Gospel of John

Composition The Gospel of John is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle. While many modern scholars continue to affirm the traditional attribution, The gospel is internally anonymous. John 21:22 references a disciple whom Jesus loved and John 21:24–25 says: "This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true". Most scholars believe the verses claim the beloved disciple was the author of the gospel, but others argue the author is claiming to be someone else recording the disciple's testimony. There is a consensus among Johannine scholars that the beloved disciple was a real historical person, but there is no consensus on who the beloved disciple was. John 1:14 also switches to a first-person narration, saying "And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth," revealing himself as a participant in the events narrated. The scholarly consensus dates the writing of the gospel between AD 90–100. Recent scholarship has tended to turn against positing hypothetical sources for John. While a few scholars support old ideas about debated sources like the "signs source" and the "sayings source", or develop new theories, it is widely considered that John incorporated synoptic traditions into his own composition instead. For much of the twentieth century, the consensus was that John was independent of the Synoptics, but most scholars now accept the Synoptics as sources for John. The Hebrew scriptures were an important source, with 14 direct quotations (versus 27 in Mark, 54 in Matthew, 24 in Luke), and their influence is vastly increased when allusions and echoes are included, but the majority of John's direct quotations do not agree exactly with any known version of the Jewish scriptures. The author may claim to be a witness in John 21, 1:14, and 19:35. Tom Thatcher, writing for the Oxford Handbook of Johannine Studies, argues that while the beloved disciple did not write the current form of the gospel, this does not entail reconstructions that put the author multiple stages or generations away from the disciple. Instead, he argues that the Fourth Evangelist was a companion of the beloved disciple who either wrote by the disciple's dictation or expanded his work. notes the possibility that there may have been a first and then a second edition. Setting: the Johannine community debate For much of the 20th century, scholars interpreted the Gospel of John within the paradigm of a hypothetical "Johannine community", meaning that it was held to have sprung from a late-1st-century Christian community excommunicated from the Jewish synagogue (probably meaning the Jewish community) on account of its belief in Jesus as the promised messiah. The gospel was considered to reflect a break between the Johannine Christians and the synagogue, while in the letters the Johannine community itself disintegrated. This interpretation, which saw the community as essentially sectarian and outside the mainstream of early Christianity, has been increasingly challenged in the first decades of the 21st century, and there is currently considerable debate over the gospel's social, religious and historical context. ==Structure and content==

to his 11 remaining disciples, from the Maestà of Duccio, 1308–1311 The Gospel of John contains a prologue (1:1–18); an account of the ministry, often called the "Book of Signs" (1:19–12:50); the account of Jesus's final night with his disciples and the passion and resurrection, sometimes called the Book of Glory or Book of Exaltation (13:1–20:31); a conclusion (20:30–31); and an epilogue (Chapter 21). A growing number of scholars, such as Bauckham, and Mark Goodacre, argue that John 21 was part of the original work given the lack of manuscript evidence otherwise. Chapters 15-17 and 21 are commonly believed to be added by either the author of the rest of the gospel or by somebody else; Attridge notes that proposing stages in the gospel's composition does not imply a change in authorship. John displays a profound coherence and unity throughout, and the view of the gospel as a communal product of multiple editions is today in retreat, as literary critics approach the work as a unitary text. • The prologue informs readers of the true identity of Jesus, the Word of God through whom the world was created and who took on human form; he came to the Jews and the Jews rejected him, but "to all who received him (the circle of Christian believers), who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God." • Book of Signs (ministry of Jesus): Jesus calls his disciples and begins his earthly ministry. He travels from place to place informing his hearers about God the Father in long discourses, offering eternal life to all who will believe, and performing miracles that prove the authenticity of his teachings, which creates tensions with the religious authorities (manifested as early as 5:17–18), who decide he must be eliminated. • The Book of Glory tells of Jesus's return to his heavenly father: it tells how he prepares his disciples for their lives without his physical presence and his prayer for himself and for them, followed by his betrayal, arrest, trial, crucifixion and post-resurrection appearances. • The conclusion sets out the purpose of the gospel, which is "that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name." • Chapter 21 tells of Jesus's post-resurrection appearances in Galilee, the miraculous catch of fish, the prophecy of the crucifixion of Peter, and the fate of the Beloved Disciple. The structure is highly schematic: there are seven "signs" culminating in the raising of Lazarus (foreshadowing the resurrection of Jesus) and seven "I am" sayings and discourses, culminating in Thomas's proclamation of the risen Jesus as "my Lord and my God" (the same title, , claimed by the Emperor Domitian, is an indication of the date of composition). ==Theology==

is the oldest known New Testament fragment, dated to about 125–175 AD. Christology The Gospel of John contains the clearest identifications of Jesus with God in the New Testament; while Jesus is subordinated to God at times, the author also indicates Jesus and God are somehow one. Joseph Ratzinger highlights the link of the Gospel with the Old Testament, while according to James Dunn, this Christology does not describe a subordinationist relation but rather the authority and validity of the Son's "revelation" of the Father, the continuity between the Father and the Son. Dunn sees this as intended to serve the Logos Christology, while others (e.g., Andrew Loke) see it as connected to John's incarnation theme. James Barker argues that important aspects of Trinitarianism are present in the New Testament and that an economic Trinity "stood ready-made in the Gospel of John." Larry Hurtado argues that while the developed doctrine of the Trinity is not explicit in the books that constitute the New Testament, they possess a triadic understanding of God and contain a number of Trinitarian formulas. John's "high Christology" depicts Jesus as divine and preexistent and talks openly about his divine role and echoing Yahweh's "I Am that I Am" with seven "I Am" declarations of his own. At the same time there is a stress like that in Luke on the physical continuity of Jesus's resurrected body, as Jesus tells Thomas: "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." Paul N. Anderson has argued in cognitive-critical perspective that the Johannine I-am sayings, while theologically distinctive, share elements with Synoptic traditions and Hebrew scripture, suggesting they may reflect early traditional material that supports the historical reliability of the Gospel accounts. Logos In the prologue, the gospel identifies Jesus as the Logos or Word. In Ancient Greek philosophy, the term meant the principle of cosmic reason. In this sense, it was similar to the Hebrew concept of Wisdom, God's companion and intimate helper in creation. The Hellenistic Jewish philosopher Philo merged these two themes when he described the Logos as God's creator of and mediator with the material world. According to Stephen Harris, the gospel adapted Philo's description of the Logos, applying it to Jesus, the incarnation of the Logos. Another possibility is that the title is based on the concept of the divine Word found in the Targums (Aramaic translation/interpretations recited in the synagogue after the reading of the Hebrew Scriptures). In the Targums (which all postdate the first century but which give evidence of preserving early material), the concept of the divine Word was used in a manner similar to Philo, namely, for God's interaction with the world (starting from creation) and especially with his people. Israel, for example, was saved from Egypt by action of "the Word of the ", and both Philo and the Targums envision the Word as manifested between the cherubim and the Holy of Holies. Cross The portrayal of Jesus's death in John is unique among the gospels. It does not appear to rely on the kinds of atonement theology indicative of vicarious sacrifice but rather presents Jesus's death as his glorification and return to the Father. Likewise, the Synoptic Gospels' three "passion predictions" are replaced by three instances of Jesus explaining how he will be exalted or "lifted up". The verb for "lifted up" (, ) reflects the double entendre at work in John's theology of the cross, for Jesus is both physically elevated from the earth at the crucifixion but also, at the same time, exalted and glorified. John's Gospel intimately links the crucifixion with themes of new birth and eternal life. Jesus' statement in John 3:14-15 likens his being "lifted up" to the bronze serpent in the wilderness, indicating that belief in the crucified