The more reflectively interpretative Gospel of John does not, by contrast, assimilate the eyewitness reports beyond recognition into its own elaboration of the story, but is, as it stands, the way one eyewitness understood what he and others had seen. The author’s eyewitness status authorizes the interpretation. Thus, whereas scholars have often supposed that this Gospel could not have been written by an eyewitness because of its high degree of interpretation of the events and words of Jesus, by contrast with the Synoptics, in fact the high degree of interpretation is appropriate precisely because this is the only one of the canonical Gospels that claims eyewitness authorship.
In all four Gospels we have the history of Jesus only in the form of testimony, the testimony of involved participants who responded in faith to the disclosure of God in these events. In testimony fact and interpretation are inextricable; in this testimony empirical sight and spiritual perception are inseparable. If this history was in fact the disclosure of God, then to have the report of some uncommitted observer would not take us nearer the historical truth but further from it.
[The Gospel of John] is the perspective of a man who was deeply but distinctively formed by his own experience of the events.
Symbolism in the Gospel of John
From Craig R. Koester
Symbolism in the Fourth Gospel: Meaning, Mystery, Community
Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2003
(Page numbers in parentheses)
The study of Johannine symbolism takes us to a problem that lies at the heart of all theological reflection: How do people know God? (1)
[John 1:18 - “No one has ever seen God. The only Son...has revealed Him.”
Aquinas:
- “We are not capable of knowing what God is, but we can know what God is not.”
- “This is what is ultimate in the human knowledge of God: to know that we do not know God.”
- “…things are said of God and creatures analogically, and not in a purely equivocal nor in a purely univocal sense.”
The words spoken by and about Jesus, together with the actions he performed, are the vehicles through which revelation is given. (2)
Earthly images could be used to bear witness to divine realities because the earth is God’s creation. This is one of the main theological underpinnings of Johannine symbolism. (2)
Jesus called upon things that could be heard, seen, touched, and tasted to bear witness to the unseen God who sent him, so that the commonplace—bread made from barley meal, streams of cool water, and a glimmer of light—became vehicles of revelation. (2)
The Gospel presents the paradox that the divine is made known through what is earthly and the universal is disclosed through what is particular. This gives Johannine symbolism a tensive, dialectical quality that conveys transcendent reality without finally delimiting it. The Gospel’s testimony, given in symbolic language, is a vehicle for the Spirit’s work; and it is through the Spirit that the testimony becomes effective, drawing readers to know the mystery that is God. (3)
Symbols can affect people with an immediacy that cannot be replicated in more discursive speech; yet as symbols capture the imagination they engage readers in an ongoing process of reflection. (4)
A symbol, in the most general sense, is something that stands for something else. Here, however, we will focus the definition: A symbol is an image, an action, or a person that is understood to have transcendent significance. In Johannine terms, symbols span the chasm between what is “from above” and what is “from below” without collapsing the distinction. (4)
The fundamental structure of Johannine symbolism is twofold. The primary level of meaning concerns Christ; the secondary level concerns discipleship. The movement from Christology to discipleship is apparent in symbolic images and actions throughout the Gospel. (13)
A genuine symbol does not conceal a message that “only needs to be unmasked for the images in which it is clothed to become useless,” as Paul Ricoeur observed. The images stimulate and direct an ongoing process of reflection, rather than giving an answer that obviates the need for further thought. The “symbol gives; but what it gives is an occasion for thought, something to think about.” (24)