Unlike the synoptic gospels on Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the Book of John provides an intentionally different view of Jesus' life and ministry. According to John 20:30-31, John wrote his gospel to provide evidence to believers' that Jesus was truly the Messiah. As a result, 93% of the content contained in John's gospel differs from the synoptic gospels (Cole, 2013). Additionally, since the Book of John was written after the each of the synoptic gospels, it is reasonable to assume John was aware of the other gospels and intentionally choose to highlight different aspects of Jesus' life and ministry as evidence that Jesus was the Son of God. Therefore, I am aligned with the scholars that ascert John wrote his gospel to bolster the faith of
The Gospel of John is filled with metaphors and analogies, which Jesus uses to communicate his message of salvation and repentance and explain his role as ‘the son’. One notable thing about these metaphors is the way that they compare salvation and faith to material needs and goods, and the way that the common people, who Jesus is preaching to, fail to understand them and instead take them literally. I believe that this demonstrates one of the main concerns of Jesus’ message: that most people only understood materialism and could not even begin to fathom faith and spirituality, and how detrimental this was to them. Early on in the Gospel of John, Jesus meets Nicodemus, a religious authority from among the Pharisees. Jesus tells him that “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (3:3)
John made the choice to not attend church and he added fuel to the fire which only made the trials worse, making him seem sneaky and
eyond being in the innermost circle of Jesus' disciples, John was not a particularly significant figure. However, the writing of the Gospel of John around 90 CE changed that. Whether John the Apostle actually wrote the Gospel of John is not clear, as many scholars argue on both sides of the issue, but its mention of the ''beloved disciple'' is usually identified with John the Apostle. Undoubtedly, this title and the disciple being depicted laying his head against Jesus in art, made John a popular figure and legendary disciple. In the Acts of the Apostles and Galatians, John is depicted alongside Peter as performing miracles, preaching the good news of Jesus, and even being a ''pillar'' of the church after Jesus' ascension.
The Gospel of Matthew is one of the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament which are Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew tells the story of Jesus Christ and his teachings, miracles, crucifixion, and resurrection. It is believed to have been written by Matthew, one of Jesus' twelve apostles, although there is some debate about the actual authorship. The Gospel of Matthew was written primarily for a Jewish audience, and its purpose was to demonstrate that Jesus was the promised Messiah, the Son of God.
Matthew chose to focus more on trying to understand the relationship between Christianity and Judaism. He focuses on how Jesus is the son of God, is the King, and is the promised Savior. Matthew also leaves out some stories that the other Gospels contain. However, these are not contradictions. They are simply not a part of the perspective of the Gospel of Matthew.
I believe that John was trying to convince believer to believe in Jesus more, that way it would hopefully lead to people in submitting to a Christian life rather than just convincing them to abide in Christian faith. He not only tries to convince believers in Jesus but by doing so he is trying to explain why believing will eventually lead to abiding in Christian faith. In the Fourth Gospel all throughout the book of John, it gives us statements of who Jesus is, it states that he is “the bread of life” ...” the light of the world” ...” the gate” ...” the good shepherd” ...”
With verses like Jn: 8:44 it is often thought that the Gospel of John is anti-Semitic, just as in American society the political leaders do not represent the moral, ethical, and spiritual nature of their subjects neither did the religious authorities of First Century Judaism. The polemic is not that of anti-Semiticism but anti-religiosity. Israel Abrahams could say, "To us Jews, the Fourth Gospel is the most Jewish of the four!" because John’s Christology is presented in a format understandable to a common Jewish audience. This separation of religious authority and common people can be seen in the conversation Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at Jacobs well.
Synoptic Gospels vs. John Over time, avid Bible readers have come across the many divisions present in the four gospels of the New Testament. The gospel of John stands out in many ways from Mark, Matthew and Luke. Much so that they have their own name called the “synoptic gospels”.
John present to us that who Jesus is at the very center of the Gospel of John. Carson tells us that the “Son of God” can roughly serve synonymn for “Messiah”. All the Synoptic Gospels wrote that Jesus is the Messiah, and the Son of God. Salvation:
John’s Gospel is different from the other three. His focus is on “signs” of Jesus identity and mission. The words of 3:16 nicely summarize the central theme to this Gospel. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” The author John himself states his main purpose clearly in 20:31: “that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the
THREE POINTS 1. What is the gospel truth? 1 John 1-5 • TRUTH MEANS ACTUAL FACTS. • The gospel truth is the truth about the teaching and revelation of Christ Jesus.
The Gospel of John contains some of the most profound truth which is expressed in the simplest way. It is full of imagery and symbolism which though concise and limited bears deep spiritual meaning. In his book, The Interpretation of the fourth Gospel, C. H. Dodd must have been the first to identify the leading ideas and thus separate in form and function the allegories of the Gospel of John from the synoptic parables and connect them with the Old Testament and the Hellenistic-Jewish symbolic tradition. That is to say the author of this Gospel mostly uses common things present in the life and tradition of his listeners and uses them to make the divine understandable. Koester in his book on Symbolism in the Fourth Gospel says that:
To conclude, the Gospel of John is a refined version of the story of Jesus Christ who takes the role of the son of God to the next level compared to the Gospel of
and I thought I would share some of my ‘thoughts’ on this issue. The Focus of the Gospel Without out a doubt the Messiah is the focal character of the New Testament. The four gospels record his earthly history, the epistles explain the meaning of his death/resurrection and Revelation foretells his glorious return. Although Jesus is central he does not ‘replace’ the God of the Old Testament, nor does he replace God in the New Testament, to use the language of Hebrews 1:3, the Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.
Also by classifying these gospels, people will be able to envision better the timeline of Jesus’ life and which are actual true facts about