The Gospel According to John (Greek ), commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John[1] and often referred

red to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus. It begins with the witness and affirmation by John the Baptist and concludes with the death, burial, resurrection, and post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. This account is fourth of the canonical gospels, after the synoptics Matthew, Mark and Luke. Chapter 21 states it derives from the testimony of the 'disciple whom Jesus loved.' Along with Peter, the unnamed disciple is especially close to Jesus, and early-church tradition identified him as John the Apostle, one of Jesus' Twelve Apostles. The gospel is closely related in style and content to the three surviving Epistles of John such that commentators treat the four books together,[2] yet, according to most modern scholars, John was not the author of any of these books.[3] Recent Christian Scripture scholarship more and more has placed John within a first-century Jewish context.[4] Raymond E. Brown did pioneering work to trace the development of the tradition from which the gospel arose.[5] The discourses seem to be concerned with the actual issues of the church-and-synagogue debate at the time when the Gospel was written[6] c. AD 90. It is notable that, in the gospel, the community still appears to define itself primarily against Judaism, rather than as part of a wider Christian church.[7] Though Christianity started as a movement within Judaism, gradually Christians and Jews became bitterly opposed. John presents a "higher" Christology than the synoptics, meaning that he describes Jesus as the incarnation of the divine Logos through whom all things were made, as the object of veneration,[8] and more explicitly as God incarnate.[9] Only in John does Jesus talk at length about himself and his divine role, often shared with the disciples only. Against the synoptics, John focuses largely on different miracles (including resurrecting Lazarus), given as signs meant to engender faith. Synoptic elements such as parables and exorcisms are not found in John. It presents a realized eschatology in which salvation is already present for the believer. The historical reliability of John is debated, particularly by secular scholarship.[10] In contrast, Grace-oriented churches argue for the total pre-eminence of John.[11] The gospel identifies its author as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." The text does not actually name this disciple, but by the beginning of the 2nd century a tradition began to form which identified him with John the Apostle, one of the Twelve (Jesus's innermost circle).[12] Although some notable New Testament scholars affirm traditional Johannine scholarship,[13] the majority do not believe that John or one of the Apostles wrote it,[14] and trace it instead to a "Johannine community"[15] which traced its traditions to John; the gospel itself shows signs of having been composed in three "layers", reaching its final form about 90-100 AD.[16] According to the Church Fathers, the Bishops of Asia Minor requested John, in his old age, to write a gospel in response to Cerinthus, the Ebionites and other Hebrew groups which they deemed heretical. This understanding remained in place until the end of the 18th century.[17] There is also some evidence that John might not have written the "Book of John" and it was wrongly attributed to him, in the book The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved. For instance, the writing style is different, the author for reasons of humility refers to himself instead as "the disciple whom Jesus loved," while John in Revelation refers to himself as John at least five times. Also, the writer of the Fourth Gospel refers to the Sons of Zebedee (that is, James and John), while in a fishing trip after Jesus's death, refers to these two, but also refers to this "other disciple". This disciple is never mentioned as even being there in any of the common sections to other gospels, and is never mentioned at all until after Lazarus is raised. The author contends that Lazarus was the likely writer of the Fourth Gospel, and used the pseudonym because his sudden celebrity after being raised was detracting from Jesus's message. This also seems to work, given the fact that this "other disciple" believed when seeing the linens in Jesus's tomb, Lazarus, having been raised himself would have known what this means. The Gospel of John developed over a period of time in various stages, summarized by Raymond E. Brown as follows:[18] 1. An initial version based on personal experience of Jesus; 2. A structured literary creation by the evangelist which draws upon additional sources; 3. The final harmony that presently exists in the New Testament canon, around 85-90 AD.[19]

In view of this complex and multi-layered history it is meaningless to speak of a single "author" of John, but the title perhaps belongs best to the evangelist who came at the end of this process. The final composition's comparatively late date, and its insistence upon Jesus as a divine being walking the earth in human form, renders it highly problematical to scholars who attempt to evaluate Jesus' life in terms of literal historical truth.[20]

[1] Notwithstanding the name, it is anonymous gospel [2] Marilyn Mellowes Lindars, The Gospel of John From Jesus to Christ: A Portrait of Jesus World. PBS 2010-11-3. Tradition has credited John, the son of Zebedee and an apostle of Jesus, with the authorship of the fourth gospel. Most scholars dispute this nortion1990,63. [3] Although ancient traditions attributed to the Apostle John Fourth Gospel, the Book of Revelation, and the Epistles of John, modern scholars believe that he wrote none of them. Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible (Palo Alto: Mayfield, 1985), 355 [4] Paul Oshea, A Cross Too Heavy, Palgrave Macmillan 2011. Available On Line @ www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johns Gospel [Accessed 03-07-2012]. [5] Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus, Interrupted, (HarperCollins, 2009). Available @ www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel account of John [Accessed 04-09-2012]. [6] Lindars, Op Cited., 53. [7] Bruce Chilton and Jacob Neusner, Judaism in the New Testament: Practices and Beliefs (New York: Routledge, 1995), 5. By their own word what they (the writers of the new testament) set forth in the New Testament must qualify as a Judaism to distinguish between the religious world of the New Testament and an alien Judaism denies the authors of the New Testament books their most fiercely held claim and render incomprehensible much of what they said. [8] Philip Harris, The New Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible: Volume 3Abingdon Press, 2008. P.362 Presently, few commentators would argue that a disciple of Jesus actually wrote the Fourth Gospel1985. [9] Brown J. Philips, The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved, 1965, 545-73. [10] E.P Sanders, The Historical Figure of Jesus. Pengium, 1993. [11] Jesus Christ. Encyclopedia Britannica. 2012. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 22November 2010. [Accessed 08-12-2012]. [12] D.A. Carson, The Authorship of the Fourth Gospel. The Gospel According to John. (Grand Rapids: Williams B Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001), 68-69. [Denying Johannine Authorship] Also requires their virtual dismissal of the existence evidence. This is particularly regrettable. Most scholars of antiquity, were they assessing the authorship of some other document, could not so easily set aside the evidence as plentiful, consistent and plainly tied to the sources as is the external evidence that support Johannine authorship. [13] Craig Blomberg, The Gospel of John. Jesus and the gospel (2nd ed.). Nashville: B & H Publishing Group, 197-198. All this adds up to strong circumstantial evidence for equating the beloved disciple with the apostle John. [14] Anderson, These facts pose a major problem for the traditional view of Johns authorship, and they are one of the key reasons critical scholars reject it.

[15] Lindars, It is thus important to see the reasons why the traditional identification is regarded by most scholars as untenable. [16] To most modern scholars direct apostolic authorship has therefore seemed unlikely. John, Gospel of. Cross, F.L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian Church. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995). [17] Leopold Fonck, Gospel of St.John. The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 9 June 2009). Available @ www.wikipedia.org/wiki.john Gospel [Accessed 04-09-2012]. [18] Brown 1997, 363-4 [19] Lindars, It is evangelist who comes at the end of the process who is the real author of the Fourth Gospel. [20] Stephen L. Harris, Understanding the Bible. (Palo: Mayfield, 1985), 268.