Scripture Research Paper: The Gospel According to John
The Gospel of John begins by stating that God sent John the Baptist to identify Jesus Christ as the true Light and Savior. First Christ became a human being and lived here on earth among us and was full of loving forgiveness and truth(John 975). One day while John was baptizing in the Jordan River, Jesus approached to be baptized. Once He was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended from Heaven in the form of a dove and rested on Jesus. This sign told John that Jesus is the Son of God(John 977).
Jesus performs many miracles and still there are people who don't believe in him. First He turned water into wine(John 977-988). Second, Jesus healed the sick son of a Capernaum government official on account of his faith(John 981). The fourth miracle accomplished by Jesus was healing a man that had been sick for 38 years. After He healed him physically, He healed him spiritually and told the man to roll up his sleeping mat and go home. Jewish leaders became angry with Jesus for instructing the man to carry his mat, since it was considered working on the Sabbath(John 982). Fifth, Jesus fed 5,000 people using five loaves of bread and two fish. Even after this last miracle, many followed Jesus, not because they believed in Him, but because He had fed them(John 983).
Jesus' own brothers didn't believe in Him and made fun of Him saying, "Go where more people can see your miracles!" they scoffed. "You can't be famous when you hide like this! If you're so great, prove it to the world!"(John 984). The Pharisees convicted Jesus of blasphemy before He was even tried, because they said that Jesus couldn't be the Messiah, for He would have been born of the royal line of David, in Bethlehem, not of a carpenter in Nazareth(John 985). It is ironic that the very reason given that Jesus must not be the Messiah actually supports the fact that Jesus is the prophesied Messiah.
At the last supper, Jesus tells Judas that he will betray Him and Peter that he will deny even knowing Him three times before the cock crowed the next morning(John 993). Jesus then tells His disciples that He's going away soon to a place they cannot follow, but that He'll return and send the Holy Spirit to help them. Jesus prays for Himself and later while He and his disciples are in a grove of olive trees, He is arrested(John 997).
Pilate judges Jesus to be not guilty, but the Jews don't accept this, yelling, "Crucify Him!" Wishing not to cause trouble with the Jewish people or Caesar, he sent Jesus to be crucified(John 998). Joseph of Arimathea had been a secret disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jewish leaders, but boldly asked Pilate for permission to take Jesus' body down, which was granted(John 999). Nicodemus went with Joseph to use embalming ointment made from myrrh and aloes on Jesus before wrapping Him and placing Him in a new tomb. Two days later, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early Sunday morning and found the stone rolled away from the entrance. She returned with Peter and John who saw and believed that Jesus had risen(John 1000).
Jesus appears to His disciples and they receive the Holy Spirit. Thomas was the only one not present and so he couldn't believe it unless he could see Jesus himself. Eight days later, the disciples were together again, this time Thomas was present, and Jesus appeared to them. He offered to let Thomas place his finger in the nail wounds and hand in his side, but Thomas already believed from seeing. Later Jesus appeared to His disciples for the last time after Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James, and John had been fishing all night with no luck and decided to go in. Jesus, from the shore, instructed them to cast their net on the right hand side, and when they did they couldn't draw the net in because of the weight of all the fish. As soon as Peter realized who had spoken to them from the shore, he swam to meet Jesus(John 1001). When the others arrived they dragged the net ashore and Peter counted 153 large fish and yet the net hadn't torn. Finally, Jesus asked Peter 3 times whether he loved Him for which Peter replied thrice that he did, symbolizing Jesus' forgiveness for the three times Peter had denied Him the night before His crucifiction(John 1002).
The Gospel of John is written in a simple style(Gundry 101). Throughout his life, John maintained an appearance of utmost simplicity. The ministry of John was moral rather than political and could not be called revolutionary in any ordinary sense. He emphatically disclaimed Messianic status, claiming only to be a forerunner of the kingdom prophesied in Isaiah(Tenney 159). John believes that faith in Jesus is necessary for his readers to be saved, and defines faith as "believing in the special relationship which connects Jesus and the Father and trusting totally in Jesus for everything related to eternal life"(Gustin 203).
The Apostle John wrote the fourth gospel near the end of the first century in Ephesus, a city of Asia Minor. In the past scholars claimed that the gospel wasn't written until the mid-second century, and therefore not by the Apostle John. Discovery of the Rylands Fragment of John proved it to be earlier, to about A.D. 135 and necessarily implies several previous decades for writing, copying, and circulation of the fourth gospel(Gundry 101). John the Baptist probably began preaching about A.D. 28 to 29(Tenney 158). The gospel John has been placed in all four possible positions, but was finally put last because it is regarded to have been written last(Thiessen 162).
