The Gospel According to John

The gospel according to John Insert name: Institution affiliation: Due date: Introduction Among the four gospels found in the New Testament, John’s gospel is the latest one to be written. The gospel was written by a Christian identified as John. However, the contents of the gospel show that the person who wrote the gospel was not John, who was among the twelve disciples of Jesus. The contents contain not explicit personal reference of the individual who is expected to have an intimate relationship with Jesus. On the other hand, the gospel depicts an interpretation of Christ, which reflects contexts and ideas which occurred in the Christian community during the period marking the end of the first century of the Christian era. It was a period when several quarters such as skeptics, Romans, Jews and others were attacking Christianity, and others were making accusations against it. The individual who wrote John’s gospel knew the impacts of such attacks and was aware of the interpretations presented by the earlier gospels that gave their explanations about such attacks. Since the author strongly believed in the new Christian movement, he intended to write a gospel which was not only genuine, but also that would present the Christian faith in order to overcome criticisms and acquire respect of the cultured and learned individuals during his day. This goal assists readers to know several unique features of John’s gospel. This paper aims to analyze the main issues examined in the gospel according to John and its major unique features which makes it different from other synoptic gospels. Overview The purpose of John’s gospel is to justify that Jesus of Nazareth was Christ and God’s son, and those who believe in him would have eternal life (Koester, 2003). This purpose was common with other authors who wrote the synoptic gospels; however, John used a unique method to attain this purpose. The central theme in John’s gospel is the divine Logos (the word which was with God and which was God). This divine word became flesh and lived among people in earth in the personhood of Jesus of Nazareth. John did not justify any supernatural birth of Jesus because he considers Christ as a human being who has actual blood and flesh just like other people. Scott (2010) opines that the most important thing about Christ is that the divine Logos was within Him, and thus He was able to do marvelous things due to God’s power within Him. John, therefore, develops how the human aspect relates with divine aspect. Since God was within Jesus, it is convenient to identify Jesus as God’s son. John’s gospel can be divided into two parts. The initial twelve chapters illustrate Christ’s public ministry starting with his encounter with John the Baptists and ending with the Greeks visiting to worship during the Feast of Passover. The other chapters concern with final days of Jesus’ ministry in the earth when he gave instructions to His di...