...In many ways the Gospel of John remains a mystery—it hints at who its author is and yet never explicitly tells us. The story seems simple and straightforward, and yet one feels as though the author is often hinting at still deeper truths. In the New Testament it stands alone, distanced from the Synoptics by its unique presentation of the Christ-event. Of the four gospels, John is by far the most poetically written and the most distinct in terms of style, narrative and approach. While there are varying theories about who wrote it and when, it can be agreed on that the Gospel of John was written for not only a very different audience than the synoptic gospels, but also written independently of them. This can be seen in the basic language that it is written in, and can also be seen because there is no mention anywhere of the parables, Jesus' primary teaching method according to the synoptic gospels. Instead, John makes use of miracles and uses examples from Jesus' ministry to demonstrate his power and divinity. He uses his power over nature to raise people from the dead, heal a blind man and feed 5000 people with the physical amount of food for only a few. The gospel narrative contains a series of "signs"--the gospel's word for the wondrous deeds of Jesus. The author is primarily interested in the significance of these deeds, and so interprets them for the reader by various reflections, narratives, and discourses. The first sign is the transformation of water into wine...
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...In John 1:1-3, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" shows that Jesus has two distinct natures, He is not half man and half God, no, He is fully divine and fully man. All things were made through Him. Jesus is the "Word", the Son of the Father who became flesh and lived among us . He was with God, and yet He is divine- that He was God. In other passages, Jesus’ actions reveal His identity as divine. He heals a paralytic in the Gospel of Mark, and brings the dead to life- Lazarus- in the Gospel of John and through both of these acts He demonstrates His authority and His forgiveness. Paul refers to the divinity of Christ in Titus, " our great God and Savior Jesus Christ" (2:13 NKJV) and also in Philippians...
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...The gospels put emphasis on Jesus’ religious meaning, it is to inspire life giving faith in the readers. There are the Synoptic Gospels and then there is the Gospel of John. The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) are three versions of the same sayings or incidents of Jesus life. They follow the same order of events in narrating Jesus’ public ministry. All four concentrate exclusively on the last phase of Jesus’ life, the period of his public ministry when his teachings both attracted devoted followers and created bitter enemies. Matthew: It tells the story some what differently, avoiding any implications that Jesus made have had limited powers and stating merely that Jesus “did not work many miracles there”. In Matthew, Jesus first public act is to deliver the sermon on the mound demonstrating his authorities as a teacher, upholding and interoperating the Mosaic Law, He also represents Jesus’ birth and ministry as fulfilling prophecies from the Hebrew Bible. Matthew betrays Jesus as a greater Moses who demands a higher righteousness unlike Mark and Luke. All four concentrate exclusively on the last phase of Jesus’ life, the period. Mark: Marks gospel for instance seems to consist a string of incidents, anecdotes, and sayings that are very loosely connected to one another. Mark, is the first Gospel, who was stitched together of previously isolated oral units, individual episodes illustrating Jesus words and deeds. According to Mark, Jesus first act was to drive...
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...High Christology in the Gospel of John. What evidence exists in the Gospel of John to support Ernst Käsemann’s insight that the Johannine Jesus is like a “god striding over the earth”? John presents a very different Jesus compared to the synoptic gospels. It is clear that for John Jesus has many complex elements to his personality and without all of these the picture is not complete. The above quote by Käsemann suggests that in the gospel of John Jesus’ divinity is definite and his presence is felt on the entire world through his words and actions. This allows for the human Jesus but implies the divine Jesus is imperative. The divinity of Jesus Christ is something that is very apparent in the gospel of John. Käsemann’s quote describes Jesus as a ‘God’, which offers an immediate insight into the ‘high Christology’ of Jesus in the gospel of John. The divine Jesus far outweighs the human Jesus. From the introduction of John’s gospel the divinity of Jesus Christ is immediately addressed when John writes ‘In the Beginning..,’ implying that Jesus was there with God at the start of creation. ‘Where the other gospels’ tell us about the human origins of Jesus, John speaks about his divine origin,’ which is with God in heaven, ‘Before all things the word was.’ The fourth gospel paints Jesus as a picture of total control who has descended from heaven to perform his duties to reveal God to humanity. This is evident in the final words of Jesus Christ ‘It is finished’ , implying...
