The Gospel According To St John Analysis

The Gospel According to St. John was written during the first century AD in Asian Minor. The author of the book cannot be definitively proven according to the Zinderfan Pictorial Bible Dictionary but there is strong evidence that the author was John the apostle. The author had an intimate knowledge of Jewish traditions and the geography of Palestine. The gospel goes into many explanations of these things because its intended audience was gentiles. It is unlikely a gentile would have had the knowledge to give the background information that the author presents. The writer of the gospel identifies himself as the "disciple who Jesus loved." In the gospel most of the disciples were mentioned by name and so can be eliminated as the author of the gospel. Those not mentioned included Mathew, James the less, Simon the Zealot, James, and John.

James the less and Simon the Zealot were minor disciples and therefore not even in the running as the "disciple who Jesus loved." Mathew is associated with another gospel, which reads differently enough from the Gospel According to John to exclude him as the author. James and John are then the most likely candidates. James early death almost certainly proves that John was the author of The Gospel According to St John.

Unger's Bible Dictionary gives a detailed background on John.

John was the son of Zebedee. Little is mentioned about his father's devotion to faith. John's mother, Salome, was presumably a devoted follower of Christ as she was present at the crucifixion (Mark 15:40). It is reasonable to assume that John was raised in a religious home. He was also likely to have been well educated as evidence suggests his family was financially comfortable. John and his brother James were fishermen. T...

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... to hear all the miracles Jesus performed and all the times he and other people claimed he was the Christ, and not believe.

I also was very excited by how much love Jesus showed for the Gentiles. There seems, in some circles, to be a view that the Jews are and have always been God's favorite people. This is shown again and again in the Old Testament when the Jews won battles against or took land from people of other nations. It is sometimes easy to forget, when reading the Old Testament, that God loves all of his children. His love for both Jew and Gentile in the Gospel According to John gives a new and more loving perspective to God. It contrasts somewhat with the harshness of God to non-Jews in the Old Testament. It gives a clear picture, for the first time, of God's love for all his children. It has been a pleasure and a testimony enhancing experience to read it.