The RAVYN Blog

I’ve always wanted to study the disciple known as ‘the one whom Jesus loved.’

John authored several books and letters. We have the Gospel According to John, the three books of John (also known as the ‘love books’), and the Book of Revelation. 

The Gospel According to John was written many years after the last synoptic Gospel, and it stands alone in its class. I believe this Gospel, written so late, bridged the Jewish and Greek worlds in a fusion too poetic to deny. 

John has this lovely, whimsical way of telling the story of Christ—of His deification, glory, and oneness with the Father. 

Throughout this Gospel, there are numerous references to Greek gods, and, as with the plagues of Egypt, we see how Christ dismantles each of these gods in a manner that only a Hellenistic person would understand.

The History of the Gospel of John

Who Was John?

In John 21:20-24, the author identifies himself as the ‘beloved disciple’, who many scholars believe to be John, one of the sons of Zebedee. Many scholars speculate that John was perhaps the youngest disciple. 

Scholars suggest that John, at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion, was old enough to care for Jesus’ mother, so he was perhaps around 17 or 20. If this is the case, then when Jesus started His ministry, John would’ve been around 13 to 17. 

John is also the only disciple to die of natural causes, living out his entire life. It’s speculated that John died anywhere between 60 and 90 years old. 

It was customary in Jewish culture, especially in 1^st-century Judea, for a child to begin his religious training at age five. If that child wanted to continue being discipled, they would seek a rabbi around the age of 13 or 15 to learn from^[a].

If this was the case with Jesus’ disciples, it is possible that most of them were teenagers (Jesus often referred to them as ‘children’ or ‘little children’), since Jesus began His rabbinic ministry around the age of thirty.

When Was the Gospel of John Written?

Some believe John wrote his Gospel before the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed (AD 70), but the Gospel of John doesn’t mention Jesus’ prophecy of this destruction (as in the other synoptic Gospels) nor does it record the destruction of the temple itself ^[b].

This, among many other reasons, is why scholars generally accept that John wrote his Gospel account around 85 to 90 AD^[c]. 

Who Authored the Gospel of John?

While the Gospel of John doesn’t name the author (except for a reference to Jesus’ beloved disciple), early church leaders believed he wrote it. 

Polycarp, an early church leader who knew John personally and worked with the disciple, taught Irenaeus, a student who stated that John wrote his Gospel while living in Ephesus. He was an elderly man when he authored many of his well-known works in Scripture^[d].

John’s Inspiration

You can say, based on John’s writing, that there’s a lot of inspiration pulled from Greek philosophy, especially in the way he opened his writing. He considered the emerging ideas and thoughts of his day and lent a unique perspective on Christ that would challenge even the most well-learned philosopher. 

However, John states that the primary purpose of his writing of the Gospel is so that ‘we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.’ In other words, John’s writing points to the deification of Christ and eternal life He grants us when we believe in Him (John 20:31). 

John does not place too much emphasis on Christ’s miracles, unlike the other Synoptic Gospels. He doesn’t present a chronological narrative of Christ’s ministry, but rather he selectively chooses the narrative to set up Christ’s deity, and this is important. 

In truth, the Gospel of John only includes seven miracles, which he calls signs, used to demonstrate this very fact. His Gospel focuses primarily on theology, and it is not necessarily doctrinal. 

Some of these miracles are recorded only in John, which raises the question of why the other disciples didn’t focus on them. 

One explanation could be that the miracles that John speaks about, perhaps, were ‘incriminating’ to those who experienced them first-hand. Since John’s account of Christ’s ministry was written last, it could be that John was now free to speak on things that the others weren’t too free to speak on. 

For example, the death and resurrection of Lazarus aren’t mentioned in the other synoptic Gospels, but this may be because Lazarus’ life was on the line, and the early Gospel writers didn’t want to draw too much attention to him. 

By the time John’s account was written, this controversial action may no longer have attracted the sort of enemies it did when it occurred, giving John the leeway to write about it. 

However, John doesn’t base his account of Christ’s miracles unless they emphasize His deity. Instead, John opts to focus on a philosophy—the philosophy on which Christianity is built.

John’s Gospel is also the only one to give theological insight to the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and it affirms that there are in fact three persons in the Godhead, as seen in John 14:16, 26 and John 15:26. 

John sought to strengthen the faith of second-generation believers and to foster faith in others, but he also sought to correct a false teaching spreading in the first century. John emphasized Jesus Christ as “the Son of God,” fully God and fully man, contrary to a false doctrine that taught the “Christ-spirit” came upon the human Jesus at His baptism and left Him at the crucifixion.

Understanding John

The Gospel account according to John isn’t nearly about Christ’s biography on Earth. Instead, it seeks to focus on the life of Christ as both God and man. This Gospel presents a multi-layered view of Christ that unfolds as we explore the mysteries of its words. 

John is artistic, poetic, symbolic, metaphorical, but most importantly, true. John highlights the most important purpose of Christ’s mission—His love for humanity. 

The Gospel is filled with confrontations, humor, emotions, personality, self-awareness, and at times, the so-called ‘pettiness’ of John himself. John shows that the writer of this Gospel is indeed a human being, one who took the memories he made with his rabbi to heart and carried them in his soul. 

John never allows us to forget that this Gospel is his account of the Gospel—the love he received from his teacher is written in every word etched into the paper.

Where Do We Start?

Having an in-depth analysis of the Gospel of John will do us some good. Firstly, this study of John is divided into four parts. 

Part One will focus on John’s thesis statement. Here, we’ll investigate Christ’s purpose and mission, comparing them to the Hellenistic understanding of spirituality in first-century Judea. 

In Part One, I’ll dive into:

• The Logos and Phos (John 1:1-18)
• The Gathering of the Disciples (John 1:19-51)
• The Symbolism of Water and Wine: Jesus’ First Miracle (John 2:1-12)
• The Nicodemus Encounter (John 3:1-20)

Part Two will be completed later and will focus strictly on Jesus’ encounter with women. John is one of the two Gospels that considers Jesus’ interaction with women of His time, and this is significant. 

Part Two will focus on:

• The Woman at the Well (John 4)
• The Adulterous Woman* (John 8:1-11)
• The Death and Resurrection of Lazarus (John 11)
• The Alabaster Box (John 12:1-19)
• The Empty Tomb (John 20)

Part Three will follow, focusing on the theological and philosophical aspects of the deity of Christ, His relationship with the Father, and His relationship with the Holy Spirit. 

• The Authority of Christ (John 5)
• Jesus, the Bread of Life (John 6)
• Who Jesus Says He Is (John 7, John 8:12-58)
• Jesus, the Good Shepard (John 10)
• The Way to the Father (John 14)
• The Coming of the Spirit (John 14:15-21; John 15:26 – 16)
• Jesus, the True Vine (John 15)

Lastly, Part Four will focus on the miracles of Christ and conclude with John’s account of Jesus’ arrest, death, and resurrection. 

• The Healing at the Pool (John 5:1-14)
• The Feeding of the Five Thousand (John 6:1-15)
• The Man Born Blind (John 9)
• The Death and Resurrection of Lazarus (John 11)
• The Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus (John 17 – 21)

Until Next Time…

Want to do a deep-dive into the Gospels? Follow my mini-study series, The Gospel According to John, right here on The Ravyn Blogs. Sign up to get all your questions answered as you Grow with God. 

Signed,

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