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...Introduction In John’s Gospel, John provides clear evidence that Jesus is the Son of God and that by believing in Him believers in Christ may have eternal life. In the Gospel of John, it is easily discovered that John discusses the issue of sin compared to the other Gospels. John 3:16 states, “For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Therefore, John makes it very clear that unless sin is cleansed through faith in Jesus Christ, people will perish eternally. Thusly, this scripture illustrates the ultimate demonstration of God’s love for believers by giving the gift of eternal life through the sacrifice and resurrection of His only Son, Jesus Christ. Further, despite there being a final judgement in the future, eternal life is in the preset-tense. For example, in John 5:24 Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my words and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to...
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...20. Some Differences Between the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John The Synoptic Gospels-Matthew, Mark and Luke-offer such strikingly similar accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ that, according to one author, “they can be placed side by side and viewed horizontally” (Harris 103). In contrast, the Fourth Gospel, the Gospel of John, stands alone in its portrayal of Jesus Christ. The differences in the Synoptic Gospels and John relate to content of each and the variation in purpose or point of view. According to one author, “The Fourth Gospel…is so different from the other three in …content…, that it has few parallels with the Synoptic accounts” (104). For example, Matthew, Mark and Luke record thirty miracles. John records a total of seven (He calls these miracles “signs.”) and only one is recorded by all four gospel writers: the feeding of the 5000 with the few loaves and bread and fishes (Biblecenter). Obviously, the writers differ in what the miracles indicate. The Synoptics are “basically descriptive in their approach” while John, who seeks to demonstrate the divinity of Christ to his readers, is more “reflective” in his selection of the signs he wishes to include (Angelfire). He makes the purpose of his selectivity clear, however, when he acknowledges that while Jesus did many more signs than those included in the book of John, his purpose is that men would come to believe that He was indeed the Son of God and “that believing”, … they would...
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...While numerous scholars say that John is the Gospel to the world (and Matthew to the Jews, Mark to the Romans, and Luke to the Greeks), a Jewish scholar such as Israel Abrahams might very well believe that the Gospel of John is the most Jewish Gospel of the four by the way it reflects Jewish traditions and symbolisms. According to David Wenham[i], there is more attention given to Jesus as the Messiah in the Gospel of John than in any of other Gospels. In John, from chapter one onwards people are directly talking about Jesus as Messiah, and then there is intense public debate about whether Jesus is Messiah or not in John 7:25-31, 41-44[ii], which indicates that John is quite mindful of Jewish issues. Wenham also asserts that there is a greater emphasis on Jesus' participation in the Jewish festivals in Jerusalem. While the synoptic Gospels only describe the fully-grown Jesus going up to Jerusalem for the Passover at the end of his ministry, John reports Jesus going up to at least two Passovers, the Feast of Tabernacles and the Feast of Dedication (Hanukah). That might not prove anything, but it seems likely that John perceives Jesus as in some way fulfilling the symbolism of those Jewish festivals. The feast of Passover, referred to in John 6, celebrated the exodus from Egypt, and so Jesus within that context speaks of himself as the true bread come down from heaven (i.e. as the new manna 6:32-51). The feast of tabernacles, referred to in John 7 and 8, involved a water-pouring...