There are many differences between the Gospel of John and the three synoptic gospels. The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called synoptic because they are similar. The synoptic gospels referred to Jesus as the Son of God, and thought of him as divine. John, on the other hand, emphasizes that in Jesus, God took on human form, called the Incarnation(Gustin 203). Matthew portrays Jesus as the royal Jewish Messiah(Gundry 105). Mark represents Jesus as the divine Servant-Worker, Luke uses the image of the sympathetic Savior, and John symbolizes Jesus as the incarnate Son of God(Gundry 106). John uses much more symbolism than the other gospels(Gustin 177).
John consciously supplements the synoptics. He emphasizes the Judean ministry and leaves out many parables and the theme of God's kingdom(Gundry 103). Unlike the synoptics, which basically follow the same storyline and use much of the same material, John uses very different stories and sayings(Gustin 203). He supplements with the history of the early Judean ministry rather than copying the Synoptic accounts(Thiessen 171). Apparently John felt that the synoptics explained enough about the Galilean ministry and the kingdom(Gundry 103). Apart from the two miracles in 6:4-21 and the passion story, all is different in the Fourth Gospel. The existence of the synoptics is assumed in the Fourth Gospel, thus much information found in them is not reiterated in John. John selected his own materials to attain his own plan and purpose(Thiessen 171).
John didn't rely on the traditions found in the synoptic gospels(Gustin 177). The synoptics, unconcerned about providing a complete chronology of Jesus' life, only mention the last Passover when Jesus died. John indicates that there were at least three and probably four Passovers during Jesus' public career, thus lasting more than two years and probably between 3 and 3 1/2 years. He also makes it clear that Jesus' public ministry lasted considerably longer than cited by the synoptics(Gundry 103).
The Fourth Gospel contains more extended discourses by Jesus than do the synoptics. John consistently reports Jesus as speaking in a different style in many respects from that of the synoptics. The differences are partially created by John's own way of translating into Greek dominated teaching, and partly because John had a habit of paraphrasing(Gundry 103-104). The synoptics translation is apparently more literal and the paraphrasing less extensive. Often loose translation and paraphrasing can communicate a speaker's intended meaning more clearly than can a direct quotation(Gundry 104).
The Dead Sea Scrolls have shown that John's religious vocabulary is characteristic of first century Judaism(Gundry 107). The Gospel is written in the Koine Greek of the time, and is characterized rather frequently by Hebrew parallelism(Thiessen 171-172). More so than any other gospel accounts, John is written to be in tune to the needs of a specific community of believers(Gustin 203).
John's gospel account presents a very exalted view of Jesus, recognizing Him as the divine Son of God. Jesus is recorded as repeatedly making statements beginning with "I am". The name of God, for the Jews, is "Yahweh," which means "I am." John's Jewish audience clearly understand Jesus referring to Himself as "I am" to mean that He was God(Gustin 203).
The gospel according to John features Jesus' speeches(Gustin 177). The most unusual feature about John is his quoting Jesus as giving discourses, or long speeches. John's account was written to deepen the faith of those in his community already familiar with the accounts written by the synoptics, and to guide them in becoming better disciples of Jesus(Gustin 203).
John presents Jesus as delivering His last discourse before his arrest, explaining to His followers what it means to be His disciple. First is service. As disciples of Christ, it is necessary to humble oneself and serve others. Second includes doing His works, involving teaching, healing, and revealing the Father to other people(Gustin 203). Third, it is important to live out the commandments He has given. Love, even to the point of accepting death, is the test of true discipleship. To love one another is to obey Jesus' commands and live as His disciple. Fourth and last is seeking unity with Jesus. The promise of becoming one with Jesus is the foundation and goal of everything in John. This final goal completes the other three actions(Gustin 204).
The book of John had personal meaning for me. This book was meaningful to me because I actually enjoyed reading it. Even though I have heard most of the stories before in John, I had never actually read it for myself. My experience while reading John's Gospel will undoubtedly provoke me to read some other books of the bible in the near future. I had always thought that the bible would be very boring to read, and it is if you just try to read it straight through, cover to cover.
I feel that John must have had a great sense of humor, since I rather enjoyed the irony used throughout the book. For example, the exact accusations used against Jesus, many times, proved to actually verify His innocence, but no one ever realizes it. Since John paraphrased much of Jesus' dialogues, and presumably others as well, I would speculate that John actually had an ulterior motive to his rephrasing. His purpose of paraphrasing is to have an ironic tone that will hold the readers interest, but still retain the complete original meaning. If God intended John to have a photographic memory to be able to recall every single incident in perfect detail, he would have.
Works Cited
Gundry, Robert H., Ph.D. A Survey of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1970.
Gustin, Marilyn. Discovering God's Word. Mission Hills, California: Benziger Publishing Company, 1995.
John the Baptist. Life Application Bible for Students, John. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1992.
Tenney, Merril C. New Testament Times. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965.
Thiessen, H. C. Introduction to the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1966.
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