Jesus the Man Sent from Heaven:

The Gospel according to John  

With the Gospel of John we move into a completely different environment than that of the Synoptic Gospels, and one that is extremely important for the study of Christology, or the development of early Christian concepts of the person of Jesus. This took place within the framework of the historical development of a particular Christian community that originated in Judea, where it had a Jewish-Christian character and a human Jesus, then moved to the ancient Greek megalopolis of Ephesus on the coast of Asia Minor, where they developed the more elevated concept of Jesus as a divinity.

If you recall from our study of the Greco-Roman backgrounds of early Christianity, a divine Jesus would have fit in quite well with the numerous other Greco-Roman demigods of a Greek metropolis, in contrast to the Judean Jesus who was condemned for blasphemy for being represented as the Son of God. Two centuries in the future, when the Christian church takes over the Roman empire as the official state religion and is trying to define its doctrine of the divinity of Jesus, it is to the Gospel of John that the bishops of the church councils will go for documentation in support of their view.

But the Gospel of John is only the beginning of our study of this fascinating community; we will see that this same community will undergo a split that will provide us with further information on another important political/theological struggle in earliest Christianity that has only recently come to light. And it is this information that may offer us valuable insights into the genuine nature of the historical Jesus himself.

Read Carefully and Consider the Implications for our study:

• What to Expect, p. 163

• Pages 163-164, especially on the Socio-Historical Method,
  be familiar with all methodologies used thus far for studying individual Gospels and Acts

Ehrman evaluates the Gospel of John according to each of the four Analytical Methodologies studied thus far and adds the Socio-Historical Method: pp. 164-182

• Literary-Historical, pp. 164-166

  • John is an anonymous Biography, but is unique as the biography of a divine being

  • The Prologue, or Hymn to the Logos, John 1:1-18,
    sets the pace for the rest of the Gospel by elevating Jesus to divine status
    as the pre-existing Logos of God (whatever that is) that became flesh and lived as a man

  • The rest of the Gospel is divided into two major sections

    • Chapters 1-12: covering Jesus' 2-3 year public ministry;
      the framework of this section is what is known as the "Signs Source,"
      a pre-existing document containing 7 "signs" or miracles that Jesus performed

    • Chapters 13-21: Jesus' last days,
      including his Passion and Resurrection;
      much of this material is made up of long discourses by Jesus

• Thematic, pp. 166-167

  • Organizing theme of the entire Gospel is the divinity of Jesus,
    although the initial element of the divine Logos does not recur after the Prologue

• Comparative, pp. 167-171

  • Major issue of the relationship, or lack thereof, of John to the Synoptic Gospels

    • John's themes are in stark contrast to those of the Synoptics

    • The most significant Synoptic stories do not occur in John

    • Most of John's stories are unique to John

    • John and the Synoptics have the same characters, but their material is different

      • Jesus' miraculous deeds (signs) are fewer than in the Synoptics,
        but are more public and spectacular;

      • Stark contrast between the very secretive and subdued Messiah of Mark
        and the comparatively bombastic Jesus of John,
        who performs miracles as public spectacles and
        continuously proclaims himself to be God;

      • in contrast to Jesus' repeated public "signs" in John, in Matt 12:38-39,
        when asked by the Scribes and Pharisees for a "sign"
        Jesus refuses and says that "no sign will be given"
        to their "evil and adulterous generation"

  • Review my web page on the "I am's" of John's Jesus, Box 11.3;
    Jesus blatantly and repeatedly says "I am" in John,
    thus identifying himself with the Yahweh of the Hebrew Scriptures.
    We will address below the important question
    of whether these statements were original to the Gospel of John itself,
    much less whether Jesus ever actually said these words at all

• Redaction Criticism, pp. 171-175

  • No relationship between John and the Synoptics; no verbal parallels,
    so the Synoptics, although earlier than John, were not known to John

  • But there are Sources in John;
    John is a compilation of various earlier pre-existing documents

    • The Hymn to the Logos Prologue, John 1:1-18

    • The Signs Source, chapters 1-12

    • The Discourse Sources:
      see my web page on the Seams in the Gospel of John,
      pp. 173-175 in your textbook, especially fig. 11.4

    • The Passion Source, chapters 18-20  

    • Chapter 21

• Socio-Historical, pp. 175-182

• Read the strange statements at the end of the Gospel in John 21:20-25;
  if the Gospel of John was written by the Apostle John,
  who are the "we" who know that his testimony is true?
  And who are the "brethren" who are under the impression that
  Jesus said that the beloved disciple would not die until Jesus returned?
  And why would this unnamed writer, or writers, have to justify to the brethren
  that Jesus did not say the beloved disciple would not die,
   unless the beloved disciple did, in fact, die?
  Just who is writing the materials that are included in John?
  And who is putting these materials together?
  Fortunately for us, they did not succeed in covering their tracks
  and left us abundant evidence of their editorial work.

• John lends itself quite well to the "Socio-Historical" method;
  see my web page summarizing Ehrman's treatment of this Gospel, Box 11.6

Learn the Key Terms on p. 184 with special reference to their original context in the chapter