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...Article Critique “The Relationship between John and the Synoptic Gospels” Introduction The Journal article entitled “The Relationship between John and the Synoptic Gospels,” focuses on the relationship that John may have had access to the synoptic gospels when he wrote the book of John. The debate focuses on three theories about how the book of John was written, and how John is similar, yet uniquely different from the Synoptic Gospels, of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The journal compares the writing style and the scripture context in comparisons and differences between the synoptic gospels and the book of John. Brief Summary The three distinct positions of the article focuses on, first “that John was literally dependent upon one or more of the synoptic gospels” (1). The second is “that John was literally independent of the synoptic gospels, but that similarities between them are due to use of a common synoptic tradition” (1). The third and final position is “that John was literally independent of the synoptic gospels, but was aware of them and their traditions.” (1). All of these literary theories help the reader to understand why the book of John is different, yet similar in many ways to the synoptic gospels, although it is not included as one of the synoptic gospels. “The term synoptic is derived from a combination of the Greek words συν (syn = together) and οψις (opsis = seeing) to indicate that the contents of these three Gospels can be viewed side-by-side, whether in...
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...The four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John 1. Introduction The term Gospel means good news, a message which was desperately needed (Guthrie, 1965: 11). According to Talbot (2013: 69) gospels can be divided into 2 groups namely the Synoptic gospels- Matthew, Mark and Luke and Gospel of John. He explains that Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the synoptic gospels because they have so much in common. Kotze (6), outlines their similarities and differences as follows: |Mark | |Matthew | |Luke | |Total: 661 verses | |Total :1068 verses | |Total: 1149 verses | |600 verses parallel to Matthew | |505 verses parallel to Mark | |380 verses parallel to Mark | |61 verses peculiar to Mark | |235 versus parallel to Luke | |235 versus parallel to Matthew | | | |328 verses peculiar to Matthew | |534 verses peculiar to Luke | There are suggestions due the similarities and differences that (1) Mark was the original writer and was copied by Matthew and Luke (2) Matthew was original writer copied by Luke, and Mark made a shorter version. The material where obtained from the following suggested sources: (1) Oral tradition – the good news spread by word of mouth before it was written down (2) An earlier...
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...Besides Jesus, the person I chose that I can learn from in the Gospel of Luke would be John the Baptist. John is talked about throughout the gospels and appears in chapter’s one, three, seven, and nine in The Gospel of Luke. He shows us his utter determination to help others and he was still very kind and faithful. In the Gospel of Luke, John portrays to us how he always puts in his full devotion and determination when preaching to the public. John is always very confident in his ability to preach. In the parable of Peter Declares that Jesus is the Messiah (9:19), we see that because of John being true of heart and so devoted towards God, people thought he was Jesus. He teaches me to always be true of heart and determined towards everything...
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...Your Own Work-Gospel of 1John Observation: Blocks/Sections 1 John 1:1-2:11The fellowship of the divine life 1 John 2:12-27 The teaching of the divine anointing 1 John 2:28-3:10a To practice the divine righteousness 1 John 3:10b-5:3 To practice the divine love 1 John 5:4-21 To overcome the world, death, sin, the devil, and idols These section are brought together as John write to the church as a whole, as there is no greetings or farewells, however, throughout each section John talks about love of God and to the brethren. John uses the word “love” 47 times. This table will show the pattern used by John moving back and forth between love towards God and love towards others. Chapter | Love in connection to God | Love in connections to others | 2 | 5 But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him 15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you | 7b to love one another10 Anyone who loves another brother or sister15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, | 3 | 1 See how very much our Father loves us16 We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us 17b how can God’s love be in that person | 10b Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers 11b We should love one another14 If we love our Christian brothers and sisters… But a person who has no love is still dead...
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...Theology of the Four Gospels The first three gospels are sometimes called the 'synoptic' or same view gospels. This is because they each cover teaching and miracles by Jesus that are also covered in another account. The fourth gospel, John, writing later, recounts Jesus' other words and miracles that have a particular spiritual meaning. All four gospels present Jesus as both the Son of God and son of man. In this paper information will be provided that describes the major theological differences between the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Information will also be provided that describes a theological perspective of the gospel of John. Finally, information in this paper will include how ones understanding of the various theological perspectives presented in the four Gospels can be used as an additional tool to facilitate the proclaiming of the Four Gospels. Theological Differences between the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John The Gospel According to Matthew The first three books of the New Testament have been identified as the synoptic gospels. These books are Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The first book of the New Testament is identified as the book of Matthew. Matthew was one of the first twelve disciples of Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 9:1; 10:1-4 and therefore an eye-witness. Matthew records more of Jesus' teaching concerning God's heavenly kingdom than the other writers, Mark, Luke, or John. In the first four books of Matthew, the miracle story of Jesus’...
