The gospel of John, according to most scholars, was written by John who was a disciple of Christ. John was also thought to have been the “beloved disciple.” However, the introduction to the Gospel According to John in the NISB Bible says that this gospel is anonymous and therefore may not be the apostle John. The genre of John is ancient biography, like the other gospels.
Most scholars believe that John was written between the years 85-90 AD although, according to Keener, dates in the 60’s have been proposed but most people believe the former. The place that John was written could have been Galilee or Syria “where conflicts with the Judean Pharisees would be most easily felt in the 90’s of the first century” (Keener 260), although John probably lived in Ephesus.
After 70 AD conflicts between Rome and Christians came up because Christians refused to worship the emperor. Conflicts also arose between Jews and Christians grew stronger and Pharisees took more religious power. Keener states “John writes his Gospel to encourage these Jewish Christians that their faith in Jesus is genuinely Jewish and that it is their opponents who have misrepresented biblical Judaism” (Keener 261).
The message of John is that God is the Word and the Word became flesh. It also emphasizes God’s Spirit “John encourages the believers to argue not only from the law but also from their possession of the Spirit” (Keener 262).
During this read-through of John I learned several new things. Actually a lot of them were simply remembering things from previous times. However some things were definitely new. The main thing is in John 8:1-11 which is the story of the woman who was caught in adultery. Craig S. Keener in his commentary says “ God wrote the Ten Commandments with his finger…perhaps Jesus writes the first line of the tenth commandment in the Septuagint of Exodus 20: ‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife’” (Keener 284). Keener goes on to say that if Jesus did write that, then the accusers were all guilty of adultery. Also suggested by Keener is that Jesus is simply passing time as they all leave. Having grown up in the church, I have heard a few suggestions for what Jesus was writing. One is that Jesus was writing the Ten Commandments. Another suggestion was that he was writing their names in the sand and possibly sins that they had committed.
Personally, I like just considering the options. The option offered by Keener was one that I had never heard before and made that text come alive for me because Jesus is always trying to get His followers to follow God’s heart in matters and not sin. God also in the Old Testament tried countless times to get His people to obey him with their hearts. Coveting could be a completely internal sin. Of course a person could say “I want…” but they are thinking it first.
This passage reminds me of Matthew 5:27-28 “You have heard it said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust as already committed adultery with her in his heart.” This passage does not exclude an unmarried woman, but it definitely would include a married woman.
A person does not have to live long before realizing that following God’s laws is tough. If the first laws were hard, try adding what was spoken of in the gospels. Not only that but I believe that God gives each person separate convictions that may not apply to their friends. Sounds impossible right? It is.
Keep reading the story though. The woman deserved to die because that is the penalty. Jesus, however, does not condemn the woman but forgives her. Look at the text at how they went away “one by one, beginning with the elders” (in verse 9 emphasis added). Jesus had just said “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (In verse 7). Even the elders recognized that they were sinful and were in no position to judge the woman.
One of my favorite verses in John is John 21:25 which I discovered years ago but had forgotten which gospel it was in. I hope I have remembered for a longer while this time. Anyway, the verse is “But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every on of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” Do you think that that is true even today? Does the Internet have a limit? Of course, Jesus is still alive and continuing to work in people and through people. Therefore, I have no doubt that it is even more true to day than it was back when John wrote that statement down.
Keener, Craig S. “John,” Pages 259-319 in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
O’Day, Gail. “The Gospel According to John.” Pages 1905-1907 in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible with the Apocrypha. Edited by Walter J. Harrelson et al. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003.
1 comment:
You wrote: NISB Bible says that this gospel is anonymous and therefore may not be the apostle John.
The author of our fourth gospel was anonymous, he used terms like the "other disciple whom Jesus loved" to refer to himself in order to conceal his identity. So, in the first instance, what one should believe about this person is what this God inspired author told us about himself. The question therefore becomes, since the facts in the plain text of scripture can prove that "other disciple, whom Jesus loved" could not possibly have been John, then why do so many still cling to the unbiblical John tradition?
The Bible says what it says. So no matter how many men one can find parroting the ideas of men found in NON-Bible sources the facts in scripture prove that John was not the "other disciple whom Jesus loved" (the anonymous author of the fourth gospel). The John idea comes from NON-Bible sources and the hand-me-down ideas of men but scripture says otherwise. [PS, If one has to change the subject because they cannot cite scripture, then the point is made by the very need to dodge the light of scripture.]
The truth is there is not a single verse in scripture that would justify teaching that John was the unnamed "other disciple, whom Jesus loved" and yet most simply assume that this tradition cannot be wrong and then reinterpret scripture to fit this idea. The facts recorded in the plain text of scripture prove that WHOEVER this anonymous author was he certainly was not John -- because this would require the Bible to contradict itself.
One should believe what this author wrote. In the third to the last verse in his gospel this author reports that he was the subject of the first false teaching that circulated among the brethren. So why in the world would anyone think that men who lived a hundred years later couldn't possibly teach a wrong idea about this unnamed author? Before Jesus even left the planet we see the beginning of a false teaching about the one whom "Jesus loved" being spread! And those who teach the John error are doing likewise.
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