Christ confers eternal life. Hence, the cross inaugurates a new covenantal reality and the possibility of spiritual rebirth. This emphasizes the life-giving rather than punitive aspects of Jesus' death. Sacraments Scholars disagree on whether and how frequently John refers to sacraments, but current scholarly opinion is that there are very few such possible references, and that if they exist they are limited to baptism and the Eucharist. In fact, there is no institution of the Eucharist in John's account of the Last Supper (it is replaced by Jesus washing the feet of his disciples), and no New Testament text that unambiguously links baptism with rebirth. Individualism Compared to the synoptic gospels, John is markedly individualistic, in the sense that it places emphasis more on the individual's relation to Jesus than on the corporate nature of the Church. This is largely accomplished through the consistently singular grammatical structure of various aphoristic sayings of Jesus. Emphasis on believers coming into a new group upon their conversion is conspicuously absent from John, and there is a theme of "personal coinherence", that is, the intimate personal relationship between the believer and Jesus in which the believer "abides" in Jesus and Jesus in the believer. John's individualistic tendencies could give rise to a realized eschatology achieved on the level of the individual believer, but this realized eschatology is not to replace "orthodox", futurist eschatological expectations, but to be "only [their] correlative". John the Baptist John's account of John the Baptist is different from that of the synoptic gospels. In this gospel, John is not called "the Baptist." John the Baptist's ministry overlaps with that of Jesus; his baptism of Jesus is not explicitly mentioned, but his witness to Jesus is unambiguous. The evangelist almost certainly knew the story of John's baptism of Jesus, and makes a vital theological use of it. He subordinates John to Jesus, perhaps in response to members of John's sect who regarded the Jesus movement as an offshoot of theirs. In the Gospel of John, Jesus and his disciples go to Judea early in Jesus's ministry before John the Baptist was imprisoned and executed by Herod Antipas. He leads a ministry of baptism larger than John's own. The Jesus Seminar rated this account as black, containing no historically accurate information. According to the biblical historians at the Jesus Seminar, John likely had a larger presence in the public mind than Jesus. Gnosticism In the first half of the 20th century, many scholars, especially Rudolph Bultmann, argued that the Gospel of John has elements in common with Gnosticism. Some scholars still claim such tendencies in the gospel, but given that the oldest text certainly known to be Gnostic, the Apocrypha of John, is from the mid-second century, such a paradigm is likely flawed, and most scholars consider the Gnosticism question closed. Christian Gnosticism did not fully develop until the mid-2nd century, and so 2nd-century Proto-Orthodox Christians concentrated much effort in examining and refuting it. To say the Gospel of John contained elements of Gnosticism is to assume that Gnosticism had developed to a level that required the author to respond to it. Bultmann, for example, argued that the opening theme of the Gospel of John, the preexisting Logos, along with John's duality of light versus darkness, were originally Gnostic themes that John adopted. Other scholars (e.g., Raymond E. Brown) have argued that the preexisting Logos theme arises from the more ancient Jewish writings in the eighth chapter of the Book of Proverbs, and was fully developed as a theme in Hellenistic Judaism by Philo Judaeus. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran verified the Jewish nature of these concepts. April DeConick, as well as some 19th-century theologians, suggested reading John 8:44 in support of a Gnostic theology and that the natural reading would be "ye are of the father of the Devil", but this has been disputed. Gnostics read John but interpreted it differently from non-Gnostics. Gnosticism taught that salvation came from gnosis, secret knowledge, and Gnostics saw Jesus as not a savior but a revealer of knowledge. The gospel teaches that salvation can be achieved only through revealed wisdom, specifically belief in (literally belief ) Jesus. John's picture of a supernatural savior who promised to return to take those who believed in him to a heavenly dwelling could be fitted into Gnostic views. It has been suggested that similarities between the Gospel of John and Gnosticism may spring from common roots in Jewish Apocalyptic literature. ==Comparison with other writings==

