The Gospel of John

1064 Words3 Pages

The Gospel of John

An Essay Written for

A Humanities Course That

Studies the Bible As A

Historical Document

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN:

"The Man from Heaven," "Bread of Life," "Light of The

World," "Living Water," .... and of course, "Son of Man."

This is who Jesus is in The Gospel of John. Jesus' life is

portrayed very differently from the other Synoptic Gospels;

he lives completely within symbolism, and glorification.

In reading the Gospel of John, I felt that Jesus was (more)

clear to me, unlike my feelings in reading Matthew and Mark.

Perhaps this is because I have gained knowledge of who the

historical Jesus was since my first readings. However, I

find that John writes about Jesus and Christianity more in

the way that conventional American Christianity practices

today! I see the verses most familiar to me (John 3:16), and

I see the symbolism that I am used to. Most importantly, I

see the lengthy teachings and sayings of Jesus, that are less

frequent in the earlier gospels. This is the Jesus I am used

to!

Throughout this essay, I will show the parallels and

differences from the Gospel of John and the earlier gospels

(mostly Mark), as I discuss the anonymous evangelist(s)'

conception of the word of God.

1. John 3:15

2. John 6:48

3. John 1:4

4. John 7:37-39

5. Has been believed to be: John, Son of Zebedee.

The Gospel of John was written between 90-100 ADE. A late

book in the New Testament, it deals with different problems

than the early Gospel of Mark. Although the book does not

try to stray from the special traditions of Christianity

(after all, The Christian Church has become strong by this

time), the book the Life of Jesus, to meet the needs

of the community in 100 ADE.

What were the changes that the Johannine Community had to

deal with; and, how does the Gospel of John differ from

earlier gospels to deal with these changes?

The entire new testament is apocalyptic writing, by authors

who (obviously) believe in the Parousia. We see a lot of

different religions of the time develop a "Christ" figure ...

it is a sign of the times; it reflects that most people were

desperate for help from political and social problems that

they could not escape. This is the community that the Gospel

of Mark wrote for: the desperate, looking toward their God

for help. Now the Gospel of John has to deal with the Parousia,

that Christians

believed was coming.

The Johannine author(s) clearly had the Gospel of Mark

More about The Gospel of John

Open Document