THE GOSPEL OF JOHN To anyone who has read this Gospel, it will be clear that the work of John is very different from any of the preceding Gospels. John is not so much interested in creating a comprehensive, historical 'biography' of Jesus as he is in presenting the case that Jesus is the Son of God -- a divine being whose mortal birth and death were ordained as part of God's greater plan for mankind. John's Gospel is triumphant scripture that heralds the glory of the Risen Christ as the guiding light for the emerging Church.

A 14th century French illumination of St. John

John writes in a deceptively simple Greek that makes his case obvious, if not self-evident. Clearly, this author was well versed in the structure of Greek oratory, since the Gospel appears to draw inspiration from both the Septuagint as well as the work of Greco-Jewish philosophers like Philo of Alexandria. This is immediately apparent in the opening verse, which states that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1)." Naturally, the immediate model for this verse is the opening chapter of Genesis. However, the term 'Word' -- or logos in Greek -- would have been familiar to John's audience as the concept of 'reason' as espoused by Greek philosophers. Philosophers like Plato had argued that reason was a divinely ordained, unifying principle in all of creation, and it could therefore serve as the principal agent of communication between man and the divine.

Tradition has often tried to associate John with one of the apostles who knew Jesus personally. In the 2nd century CE, Bishop Papias of Phrygia wrote that the evangelist was the disciple known as the son of Zebedee. Bishop Irenaeus, also writing in the 2nd century CE, made the argument that John was 'the beloved' disciple, of whom Jesus himself was very fond. What's more, the Church Fathers suggest that John wrote his Gospel in the city of Ephesus in Asia Minor (now Turkey).

Modern biblical scholarship is generally inclined to date this Gospel between 100 and 125 CE, which makes it unlikely that the author knew Jesus personally. Indeed, the Gospel of John marks a time when the theology of Christ had matured into a doctrine that would lay the groundwork for the emerging Christian Church. John's work became known as the 'spiritual Gospel,' a constant guide for leaders of the church in the daily application of Christian values.

The Gospel of John is not principally constructed on a series of historical events, as in the case of Luke and Mark, but on the basis of a number of sayings. In these sayings, Jesus discourses at length about his role in the stewardship of mankind. Recent scholarship has shown that the these discourses may have a solid grounding in primary oral or literary traditions that are distinct from those that were available to Mark, Luke and Matthew. While John does not include a Nativity cycle and elects instead to start his story with John the Baptist (as does Mark), he does include several accounts that are not found in the synoptic Gospels. Among these are the stories of the Miracle of Cana, the Healing of the Blind Man at Bethesda, and the Raising of Lazarus. It is possible that some of these original traditions were, indeed, ascribed to a disciple of Jesus named John.