John

Author: the apostle John
Place of writing: probably the city of Ephesus
Time of writing: approximately 90 A.D.

When one begins to read the gospel of John, after he has read Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he quickly realizes that this gospel is, in several ways, different from the other three. The synoptics emphasize Christ’s Galileean ministry, but John talks mostly of his time in Jerusalem. The synoptics emphasize Christ’s parables, his teaching on the Kingdom of Heaven, and his end-times discourses, but John emphasizes his teaching about his own person, and the related sign-miracles which demonstrate his claims about who he is. In fact, most of the miracles and discourses that John includes are not found in Matthew, Mark, or Luke.

This is likely because John is writing many years after the other three gospels had been written, and he is attempting to give his own unique emphasis to the gospel account, because of false teachings that had arisen, which denied that Jesus was eternally pre-existent as the Son of God. In response to this error, John begins his gospel with the vital assertion that Jesus, the “Word,” was eternally pre-existent, and was in fact God; and that he took on human flesh, and revealed the Father to us. It is necessary that we understand and believe these truths, or else we will not be given eternal life in the presence of God. In fact, this is the very reason why John recorded the specific miracles that he did: “so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, you might have life through his name.”

After John’s rich and beautiful prologue, he relates the ministry and testimony of John the Baptist, and records how Jesus was baptized by him. Then, throughout the rest of the first twelve chapters, John records several wondrous sign-miracles that Jesus performed, each one coupled with a discourse by Jesus related to what that sign revealed about Jesus as the promised Messiah. After that, in chapters twelve through twenty-one, John records Jesus’ last days on earth, including a detailed account of his final discourse with his disciples, at the last supper; his prayer in their behalf, before his crucifixion; his sacrificial death, and triumphant resurrection; and his appearances to his disciples before he ascended to the right hand of the Father. The first twelve chapters of the gospel have been called “the book of signs,” and the remaining chapters “the book of glory,” because of the emphasis that John gives to the glory that Jesus displayed in his death and resurrection.

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