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...The Relationship of John's Gospel to the Synoptics. Two basic positions on the relationship of John’s Gospel to the Synoptics are possible: If John knew of the synoptics, then he wrote to supplement them. (To say John knew of one or more of the synoptics is not to say, however, that he wrote his gospel with copies of Matthew, Mark, and/or Luke in front of him. John may have been aware of the existence of other written accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry without actually having seen them.) If John’s Gospel is totally independent from the synoptics, he had enough material to choose from that much of it does not overlap with the synoptics (cf. Jn 20:30 and 21:25). This point is strengthened considerably if one accepts the Fourth Gospel’s claim to reflect eyewitness testimony about the life and ministry of Jesus (John 21:23-24). Major Differences: 1. Omission by John of material found in the synoptics. John’s Gospel omits a large amount of material found in the synoptic Gospels, including some surprisingly important episodes: the temptation of Jesus, Jesus’ transfiguration, and the institution of the Lord’s supper are not mentioned by John. John mentions no examples of Jesus casting out demons. The sermon on the mount and the Lord’s prayer are not found in the Fourth Gospel. There are no narrative parables in John’s Gospel (most scholars do not regard John 15:1-8 [“the Vine and the Branches”] as a parable in the strict sense). 2. Inclusion by John of material not found in...
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...Answer The synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, are so named because they are in substantial agreement on the life of Jesus. Mark's Gospel was the original gospel, and is believed to have been written around 70 CE. Whenever Matthew and Luke copy material from Mark's Gospel, they do so with remarkable consistency, even to the use of words in the original Greek language. John's Gospel, although influenced by Mark's Gospel, is further removed, with its principal source being Luke's Gospel. It is believed that John's Gospel was originally much more Gnostic, but that after the split in the Johannine community, the Gospel was reworked to remove much of its Gnostic flavour. Whereas the synoptic gospels say that Jesus, although the Son of God, was not truly divine, John's Gospel makes it quite clear that he was considered to be both God and pre-existing. Much of the material in John is unique to this Gospel, although passages in John can be seen to be adaptations of similar material in Luke. For example, the post-resurrection appearance of Jesus, in which he tells the disciples to cast their nets on the other side and thus they catch a multitude of fish, is unique to John. However, a very similar episode occurs in Luke before the crucifixion and resurrection. In the synoptic gospels, particularly in Mark, Jesus is at pains to keep his true identity secret. He does not 'cleanse' the Temple until towards the end of his mission, and this violent action is the trigger...
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...southeastern baptist theological seminary Richard Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006) makes a persuasive argument that the Gospels display eyewitness testimony and thus renews the quest for the identity of the Beloved Disciple as the author of the Fourth Gospel. While Bauckham attributes this Gospel to “the presbyter John” mentioned by Papias, the authors of this study show that the patristic evidence more likely seems to support the authorship of John the apostle and that the literary device of inclusio in the Fourth Gospel, astutely observed by Bauckham, also favors the authorship of John the son of Zebedee. Key Words: Fourth Gospel, Beloved Disciple, John, authorship, apostle, Zebedee, John the Elder, Papias, Eusebius, Muratorian Fragment, Polycrates, Irenaeus, Bauckham Introduction Recent years have witnessed a significant number of publications on the identity of “the disciple Jesus loved” in John’s Gospel. The ever more daring proposals have included identifications of this figure as diverse as the apostle Thomas, Mary Magdalene, Lazarus, James the son of Zebedee, and even the Samaritan woman, among others. 1 Most recently, Richard Bauckham has weighed in on this debate in his landmark volume Jesus and the 1. Thomas: James H. Charlesworth, The Beloved Disciple: Whose Witness Validates the Gospel of John? (Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1995), 414–21. He lists and evaluates 22 ...
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