rendition of St. John the Evangelist, from the Rabbula Gospels. Synoptic gospels and Pauline literature The Gospel of John is significantly different from the Synoptics, with its relatively free usage of Mark lining up well with the practices of other Jewish authors during antiquity but contrasting with the unusually conservative adaptations found by the Synoptic authors. Paul N. Anderson has shown that the relationship between Mark and John is best understood through interfluentiality and dialectics rather than source dependence, with their parallel autonomous traditions engaging and augmenting each other to present a bi-optic view of Jesus' ministry that supports the historical reliability of the Gospels. The patterns of variation found in the gospels are typical of ancient biographies about actual people and history. The following are some examples of their differences in just one area, that of the material they include in their narratives: In John the ministry of Jesus takes three years, as evidenced by references to three Passovers, while the Synoptic chronology has been argued to be a single year, though there are also verses such as Mark 14:49 and Matthew 23:37 that are often viewed as hints of a longer ministry in the Synoptics. The date of the crucifixion is different, as is the time of Jesus' anointing in Bethany and the cleansing of the Temple, which occurs in the beginning of Jesus' ministry rather than near its end. Ancient compositional practices involved chronological displacement and compression, with even reliable biographers like Plutarch displaying them. Many incidents from John, such as the wedding in Cana, the encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well, and the raising of Lazarus, are not paralleled in the synoptics. Scholarship has turned against positing hypothetical sources for John, with the majority of scholars today agreeing that the existence of a single source for the miracles in John is highly unlikely. Opposition to the existence of a "signs gospel" is clearly dominant in the 21st century. The gospel makes extensive use of the Jewish scriptures: John quotes from them directly, references important figures from them, and uses narratives from them as the basis for several of the discourses. The author was also familiar with non-Jewish sources: the Logos of the prologue (the Word that is with God from the beginning of creation), for example, was derived from both the Jewish concept of Lady Wisdom and from the Greek philosophers, John 6 alludes not only to the exodus but also to Greco-Roman mystery cults, and John 4 alludes to Samaritan messianic beliefs. John lacks scenes from the Synoptics such as Jesus's baptism, the calling of the Twelve, exorcisms, parables, and the Transfiguration. Conversely, it includes scenes not found in the Synoptics, including Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding at Cana, the resurrection of Lazarus, Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, and multiple visits to Jerusalem. In the fourth gospel, Jesus's mother Mary is mentioned in three passages but not named. John does assert that Jesus was known as the "son of Joseph" in 6:42. For John, Jesus's town of origin is irrelevant, for he comes from beyond this world, from God the Father. While John makes no direct mention of Jesus's baptism, he does quote John the Baptist's description of the descent of the Holy Spirit as a dove, as happens at Jesus's baptism in the Synoptics. Major synoptic speeches of Jesus are absent, including the Sermon on the Mount and the Olivet Discourse, and the exorcisms of demons are not mentioned. John does not list the Twelve Disciples and names at least one disciple, Nathanael, whose name is not found in the Synoptics. Thomas is given a personality beyond a mere name, described as "Doubting Thomas". Jesus is identified with the Word ("Logos"), and the Word is identified with ("god" in Greek); the Synoptics make no such identification. In Mark, Jesus urges his disciples to keep his divinity secret, but in John he is very open in discussing it, even calling himself "I AM", the title God gives himself in Exodus at his self-revelation to Moses. In the Synoptics, the chief theme is the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven (the latter specifically in Matthew), while John's theme is Jesus as the source of eternal life, and the Kingdom is only mentioned twice. Lindars argues that the "I am" sayings were concerned with issues of the church–synagogue debate at the time of composition. In contrast to the synoptic expectation of the Kingdom (using the term , meaning "coming"), John presents a more individualistic, realized eschatology. In the Synoptics, quotations of Jesus are usually in the form of short, pithy sayings; in John, longer quotations are often given. The vocabulary is also different, and filled with theological import: in John, Jesus does not work "miracles", but "signs" that unveil his divine identity. Most scholars consider John not to contain any parables. Rather, it contains metaphorical stories or allegories, such as those of the Good Shepherd and the True Vine, in which each element corresponds to a specific person, group, or thing. Other scholars consider stories like the childbearing woman or the dying grain to be parables. According to the Synoptics, Jesus's arrest was a reaction to the cleansing of the temple; according to John, it was triggered by the raising of Lazarus. The Pharisees, portrayed as more uniformly legalistic and opposed to Jesus in the synoptic gospels, are portrayed as sharply divided; they frequently debate. Some, such as Nicodemus, even go so far as to be at least partially sympathetic to Jesus. This is believed to be a more accurate historical depiction of the Pharisees, who made debate one of the tenets of their belief system. In place of the communal emphasis of the Pauline literature, John stresses the personal relationship of the individual to God. Johannine literature The Gospel of John and the three Johannine epistles exhibit strong resemblances in theology and style; the Book of Revelation has also been traditionally linked with these, but differs from the gospel and letters in style and even theology. The secession was over Christology, the "knowledge of Christ", or more accurately the understanding of Christ's nature, for the ones who "went out" hesitated to identify Jesus with Christ, minimising the significance of the earthly ministry and denying the salvific importance of Jesus's death on the cross. The epistles argue against this view, stressing the eternal existence of the Son of God, the salvific nature of his life and death, and the other elements of the gospel's "high" Christology. Most scholars agree for a direct literary borrowing between the Gospel and 1 John. Historical reliability Jesus's teachings in the Synoptics greatly differ from those in John. Since the 19th century, scholars have almost unanimously accepted that the Johannine discourses are less likely to be historical than the synoptic parables, and were likely written for theological purposes. Nevertheless, they generally agree that John is not without historical value. Some potential points of value include early provenance for some Johannine material, topographical references for Jerusalem and Judea, Jesus's crucifixion occurring prior to the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and his arrest in the garden occurring after the accompanying deliberation of Jewish authorities. Recent scholarship has argued for a more favourable reappraisal of the historical value of the Gospel of John and its importance for the reconstruction of the historical Jesus, based on recent archaeological and literary studies. The works of the John, Jesus, and History Seminar have contributed to the overthrow of the previous consensus that the gospel of John was of no historical value, and many scholars now see John as a source for the Historical Jesus. Paul N. Anderson, for example, has argued that the Gospel of John contains independent historical traditions rooted in first-hand eyewitness memories and shows realistic details that make it a valuable source for understanding Jesus rather than something to exclude from historical study. He proposed the Gospel of John represents an independent "bi-optic" tradition that developed alongside the Synoptic tradition through oral stages, offering realistic itineraries and details that complement rather than contradict the other Gospels and deserve consideration in historical research. ==Representations==

translating the Gospel of John on his deathbed'', by James Doyle Penrose, 1902|alt=Bede translating the Gospel of John on his deathbed, by James Doyle Penrose, 1902. Depicts the Venerable Bede as an elderly man with a long, white beard, sitting in a darkened room and dictating his translation of the Bible, as a younger scribe, sitting across from him, writes down his words. Two monks, standing together in the corner of the room, look on. The gospel has been depicted in live narrations and dramatized in productions, skits, plays, and Passion Plays, as well as in film. A 2014 film adaptation, The Gospel of John, directed by David Batty, features narration by David Harewood and Brian Cox, with Selva Rasalingam as Jesus. An earlier adaptation, the 2003 film The Gospel of John, was directed by Philip Saville and narrated by Christopher Plummer, with Henry Ian Cusick as Jesus. Parts of the gospel have been set to music. One such setting is Steve Warner's power anthem "Come and See", written for the 20th anniversary of the Alliance for Catholic Education and including lyrical fragments taken from the Book of Signs. Additionally, some composers have made settings of the Passion as portrayed in the gospel, most notably Johann Sebastian Bach's St John Passion, although some of its verses are from Matthew. ==See also==